What they say about the INC... (1982) part 2

The members

“the most outstanding mark of the INC is the apparent unity of its membership…

…Their unity is best reflected by their brotherhood. They consider themselves members of one huge family.”

Ben Lara,

Iglesia—disciplined and cocksure (Last of a series)

Bulletin today, July 15, 1973

“The Iglesia ni Cristo in the Philippines has managed to retain a high degree of unity.”

David J. Hesselgrave, ed.;

Dynamic religious movements : Case studies of rapidly growing religious movements around the world, 1978, p.308

“The Iglesia moves forward like an army, each member in his proper place and under recognized authority.”

Arthur L. Tuggy,

Iglesia ni Cristo, p.258

“A highly organized disciplined membership mobilized through a cell (“committee”) system for mission and propagation of their church.”

Arthur L. Tuggy,

Iglesia ni Cristo, p. 249

“..even those who deplore the Iglesia because of its political pushiness admit that it’s one church in the Philippines that communicates with the poor and that has the power to reform lives. The stories of drunks who gave up the bottle, of gamblers who forsook the table, of thugs who turned into men of peace when they became a kapatid are not apocryphal. In the Iglesia, and perhaps only in the Iglesia, do conversions in the fullest sense of the word still occur in our day,”

Quijano de Manila (Nick Joaquin),

Ronnie Poe & other Silhouttes, p. 105

“…The changes wrought upon the lives of her members are remarkable. Those who have led vicious lives are changed into a pattern of wholesomeness, cleanliness and usefulness. Those who once had no fear of defying the law were made law abiding citizens. Those who used throw their hard-earned income in gambling ceased to be such, and began to lead and manage a peaceful like the moment they embraced the Church of Christ.”

Zoilo Galang, editor

Encyclopedia of the Philippines, 1958, p.466

“The members are well-disciplined churchmen and they are exemplary citizens of the nation.”

Gerald H. Anderson, editor

Studies in Philippine church history, p. 364

“…This wonderful change in the lives of her members are attributable to the fact that, the time one signifies his intention of joining the church, he is subjected to a rigid indoctrination by duly qualified ministers who enjoin and admonish him to lead a life strictly patterned after the will of God; thus, only those who by conviction and faith manifest an unconditional surrender to scriptural teachings and mandates find entrance into the Church.”

Zoilo Galang, editor

Encyclopedia of the Philippines, 1958, p.466

“And Iglesia congregation often will become the home of a ‘lonely soul’, for he finds congenial fellowship with people like himself, is given what he regards as a responsible God-appointed task and enters with others in the common worship of God. These congregations are close-knit, self-contained, and separist in nature. They are havens which separate and protect the individual from the world with all of its ungodly ways and temptations.”

Gerald H. Anderson, editor

Studies in Philippine church history, p.357

“Their sincerity, their devotion to the Gospel, the honesty of their intentions, cannot be doubted. They strove to practice the Christianity that had so charmed them in the Godspel and they saw all men as their brothers.”

Quijano de Manila (Nick Joaquin),

Ronnie Poe & other Silhouttes, p.107

The Church and social action

“The most telling argument that the (Catholic) Church is a failure is the Iglesia ni Cristo which has given the common man that sense of social justice and moral order which an impersonal, rich Church (Catholic) has not been able to give. The Catholic Church should learn from the dynamics of the INC (Glesia ni Cristo).”

Vitaliano R. Gorospe, S.J

Philippine National Problems and Development

“In practice, both Catholics and Protestants neglect poor of our land. The group that has significantly moved into this vacuum is the Iglesia ni Cristo…

By passing the enigma of how many members they really have, we must acknowledge that the Iglesia ni Cristo provides much that the common tao needs; a sense of belonging, of community, of being part or a successful enterprise”

A.Leonard Tuggy & Ralph Toliver,

Seeing the church in the Philippines, 1972, p.140

“As manifestions of its charity for its members, it has set a huge farm in Maligaya, Nueva Ecija, to accommodate tenant-farmers who were ejected from their land during the old order.

For those who want to earn more money by learning new skills, the INC has established the New Era Schools which give vocational training from hairdressing to dressmaking and from tailoring to automechanics.

Doctors go around to local communities to heal and comfort the sick.

For the jobless, the INC has a placement bureau.”

Ben Lara ,

“Iglesia—disciplined and cocksure flock”, Bulletin Today, July 15, 1973

“The Iglesia ni Cristo has fielded mobile clinics to help the poor, regardless of creed and race.”

Teodoro F. Valencia, columnist

“Over a cup of coffee”, Bulletin Today, Aug. 9, 1978

The Houses of worship

“Looming up against the skyline in various parts of the city are the towers of the impressive Iglesia ni Cristo chapels.”

Tuggy & Oliver

Seeing the Church in the Philippines, p.131

“So rapid has been the rise of the Iglesia ni Cristo during the postwar years that the Church was able to build an imposing cathedrals in San Juan, Rizal, and stately churches in other parts of the city.

The sect has a cathedral in Baguio.”

The Philippine Herald

Mar. 27, 1963

“In terms of buildings, there can be little doubt that the magnificent Iglesia ni Cristo churches reflect and in most cases surpass the grandeur of the Roman Cathedrals of the Philippines.”

David J. Hesselgrave, editor

Dynamic Religious movements, p. 314

“Today in Tondo Manila, for example, men look at the aging Roman Catholic Cathedral and they look up to the spires of the newly constructed modern Iglesia ni Cristo cathedral chapel. The psychological impact of this on the masses of people in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation should not be underestimated.”

Artur L. Tuggy

Iglesia ni Cristo: A study of Independent church dynamics, p.257

“The Kapilya is first and foremost an assembly where the faithful meet the Lord, not through images or private devotions but through the word.”

Alfredo Roces, editor

Filipino Heritage: The making of a nation, 1978, p. 2728

“One writer has commented that the Iglesia chapel in San Juan makes the Manila Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church appear as “a cheap, ungainly house of devotion in spite of its beauty and worth in cement and marble”. The chapel in San Francisco del Monte, finished in 1963, one of the most beautiful church structures in the Philippines, seats 3,000 people.”

Gerald H. Anderson, editor

Studies in Philippine church history, 1969, p. 352