Politics & Power Quote by Jose Rizal

Rizal’s line is a scalpel aimed at the most profitable illusion of empire: that conquest comes with a divine trademark. By denying any “monopoly” on God, he punctures the colonial bargain in which Spain’s political authority in the Philippines was wrapped in the language of spiritual guardianship. The syntax matters. “Claim” is easy; “prove” is the trapdoor. Rizal grants that institutions can assert exclusive access to the Creator, then quietly insists on a standard they cannot meet. Faith may be intimate, but power loves paperwork; he asks for receipts.

The subtext is not atheism so much as anti-credentialism. Rizal is wrestling religion away from the state and from clerical gatekeepers, reframing belief as something larger than any flag, catechism, or bureaucracy. In a colony where friars served as landlords, censors, and moral police, “exclusive right” is not a theological phrase; it’s a property claim. Rizal hears the imperial church saying: we own the route to salvation, therefore we own the people. He answers: God is not a customs office.

Context sharpens the intent. As a novelist and reformist writing under surveillance, Rizal couldn’t always attack the regime head-on. Universal language becomes his camouflage. By arguing that no nation can “prove” divine exclusivity, he simultaneously defends pluralism, undermines forced conversion as a civilizing excuse, and legitimizes Filipino dignity without needing to invent a rival orthodoxy. It’s a liberation argument disguised as humility: if God cannot be fenced, neither can a people.