John Stott (1921-2011)

Last Thursday I was greeted by the tragic news that the Reverend John R.W. Stott, has already gone home to be with the Lord. Early this morning I wrote what's below on his memorial website's Remembrance Book:

I have never met him personally. I only knew him through his books, that I first encountered after my long departure from the Evangelical church of my youth. Reading his works challenged me to take serious note of the radical and holistic thrust of the Gospel of Christ. His passion for authenticity of thought and action that was motivated by his fidelity to the Scriptures was among the many factors that brought me to environmental activism and what also got me into taking up a master's degree in theology. I may not have known him in person, but thank God that he was blessed with eloquence that made his faith both a challenge and an inspiration for a sojourner like me in the Philippines. God bless you Rev. Stott.

Because I link doing it "my way"

People who've known me for years and people who've been familiar with my former band PayItForward often ask me why I bother to still play music as a solo act and why opted to do home recordings and tried experimenting with making electronica.

The simple answer to that is because I have never really shaken-off that adolescent drive to play in a band.

Genetic Engineering and the Risk of Harm

At the very least, one needs to understand that, as far as genetic engineering and ecology is concerned, the earth is not a giant laboratory where experiments can be conducted without due consideration given to the impacts that it may wrought on the planet’s fragile ecosystem and the lives of all the organisms that live in it. Also, that people should have the right to know what is in what they are eating, because it is intricately connected with their right to life.

Tragically, both the environment’s and the people’s rights are violated, because we have been deprived of informed choices since government institutions involved in agriculture chose not to side with caution, and the existing legal framework of the Philippines does not have a law that requires people to know if the food they are eating are genetically modified or not.

This shows the tragic premium given to life (or the lack of it) by those who seek to advance the implementation of genetically modified organisms into the production line and in the market . They go so far as advancing GMOs at the cost of the environment and of people. It does not look after the ‘rights’ of the consumer and it fails to go on the side of caution, which goes contrary already with proper scientific methodology.

Genetically Modified Organisms should not be released into the environment since there is not adequate scientific understanding of their impact on the environment and human health.

Life is not an industrial commodity. When we force life forms and our world's food supply to conform to human economic models rather than their natural ones, we do so at our own peril.

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DeathToPuberty @ Buhawi Meneses Acoustic Night 2

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Here, there and everywhere

I haven't been up to blogging lately primarily because I find myself stuck in a number of things right now at work and in my studies so I never really had that much free time to write. Anyways every now and then I get the chance to read a blog or watch a video on YouTube and here are some of the things that I think are certainly worth sharing.

That we may be One..

Two days ago the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue (PCID) have released an historic document on the ethics of Christian mission – Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct. This historic document is in part a response to criticisms levelled at Christians by some religious communities in what they perceived to be a use of unethical methods. In some case these objections have led to anti-conversion laws and violence. The three main world Christian bodies have responded with this document that not only identifies the biblical call to evangelism but outlines the ethical mandates related to the Gospel.