Philippine President Duterte Issues a Challenge to God

If no one can convince him here, someone will, at some point in his journey, but I fear by that time it will be too late for him.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is a ruthless, profane man, and it is baffling that a largely Christian nation would elect such a man. He didn’t get this way overnight. As mayor of Davao City, he was equally ruthless, but efficient.

In 2009, human rights watchdog groups accused him of allowing – even advocating for – vigilante death squads to go into the streets and commit extrajudicial killings of criminals and street children.

Around 1,400 were killed by those death squads.

The apparent thought process behind electing Duterte was that someone raucous and hardnosed was needed. They were willing to risk turning their nation over to an unorthodox leader, in order to get results.

Since his election in 2016, the death squads across the Philippines have continued, targeting drug addicts and dealers.

The latest controversy is over Duterte’s challenge of God, Himself.

Last week, he drew the outrage of Catholics throughout the country when he questioned the notion of “original sin.”

Duterte lamented in that speech that Adam and Eve’s sin in Christian theology resulted in all the faithful falling from divine grace.

“Who is this stupid God? This son of a b**ch is then really stupid,” he said last week. “You were not involved but now you’re stained with an original sin … What kind of a religion is that? That’s what I can’t accept, very stupid proposition.”

Opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV shot back at Duterte by describing him as “one evil man” and his remarks as “very much consistent with the deceitfulness, heartlessness and ruthlessness of his policies.”

Trillanes would be correct. These are the words of a lost soul.

President Duterte may have a source for his angst. He’s previously shared that he was molested by a Catholic priest as a boy. Early childhood trauma at the hands of a church leader can have a devastating effect on the spirit of the victims.

Still, he is a man now, and a president. Can he not muster any respect for those whose faith is important to them?

He doesn’t feel he has to, obviously.

On Friday, he continued to fuel the outrage and challenged the notion of God, further.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has had a thorny relationship with the church, questioned anew in a speech late Friday some of the basic tenets of the Catholic faith, including the concept of original sin, which he said taints even innocent infants and can only be removed through baptism in a church for a fee.

“Where is the logic of God there?” Duterte asked in a speech at the opening of a science and technology event in southern Davao city.

The 73-year-old leader said that if there’s “one single witness” who can prove, perhaps with a picture or a selfie that a human was “able to talk and to see God,” he will immediately resign.

This is simply mocking, at this point.

And someone needs to tell him Jesus paid the price for our salvation, in full. There is no “fee,” unless some false church is corrupting the Word of God.

One interesting point in the midst of Duterte’s sacrilege: He admits there must be some sort of God to keep stars and planets aligned so perfectly, held in place, rather than colliding and destroying all life.

In his Friday tirade, Duterte again shared the experience of his molestation at the hands of a Jesuit priest.

This leads me to believe that it is the pain, shame, and trauma of that early experience that is speaking and may be behind everything he says and does.

He wants to believe, but he did not see God through the one who abused him, someone who was supposed to be a representative of our Father to his flock.

If your early experiences with religion are harsh and damaging, then your reactions later in life will reflect that.

There will come a time that Rodrigo Duterte will have to answer for every word and every deed he committed while here, but maybe there should be a prayer covering over the man, as it appears he’s dealing with scars.