Friends always

AN American think tank claimed recently that many of Latin America ’s socially active clergy are cooling off in their liking for the so-called Liberation Theology after experiencing its ugly effects in parts of the region nowadays.

Thanks to the likes of Venezuela ’s Hugo Chavez and other militant groups in the region, many clerics are waking up to the reality that following the tenets of Liberation Theology does not necessarily lead to freedom and justice.

Liberation Theology is a very attractive and forceful social thought that tries to marry Christ’s Gospel and the socialist ideology. It has many beautiful and valid points, but also a number of dangerous features.

Since its inception in the 60s and 70s, the Vatican has been issuing documents that seek to clarify its real nature, distinguishing what’s good and what’s wrong with it in its many versions. Some warnings had been made.

Its popularity arose as a reaction to the grave situation of social injustice in Latin America , a region that’s supposed to be Christian but wracked by severe poverty and a litany of social problems.

Contributing to its phenomenon is the perception that Church leaders had been collaborating with right-wing monarchies in the region. And so it tends to have an anti-hierarchy character.

Liberation theology tries to express Christian faith in political terms. This is where its problem begins. It tries to capture and reduce the spiritual and supernatural nature of Christianity into a purely temporal political way of life.

It seems to thrive in places where conditions of intellectual confusion and high emotional intensity over issues are present. It promises instant action and relief to problems, but that has been seen largely to be false.

This issue always resonates with me, since it reminds me of my turbulent college days in Manila . It was pre-Martial Law years. Student unrest was the fever that was spreading like wildfire. Rallies and demonstrations were almost a daily occurrence.

Many of my classmates—we were taking AB-Eco and Accounting in a boys’ school—were directly involved. I remember how I admired them for their idealism and generous energy that led them to make selfless initiatives.

Some of them eventually dropped out of school and reportedly went to the mountains. Many of them came back and returned to normal life, thank God, but a few are still missing up to now.

They will always be my friends no matter what and whether they are at the left, right or center of the socio-political spectrum. These distinctions don’t work when friendship is at the center. I can’t judge their motives.

At the beginning I was with them doing my share. Who could resist joining anything that’s supposed to fight against poverty and injustice? When you’re young, the usual idealism tends to look for thrill and adventure.

But this involvement was short-lived. When I noticed that there was hardly any prayer being done, that everything seemed to be seen and summarized by some slogans, that there appeared to me like a lot of rash and sweeping judgments, I backed off and decided to take a different path.

There was also the tendency to be rigid, uniform and monolithic in the actions taken in a field which I considered to be by nature open to many possibilities.

It tended also to be too idealistic and simplistic, failing to give due recognition to personal, historical and cultural weaknesses of the people. It looked to me that it believed more on the transformation of structure than of the heart to effect real good change.

It was only later that I discovered that much of what drove my friends to their activities was Liberation Theology. Some group introduced and promoted it. But I was mortified when it misused the Gospel, the doctrine and the sacraments to fit them for purely political purposes.

It’s now many years since I had my first strong feelings and my first occasions to make fundamental decisions. And now, events in the past few years seem to vindicate my choices.

I continue to pray for my friends. I know God has his ways. We can play any game we want, but ultimately God our Father is in control of everything.