A battle for the spiritual mold of our country

The coming presidential election is being fought on many battlefronts. The outcome of these multiple battles will hugely influence who will become our next president. This is the third of a series of articles where I discuss these numerous battles that are intensely raging but which are hardly pointed out in the open.

Several religious groups and leaders have come out declaring support for either of the two top presidential candidates, namely Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Leni Robredo.

One of those who has declared support for Marcos Jr. is Apollo Quiboloy, founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which claims six million members. Quiboloy identifies himself as the Appointed Son of God and Owner of the Universe. He claims to have powers to stop earthquakes. Recently, a warrant for his arrest has been issued in the United States for crimes such as allegedly forcing girls and young women to have sex with him to save them from “eternal damnation.”

Another religious leader who openly supports Marcos Jr. is Mike Velarde, head of El Shaddai, the Catholic charismatic group which claims eight million followers. Velarde uses “inanimate objects such as handkerchiefs, bankbooks, and umbrellas which are held aloft during services” as symbolic means to show that his followers can expect miracles of healing and financial success. In the 2019 elections, Catholic Bishop Broderick Pabillo lambasted Velarde for supporting senatorial candidates he described as thieves and murderers. More recently, El Shaddai’s spiritual adviser, Bishop Emeritus Ted Bacani, lambasted Velarde for his “very wrong” endorsement of Marcos Jr.

The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) has not yet endorsed a candidate. Observers say that the INC only comes out with its endorsement a few days before the elections, and it usually endorses the frontrunner. However, pundits read meaning in the holding of the Marcos-Duterte proclamation rally in the INC-owned Philippine Arena. The endorsements of these three religious groups are regularly courted by candidates because they’re perceived to deliver bloc voting of their members.

Those who have come out in open support of Leni Robredo are numerous Catholic groups including the following: nearly 600 Catholic priests, deacons, brothers, and religious sisters who call themselves “Pari Madre Misyonero Para Kay Leni;” Couples for Christ; the De La Salle Brothers (DLSB) which runs De La Salle University; more than 100 priests and brothers from the Jesuit order which runs the Ateneo schools; Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon Community; Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas which is the lay arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP); and Tahanan ng Panginoon, a Catholic youth group. Many more priests in numerous towns and religious sisters openly support Robredo.

The CBCP has not endorsed any candidate, but it released a pastoral letter urging Filipinos to stand for truth amid “radical distortions” about the Marcos dictatorship. Two Catholic stalwarts, Archbishop Socrates Villegas and Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, while they have refrained from endorsing any candidate, have given their blessing and encouragement to groups that have endorsed Robredo.

Supporting a political candidate is unprecedented in the history of almost all of the religious groups backing Robredo. Their reasons for doing so are articulated by Bishop David when he said the following: “Our issue now is morality and truth … It would be a great sin against God that in matters of good and evil, truth and falsehood, you are neutral … To be neutral means that you support evil … It is not right to be neutral when truth and the country’s future are at stake.”

Our churches will continue their march into irrelevance if they sit by the sidelines while their flock, desperate for spiritual leaders, grope their way through the blurred lines of morality and immorality, truth and falsehood, and good and evil. In the coming elections, we are not only electing our next president. We will also be electing the kind of church that will hold sway over our lives.

Comments to [email protected]