Christian Liberty and the Predicament of Liberal Toleration (Roover, J.D.

and Balangadhara,
S.N.) is an article concerning John Locke’s political theory. Specifically, it attempts to justify
that in spite of the case that Lockean principles have Christian origin, does not mean that said
principles are only limited to Christian societies, since it may also have secular foundations
which does not threaten cultural plurality. It then follows that the contemporary political
ideology of secular liberalism, entirely isolating culture and politics from religion, is a normative
political model since it is universal. This article wipes any doubt as to the validity of Locke’s
writings.
Using Locke’s Letter Concerning Toleration, which “distinguishes exactly the business of civil
government from that of religion “, this paper will attempt to assess various issues tying the
Philippine government with the local religious sect called Iglesia ni Cristo. The ‘Letter
Concerning Toleration’ gives detailed discussion on the criteria needed to accurately determine
the boundary between the public political spheres from the private religious life, which will
extensively be utilized to properly evaluate the purported encroachment of the Department of
Justice to the church of INC.
On August 27, 2015 INC members blockaded the gates of the Department of Justice demanding
that the DOJ secretary must refrain from “meddling” in INC matters in respect to the separation
of the church from the state. All this sprung from an ongoing investigation by the DOJ as a case
was filed by Isaias Samson, a member of the INC Sanggunian and head of the INC foreign
mission (Vina, 2015). Samson charged the Sanggunian of illegal detaining or kidnapping and
threatening some INC members. Also, prior to this case, Menorca, brother of Sorsogon INC
minister Lowell Menorca, filed a complaint with the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation)
testifying that he and his family were being detained under armed guard by the INC and that
“they feared for their lives.” Lowell Menorca was arrested and detained on charges of
threatening some individuals with a grenade (Vina, 2015).
Because of this matter, INC and its members turn into the streets and raised grudges against
DOJ. For days, INC rallies caused massive traffic jams and such other public disturbances. In the
interview of Edwin Rabala, he argues that the DOJ must respect the constitutional guarantees of
religious freedom and separation of the church and the state, and also the DOJ should dismiss
Samson’s complaint (Meruenas, 2015). The INC claims that Sec. Leila De Lima is being
selective of Justice and that she is trying to persecute their powerful church. DOJ should
prioritize bigger issues rather than meddling on the affairs of the religious institution. The INC
also asserts that the issue should stay only in the four corners of their church, and investigation of
their leaders is not necessary (Meruenas, 2015).
Commission of Human Rights Chito Gascon noted: “Every person has the right to exercise
freedom to [peaceably] assemble to redress grievance… However, it is also a basic civic duty of
every person in a civil society to exercise their rights to the extent that they do not impinge upon
rights of others.” Gascon also explained that, “No person or institution under our constitutional
system can place themselves above or beyond the reach of law” and that the separation of the
church and the state simply mean that “the State does not favor any particular religion” and that
“every person is able to believe and practice faith.”
The principle of the separation of the church and the state has been clearly defined by Locke’s
liberal toleration. Doing exactly this demanded that Locke first establish a set of criteria that
draws a demarcation line disassociating the public political sphere and the private sphere of
religion, creating a twofold society. It has been contested that identifying said boundaries is
insufficient since the bigger challenge is “to provide a criterion to identify either of the two
spheres at the empirical level.”
The business of the commonwealth is solely for “the procurement, preservation and
advancement of the civil interest”, the rest are the affairs of the church. However the article
emphasizes that “this does not allow us to identify these spheres, since any domain of human
existence is subject to state laws at some point, while free from them at other points.”