GAMBOA, Patricia Regine M.

September 26, 2019

1ASN1 Mr. Hansson Labisig
Prelims Paper

In this day and age, we regard religion and the social sciences very different from each
other, and interference with it may possibly cause misunderstanding. With this in mind, we have
the separation of the Church and State but it is not a law that we mandatorily have to follow

because, the person who coined it was Thomas Jefferson1 when he wrote the letter to the Danbury

Baptists on January 1, 1802. The phrase itself meant that the Church should stay out of the State’s
affairs and vise versa.
Society, recently have really drilled into their minds that this separation is final and there is no way

that these two parties would ever cross paths. According to Derek Beres of Bigthink.com2 that the

law and constitutions regulate morality and justice in helping those who are in need, which is
something that the Catholic Church also upholds. Every single being in this planet has his or her
own right to be judged morally right and be punished in accordance to what they have done wrong.
In Matthew 27, we can see that even back when Jesus was about to be crucified, the government
had legislations in which they have to follow. Where in, the main concern of the government was
to ensure that the majority was satisfied with their work. They do not even recognize if the convict
was innocent or not, which is currently happening in the modern-day legislation. The fact that the
majority happen to have a decision whether it be moral or not will push through.

Even though the Philippines is deemed as a Catholic country with 80.9%3 of its people

being Roman Catholic, we also have to acknowledge that there are multiple of religions that are
being practiced through out history. Those being: Protestants, Islam, Hinduism Judaism, the Baha'i

Faith, Indigenous Beliefs, Other Christians, and Tribal Religions4. As mentioned before, even

though there is an invisible line between the Church and State there are many accounts in which
religion played a role in bringing this society to go in to the path of progression.

1. Dr. D James Kennedy, What If America Were a Christian Nation Again (New York 2005)
2. Derek Beres, Religion is a Social Science, So Why isn’t it Studied Like One? (Big Think.com July 23, 2015)
3. Michael Bueza, MAP: Catholicism in the Philippines (Rappler.com January 18, 2015)
4. Diana Anthony, Religious Beliefs in the Philippines (World Altas.com September 26, 2019)
 During the 33rd Senatorial Elections, many religious Groups presented their support for the
a particular senatorial party5. Since the recent election was very controversial because of the fight
between the Presidential Senatorial Party list and the Opposition Senatorial Party list (Otso
Diretso). These groups supported the said party list because they value the mission vision of the
political party and their values also are in line with their own.

This is just an example of the separation of Church and State slowly fading because
considering the society and the world we live in, we have been challenged to break the stigma that
both the Church and the State are two different things and should not be put together and associated
in anyway. In order to fully achieve our goal in having a successful progress not only to a small
group of people but all people, in different sectors in society. In order for that to happen, we must
all come together and alleviate the causes of problems ourselves.

5. Paterno Esmaquel II, Catholic, Christian groups endorse Otso Diretso 2 other bets (Rappler.com March 27,
2019)