Resisting religious bigotry

By Herbert Vego

ON opening my Facebook page, I chanced upon the picture of a TV evangelist with this quotation, “May darating na himala sa buhay mo ngayon.”

If you have seen him preach in person or on TV, you might have already embraced him as God’s “servant-leader”. He owes his “millions” to Roman Catholics who consider his organization as a “sub-sect” of Roman Catholicism.

While we do not personally know each other, I played a role at the beginning of Mike Velarde’s ministry way back in the early 1980s after one of the broadcasters of his radio station DWXI in Multinational Village (Paraṅaque) requested me to edit the monthly newsletter of their Prayer Partner’s Foundation.

Leo Navarro, the broadcaster, said that Velarde — the real estate developer behind Multinational Village — was gaining adherents by leaps and bounds. Little did I know that what started as a “fellowship” would eventually evolve into El Shaddai, where members open their umbrellas upside down to “catch a fortune.”

I wondered whether the promise of material reward had outweighed the promise of afterlife as their “incentive”.

The most fortunate of them all now is Velarde himself, who used to attract a regular multitude of tithers to his “Saturday appointment with El Shaddai” – initially at Rizal Park and later at his sprawling Anvel compound in Parañaque.

The Covid-19 pandemic must have financially affected him, though not as badly as his less fortunate followers.

Would El Shaddai outlive the founder and become another big Christian organization like the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) and the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC)?

There are many other groups competing with mainline churches for patronage, notably Rep. Eddie Villanueva’s Jesus is Lord (which also started as just a “fellowship”) and Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

You may disagree with me, but I am convinced that if there’s one thing that religion has succeeded in, it’s in fulfilling the material ambition of religious leaders, not the spiritual growth of members.

Of course, they will always deny that money is the root of all evil. Indeed, it is not. But the “love of money” is, according to the Bible in 1 Timothy 6:10

Admittedly, however, man is by nature prejudicial. You see, I have been receiving Hindu reading materials in the e-mail but have never found the inclination to read them.

Don’t the Hindus likewise resist learning about Christianity?

But who knows? You and I could go the other way.  We know of people who have hopped from one faith to another, or even to atheism.

There were times in the past when I criticized the Roman Catholic Church, only to offend my Catholic friends. I no longer do it, remembering these words from Dale Carnegie in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People: “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”

Remember Galileo Galilei? He was the 16^th-century Italian astronomer/physicist who was excommunicated and jailed as a heretic for his discovery that conflicted with the Church’s and state’s beliefs. Galileo had taught that the sun, not the earth, is the center of the universe.

Today, the Pope knows he was right.

-oOo-

THE LONG AND SHORT OF ‘MORE POWER’

“More power to you.”

It’s what we hear when one person wishes another person success.

MORE Power as a noun is short-cut for the successful power distribution utility in Iloilo City, MORE Electric and Power Corporation.

What most Ilonggos do not know is that “MORE” is a mere abbreviation for Monte Oro Resources and Energy, one of the corporations mainly owned by billionaire Enrique Razon Jr.

The successful operation of the distribution utility, however, rests on the skill and creativity of its president and chief operating officer, Roel Z. Castro, who has stirred the company into prominence as distributor of the cheapest electricity in the Philippines at P6.38 per kilowatt-hour.

I remember that one year ago, Castro was cited by the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) as “Outstanding Alumnus for Corporate Governance” along with seven other awardees from different categories.

When we reminded him about it, he said, “UPLB taught me the values of excellence and honor, of which I am privileged to impart in the city and province of Iloilo. I was honored to represent Iloilo when this award was bestowed on me. I may not be an Ilonggo by birth but I am lucky to be an Ilonggo-at-heart.”

Castro, a Metro Manilan, had actually finished BS Agricultural Business at UP in Los Baños, Laguna, but fate intervened to catapult him to management level of the power sector here in Iloilo in almost a decade already.

Why not? He had also earned a post-graduate Master in Management course at the Asian Institute of Management and attended the Advanced Management Program of the University of Asia and the Pacific, as well as the ISSE Business School at the University of Navarra in Spain.

Castro belies the false rumor that MORE Power as the new distribution utility in Iloilo City (since February 29, 2020) would not succeed because it is manned by “inexperienced” employees.

I remember seeing Mr. Castro for the first time in 2014 (if my memory serves me right) during the launching of the coal-fired power plant of Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) in Barangay Nipa, Concepcion, Iloilo. The company had chosen him to be its president.

By then, he had already honed himself in the energy sector, having also served as special assistant to the president of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP); and president of Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings Corp.