- salvation, or the lack of it
-

boytropolis
- June 6th, 5:52
My mother is constantly finding new ways to drive me insane. It's been years since she converted to the dark side of the Catholic bloc, i.e. the Protestants. (No offense to the Protestants, I have many close friends who have joined your ever growing force and I almost got sucked in back in college.) This comes as no problem, which is pretty weird because I come from a clan that sanctified religion religiously. My deceased grandmother used to walk on her knees in Baclaran. My aunt is the superstar evangelist of the local parish. My mother, having worked overseas for a very long time, one day came, years ago, with no belief in the Virgin Mary, rosaries, saints and the Sign of the Cross.
Given how forceful my tenacious grandmother could get, even as a young child I expected a world war that invoked all of heaven's angelic armies. But no. Nothing happened. They accepted my mom and her newfound belief like it was tikoy on Chinese New Year.
On the other hand, I am no flaming cross-dresser (given their idea that all cross-dressers end up with a curling iron), I have proven my intellect and potential but the kin still have trouble grasping my sexual orientation. But this is so not my story.
My mother came back to retire a couple months ago. After living with my grandmother for years, feuding endlessly with my brother for even more years, and being my own source of valuable and practical lessons in life, suddenly a parental figure is living with me in the house, or at least until I decide to move out. Suddenly, someone is asking me why I'm coming home late. Suddenly, someone is asking for my share of the bills. Suddenly, someone is innocently dropping pamphlets of "Accepting Homosexuality in the Family" in the coffee table. But this is not the problem, and this is so not the story.
I remember a debate I was in earlier this March. It was something about Philippine televangelism: loud, obnoxious men and women on local television endlessly defaming other sects and force-feeding you their interpretations of the Bible. My side argued that televangelism has helped the promulgation and development of the Catholic Church, and then some more debate bullshit. We won this round but of course I didn't believe a word I said in this debate.
You see, I'm the kind of person that respects another person's beliefs. You want to worship a tree? Sure. You think Satan is your best friend? Great. Oh, you don't believe in God? That's cool, just don't be a dick and tell me my God doesn't exist.
My mother, the Born-Again Christian, will wake up and tune the television to one of those fucking televangelists and go about the house doing her thing. This is after I wake up a few minutes earlier, tune the TV to Channel V and hope that Kelly Clarkson's latest video comes on. This, being the only time I ever use that stupid TV after I started working 10-hour days and come home late only to sleep. And when the TV isn't on any one of those moronic channels, it's on Channel 2 with her primetime telebida stars.
Then, at night, she'd turn the portable radio to AM frequency and tune to radio evangelicals who say exactly the same thing that their TV counterparts do. Being a disciple of mass communication, I certainly have no problems whatsoever with strange people using media to express their ideas. However when these same ideas get dragged and stretched over and over, when these same people say the same preachings and same opinions repetitively all day, everyday, any damn day, we're gonna have a problem. And when you live with a person that supports that kind of activity...
I have no problems with my mother's belief but for the love of God, give me a fucking break.