Posts Tagged ‘religion’

Religious Freaks in the Philippines

Even the Philippines is not spare from useless religious wrangling of major and minor religious sect vying for the approval of one Filipino who is searching for a religion whom he or she will join; because the Philippines is predominantly Catholic and Christian country eclipsing Islam dominance on the Luzon and Visayan part of the Philippines. Islam religion has only dominance in the Mindanao part of the Philippines.

Founder of Dating Daan Eli Soriano

A predominant Christian country that  is divided into many variety of so-called Christian churches like the Roman Catholic church, the orthodox church, the protestant, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC),the Jehovah’s witness, the Mormons, the charismatic, the born again, the CFCs, the SFCs, the JIL movement the “dating daan” movement, the El Shaddai group, etc.

So many variety that leads into maligning and slandering one another and calling one another “fake and satanic” and even killing one another just like what have happened to an INC pastor and his family who were massacred inside the INC compound together with his wife and children, as reported a year ago; just only to convince a Filipino seeker to join their religious group which is so vain and so senseless. There are other religious killings happening below the table but was not reported on the public because one’s religious reputation will be ruined or tainted and will lose chances of winning a proselyte if it is publicly reported. Obviously, some what they only want is the tithes or money offerings that a proselyte will donate or give to their respective churches or religious congregation because of financial poverty.

El Shaddai Head in the Philippines - Mike Velarde

Take for example, pastor Mike Velarde who founded the El Shaddai group wherein he become an instant millionaire by asking tithes and money offerings from his followers in exchange for prayer requests and his blessings as the servant of God and Christ. Actually, he have already bought his own mall and even attempted to run for a government seat.

Religion in the Philippines is spiritual beliefs practiced by Philippine citizens. Religion holds a central place in the life of the majority of Filipinos.
Religion in the Philippines includes Jewish, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, Protestants and animists.

Christianity and Islam have been super imposed on ancient traditions and acculturated. Animism in the other hand lacks better terminology can be used to describe the indigenous spiritual traditions practiced by people in the Philippines during pre-colonial times. Judaism as of 2005 the number of Jews at the very most is 500.
Buddhism in the Philippines is largely confined to the Filipino-Chinese, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean and Vietnamese communities.
Several Schools of Buddhism in the Philippines:
ï    Mahayana
ï    Vajrayana
ï    Theravada Buddhist

Christianity arrived in the Philippines with the landing of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Roman Catholicism in the Philippines is the predominant religion and the largest Christian denomination estimately to have 81-85% of the population.

Orthodox Church
Orthodoxy has been continuously in the Philippines for more than 200 years. Protestantism arrived in the Philippines with the coming of the Americans at the turn of 20th century.
Islam reached the Philippines in the 14th century with the arrival of the Malaysí and Javanese merchants and Arab merchants from Malaysia and Indonesia although the spreading of Islam in the Philippines is due to the strength of Muslim India. Hinduism also existed in the Philippines for centuries. Atheism and Agnosticism also has small percentages in the population.