Politics, religion, and morality

Election season has been on full blast since the past few weeks with the candidates for national and local positions campaigning in all media and announcing their principles and values. Issues on honesty, graft and corruption, involvement in illegal drugs, and immorality are ascribed and even admitted by some of the candidates.

There are even candidates who have been convicted by the courts and by the people, but are still running while appealing and denying their conviction, and hoping for redemption by getting elected/re-elected to political positions. The evangelical council of churches, which includes the Catholics and the Protestants, has taken a position on some of the election issues and the candidates in line with the teachings and moral tenets of their religions. The Lenten season has also begun and the Easter resurrection is occurring parallel to the election, this might be a good time to reconcile politics, religion, and morality.

In the current political exercise/election, the moral standards seem to have hit a new low that honesty has been sidelined as not an issue since it was alleged that all politicians are liars. The vulgarity in the language in the campaign seems to have gone to gutter level that words and expressions not suitable for public consumption are uttered in the campaign.

The people are asked to accept the low moral standards of the candidates and live with it. The few candidates taking the moral high ground are diminished and inundated by online trolls and scheming maneuvers. The scandalous stalemate in the 2019 budget has to do with whether it is the congressmen or the senators who are stuffing the budget with pork barrel funds for themselves.

That a husband and wife are running in two different districts in Metro-Manila to expand and perpetuate their political dynasty, smacks of injustice and dishonesty. It seems our politics has hit a new low and is falling into an abyss.

It is amazing how people and Filipinos in particular are able to reconcile or live with the conflicting values and principles of politics and religion. The minimum moral principles of religions like not killing, not stealing, truth, justice, and liberty are easily sidelined or postponed in politics and especially during elections.

Churchgoing politicians and devotees of miraculous saints are able to reason out their immoral/amoral actions, work for and support politicians against their own principles. Surely, they are conflicted but somehow are able to justify their actions as temporary and necessary. As I have mentioned in a previous column, we are actually very good at compartmentalizing our values that we have a different set of values for religion and another for politics. We do this, to be able to survive physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and still have a good night’s sleep.

There are downsides to our ability to compartmentalize and justify our moral values, in that it actually affects our well-being as a person and the well-being of society. To achieve physical, mental, and spiritual health there is a need to remove conflicting values and unify them. Conflicting issues in the different aspects of one’s life have to be resolved and reconciled to reduce or remove stress.

Expressing/supporting an opinion or a candidate you do not really believe in is like having a job you really hate, and will make you unhappy and sick. This is also true of a social body or society in general. Morality and ethical behavior are established to put order and peace among the members. Even if there were no religions, a set of moral and ethical rules/norms will have to be established if society is to survive and prosper, for without them society would always be in chaos and upheaval.