By Reni M. Valenzuela
No. The rally was not a support for the president. They used his name. It was a defense for, buckler to, and a buttress of the beleaguered political ally (benefactor), bald and bare.
“Balik tayo sa kapayapaan at pagkakaisa” (“Let us go back to peace and unity”) came the reply of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) minister/spokesman to the initial question thrown at him in a press conference held shortly after the “Peace and Unity” rally they staged at the Quirino Grandstand on January 13, 2024.
But what did Edwin Zabala mean by that? What (indeed) are he and the INC wanting to go back to, if not the politically and morally (and economically) ruinous “love affair” between Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte, dubbed as “UniTeam”? Let alone accountability, good taste, good governance, a good future, and everything good/right that must be done, vis-a-vis the serious and weighty issues/controversies that hound Vice President Sara Duterte.
Politics is blind to truth, justice, fairness, and righteousness. But, alas! What was not political in that INC rally? Nothing. Nothing at all. Everything looked political (for the seeing) — in the guise and cloak of religious convergence purportedly intended to promote “peace and unity,” but actually and only accomplished the opposites.
It was a political “show of force,” from the inside out, that has just been exhibited once more (publicly) by them — a massive, suppressive political clout of the said politicizing church, given (markedly) the forthcoming May national elections. Why don’t they just go back to and stay in their own whited, pointed, pious, religious, exclusive, elite, saved “kingdom”?
To all churches, the INC notably: Educate and enlighten your flocks (but next only to yourselves) about the importance of voting for the right-hearted, qualified (not Comelec-qualified) candidates, and about the crucial, all-important national and local issues. Forget yourselves, your “significance” and “relevance,” including, of course, your parochial, pharisaical concerns (or “logo”). Stop debasing God and the Body of Christ by your grossness, foulness, manipulation, and machinations.
But heed this, dear Filipino electorate: Discard from your ballots any candidate that courts and satiates over sacrilege and sells his/her soul to the devil (not just showmen during the election period). I mean those that have earned their “right” for endorsement by any religious group, much less by INC, either through shout or whisper or later.
Repulse church endorsements. Let God’s will be done and thus let the democratic dictum ring loud and true every election: “Vox populi vox Dei.” Don’t dictate to your members who they should vote for, lest you prove yourselves to be ministers of the electoral Beelzebub, sent from the fiery, bottomless pit of electoral hell.
Let me be frank with you, all you INC people and your leaders, from top to bottom: You are anathema to the whole nation — by your blind submission and political, ungodly, narcissistic hearts, respectively.
I don’t need INC votes, for I am not running in the coming elections and will never, ever run in any future elections. But even if I were a candidate now, I would still say and do what I should, must, and ought to — to contend with pretentiousness and deception, to highlight the truth, fight the dickens, and make Christ shine and rule upon one and all in the nation.
I have so much more to say about the INC “peace” rally and the politicized church, and the Zabala speech and his press conference — to challenge false claims and undress religious pomposity and hypocrisy, especially during elections.
Sadly, however, I’m in a hurry for an important appointment. So I have to end here, lest I allow my morning “quiet time”/Bible and prayer (private) devotion to suffer this day. Ngunit pahabol lamang po: The rally was a dud – one big, mammoth lie (like Digong’s latest lies versus BBM).
Double talk. Debunked.
P.S.
The INC has not endorsed any candidate for the coming elections, said Zabala. Good. But what about in the future, shortly before election day, when usually and wily the INC leaders announce their “anointed” ones? Abangan.
Email: renivalenzuelaletters@yahoo.com
