#social sin

[septembersung]

In this age of moral inversion, we have lost sight of the wisdom of the ancients which tells us that it is the well-ordered man who makes the good society, not the well-ordered society that makes the good man.

Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg

[spiritquestions-blog]

#spiritquestion How is your faith & community addressing social sins?

Personal sin is how we individually miss living fully into our vows, break our spiritual promises, engage in wrong-doing, or aid and add to evil. Social sin is how we participate in wrong-doing or even evil through our communities, our society, our economies, our laws. Social sin often works with complicity or with our sense that the sin is too big and too far-reaching for us to do much.

[chalicelight]

Mercy turn us to our responsibilities for social sins & strengthen us in what is needful & good.

Naomi King - Twitter: @revnaomi

[ascottyfollower-blog-blog]

Too far is too far

Last night's topic was about Jan-jan, the little boy who stripped-danced (minus the stripping) in Willie Revillame's show Willing Willie, and he became today's buzz over at the breakfast nook. I was sipping some warm water when my mom asked me what the news was over the internet, and I relayed to her the story of a boy, who went on Revillame's show, and was made to dance like a stripper in front of a live audience and with millions more watching primetime television. They were laughing at him; Revillame was laughing so hard it was appalling. The father apparently liked the idea of his child getting a few minutes of fame for PhP10,000 and asked his friends on Facebook to watch or vote (can't remember exactly) for his son. And his friends were delighted by the "talent" of the boy; some were saying "manang-mana sa tatay/ takes after the father," "naku, sisikat yan!/He'll be famous!" among other comments.

Jan-jan was a victim of modern-day exploitation.

As stated by my friend, Revillame will indeed face charges on violating Republic Act 7610, which states that child abuse is "psychological and physical abuse, neglect, cruelty, sexual abuse and maltreatment." She further mentioned that "It's so obvious that the kid was psychologically and emotionally abused."

It's apparent that Jan-jan was not only psychologically and emotionally abused, but was also neglected, maltreated and was subjected to cruelty -- performing a sexually-oriented act. He wasn't smiling; he cried, and then he started dancing. Everyone started laughing. What kind of parents would allow their kid to experience that at an early age?

We all know how hard it is to make a decent living to support a family. Times are tough, blah blah blah. We know, we know. But in any case, no parent must subject their child to exploitation, voluntary or not. No matter how desperate a family is, a child's innocence and dignity must be held as valuable. No adult, under any circumstance, can manipulate a child to work under any condition. This paragraph repeats itself, but it's because we apparently don't get it.

We have forgotten too many things already. We have forgotten what it is to be good. Social sins are ingrained in our culture and we overlook them, or if we don't, we say, "Ganoon talaga eh/It's really like that." Well, my dear Filipinos, it's not. History can tell us of these instances where the purest of the pure were victims of the worst of the worst, but we do not have to let history repeat itself, nor let history dictate our destiny of being dependent and poor. It's time to let Revillame know that he has gone too far, to inform Jan-jan's parents about what they just did to their child, to remind the stations that they are the carriers of promoting these kinds of values to the masses, and to educate the masses that there is something better and more worthwhile than watching a man laughing at a little boy, with a bunch of sexy dancers at the back.

Certainly there is more to life than escaping and exploiting children. And most certainly, there is a better life for Jan-jan, and other children facing the same or similar experiences, which does not include this kind of humiliation and neglect.