Religious inconsistencies galore

By Herbert Vego

 

AS a young journalist in 1980, I had the privilege of covering the charity work of the late singer-actress-philanthropist Cielito del Mundo. I remember that particular day when an American Jew (forgot his name) sponsored a gift-giving event in the depressed areas of Quezon City.

“Giving to the less fortunate,” Cielito told me, “is a righteous Jewish obligation akin to paying taxes.”

Out of the blue, while we were unloading gift boxes from the van, I asked the American Jew why he had joined Judaism.

His answer was most unexpected: “Why? It’s to follow Jesus Christ. He was born, lived, and died as a Jew!”

I found no room for disagreement, remembering that the child Jesus had frequented the synagogue and died on the cross as “king of the Jews”. At that time, I had already “mellowed” after a youthful decade of searching for the “true religion.” Born to an Aglipayan mother and a Seventh-Day Adventist father, I had repeatedly allowed myself to be “towed” to various sanctums of worship, only to shake my head.

I vividly recall that Saturday when three women invited me to attend their church service. One of them was so beautiful that I could not say no.

Alas, however, the moment we entered their central church, two pastors were quarreling over who would preach the sermon. One of the three embarrassed women explained that one preacher was “outgoing” and the other “incoming”. The outgoing one would like to say his “last hurrah” but the “incoming” was aching to deliver his first sermon. Cooler heads had to intervene to prevent a fistfight.

How could they claim to be “true Christians” when they were showing un-Christian ways?

By then, I had proven for myself the futility of my search for true religion. Christianity alone has a thousand and one denominations to choose from. A lifetime would not suffice to sort the grain from the chaff.

The Latin saying, “Vox populi, vox Dei” could not be right. If the voice of the majority of Filipinos were the voice of God, then Roman Catholicism would be “it” because most of us are Roman Catholics.

However, why should we even embrace it as our own when history tells us that it was actually foisted on us by the oppressive Spanish conquistadors? If Ferdinand Magellan had not landed in the Philippines on March 16, 1521, this nation could have remained pro-anito or could have turned predominantly Muslim like Indonesia and Malaysia because, by then, our southern natives had already known Allah.

If we were born in a Muslim theocracy where the Bible is banned – as in Saudi Arabia – no doubt we would also condemn the “evil Christians.”

But we don’t even have to move out of Christianity to discover how convoluted religion could be. As I write, I still vividly remember my first exposure to a religious “debate” as a child in the 19050s. My late father Juan and his friend Gerardo were arguing over Jesus’ Godhead.

“Jesus is not God!” Gerardo, a member of the Iglesia ni Cristo, boomed, “He is a man who is also the Son of God.”

Tatay must have prepared for that conjecture, since he quickly philosophized, “Well, then, if he is the Son of God, he must be God. Look at yourself. You are a son of a man, and so you are a man.”

The “debate” prolonged and ended with no winner.

Many other Christian sects have surfaced since then. Pastor Apollo Quiboloy has been exploiting the powerful TV media to proclaim himself “appointed son of God”.

There are non-priests who advertise themselves as Roman Catholic servant-leaders and establish so-called “fellowship” organizations. Naturally, they draw gullible Catholics to their prayer rallies and collect from them sacks of tax-free “love offerings.”

The goal of the religious follower is to gain eternal life while that of the cult leader is to gain money. While the follower waits for the fulfillment of his elusive goal, the leader has already achieved his.

No wonder there’s a popular joke on three lords who make fast and tax-free money: the drug lord, the gambling lord and the “praise the lord.”

One thing is therefore indisputable: The flood of money cascading from millions of followers has fueled the rise of many religious founders. You must have read that when the Korean founder of the Unification Church (since 1954), Reverend Sun Myung Moon, died in September 2012, he had amassed billions of US dollars from five million adherents worldwide.

Locally, religious organizations also make money from politicians, mostly crooked, who generously “donate” – or “invest” — in exchange for their blocked votes.

The more I read the Bible — which says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” — the more I disbelieve religious dogmas that are not even fit for the dogs. I cannot in conscience reconcile monotheism or worship of one God with the worship of lesser gods.

If I occasionally listen to TV or radio evangelists, it’s often for entertainment. There was a time when I “died-died” laughing while listening to Ely Soriano holler, “They call Virgin Mary ‘Gino-o’. But we all know that ‘gino-o’ means ‘mister’. What do they think of Jesus’ mother? A tomboy?”

-oOo-

 

NO MORE REASON TO DOUBT RAZON

NOW it can be told that the entry of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) as the new power utility in Iloilo City was a step in the right direction.

This we found out for ourselves during Friday’s launching of the 10 MVA mobile substation to further energize the expanding Iloilo Business Park (Megaworld area) in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

The success of MORE Power in delivering electricity disproves the notion that, being a newcomer in the complicated energy sector, it would fail.

How could it fail in the hands of industrialist Enrique Razon Jr. as chairman of the board? Razon has earned global fame as the investor behind the International Container Terminal Services,

Razon could not have chosen a better man for MORE Power president than Roel Zabala Castro, who used to be president of Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC).

Razon has stashed away P1.9 billion (up from the original P1.3-b) to rehabilitate and upgrade Iloilo City’s power distribution system that MORE had taken over from the previous franchisee.

MORE Power is taking steps to lower the monthly bills of its customers by reducing system loss, which was 9.03 percent last year.

The company has just launched its pre-Christmas promo – “Jumpers Mo, Noche

Buena Ko” – that encourages customers to report power pilferers until December 20. For each pilferer who resells power to five neighbors, the confidential whistleblower would receive P3,000 for Noche Buena.