An Emerging Mystic Theology of Sustainability Amidst Rapid Changes for an Indigenous Church of Asia

This article is based on a research among Karen and Lahu spiritual leaders which was conducted on March–June 2014 and December 2015, as well as on personal interviews with priests and lay pastoral workers in the diocese of Chiangmai, Thailand

The Mystique of Dialogue: Pathway to Spirit Power for Liberative Struggle

The experience of journeying for more than two decades with the indigenous peoples—such as the Lakota and the Apache of North America, the Murut of Sabah and the Semai of Perak in Malaysia, the Bontoc and Ifugao of the Philippines, the Karen and Lahu of northern Thailand, and the Kayah and Kayan of Myanmar—has been most enriching. They have taught a most invaluable lesson that interaction and participation in their rituals entail recognizing the mystique of intercultural-religious dialogue.In the first section of this article, I will explain a more contextual version of interreligious experience which involves a period of “discipling” under the immediate tutorship of a reputable shaman or spirit-guide of primordial or deceased shamans. In the second section, I will offer a more contextual reflection on the fourfold dialogue as enjoined by the Asian Bishops in the light of my interreligious experience. I will then explain in the third section why this reflection calls for greater recognition of the mystique in our dialogue with the indigenous peoples. Indeed, reflecting on my interreligious experience convinces me that dialogue must be about empowering the indigenous peoples to access and actualize the spirit power for the liberative struggle against the neocolonial imperialism that in turn spawns the globalization of neo-liberal capitalism

War on Drugs: The Church’s Resilient Mission of Resistance

The war on drugs has become contentious in the public and private spaces in this nation. What is contested is the defensibility of an immoral means that legitimizes killing and collateral damage in the guise of upholding the public safety at the expense of the human security of the poor and the dispensable drug-pushers and addicts from the poorer neighborhoods. In light of the teachings of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), the Manila Episcopal Area of the United Methodist Church and the evaluative framework of the just war theory, the use of EJK as a legitimate means and use of the term ‘war’ are debunked as indefensible. The truth-telling of two former death squad members is a strong indictment of EJK and the militaristic connotation of the term ‘war on drugs’ with the subsequent violation of the dignity and security of the weak. The more sustainable means of safeguarding the public safety of the weak in particular is the recourse to viable strategies related to the Drug Education & Harm Reduction Policies and Programs implemented by the Church and civil society in response to their official pronouncements