Twisted values

WHEN people give more importance to the means rather than to the end or goal, we might call that twisted thinking or a form of twisted values. When legislators make laws to exterminate human life (by way of contraceptives and abortion), it’s also a form of twisted thinking. Why? Because human life is the very first right of man, to which all other rights are subordinated.

This is why the RH Bill is creating so much reaction in society because it tends to pressure towards actions that are contrary to a well-formed conscience, specifically one that respects man’s first right: life. You cannot force people to act against their conscience, especially in relation to moral good or evil. We might just simply remind people what God’s infallible truth reminds us of—“So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 7:12; Prov. 3:27). Laws that run contrary to divine truth won’t oblige us since they are not conducive to the ultimate good of man.

Since we must endeavor to avoid being enslaved to money lest it become our cruel master, we can quote here a word of one business analyst, Robert Townsend, whose book ‘Up the Organization’ came out once in the bestseller list. “Money, like prestige, if sought directly, is almost never gained. It must come as a byproduct of some worthwhile objective or result which is sought and achieved for its own sake.”

Let’s look at the nation today. When the leaders try to make a name for themselves by picking on others’ faults and defects to build up their own ego prestige, or making money promoting pornographic education or birth control devices, that’s not a positive way of service to society nor even a successful venture but one tending towards downfall and self-destruction. In all our policies of love and service to God and country let’s always take the positive side in line of the Gospel: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgments you give are the judgments you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye” (Mt. 7:1). Jesus says it clear in the gospel: “Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their life and deeds as you know a tree by its fruits” (Mt. 7:15). (Bishop Pat Alo)