“Woe to you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!”
Isaiah 10:1-2
We join our voices as a progressive and LGBT-affirming Church with the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), other progressive Church groups and leaders, ecumenical institutions, communities of faith, and all people of goodwill in the collective call to junk the Anti-Terror Bill and to resist all forms of fascist and tyrannical policies and actions of this current administration or any other administrations — past, present, and future.
Our Christian duty is to uphold and safeguard the life, dignity, and rights of all people created and born in the image and likeness of God. This includes supporting laws, policies, and enforcement that effect genuine justice, common good, and equal protection of all. But when those in power and authority use the government and legislations to enact laws, policies, and enforcement that threaten and attack human and civil rights, our faith calls us to action and to resistance.
Metropolitan Community Church is rooted in our faith in Jesus Christ and in the LGBT+ liberation movement. MCC was at the forefront of many protests and civil actions in the ‘70s and the AIDS activism of the ‘80s and the ‘90s. MCC Manila, together with the militant activist group Pro-Gay Philippines, organized what many consider to be the first Pride March in the Philippines and in all of Asia in 1994. Staying true to our roots and 52-year heritage, Open Table MCC joins our hearts and our voices against this Anti-Terror Bill that is soon to become law. We call on everyone and the larger LGBT+ movements in the Philippines to do everything that we can, together with other sectors, to resist this unjust and unconstitutional legislation.
In the name of all that is Holy and Loving, in Christ Jesus, who protested in the Temple.
Amen.
