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I remember I saw my first Plain Truth in 1972 at age 14. I was full of
enthusiasm at what I thought to be the truth of God being proclaimed by
the "Work," the only one organisation on the face of the earth that God
was using. I was in my second year of high school then. Coming from a
poor family (when I say "poor it means POOR) I was given the "opium"
(religion) that I was to learn that Marx talked about. Why, I thought,
here I was, a poor boy barely able to go to school, yet I was an heir on
my way to "become a god!" I was elated at the prospects. And those
people around me became inferior relative to what I knew.
I can't relay all the damage that WCG has inflicted on my life. I will
just concentrate on economics. To get ahead of my story, I would not
have continued to be poor if it was not for the " mind
control" that I received. I was bombarded by
Herbert W.
Armstrong saying education in this world is nothing--it's pagan,
useless, wrong, etc., etc. "A knowledge of the Bible is better than a
college education..." he would say. As a young man still with
impressionable mind, I was conditioned to be content with my station in
life, looking for the second coming which was about to happen "in ten
years or less," whereas I had the chance to change my life if only I
put forth the effort to get a college degree. After high school I began
to work, to help with the family income. That was 1975.
I began to attend the
Worldwide Church of
God
in January 1976. I got baptised in the WCG
May 29, 1977, age 19. I was a bona fide Armstrong disciple. My small
income was tithed--first, second and third tithe. It was the right
thing to do to "pay" tithes with money that could have been spent for my
sick mother's medicine. It was the right thing to do to go to Baguio
City to keep the Feast of Tabernacles while my mother was left in the
house with almost nothing for her subsistence. But she bore it all for
the sake of "doing God's will."
In 1978, working as a messenger in Manila, I thought of going to
college. I entered the University of Santo Tomas, the country's oldest
university, founded 1611. I chose BA Journalism. The first day of
school I was called for by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters.
She tried to convince me to join morning classes because she was
impressed with my performance with the exams, besides my NCEE (National
College Entrance Examination) grade was 98%. I took night classes. But
I did not continue -- I dropped out. You know why? Because I
would not attend Friday night classes; that would be "breaking the
Sabbath"! I would not compromise with the law of God, according to
Herbert Armstrong's teaching. So goodbye to college.
And so I continued with my life of mediocrity and poverty...
Meanwhile, I continued to a faithful WCG member. The days of turmoil in
the church (1970's) did not give an inkling as to the real picture. I
continued to be a willing victim.
In 1993 I was living alone on the shore of Manila Bay ala Henry David
Thoreau, age 35, still single. Partly because of the changes in the
church, it dawned on me to get back to college. In September of that
year I took the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT).
UP is our most prestigious school. It seemed a miracle that I passed
UPCAT. I became a state scholar. So it was a brand new start.
However, maybe because of the pressure of schooling at age 36--exactly
20 years from high school--it took a toll on me in the form of Psoriasis
and accompanying psoriatic arthritis. I only passed 54 academic units.
Right now I still have the sickness. I'm typing this on my psoriatic
fingers.
I believe that WCG is to blame--to a great degree--for my life of
difficulty right now.
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