Materialism in religion

By Herbert Vego

“YOU cannot serve God and mammon,” Jesus preached to his disciples in the sermon on the mount.

This verse (Matthew 6:24) means that a person cannot serve both God and wealth.

Sad to say, present-day Christian evangelists do not show it. We are all familiar with a father-and-son tandem who now prioritizes politics.

I remember those evenings in 1980 when I would go to the Chinese Garden at the Rizal Park in Manila to listen to preacher Eddie Villanueva, who was fast gaining adherents to his born-again flock, the Jesus is Lord Fellowship.

It would one day be renamed Jesus is Lord Church (JIL), obviously because it had morphed into another homegrown Christian church.

Evangelist Eddie is now a party-list congressman representing the Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC),

His son Joel Villanueva is one of the most controversial senators today, and we all know why.

If I heard it right, the duo is preparing to celebrate JIL’s 47^th anniversary on October 5 “with a big bang.”

I won’t be surprised, however, if that “bang” turns out to be a dud.

Some of their followers have left the JIL because, in the kindest words, they don’t walk their talk.

Anyway, I don’t really mean to dwell on the Villanuevas. Suffice it to say that they help us see a reason why some people no longer go to church.

Truth to tell, many other religious leaders worldwide have prospered from tithes and offerings of loyal adherents. If there’s one thing that religion has succeeded in, it’s in fulfilling the material greed of religious leaders.

But who can truthfully say that churches ensure the heavenly afterlife of their flock? We may never know.

I once wrote a column questioning the “religious fanaticism” of Roman Catholics who would always swallow hook, line and sinker what their Church teaches. Unwittingly, I offended a reader who emailed me four successive letters in defense of his faith.

Hector begged to disagree with what I had written — that our main reason for believing in God is a selfish one – “to free us from the bondage of mortality and catapult us to eternal life in heaven.”

He said, “Sorry to disappoint you, but I believe in God and the Catholic religion because it is rational and not for the selfish reason that you mentioned.”

I would not refute Hector’s argument that Catholics do not worship graven images but just “venerate” whom they represent.

To quote Dale Carnegie, the American author of the book How to Win Friends and Influence People, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”

As to whether people who die outside of the “true religion” would suffer eternal torment in the fires of hell, Hector quoted words from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God, and moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known through the dictates of their consciences, may attain eternal life.”

That sounds better than the doctrine of another sect that only their members would be admitted to God’s Kingdom.

The majority opinion may not be right. As all Christians today would agree, the majority of the Roman soldiers thought they were correct in crucifying Jesus Christ for claiming to be ”the messiah.”

16th century Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was excommunicated by the Church as a heretic for declaring that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe.

I have dropped out of Church because I find it ineffective in reforming society.  Why follow those who openly support corrupt politicians?

Religiosity may not be logical, as I found out when I asked a friend why he followed his parents’ religion.

”Kung saan ka nadapa, doon ka babangon,” he quipped.

“Hindi pala ako nadapa,” I retorted.