Ask the fugitive

Eli Soriano, the fugitive televangelist wanted by the Interpol fashions himself as a great biblical resource. He even allows himself to be called “Pantas” or wise man. Lofty, isn’t it? He sports many monikers such as “the most sensible preacher of our times”, “phenomenal preacher”, “Walking bible”, “Modern Jeremiah”, “the appointed one”, “he who holds the key”, and others. He even stole my handle, truthcaster.  Other terms he uses to describe himself are “tech savvy” and “human encyclopedia”.

Ask the fugitive

But is he really all that? I looked into a few of his pronouncements and found a lot of weird stuff. Let’s together see if this man they call “wise man” make sense at all. Let’s take a look at just three things for now.

1. Sepoys of Cainta, Rizal:

In one episode of his Philippine talk show, he was asked why some people in Cainta, Rizal, Philippines where considerably darker than others.

Not even pausing to ponder the question, he said the reason was that the sun beats extra hot in Cainta, Rizal. Yup, that’s what he said. He said this bit with full authority as if he knew what he was talking about.  He made it sound that, as a matter of fact, the sun is just hotter in Cainta, Rizal. He didn’t explain why this is so. There maybe a few reasons why the sun would beat extra harder or hotter in a certain spot, but would this make someone darker permanently? I can see some people may get a tan but to permanently change the color of the skin, and then pass this on to their children sounds a little over-reaching.

The Iglesia ni Cristo religious program Ang Tamang Daan, obviously and rightfully, not wanting this bad information to be taken as fact immediately responded with a correction and a lesson to impart an important historical detail. The reason why some people of Cainta, Rizal of considerably darker is because they are descendants of Sepoys who elected to remain in the Philippines. The Sepoys where Indians who served in the British army.

Way to go “wise man”. One strike for you.

Ask the fugitive

2. Roman 13:13

Again in an episode of his talkshow, supposedly televangelizing. A listener ask him to explain Roman 13:13. The conversation was in Tagalog and the verse as written in tagalog goes like this: “Magsilakad tayong mahinhin, gaya ng sa araw;”.This is the  verse in English: “Let us behave properly as in the day“. And

In tagalog “araw” can mean the “sun“, or “day“. Guess which one “Mr Walking Bible” picked as the meaning of “araw” for this particular verse? The wrong one of course. The way he explained it made it even more hilarious. He said, the verse instruct people to walk gracefully, just as the sun glides gracefully across the sky from morning to night. If he had only truly understood the verse, or at least read the verse in English he could have saved him a lot of embarrassment.

Way to go “Walking bible”. two strikes.

Disqualified Soriano campaigning

3. In another episode, Soriano tells his members they can run for public office. Then he Soriano said :”But I will not join politics. I will not run as a candidate (for office). Why? Imagine, a preacher running for public office? Can one serve two lords? Christ didn’t allow that.”

Then he turns and run anyway and was disqualified as a nuisance candidate. He should add this to his monikers, “nuisanse”.

Thumbs down

3 strikes. You’re out! and out you should go.

There you go. Just two of the many “wisdom” from the “phenomenal preacher”. Doesn’t he give new meaning to the phrase ‘false preachers’?

Adapted from an episode of the Iglesia ni Cristo television program “Ang Tamang Daan”.