On Myth as Open Window to Filipino Inter-Cultural Theology

By Glenn Plastina

Traveling and ministering around the Philippines, was a learning opportunity for me. It opened my eyes to the reality that worldviews of the people in Batanes are different in comparison to Palawan. Somehow, it helped me to consciously appreciate the differences in outlook of God, life, and the world as I ministered to these various people group. There are treasures that are to be explored in these elements concerning the divergence of worldviews within a small country like ours.

One of the painful events of my ministry with various people groups was the discovery of negligence on the part of many Christian ministers on the elements of the indigenous people they ministered with. It was a terrible thing to see churches in the Mountainous provinces—i.e. Kalinga, Apayao, Isabela, Mt. Province, Benguet, Banaue, etc.—where I went to and see a culture within a small culture in the locality. I am referring to the fundamental churches (where I belonged before) within these areas. They are relatively small and yet remote in sense that their Christian concepts have become a threat of destroying the local culture. These are concrete examples of churches not helping in building the nation. As I reflected on the effect of these ministries, some prevailing realities were noticeable.

Primarily, many of these churches were planted by foreign evangelists, not intercultural missionaries. They were pastored by leaders who have no knowledge and formal training on anthropology and cultural studies. They are western in mentality as expressed in the evangelistic approaches, ministry styles, liturgy, and style of preaching. Many of these ministers known to me personally don’t even care about the cultural values of the people, as if the Christian or, actually, Western worldview is the Christian worldview. Cultural elements of the locality are deemed as heathen. Thus, indeed, the church is a culture (western) within the culture.

I was conversing with one young artist, who I believe a young people who values his cultural heritage even in his paintings, in one of the elegant towns in Mt. Province. I asked him to tell me their ancestral stories. We were at the top of the highest mountain of their province and he told me the story of their God, gods, ancestors, land, garden, serpent, and the like. It was a learning process for me. Such a beautiful window that opened the light to illumine where they were coming from and how their ancestors were actually told by God, in the story, that a sage will come and will bring with him the Book and tell them the truth. Most of their mythical stories have resemblance with the stories in the Bible. I went home to my pastor-friend and asked if he knew these things. Negative. What a missing link! Instead of opening the door and let the windows illumine the interior of the house, their ministries were grappling in darkness of their negligence in listening, learning, and understanding the cultural elements that would shed light to the way of the heart of the people through their culture.

Sunday came, I did not wonder why it was easy for the town folks to embrace cultic religions that speak, relate, and accommodated their culture. There was no transformation. The western Christian church is also remote and static. Faulty attitude and theology in culture, I believe, brought rootless ministries that make the Gospel hard for the local people to conceive at all.