The Sectarian Rise

There is a massive in-roading of sectarian groups in the Philippines. I would seem to think that primarily this can be attributed to the lack of pedagogical force that should seem to engender among the Catholic faithful. The deficiency of some Filipinos to clearly understand their faith have led many to leave the bosom of the Mother Church in favor of some welcoming congregation. The converts find in these different churches a strong social bond that is never found in Catholic Churches, so it seems. These sprouting churches exude warmth and affection to them, whereas in the church that they left behind was an isolating desert. The starking contrast of gloom and smiles could not be elaborated more.

This is where the problem lies. Belying this strong social cohesion among these sects is the inherent problem that tends to be overlooked by both the proselytes and the converts. The danger posted by the mushrooming organizations is one of doctrinal identity. As I would observe these groups, what becomes fundamentally emphasized is the particular, subjective encounter of the Lord, like receiving the Lord Jesus as personal Lord and Savior through verbal accession and from here so to speak develop a particular existentialist theology but transposed in a conservative mesh of a believing community that has become homogenous in its basic orientation to faith through incessant teaching. The emphasis of this encounter is projected into the life of the community worship. Much so that the worship now becomes an agent to boost further the emotional feeling of the first encounter. What now becomes the importance of a Liturgy that is celebrated with its usual form and rubrics does not fit in a certainly born-again community.

If one observes the homily of the speaker, it focuses on positive theology and tends to minimizing the commandments of the Lord that is truly a brute fact and could elicit distance between that and the hearer. Eventually, the life of the faithful builds up through self-help exhortations, a means by media-related literature and movies, personage that concerns human feat and achievements that would edify the believer, and the plays and games that would strengthen the members. It seems that secular themes are appended into the worship where topics of human liberation is pronounced. This is a extended edge into penetrating the mundane and urbane and offer it to the faithful where they can easily identify. Furthermore, the communitarian activity is given a vital space in conjunction with a personalistic and individualistic view of salvation. Hence, the fundamental tenets of Protestantism is preserved albeit presented in a radically new way with a touch of themes uprooted from secular personalities, which can indeed be interpreted in light of biblical exhortations and commands minus the rough edges of caveat.

The downfall of such a group is its contingency to the forces that shape it up. It becomes oppressed to the prevailing factors that led to its growth. It does not take its form from the perennial gravity of truth that becomes tested in the unfolding of ages. What renders these types of group ultimately dangerous is the trivialization of the basic truths of Christianity as just passing in a minutely graded change that would destroy the faith itself. The emphasis would dissect the fundamental identity of a religion and consequently leave it to die by explicitly leaving it out of consciousness of the believing community. Indeed, the project of the reformers of the 16th century had only been a dream that would fly before everybody's face. What had been dreamt of as purifying the excesses of Romish claims laid waste and has devastated Christendom. Here in the Philippines we need not to go far to see the divisions that these sects have brought to the face of Christianity. The Pauline admonition against breach of harmony within the hierarchical structure of the ekklesia is never more strongly worded.

What is more disheartening is the fact that these people whose goodwill could not be doubted indeed propagates their teaching innocently. And, the tendency to close off from any discussion is what concerns me. When one closes into oneself or in this case in one's own community, it becomes dangerous secondary to fundamentalistic tendency that would eventually bear out.