BACK FROM SUBIC

So, I spent a couple of days in Subic. For work, silly rabbit. And just given a day's notice! That meant after my rounds of the bars which ended around 2am, I went back to the office and proceeded to Subic. Where, mind you, the seminar started at 8 am. And ended around eight pm. We had dinner and proceeded to a bar. We played billiards there til around 2 am.

That meant, I was up for more than 40 hours! Straight. And to think that the next day, the seminar started at nine am! Oh well.

I get back home. Tess and the kids were happy to see me back. We went to a garage sale just down the road and I bought a slightly used trampoline for them for just 200 bucks! The kids were ecstatic over it.

Anyway, all this talk about religion, the Passion movie, and culture in my favorite blogs kind of crossed paths with me. Tess told me that her boss bought tickets to the premier of The Passion and insisted (ummm.. ordered, actually) that I go watch it. And gave Tess two tickets.

Ooookay. SO now, I have to watch The Passion. It's not as if I don't know the ending. I'm not a religious person. I told Jet that I never get the church in the way of my faith. I always have the belief that the church, being run by man, do not, has not, and will not have the authority to judge or prejudge what is right or wrong.

I don't know but during spanish times, I never heard news or stories that the vatican decry what the spanish priests did to the Philippines then. They didn't protest when Hitler were killing Jews. The most I heard about the CHurch's protest on the Arab conflict was when a group of Arab terrorists hid in a church in Israel. Yes, I am a Roman Catholic. Yes, I believe in God. Yes, I believe that God matters in all our lives. Yes, I believe in Christianity. But no, I do not believe in the Church. I am an unconventional catholic.

How many married priests, gay priests, pedophile priests have the church protected. Even here in the Philippines, this is happening. Have they, ever protected us from their own? Render to Caesar what is Caesar (or something to that effect), but we see the Church dabbling in politics.

When I was nine, a priest almost molested me. I did not know that it was molestation. If it were not for my best friend calling me then, I would have been a statistic. Where was the church then? I believe God saved me. But not the church.

As for the movie? Here's a bit. When the Church protested the movie "The Last Temptation of Christ", it was banned from a lot of countries. When the Jews protested about "The Passion", the lead actor was struck by lightning. Twice.