Today Alex, the SEND representative here in the Philippines, drove us around Manila. We visited two churches. You can read about one of them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Agustin_Church,_Manila. I enjoyed looking at the stone architecture. I've never seen anything so old before! After touring the church we looked around the courtyards of an old Spanish/Filipino mansion. It was so beautiful. I wanted to just sit and let my imagination run wild with what it might have been like to live there. Unfortunately we weren't allowed inside today. Otherwise, Alex informed me that I would have been able to a view my first tandem toilet (they say Filipinos don't like to be alone).

By the time we reached the second church I was rather car sick and after being hit by the combination of high humidity, sewage, and exhaust smells, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep my breakfast where it belonged. Thankfully the nausea eventually subsided, but taking my cues from other Filipinos I saw, I decided that this would be the last day I walked around Manila without a handkerchief to breath through!
The second church was the "Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene" in Quiapo, Manila. You can see a photo of its exterior here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiapo_Church. I got rather teary when I watched devoted Filipinos worship the idols housed there. The church is home to the "Black Nazarene." You can read more about it here: http://blogwerx.net/2008/01/08/the-feast-of-the-black-nazarene-of-quiapo. They have long since enclosed the idol with an ornate glass casing, but they've allowed the idol's wooden foot to protrude through the glass so worshippers can touch, kiss, and weep over it - all of which we wintessed. It made me angry to see that expense of the idols. Their robes had gold thread embroidery and many of them had hands and faces of ivory. Small offering boxes were everywhere. It reminded me of the 16th century practice of indulgences against which Luther fought so vehemently. Unfortunately it's still alive and well today. It's hard to watch such poor people give the little money that they have to inanimate idols. Perhaps what it harder is to see the hope they place in things crafted from wood and stone. I was shocked to hear that the church's replicas displayed outside of the ten commandment left out the second commandment "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." Instead, they split the last one into two commandments. "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house" (Commandment 9) and "you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s" (Commandment 10). Alex explained that Filipino Catholics are warned not to read the Bible apart from the guidance of a priest or nun. Therefore few of them realize how greatly they are being mislead.

This was my first exposure to idol worship. The experience reminded me of Paul's speech in Acts 17:

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was( full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities"—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean." 21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. 22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankin life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28for "'In him we live and move and have our being'

as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

I think I understand more now the passion that drove Paul to preach the gospel to such religious but terribly mislead people. I hope to have the opportunity to do the same.

When we left walked outside into the courtyard of the Quiapo Church vendors people were everywhere selling mini idols of the "Baby Jesus" as well as "healing herbs." Alex informed us that among the herbs being sold was one which was used to abort unwanted children. How ironic.

One thing that is interesting about Filipino Catholicism is that it focuses only on the baby Jesus and the Suffering Jesus. Of all the idols we viewed none pictured Jesus' life or resurrection. As a result, the Filipinos view Jesus as someone to be patronized more than to be obeyed. They also fail to see the significance of His life and the impact it is intended to have on their own.

Filipino Catholics also revere Mary to the extent of often including her in the Trinity. We saw several idols of the "Holy Family" - God the Father, God the Mother, and God the Son. Filipinos see Mary as a compassionate mother who will extend grace when Jesus would not. Just as at the wedding in Cana, Jesus always does his mother's bidding. Therefore, much of their worship is directed at Mary.

After our exposure to Filipino Catholicism and culture, we headed back to the SEND Guest house. Later we decided to have our first ride on "the public" which included a "tricycle" (a moped with a side car http://www.pbase.com/cmanaginged/image/74931633). Believe it or not we fit four people on the tricycle! We also rode on a "jeepney" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepneys in order to get to the world's sixth largest mall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_City_North_EDSA.

It's amazing to me that the Philippines houses some of the largest malls and yet is a third world country. Alex explained that, as in most developing countries, the middle class is absent here - the rich are extremely rich and the poor are extremely poor. Most of the poor survive on 2 dollars a day or less. Most of the mall employees make about $6-7 a day. Evidently the rich own and support the malls and are making a fortune off of them. The poor flock there simply for the air conditioning and a place to hang out with friends.