Church, Cash and Candidates

Reading the blurbs I was much surprised to learn that The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) has issued disclaimers about people soliciting cash for the political campaign using its name. This is the first time I have read that a major player in the Pinoy religious landscape has publicly issued such a disclaimer both in English and Filipino.

Whereas before only secular companies issued such disclaimers informing the public that so and so is no longer connected with the company and any transaction made by Mr/Ms So and So will not be honored by the company. The INC statement essentially says the same thing.

To be fair to the Iglesia ni Cristo, I have never known this church to solicit any donation from anyone or get unsolicited donations, even for its charitable works. The INC does a lot of charitable works and it is a staple of their religious broadcasts, but none of the INC broadcasts have a “we need your donations” line! The INC gets its cash for charitable works  from its flock.

This is in contrast with other religious groups, from the largest to the smaller almost fly-by-night ones headed by all sorts of “brothers”, “sisters”, “apostles” and so on who ask money as a matter of routine from anyone, whether he/she is inside or outside the flock.

The tradition of shady solicitations  by religious groups has had a long history and is a sort of tradition especially on All Saints Day. Catholic bishops regularly issue pastoral guidelines instructing the faithful to ask a priest to present a celebret or licence to perform religious sacraments from the bishop. The bishops have time and time again warned of fake priests and nuns. The Novaliches bishop has warned his flock that these “priests” and “nuns” look more respectable than most Catholic clergy! (This says a lot about how Catholic priests and nuns look!) One diocese ordered its clergy who visit cemeteries on November 1 to have their quite large celebret worn like a huge ID. It’s like the airport customs people who have these large IDs.

But with the INC disclaimer, we have to ask whether the churches have been turned into cash conduits for political parties in exchange for votes. The politicians I think don’t care about heaven or hell for that matter or prayer the one service ministers of religion provide.

This has nasty consequences for public money may have been involved in the votes for prayer transactions. If this is the case, the churches should be publicly audited. But the churches won’t allow it under the guise of non-establishment of religion and freedom of worship.

My take on the INC disclaimer is that since we all know that big business is no longer contributing that much cash for candidates, the political parties need to be more creative as May 1o nears and the INC being the one known to deliver the votes, has been the victim of the scam.

Now if it were INC members doing this then it’s sure that they will be “tiwalag” or excommunicated. But the whole scam has surely got the attention of the INC leadership and it reflects extent of the moral decay that has affected the Filipino people and their government. This should not worry only the Iglesia ni Cristo but much more the most numerous church whose moral battle for now is over coloured pieces of rubber!

Popularity: 1% [?]