MIND DA NOISE: Livin’ on a prayer

MINDANAO (MindaNews / 10 January) – A good way to start 2025 is by saying a prayer. But calling your church to gather in public and pray but stopping traffic, that’s something else.
 

That is going to happen on Monday, the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) will hold a nationwide rally for peace over our turbulent political situation. This will be happening simultaneously in key places in Mindanao: Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan and Pagadian.

So, while this church will pray for peace over the Marcoses versus Dutertes, the rest of us will not be having our peace of mind being stuck in traffic. 

Just makes us wonder why religious groups who preach about going to heaven will create such a Hell of a traffic for the rest of us “non-believers”.

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The INC said that their event in Davao City will draw 300,000 people!

The Dutertes might now be thinking: didn’t we have a pastor-ally-friend who once promised to field hundreds of thousands of his fanatics to rally for us? Where did they go?

That’s something nice to debate now, like those religious debates on radio or on San Pedro Square: Kinsa ang pinakakuyaw nga simbahan karon? INC or Quiboloy. 

If your answer is INC, it’s because they can stop traffic, make local governments suspend school and work just to give way to their prayer rally, and to vote as one.

If you believe it’s Quiboloy, remember this, this self-appointed Son of God failed to “stahp” the police from arresting him, or even made himself invisible from authorities. And his believers couldn’t mount a barricade or rallies to stop that from happening.

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Church and politics is an interesting marriage, especially for DDS, who love to invoke this separation of church and state when Catholic priests and bishops start criticizing the Dutertes. But they are thankful to Quiboloy and INC for bloc voting. Guess that goes the same to the rest of the God-fearing people in this country. 

It used to be that the DDS would hate activists for conducting rallies that caused inconvenience to them.

They also agreed when Tatay Digong cursed the Pope for causing traffic in Manila during his visit.

Let’s see how powerful the cult of DDS could curse their way to the INC rally.

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INC has a weird reason for praying that the country will get over the rift between the Marcoses and the Dutertes. Like, this was a pact between two evils (kasamaan and kadiliman), doesn’t the church like it when the enemy is divided?

Maybe that is why people are turned off by the church, because it preaches about keeping a marriage together, when divorce is the only reasonable way to end a failed relationship. And this will save us from another Inday Sara meltdown.

There are plenty of things to pray for in 2025 over saving the politicians. We pray we can save money, save our health, save our sanity, save our democracy, please vote smarter, vote for real leaders.

Hell, we think we need more than prayers to save ourselves, we need exorcism.

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Happy 2025 and Hapay 2025, because we will be paying local taxes after spending our savings on Christmas.

(Mind Da Noise is a column by jaded Mindanawon observers.)