Problem: Church Over State

Third Creative Output

"We are given the power to decide for ourselves"

    During Jose Rizal’s time, the bond of the church and state was very strong. This is due to the fact that there was no distinct separation of the two. The reason behind this is that religion played a very strong role to the Spaniards and therefore to their government. The church too was a governing body, especially in the social activity of people. This role gave Spanish friars a power which they abused. For example, as stated in one of the writings of Dr. Jose Rizal which is the Indolence of the Filipinos, the friars owned lands of the natives. They easily got it because of their powers that a lot of people were afraid of. They treated the natives badly, enslaved them and worst of all they let the natives engaged in gambling like cockfighting and made them believe in the powers of miracles. They also controlled the work of the natives.  Because of this, the natives became idle. Another writing of Rizal that reflects this kind of situation is his novel, El Filibusterismo. There, it’s very obvious that  These situations are example of the church controlling the state. These days, even if they say that the church and state are separate, the influence of the church is still seen even if it isn’t directly shown. This is due to the fact that church leaders have great influence over their followers and who they endorse, will surely have the votes of this church leaders’ followers.