I DON’T UNDERSTAND
Okay, I will be direct.
I don’t understand how people can be for EJK.
I don’t understand how a doctor who has sworn to uphold the Hippocratic Oath can agree to a policy that brings harm especially to the poor. Maybe it’s because I am not a doctor.
I don’t understand how a lawyer can be okay with disregarding due process. Maybe it’s because I’m not a lawyer.
I don’t understand how a parent can see nothing wrong with a mother burying her child who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe it’s because I have never given birth.
I don’t understand how an educator who seeks to “develop in mind and spirit” of a student can justify traumatizing children with their parents’ execution, or worse, to the killing of the children themselves. Maybe it’s because I’m….wait. I am an educator and I cannot fathom.
But most of all, or should I say, worst of all, I don’t understand how believers can be for EJK. How can they in one corner of their mouth proclaim hope and peace while the other corner curls up to the slaughter of the people for whom the Son of Man came to seek and save?
Call me naïve but I assumed that all believers would automatically be against. What part of extra-judicial killing do they understand?
“It is because they’re criminals,” one opined.
If that’s the case, we should get rid of all prison ministries. I hear there are a lot of criminals there. Not all of them but at least there are some who went through due process unlike the EJK victims.
Let’s also stop doing ministry to the poor who are the constant target.
Let’s do a background check on all church members and leaders and expel those who once dabbled in drugs. They’re criminals, after all.
In an FB thread, a man asked how a fellow alumnus from a strict religious school can support EJK and ended up being a recipient of a rant. The supporter talked about how his own barangay leaders were behind the drug trade in his community. He then went on how his cousin became an adik because of these pushers so they all deserve to die. Perhaps in his heartache, he overlooked the irony that for EJK proponents like himself, his cousin would be a welcome addition to the statistics.
And then there are some who are fence-sitters claiming disinterest in politics but EJK is not about politics. It is about justice. It is about lives. It is about souls. It is about our theology in action. James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (NIV) How can our religion be faultless when we cheer for the very people who are making them orphans and widows? How can it be pure when it is polluted by the blood in our hands? How can we look them in the eye and say we love them with the love of the Lord while we look away, or worse, raise a fist bump? I just don’t understand.
What makes supporting EJK more ignominious is that he admits there is nothing we can do to control the drug problem. He said this in 2017. So why do we continue with the killing? Are we aiming for statistics to rise to 1% of the population?
A favorite counter-argument of EJK supporters is: “Tignan ko lang kung yan pa rin ang opinion mo pag ikaw ang na-rape o napatay ang mahal mo sa buhay ng mga adik.”
So we kill them before they can kill and rape, before they commit a crime? And do we kill them the moment they snorted? Why stop with them? Surely it is not only drug addicts who kill and rape? Why not those who drink as well since alcohol is known to be behind criminal acts? Why not the greedy before they kill for the love of money? Those with lust in their heart before they rape? With violent temper before they commit a massacre? Or those with murderous thoughts in their hearts (Mt. 5:19) before they act them out? Why not indeed? Then let’s start with ourselves. He who hath no sin cast the first stone.
Okay, I will be direct.
I don’t understand how people can be for EJK.
I don’t understand how a doctor who has sworn to uphold the Hippocratic Oath can agree to a policy that brings harm especially to the poor. Maybe it’s because I am not a doctor.
I don’t understand how a lawyer can be okay with disregarding due process. Maybe it’s because I’m not a lawyer.
I don’t understand how a parent can see nothing wrong with a mother burying her child who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe it’s because I have never given birth.
I don’t understand how an educator who seeks to “develop in mind and spirit” of a student can justify traumatizing children with their parents’ execution, or worse, to the killing of the children themselves. Maybe it’s because I’m….wait. I am an educator and I cannot fathom.
But most of all, or should I say, worst of all, I don’t understand how believers can be for EJK. How can they in one corner of their mouth proclaim hope and peace while the other corner curls up to the slaughter of the people for whom the Son of Man came to seek and save?
Call me naïve but I assumed that all believers would automatically be against. What part of extra-judicial killing do they understand?
“It is because they’re criminals,” one opined.
If that’s the case, we should get rid of all prison ministries. I hear there are a lot of criminals there. Not all of them but at least there are some who went through due process unlike the EJK victims.
Let’s also stop doing ministry to the poor who are the constant target.
Let’s do a background check on all church members and leaders and expel those who once dabbled in drugs. They’re criminals, after all.
In an FB thread, a man asked how a fellow alumnus from a strict religious school can support EJK and ended up being a recipient of a rant. The supporter talked about how his own barangay leaders were behind the drug trade in his community. He then went on how his cousin became an adik because of these pushers so they all deserve to die. Perhaps in his heartache, he overlooked the irony that for EJK proponents like himself, his cousin would be a welcome addition to the statistics.
And then there are some who are fence-sitters claiming disinterest in politics but EJK is not about politics. It is about justice. It is about lives. It is about souls. It is about our theology in action. James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (NIV) How can our religion be faultless when we cheer for the very people who are making them orphans and widows? How can it be pure when it is polluted by the blood in our hands? How can we look them in the eye and say we love them with the love of the Lord while we look away, or worse, raise a fist bump? I just don’t understand.
What makes supporting EJK more ignominious is that he admits there is nothing we can do to control the drug problem. He said this in 2017. So why do we continue with the killing? Are we aiming for statistics to rise to 1% of the population?
A favorite counter-argument of EJK supporters is: “Tignan ko lang kung yan pa rin ang opinion mo pag ikaw ang na-rape o napatay ang mahal mo sa buhay ng mga adik.”
So we kill them before they can kill and rape, before they commit a crime? And do we kill them the moment they snorted? Why stop with them? Surely it is not only drug addicts who kill and rape? Why not those who drink as well since alcohol is known to be behind criminal acts? Why not the greedy before they kill for the love of money? Those with lust in their heart before they rape? With violent temper before they commit a massacre? Or those with murderous thoughts in their hearts (Mt. 5:19) before they act them out? Why not indeed? Then let’s start with ourselves. He who hath no sin cast the first stone.