For almost three weeks now, the country has been rocked by another investment scam fiasco using religion as a shield called KAPA or in Cebuano – Kabus Padatuon (“make poor rich” in English). This investment scam has victimized thousands of individuals in Visayas and Mindanao with a false promise of gaining investment return as a “gift” from God. Despite the fiasco, many people are still defending KAPA because of its religious overtures wherein you have to invest something in exchange for “blessings” from God.
This type of using religion as a shield for an investment scam is nothing new, because for the past 50 years the country has become a breeding ground for some narcissistic religious ministers who want to deceive people by joining their religious sect in exchange for monetary and material properties called the Prosperity Gospel.
The Prosperity Gospel originated in the United States in mid-20th century after some Pentecostal Protestant ministers were splicing the Holy Scriptures to entice people to join their sects in exchange for material gain. The Prosperity Gospel had become an anathema of godless communism during the Cold War years, hence the Prosperity Gospel became widespread in Latin America and later on in the Philippines at the expense of mainstream churches like the Catholic Church. Even the Catholic Church has already been infiltrated by Prosperity Gospel preachers like Mike Velarde of El Shaddai.
The Prosperity Gospel in origin was not elitist, that is why poor people in Latin America and the Philippines became attracted to it, but the end of it would be to exploit members for the sake of the minister’s fortune. The Prosperity Gospel doesn’t have strong basis in the Holy Scripture and, in fact, contradicts with God’s preference of the poor.
To every Christian, beware of this kind of theology called the Prosperity Gospel.