Is the Separation of Church No Longer Applicable?

At least that what they seem to want you to think. The Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines or the CBCP isn't exactly acting like a church when they try to prevent the state from implementing laws that goes against their beliefs. Think about it, the CBCP is not the only religious representative of the Philippines, regardless of the fact that the Philippines is composed of majorly Catholics, but they sure act at times all powerful.

The Church was supposed to act as a guide, but only to their constituents. They can influence, but never dictate. And yet, sadly, it seemed that some of them might not be too holy as we thought as they are also given life to the idea of Church-type blackmail in the form of the threat of excommunication.

What is excommunication?

According to wikipedia - Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion.

But seriously, does it have the same impact now than it does then? With religions sprouting up left and right, claiming to be better than their predecessors, excommunication kinda loses its impact. People nowadays are much learned, they know their rights, and they certainly don't rely as much on the church as they did during the Spanish era - clear reference to the "Damaso" incident yesterday.

So what is it about the RH bill that the church feel threatened about? The idea of providing people with more options? Sex education? Artificial contraceptives? They may seem totally against the church's belief, but is it against moral beliefs? If we want to curb the incessant increase in population growth, we have to consider making all legal forms of contraception possible. Unfortunately, that includes artificial contraceptives - sorry religious groups. It has to be done, because its the legal right of the person's involve.

The church can influence their constituents to choose natural forms of contraceptives, but it will be unfair if they start condemning their constituents that actually avail of artificial forms. No forms of contraceptives is a 100%, but to limit one's choices because of religion is cruel because people who are less fortunate don't have access to sex education unlike others, and sometimes, the easiest way to prevent their family planning to go haywire is something simple, that doesn't require much thought to use. Can we be that cruel to stamp on someone's right to legal forms of contraceptives all because of religion?

Religion is not the state, and yet, it tries to be the state on this issue. And if they continue as they are now, aren't they the same as the Padre Damaso's of the past.