Clowning around

Revisiting the Tasaday

Dancing down the Chao Phraya

Kaibigan

'In fairness'

In (silent) praise

A FEW weeks back University of the Philippines president Francisco Nemenzo issued a memorandum reminding the faculty to be careful about observing the separation of church and state, especially around the use of prayers at the university. The memorandum was issued following a complaint from a law student about one faculty member who was starting her classes with a prayer.

People tend to think that everyone prays the same way so there shouldn't be a big deal about having an opening invocation for a symposium, a meeting or even a class. But the fact is that there can be sharp differences in the way different faiths pray, so that acts we take for granted in one religion may actually be offensive to people of other faiths.

For example, invocations in the Philippines (and at UP) often start out with a sign of the cross, which most Protestant groups do not use. I have also attended UP symposia where in the opening prayer, the Virgin Mary is invoked. While Mary is recognized, and well loved, by Protestants and Muslims, she is not seen as someone to pray to.

The very concept of prayer varies from one religion to another. In the Philippines, Christian prayers tend to be strong on requests, beseeching God for this or that favor. Buddhist prayers are not generally for requests since there is no concept of a creator God that intervenes in day to day affairs.

Muslims, on the other hand, differentiate between "salat" or ritual prayers required five times a day, and "du'a," which includes invocations and requests. The ritual prayers are strong on praising God, calling out one of his many names. Before praying, Muslims require ritual ablutions or cleansing. In other words, Muslims take prayers very seriously, and may see Christian invocations as too casual.

We also violate other people's religious freedom when we put up certain images and statues in public places. For example, I've seen classrooms in public schools with crucifixes on the walls, complete with Christ's body. The Catholic teachers who put these up are apparently oblivious to the fact that crucifixes with the body of Christ are considered offensive even by some Protestants.

We have to learn to respect other people's beliefs, and that will include those of people like myself who feel uneasy with what we see as displays of false piety. My feelings about such displays have become stronger over the last two years, as we now seem to be developing a semi-theocracy of sorts, with the President and other officials trying to outdo each other with eyes shut in prayer and invoking God's name.

There's a legal battle going on in the Louisiana, after one public official put up a monument of the Ten Commandments in a public place, an act interpreted by civil libertarians as a violation of the separation of church and state. I'd be more tolerant and see it as a cultural display on the part of fundamentalist Christians, but I do wonder at times if we haven't picked up aspects of American performed piety. Bush, like our own President, is notorious for invoking God's name in his speeches in a way that is too self-conscious, even contrived.

Instead of putting up the Ten Commandments on display, we should be looking more closely at what those commandments admonish us to do. I'm thinking especially of the second one, which instructs us not to take God's name in vain. Prayer can be blasphemous, when used for public performance.

A few weeks back, I attended a faculty meeting at the UP College of Medicine where the dean started out by referring to the university memorandum on prayer. He then asked for a minute of reflective silence rather than an opening invocation. I think that was a very wise compromise but I could sense, too, that the faculty members weren't quite comfortable with this alternative. Filipinos are so much more used to recited prayers so I am sure some people passed that minute by rattling off some prayer learned from childhood.

Mind you, I have nothing against expressive forms of prayer. Praying aloud can be appropriate among people sharing one faith or even in inter-faith services where religious leaders have carefully planned out the liturgy.

But we should also learn to appreciate how silence and contemplation can be prayerful. Some Buddhist sects have silent meditation as the core of their religious practice. The Quakers, a Christian denomination, meet in bare, austere rooms, where members of the congregation remain quiet, so the spirit may enter them. The rare occasions when people are moved to speak out, they do so briefly and calmly.

Last week Bishop Socrates Villegas warned Catholics against the "debilitating noise of abused freedom," referring to the recent political circuses. Yet, I am convinced all that empty noise is part of a larger culture of public performance, one that extends into the way we pray. We are too prone to beating our breasts and calling to the heavens, proclaiming our own goodness and sanctity while calling on God and the Virgin Mary and the saints to slay our enemies. Should we be surprised when our politicians do a secular version in the halls of Congress, each trying to outdo the other with bombastic speeches and investigations much like our ostentatious prayers?

Bishop Villegas calls for a campaign for silence. I couldn't agree more. Because we talk so much, and I include noisy invocations there, we end up not listening to each other, or to the inner spirit. There can be no room for wisdom, for goodness, for whatever one wants to call God, if we are so filled up with ourselves.