Here We Are Again

by Gabriel J. Catanus

About a decade ago, many of us in the Filipino American community spoke out, protested, and mobilized against then-candidate Trump’s first presidential campaign, which promised to put “America first.” Besides stoking division, appealing to white nationalists, and depicting immigrants as criminals, he included the Philippines on his list of “terrorist nations” whose people should be banned from coming to the U.S.

Of course, many in our community supported him. According to the research organization AAPI Data, about one-fourth of Filipino Americans voted for Trump in 2016, helping him to win the presidency.

Several years have passed and so much has happened since then— including a global pandemic, but here we are again. This time, the Trump administration’s attacks on U.S. institutions are far more aggressive, leading even conservative faith groups and denominations to join lawsuits against him.

The U.S. Catholic bishops have sued Trump for halting refugee resettlement support and Pope Francis has criticized the administration’s mass deportations. However, it remains to be seen whether our communities and institutions will effectively respond to the crises that Trump’s policies inflict on the most vulnerable. 

Meanwhile in the Philippines, universities and pro-democracy groups are right now celebrating the 39th anniversary of the People Power revolution, which overthrew the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Throughout my academic journey, I have had several scholars, even from non-Filipino backgrounds, praise the EDSA revolution.

As expected, however, the younger Marcos (the current president) continues to downplay history in an attempt to erase and rewrite it. During Bongbong’s 2022 campaign, my parents, who suffered under martial law, were dismayed at the younger generation’s ignorance of Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship. Copying from Duterte’s playbook, Bongbong’s disinformation campaign proved effective, and here we are again. 

Scripture speaks directly to our collective amnesia with the repeated call to “remember.” Psalm 105 calls the people to remember their liberation from slavery in Egypt. God’s people are also instructed to remember their own migration stories and thus treat immigrants justly (Ex. 22:21). And we must remember well, it turns out, in order to break oppressive cycles.

Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes, “The loss of hope was the result of focusing too singularly on the present moment of defeat. An act of memory enables the speaker to look away from this defeat, in order to draw upon older, continuing resources.” We can lament that we’ve once again found ourselves in a dark place, but we must also remember our past victories to resist the present darkness. Yes, we’re here again, but it’s up to us where we go next.

Gabriel J. Catanus (jaycatanus@gmail.com)  is the Director of the Filipino American Ministry Initiative (FAMI) at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he teaches theology and ethics. He is also the pastor of Garden City Covenant Church, a congregation serving immigrant families and young professionals. He received his PhD from Loyola University in Chicago, where he lives with his wife and two children.