\I JUST learned about the Tambuli Awards,
organized by the
University of Asia and Pacific (UA&P), that seeks to promote both
business and societal values of marketing communications campaigns.
That’s actually another way of saying that advertisements
and commercials can work not only for reasons of profit but also for
strengthening human and Christian values in society.
I have seen the winning entries of the past years, and
indeed, I can say that if only we put our mind and heart into it, we
actually can be very creative and entertaining in the right way,
avoiding gimmicks and smart moves that only foster erotic and
frivolous features.
Bluntly speaking, I must say that given the prevailing
business culture we have nowadays, the awards are a bold initiative to
consciously put Christ in the middle of the unavoidable business of
product publicity and promotion.
It’s acknowledging Christ in the market without need for
apologies, since Christ—to make an understatement—has a rightful place
in this particular business of ours.
Otherwise, we would just be left with our own devices, and
no matter how brilliant they are, they will never fully satisfy the
demands of our dignity. We would just be playing games, perhaps
generating a lot of excitement but with hardly any lasting effect on
who we really are.
I feel that we need to do this kind of thing, since at the
moment the business world seems to be held captive almost exclusively
by purely market principles and economic laws, like those of supply
and demand, ratings, etc.
That kind of environment steadily leads us to our own
dehumanization, since with it we end up simply ruled, titillated would
be the better term, by worldly values that hardly touch the core of
our being persons.
Yes, we have been made in the image and likeness of God,
raised to the dignity of children of God and supposed to be governed
always in truth and love as shown by Christ himself.
As persons, we are a relational being, meant for having
constant dialogue with our Creator and among ourselves, and for the
task of building ourselves up both individually and collectively, but
always in the context of God who reveals himself in Christ made
present in us now through the Holy Spirit.
As persons, we cannot help but be a religious being, that
is, one with a relation with God, his Creator. As persons, we cannot
help but treat others in truth and love, in charity, and not just as
objects and motives for making money. We go beyond what numbers simply
recommend.
These are truths that we need to release to the public
arena, not confined in some specialized centers of learning, since
they are meant for all and not just for some. They may not be
immediately understood, appreciated and accepted, but they at least
have to be known.
We need to break the secularist or pagan mold that has been
gripping us for centuries as a result of the French Revolution of
Enlightenment that put reason as the main if not the sole guide in our
life, discarding faith, religion, God.
We have to make that mentality history, a thing of the past,
a source of precious lessons about what to avoid in our pursuit for
personal maturity and social and economic development.
For this, we need to put religion vitally and organically
connected to our earthly affairs, since that would better reflect the
kind of reality that we live in. It’s not a matter of establishing a
theocracy, or of confusing Church functions with state affairs.
We have to respect the distinction between the material and
spiritual, the mundane and the sacred, the temporal and the eternal,
but we need to learn to see the relation between them also, since they
are not separate aspects in our life. In short, religion has to
permeate all areas of our life here.
Much of the problem we have at the moment is that we
degenerate the distinction of these unavoidable aspects of our life
into division and conflict among them. When we do business or
politics, the usual mindset is that we have to leave Christ behind.
Acknowledging Christ in our human affairs would in fact
enhance the evolution of these affairs of ours. Christ would encourage
us to go for the truth, for justice, for understanding and
broadmindedness, etc.
The do’s and don’t’s that Christ would bring in our daily
affairs are not an infringement on our freedom but its enhancement.
University of Asia and Pacific (UA&P), that seeks to promote both
business and societal values of marketing communications campaigns.
That’s actually another way of saying that advertisements
and commercials can work not only for reasons of profit but also for
strengthening human and Christian values in society.
I have seen the winning entries of the past years, and
indeed, I can say that if only we put our mind and heart into it, we
actually can be very creative and entertaining in the right way,
avoiding gimmicks and smart moves that only foster erotic and
frivolous features.
Bluntly speaking, I must say that given the prevailing
business culture we have nowadays, the awards are a bold initiative to
consciously put Christ in the middle of the unavoidable business of
product publicity and promotion.
It’s acknowledging Christ in the market without need for
apologies, since Christ—to make an understatement—has a rightful place
in this particular business of ours.
Otherwise, we would just be left with our own devices, and
no matter how brilliant they are, they will never fully satisfy the
demands of our dignity. We would just be playing games, perhaps
generating a lot of excitement but with hardly any lasting effect on
who we really are.
I feel that we need to do this kind of thing, since at the
moment the business world seems to be held captive almost exclusively
by purely market principles and economic laws, like those of supply
and demand, ratings, etc.
That kind of environment steadily leads us to our own
dehumanization, since with it we end up simply ruled, titillated would
be the better term, by worldly values that hardly touch the core of
our being persons.
Yes, we have been made in the image and likeness of God,
raised to the dignity of children of God and supposed to be governed
always in truth and love as shown by Christ himself.
As persons, we are a relational being, meant for having
constant dialogue with our Creator and among ourselves, and for the
task of building ourselves up both individually and collectively, but
always in the context of God who reveals himself in Christ made
present in us now through the Holy Spirit.
As persons, we cannot help but be a religious being, that
is, one with a relation with God, his Creator. As persons, we cannot
help but treat others in truth and love, in charity, and not just as
objects and motives for making money. We go beyond what numbers simply
recommend.
These are truths that we need to release to the public
arena, not confined in some specialized centers of learning, since
they are meant for all and not just for some. They may not be
immediately understood, appreciated and accepted, but they at least
have to be known.
We need to break the secularist or pagan mold that has been
gripping us for centuries as a result of the French Revolution of
Enlightenment that put reason as the main if not the sole guide in our
life, discarding faith, religion, God.
We have to make that mentality history, a thing of the past,
a source of precious lessons about what to avoid in our pursuit for
personal maturity and social and economic development.
For this, we need to put religion vitally and organically
connected to our earthly affairs, since that would better reflect the
kind of reality that we live in. It’s not a matter of establishing a
theocracy, or of confusing Church functions with state affairs.
We have to respect the distinction between the material and
spiritual, the mundane and the sacred, the temporal and the eternal,
but we need to learn to see the relation between them also, since they
are not separate aspects in our life. In short, religion has to
permeate all areas of our life here.
Much of the problem we have at the moment is that we
degenerate the distinction of these unavoidable aspects of our life
into division and conflict among them. When we do business or
politics, the usual mindset is that we have to leave Christ behind.
Acknowledging Christ in our human affairs would in fact
enhance the evolution of these affairs of ours. Christ would encourage
us to go for the truth, for justice, for understanding and
broadmindedness, etc.
The do’s and don’t’s that Christ would bring in our daily
affairs are not an infringement on our freedom but its enhancement.
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