Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0288/02888.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 34KB | 540 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02888}
$Pretitle{272}
$Title{Philippines
Chapter 2E.   Indigenous Christian Churches}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Frederica M. Bunge}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{philippine
philippines
education
filipinos
church
percent
schools
filipino
government
health}
$Date{1983}
$Log{}
Country:     Philippines
Book:        Philippines, A Country Study
Author:      Frederica M. Bunge
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1983

Chapter 2E.   Indigenous Christian Churches

     Despite the Roman Catholic Church's twentieth-century resurgence, many
Filipinos have joined one of a number of nationalistic and politico-religious
movements. In the first decade of this century, Aglipayanism attracted more
than 1 million followers. Then, after World War II, the Iglesia ni Kristo
became the fastest growing church in the archipelago. In the early 1980s a
number of Rizalian groups (centered on the national hero, Jose Rizal) were
also receiving popular attention.

Aglipayanism

     The Iglesia Filipina Independiente, led by Gregorio Aglipay, received
the patronage of revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo during the revolt
against Spain and subsequent conflict with American forces and rode the tide
of antifriar nationalism in absorbing Filipino Roman Catholic clergy and
forcibly seizing church property before 1906. One out of every 16 diocesan
priests and one out of four Philippine Catholics converted to Aglipayanism
in those years of violent national and religious catharsis. It was not until
decisions by the United States governor general and the Philippine Supreme
Court restored church property to Catholics that the tide began to reverse
itself. Then, too, the temporary decline of Philippine nationalism hurt
Aglipayanism. United States colonial policies that encouraged Philippine
participation in the governing process tended to take the punch out of the
nationalist movement. To Aglipayans, for whom fervent nationalism was both
heart and soul of their appeal, this proved critical. The Iglesia Filipina
Independiente, formally organized in 1902, thus enjoyed less than five years
of growth before it began a precipitous decline to its present minority
status.

     Whereas Aglipay was head of the church, another Filipino, Isabelo de los
Reyes, was responsible for early church doctrine and organization. Members
were instructed to worship the one true God as a universal force and
principle and to reject the doctrine of the Trinity and the possibility of
miracles. They were to accent only the gospel according to Mark among the
New Testament books and to deny prophecy and revelation. Good works were
stressed over the efficacy of prayer, and no mention was made of rewards or
punishments in the hereafter.

     For many Aglipayans who had lost faith in the Roman Catholic Church,
but not in its dogma, such ideas were shocking. Many returned to the Catholic
fold, especially after Americans and then Filipinos replaced Spanish priests.
Among those who remained, a crippling schism emerged over doctrinal
interpretation, especially after 1919 when members were suddenly instructed
to discard earlier church statements concerning the divinity of Christ.

     To some extent the schism was due to Aglipay himself, who shifted his
theological views between 1902 and 1919. At first he de-emphasized doctrinal
differences between his church and Roman Catholicism, and most Aglipayan
priests followed Roman Catholic ritual, saying mass, hearing confession, and
presiding over folk-Catholic ceremonies just as always. Later he moved closer
and closer to Unitarianism, causing de los Reyes to revert to Catholicism. In
1938 the church formally split, the faction opposing Aglipay later winning
a court decision giving it the right to both name and property of the
Aglipayan church. Followers of Aglipay continued to argue that they
represented true Aglipayanism. In the early 1980s those who rejected the
Unitarian stance and adhered to the concept of the Trinity were associated
with the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States.

Iglesia ni Kristo

     In mid-1938 all over Luzon, the Visayan Islands, and even northern
Mindanao, unmistakable Iglesia ni Kristo places of worship, all similar in
design and architecture, were being constructed for a rapidly growing
membership. Founded by Felix Manalo Ysagun in 1914, the Iglesia ni Kristo
did not attract much notice until after World War II, when its highly
authoritarian organization and evangelical style began to fill a need for
urban and rural families displaced by rapid changes in Philippine society.
The church requires attendance in twice-weekly services, where guards take
attendance and forbid entrance to nonmembers. Membership dues based on ability
to pay are mandatory. Members are expected to be disciplined, clean, and
God-fearing. Gamblers and drunks face the possibility of being expelled, and
the church also forbids (on penalty of expulsion) marriage to someone of
another faith and membership in a labor union. Thus does the Iglesia ni Kristo
intrude deeply into the lives of its members. Before martial law it even told
them how to vote, and its discipline in this respect was so effective that
it quickly became known and respected for its ability to get out the vote for
candidates of its choice.

     There are a number of reasons why so many Filipinos have joined such
an authoritarian church, not the least of which is the institution's ability
to stay the decline of traditional Philippine vertical patron-client
relationships, especially in urban areas. The church has also been successful
in attracting potential converts through its use of mass rallies not unlike
Protestant revival meetings in the United States, in which participants are
encouraged to become emotionally carried away in a highly charged atmosphere
of religious communalism. The message is always simple and straightforward:
listeners are told that the Iglesia ni Kristo is the mystical body of Christ,
outside of which there can be no salvation. Roman Catholicism is denounced;
only through membership in the Iglesia ni Kristo can one hope for redemption.

     But perhaps the principal reason for the success of this church concerns
the more worldly benefits it bestows on members. The church has embarked on
its own effort to ensure that members are literate. It provides socioeconomic
welfare programs, jobs, and a powerful sense of community for believers, who
now include a growing number of former tenants invited to work on its
agricultural development projects. Thus the Iglesia ni Kristo has become for
its members a government within a government, one that looks out for the
interests of its supporters in a world viewed by many as becoming more and
more hostile and insecure.

Rizalian and Other Cults

     The pressures and insecurities that have impelled some Filipinos to
join the Iglesia ni Kristo have persuaded others to join highly emotional
and apocalyptic movements usually centering on the persona of one charismatic
leader who promises followers the realization of a new utopia. Such millennial
movements are nothing new in Philippine history; they are the modern
embodiment of the cofradia of 1839-41, the Guardia de Honor, the Santa
Iglesia, and many different Colorums (see Glossary; The Later Period of
Spanish Rule, 1762-1898, ch. 1). Still, it is disconcerting to Filipinos
when such a movement attacks the Manila police headquarters as the Lapiang
Malaya did in 1967. As an actual attack it failed horribly when 33 members
were shot down on the street. But as a symbolic attack on westernization
and urbanization, it succeeded in demonstrating both the intensity of despair
of those caught in the modernization crucible and the motivating power of
their millennial dream. Fortified by sacred oil, amulets (which are often
laminated matchbox covers bearing a picture of Rizal, whom they have deified),
and sacred incantations, other sects have also attacked constabulary units
in remote rural areas like Buk