Posted on 10/09/2011 2:48:44 PM PDT by BBell
A Filipino church called Iglesia Ni Cristo, or Church of Christ, is the buyer of 59 parcels of land in Scenic, paying $700,000 for the properties, Pennington County records show.
What the church plans to do with the nearly empty Old West town on the edge of the Badlands remains a mystery. The church hasn’t said anything about its plans for the property, and calls seeking comment from church offices were not returned.
Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and county Planning Director Dan Jennissen each said their offices have had no contact from the church.
A variety of sources describe the church as a sect estimated to have nearly 2 million members in the Philippines, a majority Catholic nation, and millions more worldwide. Based in Quezon City, the largest city in the Southeast Asian island nation, the church was founded in 1914 by former Catholic Felix Manalo, and leadership passed to his son and now rests in his grandson, executive minister Eduardo Manalo.
The church’s website shows congregations in dozens of countries and 42 states. It includes a listing for a congregation meeting in Rapid City, but the phone numbers were no longer working.
The church’s United States office is in Daly City, Calif., a suburb of San Francisco, and there are about 60 congregations in California.
“But it is not numbers alone that make the INC such an influential church today,” according to a 2002 report from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. “The Iglesia commands strict obedience from its members. It votes as a bloc, and its leaders are wooed by politicians eager for support.”
The report describes the faithful as insular and believing that there is no salvation except through the Iglesia. It says church leaders have business interests in companies in the fields of education, medicine, media, manufacturing, construction and legal services. The church also has its own television broadcasting network.
Several Filipino news organizations have reported that the church broke ground in August on a 50,000-seat stadium outside Manila, the Filipino capital city. It is part of a complex called the Ciudad de Victoria that will also include a university, convention center, medical facility, housing and a chapel. The stadium is expected to open in 2014 for the church’s centennial celebration.
The church’s history of building ornate temples in Asia, Hawaii and California doesn’t explain its interest in Scenic, the rural Pennington County town that made international headlines in August when Coldwell Banker listed the property as a whole town for sale.
Former resident Twila Merril had accumulated the property, nearly the entire town, over the years starting in 1963.
On the edge of the Badlands, the 46 acres includes a U.S Post Office land lease, the Longhorn Fuel & Food Convenience Store, the Longhorn Saloon, a museum, two homes and two jails. It was listed at $790,000.
Merril was unavailable Friday for comment.
Coldwell Banker Realtor Dave Olsen, who listed the property along with Realtor Joe Bennington, said he has signed a nondisclosure agreement and can’t talk about the buyer or the buyer’s plans.
He said earlier this month that the buyer did not want to be revealed for a few months, until after some organizational and cleanup work had been done.
He said the buyer has hired private security teams to protect the property from vandalism and has restored power and phone service to the town.
Thom said he told Olsen he would be happy to meet with the buyer about their law enforcement needs, but has not been contacted and is maintaining the same level of patrols as before the sale.
Bennington told the Journal earlier this month, "It's not going to be an abandoned town. It's going to be fully functioning." He added, “They're going to do really positive things for the area and the community."
But no plans have been announced and there has been no activity in the county planning office.
“If they wanted to do even a church camp, they would need a conditional use permit,” county Planning Director Dan Jennissen said.
I have never heard of Iglesia Ni Cristo before but it sounds like a Christian cult. This is an excerpt about the Church from another article:
The church, which translates in the language Tagalog to Church of Christ, has been steadily spreading west since it was founded in the Philippines by Felix Manalo, a former minister of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church who experienced what he claimed to be a call similar to those of ancient prophets. He died in 1963.
Often described as one of the fastest-spreading international religions, its foothold in the Philippines grew from about 1.4 million followers in 1990 to 1.7 million in 2000, according to the 2011 figures released by the National Statistics Office in Manila.
Iglesia ni Cristo rejects the Christian doctrine of trinity and believes Christ is one of several prophets. The church is focused on the end times, believes Manalo is a prophet and considers the Catholic Church apostate.
It has a divisive reputation. The church's backing has been viewed as crucial in Filipino presidential elections, and it has been accused of organizing bloc voting in that country. It also is known for its secrecy, rarely commenting on its activities.
I experienced people from the iglesia ni cristo firsthand . . . yes, they are a cult, and a dangerous one at that.
May a ask where you had your experience? There are a number of Filipinos living in my area but I never heard of this Church. The Filipinos I know and work with are all Catholic.
This could be interesting. There could be hordes of illegals heading there all claiming they are members of the "church" and chanting "Sanctuary, Sanctuary!" while building the Wall of Jericho around the town limits.
Leni
The church’s website shows congregations in dozens of countries and 42 states. It includes a listing for a congregation meeting in Rapid City, but the phone numbers were no longer working.
Ping for later
Cult?? I’ll ask my friend if his wife belongs to that church. He is loyal Irish American Catholic and his born Filipino Catholic wife joined some evangelical church that has divided them. I’ll have to ask him
She blows thousands at that church way beyond normal church tithing
>I have never heard of Iglesia Ni Cristo before but it sounds like a Christian cult. This is an excerpt about the Church from another article: <
I do. I have Fil in-laws and one of those in-laws is Iglesia. Here’s the summary of what he, the Iglesia member told me previously when I was in the RP: unlike Christians they go to church on Wednesday and or Thursdays and they have their own sect. The one point to know is that Iglesia does “respect” the Virgin Mary, but question why Christians venerate her. Draw your own conclusions.
In the RP, they ALMOST win the presidential elections because most people know that 90% of the Philippines is Christian, the only one in Asia. They are so fanatical they are almost banned in the Philippine Army. WHY? The Muslims insulted their sitting leader and the Iglesia-Army commander burned down 5 Muslim cities to the ground. They even have their own university in Manila. Very damn influential. Unlike the robot Scientologists whom I meet in L.A, they are not close behind..
I was stationed at Clark Air Base, Angeles City, Balibago. I was out visiting homes for my local church in the area and I came upon a house where some lived (turns out it was their bishop). They encircled me and became very angry and argumentive towards my views on personal salvation.
They encircled me, and I honestly thought they were about to do me harm. I backed out of the house and never went back. And others that I went to church with (filipino Christians) told me frightening stories of their kidnappings and of others that were physically harmed by them.
How about just saying “cult”...Christian is Christian and cult is cult. This right here tells you it isn’t Christian:
“Iglesia ni Cristo rejects the Christian doctrine of trinity and believes Christ is one of several prophets.”
As do I. My wife's cousin married one of them. The bride's sister described the ceremony and reception as weird, the men and women sat separately.
Just what we need; this does not bode well.
Scenic is a crossroads, less than 10 miles outside the Pine Ridge Res. It sits on one of the two main roads (SD-44) into & out of Badlands National Park; and a main road out of the Res.
I remembered that faction of my in-laws inviting me to the church and they specifically told me not to wear jeans or sneakers. Heck, the Philippine weather is so humid hot that wearing jeans in that weather was out of the question anyway.
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