“Imee Marcos: Sara-Bongbong Tandem ‘Marriage Made In
Heaven’” (Manila Bulletin)
The headline story reported how Senator Imee R. Marcos
described this possible tandem last August 26, 2021, during the ANC Headstart
interview. Imee said Bongbong would be “honored” to be the vice president of
President Duterte’s daughter -- Sara Duterte-Carpio.
“Everything’s possible but I supposed the most obvious
thing is if the Dutertes have the Solid South, we’re assumed to have the Solid
North. It’s like a ‘marriage made in heaven’,” Imee said.
However, not a Sara-Bongbong pairing turned out later,
but a Bongbong-Sara tandem instead. Had this unexpected turn of events made
PRRD get so piqued that he decided post-haste in launching Bong Go’s presidency
-- thereby “officiating” his new brand of “marriage made in heaven” -- a Go-Sara
tandem in the Palace?
An engrossing story our local pundits have been going
over lately with a fine-tooth comb, such political melodrama I would not burrow
into at this point. Instead, I would dig deeper into an offbeat kind of “marriage
made in heaven”: PRRD-Quiboloy tandem that recently grabbed the headlines:
“Duterte’s Spiritual Adviser Quiboloy Charged with Sex
Trafficking in the US” (CNN Philippines)
Apollo Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ is a Restorationist
church. For his faith roots, he was a member of the United Pentecostal Church
of the Philippines (UPCP) while his preacher-father was a member of the Christian
and Missionary Alliance. Both became UPCP preachers and leaders.
The breaking news was about the US prosecutors having
filed sex trafficking charges against Quiboloy, PRRD’s spiritual adviser, for
coercing underage girls and young women to have sex with him under threats of
“eternal damnation.” Not only that the moral aspect of the story was
scandalous, but the “mammon” details were likewise eye-popping. US authorities
will seek to confiscate Quiboloy’s US following assets: Cessna Citation Sovereign
$18-million jet, Bell 429 helicopter, several luxury cars and real estate
holdings like a million-dollar mansion and a headquarter in California, and
other properties in Las Vegas and Hawaii.
Far-reaching and disfiguring throughout the whole
Christendom, the Quiboloy scandal has metastasized even into the fringes of
atheistic, anti-religion, and anti-God dark recesses -- putting on public
display abroad the spontaneous reactions to the news item in The Washington
Post banner: “Filipino Megachurch Founder Forced Girls and Young Women into Sex
Telling Them It Was ‘God’s Will’ Feds Say.”
“God’s will, huh? Quite the god he serves there, I’m
guessing it’s the same one who ‘allows’ people to get Covid and die. Would be
interesting to see which bible he reads.”
“Show me a non-denominational ‘church’ where this
doesn’t happen. That would be news.”
“Clearly God’s primary focus is getting creepy
religious leaders laid.”
“Why didn’t the FBI wait until Quiboloy returned to
the US to visit before announcing charges? With Duterte as president, it’s
doubtful that they’ll ever be able to extradite him.”
“Evangelicals are the same everywhere. Grifters, abusers, perverts, authoritarian frauds. Whether in the USA, the Philippines, Korea, it doesn’t matter. Users and abusers and their mindless prey.”
Truth be told, the USA had also gotten its hands dirty
on such religious wickedness. Jim Bakker who hosted the Praise The Lord Club
television ministry and attended a bible college affiliated with Assemblies of
God was among the most influential preachers in the US in the late 80s. Hiding
a dark secret behind his pastoral message, he spent over $270k to silence a
former employee named Jessica Hahn who accused him of forced sex. Forcing her
to bed, she testified Bakker held her down all the while repeating a twisted
mantra: “By helping the shepherd, you’re helping the sheep.” Further
investigations revealed he had siphoned the bulk of money donated by his
followers into his bank accounts. He was jailed for defrauding his followers
for $158 million.
As early as 2008, a book “The Fall of the Evangelical
Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside The Church” by Christine Wicker asserted
that Evangelical Christianity in America is dying. Lately, Christianity Today in
its editorial “The Splintering of the Evangelical Soul” by Timothy Dalrymple,
its president, and CEO, articulated:
“New fractures are forming within the American
evangelical movement, fractures that do not run along the usual regional,
denominational, ethnic, or political lines. Couples, families, friends, and congregations
once united in their commitment to Christ are now dividing over seemingly
irreconcilable views of the world. They are not merely dividing but becoming
incomprehensible to one another.
“Recently, a group of my college friends, all raised
and nurtured in healthy evangelical families and congregations, reconnected
online in search of understanding. One person mourned that she could no longer
understand her parents or how their views of the world had so suddenly and
painfully shifted. Another described friends who were demographically
identical, who had once stood beside him on practically every issue, who now
promoted ideas he found shocking. Still another said her church was breaking
up, driven apart by mutual suspicion and misunderstanding.
“These were my people,” one said, “but now I don’t
know who they are, or maybe I don’t know who I am.”
The author identified one of the root causes pertinent
to our Quiboloy scandal – the rise of the celebrity pastor – a dashing profile and
a talent for self-promotion can earn wealth and stardom in the Christian
celebrity marketplace. He said “the consequence is disillusionment and division”:
the younger generations head for the exits, the rest get entrenched in their
respective ideological turfs.
No wonder, my article “Leni vs. Marcos-Duterte: A Modern
David and Goliath Fight” briefly sparked a moderately heated but civil exchange
of a multiplicity of opinions. Such a spontaneous little forum is a microcosm
of the religious fractures in the PH national scene.
With no holds barred, the Catholic Church had its share
of this transgression unveiled in an Oscar awarded film “Spotlight” about the
true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child
molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese that has shaken
the entire Catholic Church to its core.
In conclusion, let me share two takeaways with you:
1. Amid the disheartening state of affairs in our Christendom,
the following uplifting words from a man “outside the box” Mahatma Gandhi
should inspire us to keep up our faith.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Most, if not all, of us, maybe just like the unhatched
eggs who want to fly. C.S. Lewis explained:
“ ’Be perfect.’ [Jesus] meant that we must go for the full treatment. It is
hard, but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder – it is
impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly
sight for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present.
And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must
be hatched or go bad.”
2. “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth
speaks.” (Matthew 12:34)
I’m not confident to say if Quiboloy, as a spiritual adviser, sowed in PRRD’s heart the seeds of the unsavory words and expletives coming out of his mouth that we have reaped in six years. But, I’m confident to say that, amid the raging spiritual battle, our next president must have an authentic spiritually matured Christian adviser.
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