Liberation Theology is a set of beliefs with a dose of Marxist ideas added. It asserts compassion and care in the catholic sense, but also use guns in order to protect and serve the poor. Liberation Theology is a deviation from the merciful work of Catholics in a way Marxism projects its anti-capitalist ideas. A brief description of what it is can be seen below. Liberation theology begins with the premise that all theology is biased - that is, particular theologies reflect the economic and social classes of those who developed them. Accordingly, the traditional theology predominant in North America and Europe is said to "perpetuate the interests of white, North American/European, capitalist males." This theology allegedly "supports and legitimates a political and economic system - democratic capitalism - which is responsible for exploiting and impoverishing the Third World." Like Bonhoeffer, liberation theologians say theology must start with a "view from below" - that is, with the sufferings of the oppressed. Within this broad framework, different liberation theologians have developed distinctive methodologies for "doing" theology. [1] If one looks at the Catholic church today, one would see its greatness in the form of huge and expansive palatial buildings. Inhabited by wise, intellectual men who are capable of handling any doctrinal issues with great sophistication and care. One would get a sense of pride belonging into this religion that was founded by only the son of a carpenter. The son who was crucified and placed beside two common thieves, who never had a simple office to work in, basically founded a religion that is now a million times richer in both membership and assets. One would ask why Liberation Theology became prominent among the clergy and laity. The reason for its rise can be found in how a society is ordered. I remember that once, in an elegant Catholic home in Guadalajara, Mexico, I mentioned the poor people in the countryside. When my hosts denied that there were any, I drove them around to areas where people were living in hovels. My friends' reply startled me :"Well, they will have their reward in heaven." [2] There lies the rub, for Catholics, becoming and being poor means gaining a ticket to heaven. That by being economically poor, the gates of heaven will open, releasing tons of indulgences and blessings falling on the rooftops of the poor. In the Philippines, Liberation Theology became a reality in a time when Catholics occupying the higher class became the oppressors of the poor. In the Cordilleras, these abuses committed were so common that some clergymen questioned their belief. Seeing how the poor farmers in the mountainous regions of the Cordilleras suffered under the hands of the capitalist oriented laity, Fray Balweg had no recourse but to embrace Liberation Theology. During the martial law and post-martial law periods, the Catholic Church was the country's strongest and most independent nongovernmental institution. It traditionally had been conservative and aligned with the elites. Parish priests and nuns, however, witnessed the sufferings of the common people and often became involved in political, and even communist, activities. One of the best-known politicized clergy was Father Conrado Balweg, who led a New People's Army guerrilla unit in the tribal minority regions of northern Luzon. Although Pope John Paul II had admonished the clergy worldwide not to engage in active political struggle, the pope's commitment to human rights and social justice encouraged the Philippine hierarchy to criticize the Marcos regime's abuses in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Church-state relations deteriorated as the state controlled media accused the church of being infiltrated by communists. Following Aquino's assassination, Cardinal Jaime Sin, archbishop of Manila and a leader of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, gradually shifted the hierarchy's stance from one of "critical collaboration" to one of open opposition. [3] Fray Balweg was a priest of Abra province in the Cordillera region. He grew in the region and became a priest in order to serve his community. Although Fray Balweg was successful in his work, he also saw the injustices committed in their region by the capitalist-led Catholics in Manila. Somehow, Fray Balweg saw the hypocrisy in the way how religion was and is being used by the ones who are in power. Such were the atrocities committed to his community that he decided to take up arms and defend the poor. Liberation Theology became reality in the person of Fray Balweg. Although Fray Balweg embraced something that was considered anti-clergy and anti-government, he was able to mitigate the atrocities casually being committed against the minorities. Taking the gun which was considered against the teachings of the church somehow was the right thing to do for Fray Balweg, though. He was ready to serve as a priest, yet when he saw his role only preserves the status quo, he took the path no clergymen would do and became a rebel. There were many long hours of debate among us all as to how to achieve the ideals of justice for the tribal peoples already living (traditionally) in a state of natural communalism, and now being threatened by rampant capitalism. There were those who argued the case for utopian socialism, with the limited objective of achieving administrative, and economic autonomy for tribal areas, and hence preserving traditional communalism ("primitive communism"). Others, argued that true communalism could only be attained as scientific communism via national-level armed struggle (Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung thought as interpreted by the Philippine Communist Party). This view held that true justice could not be achieved at the local, and regional level, but only at the national level as the result of a national revolution resulting in the other throw of the compradore capitalists and their imperialist supporters (meaning, the USA). In the end, in 1979, Balweg opted for armed national struggle, and on his last day as a priest, he asked to see me in Catholic Trade, downtown Manila, to say goodbye (by that time, I, a Malaysian, had become his press spoksperson). I did not agree that abandoning the Church was the answer, but wished him well. We never saw each other again, althoug we kept in touch in various ways. After the fall of Marcos, Balweg had a change of heart, about national revolution, and switched to the more local aspiration of his tribal peoples for autonomy, and for retaining their primitive communism way of life. And his armed faction in the New Peoples Army stationed in the Cordillera renamed themselves the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army, and turned their guns on their former friends, the scientific socialists. Balweg's own younger brother, Jovencio, kept faith with the ideal of national as opposed to the more limited regional struggle which Balweg now espoused. The CPP-NPA passed the death sentence on Fr Balweg in 1988 for deserting the national armed struggle for scientific socialism. It took them 11 years to carry out the sentence, which Balweg's own younger brother carried out (he has "arguing" Balweg at 4am on December 31, 1999 in the family ancestral home high in the Cordillera mountains. Another NPA gun man hid under the house, and fired at Balweg through the rattan floor killing him with one bullet. [4] Only a few would agree he served according to the doctrines of church, though, most will understand and see him nothing but a person who wanted to serve and free the poor from poverty and oppression. Ref: 1. Christian Revolution in Latin America: The Changing Face of Liberation Theology. 2. Liberation Theology. 3. The Convergence of Anti-Marcos Forces 4. Fr. Conrado Balweg