No word on God from presidentiables

From day one of the campaign period to the present, each presidential aspirant has uttered a mouthful of promises to entice voters to his or her cause. There's one whose signature appeal is a government with a heart, whatever that means, complemented with a pledge to be sympathetic to the plight of the poor. There's another who claims to have fed thousands of elderly and sent poor kids to school. There's still another who advertises himself as a champion of good governance and who claims to be the heir apparent to the present occupant of the Pasig office. These, plus a veterans lady senator who scolds politicians for wasting people's money in the face of calamities, plus one tough-talking city mayor whose Dirty Harry stance has frightened the wits of criminal elements and made pious bishops recoil in discomfort over his irreverent outbursts.

These are the would-be presidents and their words in the current race for the presidency. They have said also more, but these pertain to what they think of each other, which is rather unflattering and in some cases dirty and despicable. One has been called a congenital grafter another a willing sycophant and "tuta" of powers-that-be, still another has been dubbed "hilaw" and unprepared for the presidency, while the front-running candidate (per survey) has been caricatured as a potential Hitler, whose bloody hands can make a pool incarnadine, to use a Shakespearean term.

Words, words – they scream and scowl, enthuse and entice, enthrall and inspire. But they crack also like the report of a gun and leave their victims maimed or annihilated. Would that the words from these candidates be inspiring ones replete with the truth and clothed in sincerity. Would that God dwells in these words?

But where's God in the mouths of our candidates?

You have heard them in their repartees during their debate and stage appearances. You sat for hours before your TV monitor waiting for someone to whisper, yes, just whisper, something about faith and love, and service and salvation. You strained your ears for any suggestion about spirituality and piety, about self-sacrifice and forgiveness. Yet none of these came out.

Frustration, of course, became your lot. Because you are in a Christian country you thought people who aspire to lead would have godliness in their heart, or at least, on their lips. And because of this there ought to have been no forked-tongues accusing their rivals of doing this and that or of failing to do what ought to have been done. What is worse is that malice is in their voice and hatred in their eyes. Don't they know that words can cut as sharply as swords?

As they skirmish with words their pledge of service and plans of action once elected sound lame and hollow. Not that these were uttered sans forcefulness, not that determination was wanting in their voice. But the perceptive listener is aware that politicians' promises in this country are nothing but promises and fulfillment is seldom made.

Moreover, the Christian listener (and most of them are) cannot help but call to mind that as the Bible says, unless the Lord builds the house, in vain are the labor of the workmen. Yet our presidential aspirants seem to assume that by themselves alone they can bring about the good they promise the people. They also seem oblivious, like most of us, to the words of Jesus who said: "I am the vine and you are the branches, as long as you remain in me and I in you, you bear much fruit..."

And this is most likely what's wrong with Filipino politicians, and what's wrong too with the people in this only Christian country in Asia. Its leaders as well as its people profess to be baptized Christian, but their Christianity is only skin-deep. In conviction and in action they are uninfluenced by what is true and just and merciful.

No wonder these would-be presidents are loud in their promises and in their lampoons. But the name of God is nowhere on their lips.

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