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Religion, Politics and Sex: Contesting Catholic Teaching and Transnational Reproductive Health Norms in the Contemporary Philippines

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Religion, Politics and Sex: Contesting Catholic Teaching and Transnational Reproductive Health Norms in the Contemporary Philippines Religion, Politics and Sex: Contesting Catholic Teaching and Transnational Reproductive Health Norms in the Contemporary Philippines By Jonathan Tseung-Hao Chow A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Ron E. Hassner, Chair Professor Vinod K. Aggarwal Professor Jerome P. Baggett Professor Edwin M. Epstein Professor Steven Weber Fall 2011 © 2011 by Jonathan Tseung-Hao Chow All rights reserved. Abstract Religion, Politics and Sex: Contesting Catholic Teaching and Transnational Reproductive Health Norms in the Contemporary Philippines By Jonathan Tseung-Hao Chow Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Berkeley Professor Ron E. Hassner, Chair How does religion shape transnational norms and the ways in which they are contested or adopted? Although constructivist international relations theory has made significant strides in understanding the role of norms in shaping political outcomes, there has been little research into how religion affects norm dynamics. This dissertation seeks to address this gap by developing a theory of “religious norms”, which I define as standards of proper behavior that arise from actors’ religious beliefs. I argue that while religious norms bear many similarities to secular norms, they differ in that believers understand them to emanate from the highest authority of all, that of the sacred. This can lead religious adherents to treat religious norms as having overriding importance, especially when they perceive them to be under attack from competing norms. When this happens, religious adherents can frame the religious norm as highly salient, constitutive of the faith and under threat, a process that I call “defensive sacralization”. Defensive sacralization seeks to mobilize believers in opposition to competing norms and to preserve the integrity of religious norms. At the same time, it can stifle theological debate, harden the boundaries of the faith, and raise the costs of accommodating competing norms, leading to increased polarization through a “ratcheting” effect that I call the “sacralization trap”. I study the nature of religious norms, defensive sacralization and the sacralization trap by attempting to explain why the Philippines, which has signed international legal documents affirming reproductive health (including access to contraception) as a human right, has repeatedly failed to pass legislation that would implement these international obligations. I argue that this failure can be attributed to two main factors: first, the domestic political power of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, which enables it to wield an informal veto in issue areas relating to sexual morality; and second, the Church’s defensive sacralization of its teachings against contraception, which it perceives to be under threat from transnational reproductive health norms. Through field interviews in the Philippines with activists, theologians, clergy, government officials and scholars, I show how defensive sacralization has 1 sidelined Catholic theologians who believe that the Church may legitimately accommodate the Philippine state’s adoption of a national reproductive health policy. By drawing on the history of the Catholic Church’s moral theology on contraception and its response to reproductive health norms at major international conferences, I demonstrate how the Church’s defensive sacralization in the Philippines is rooted in a broader transnational normative struggle even as it is conditioned by the Philippines’ unique local sociopolitical environment. More broadly, religious norms, defensive sacralization and the sacralization trap provide a new conceptual vocabulary to describe some of the distinctive ways in which religion shapes political processes and outcomes. By apply constructivist international relations theory to the study of religion in politics, this dissertation seeks to begin building a conceptual bridge between the two disciplines. 2 Contents Dedication ............................................................................................................................ iii List of Abbreviations ..............................................................................................................iv List of Figures and Tables ....................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................ vii Chapter One: Religion, Politics and Sex .................................................................................. 1 Chapter Two: Opening the Conceptual Toolbox: Norms, Religion and Religious Norms .................................................................................. 21 Chapter Three: Defensive Sacralization and Its Consequences .............................................. 37 Chapter Four: How Contraception Became a Threat: Defensive Sacralization against Contraception in the Catholic Church .................................. 59 Chapter Five: Reproductive Health Norms and Vatican Resistance: Defensive Sacralization at the Transnational Level .............................................................. 89 Chapter Six: Domestic Dimensions of Defensive Sacralization Part I: The Catholic Church and the State in the Philippine Reproductive Health Debate from Marcos to Estrada ......................................................................................... 115 Chapter Seven: Domestic Dimensions of Defensive Sacralization Part II: The Catholic Church and the State in the Philippine Reproductive Health Debate under Arroyo .......................................................................................................... 143 Chapter Eight: An Intractable Dispute? How the Sacralization Trap Hampers Agreement in the Philippine Reproductive Health Debate .................................... 171 Chapter Nine: The Conceptual Toolbox Revisited: Religious Norms in International Relations Theory ........................................................................................ 199 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 209 List of Interviews ................................................................................................................ 229 i ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to one of my heroes, Father Eugene Trainor, whom I first met over two decades ago when he was an assistant priest at Saint Isidore’s Parish in my hometown of Stow, Massachusetts. Father Trainor’s joyous and stirring homilies opened countless hearts and minds to God’s Word and remain among my earliest memories of the Catholic Church. Through innumerable correspondences and lunchtime conversations over the years, I have come to know Father Trainor as a compassionate spiritual mentor, a formidable intellectual sparring partner and above all, one of my dearest friends. Father Trainor cultivated in me a love for the Church, its rich history and theological traditions, and taught me that faith in God can only be strengthened by sincere and rigorous questioning. With his unshakeable conviction that nothing could separate humanity from the love of Christ, Father Trainor taught me to believe that all things in time will work to God’s plan. iii List of Abbreviations BOM Billings Ovulation Method CBCP Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CFC Couples for Christ COMELEC Commission on Elections (Philippines) DOH Department of Health (Philippines) DV The Bible (Douay Version) ECFL Episcopal Commission on Family and Life EDSA Epifania de los Santos Avenue (Philippines) HB House Bill (Philippines) ICPD International Conference on Population and Development (1994) IUD Intra-uterine device LGBT Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered LGU Local governing unit (Philippines) MDG United Nations Millennium Development Goal NAE National Association of Evangelicals (United States) NAMFREL National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Philippines) NCCP National Council of Churches of the Philippines NEDA National Economic Development Authority (Philippines) NFP Natural family planning NSCB National Statistics Coordination Board (Philippines) POPCOM Population Commission (Philippines) PPPP Philippine Population Program Plan RH Reproductive health SDM Standard Days Method UN United Nations UNFPA United Nations Fund for Population Activities/United Nations Population Fund USAID United States Agency for International Development iv List of Figures and Tables Figures Figure 1.1: The transnational, interstitial and domestic levels of analysis ............................. 15 Figure 6.1: Total Fertility Rates in the Philippines and Thailand (1960-2007) ........................ 119 Figure 6.2: Total Population Growth Rates in the Philippines and Thailand (1960-2008) ...... 120 Tables Table 2.1: Examples of religious norms classified by constitutiveness and salience ............... 31 Table 2.2: Variables affecting frame resonance .................................................................... 32 Table 3.1: Components of defensive sacralization and corresponding stages of collective action framing ....................................................................................................................
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