"South Dakota ghost town now owned by Iglesia ni Cristo"

**ghosthunter** · April 21st, 2012 04:48 PM

South Dakota ghost town now owned by Iglesia ni Cristo
By Rudy M. Viernes -FilAm Star
3:40 pm | Saturday, April 21st, 2012

The Iglesia ni Cristo church in the Philippines shelled out $700,000 to purchase an abandoned, tiny exclave in Scenic, South Dakota. For what? For possible expansion of its imposing edifices with trademark narrow-pointed spires which are landmarks in many towns and cities in the Philippines. But INC hasn’t divulged its plans for the property according to its offices in Daly City, California.

The Scenic, SD property is the latest in a long line of towns sold, or towns for sale. Recently a Vietnamese investor bought the tiny town of Buford, Wyoming (pop. 1) for $900,000. Buford is considered the smallest town in America with a lone resident who mans the post office and has its own ZIP code: 82052. Another town, Henry River, a 72-acre (29 hectares) property in North Carolina is being sold for $1.4 million. It came off the news lately as an abandoned mill town which served as District 12 in the movie Hunger Games.

The town of Scenic, South Dakota — an unincorporated 12-acre (4.86 hectares) community in Pennington County, once a popular stop for people traveling to Rapid City from the Badlands — was bought by the INC including the surrounding acreage from owner and longtime resident and area rodeo legend Twila Merrill.

INC has been steadily spreading everywhere since its founding in the Philippines in 1914 by Felix M. Manalo, its Supremo, who died in 1963. It is a large, tightly knit indigenous Christian religious group that counts millions of members nationwide. According to the National Statistics Office in Manila, 2.3 percent of the entire Philippine population of 93 million is an INC affiliate. Its present head is Executive Minister Erano G. Manalo, the eldest son of Felix.

INC rejects the Christian doctrine of trinity and believes Christ is one of several prophets. It is focused on the end times, and believes Manalo is a prophet and considers the Catholic Church apostate. In the Philippines INC is a robust and influential religious sect whose head is often the object of courtship and obeisance of politicians during election time because he reins on his flock whose block votes he could sway almost blindly and fanatically to the candidates who carry his favor. This is due to its doctrine of unity which puts the penalty of expulsion on anyone

The Iglesia ni Cristo has expanded to more than 6000 congregations in the Philippines, called locales, and more than 600 in 96 countries and territories in six continents. It has established congregations in many states notably, California, Washington, Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Hawaii, where there are vast colonies of Filipinos.
At its peak, Scenic, South Dakota was pure Old West. It had two restaurants, three gas stations, a dance hall, a hotel, a school, a bank and a post office. It’s now a deserted, lifeless township. The hotel is long empty. The environs are lined with aged cattle skulls strewn under overgrown brush. The roadside jail cells are rusty and worn out and the wooden structures are decrepit after decades of neglect.

But its future is shrouded in new mystery. Wait for what the Iglesia ni Cristo in Manila, the new owner, will do with the property. And the few residents there, numbering nine in all, are excited about the possibilities the town pulsates with life again when the INC starts building its landmark super structures with spires pointing to the sky and its cavernous hall reverberating with shouts of worship.

source: South Dakota ghost town now owned by Iglesia ni Cristo | Inquirer Global Nation

**ghosthunter** · April 21st, 2012 04:49 PM

are they buying their way to world domination?

**Harangody** · April 21st, 2012 04:57 PM

A big hello to our new neighbors in Scenic, the Iglesia ni Cristo, a big cultish church from the Philippines that calls itself Christian. Barbara Soderlin reports that the church paid $700,000 this summer to buy the whole town of Scenic, about 40 miles southeast of Rapid City.

West River has plenty of wild-eyed crusaders for Christ. But the new owners of Scenic make me antsy about taking Highway 44 to the Badlands. I’d hate to get caught up in a church like this:

In classic cult fashion, Iglesia ni Cristo demands strict obedience from its members.
More cultishness: the church is a family business. Its only leaders have been founder (and God’s “last messenger“) Felix Manalo, his son, and, currently, his grandson. Hello, Moonies….
These “Christians” deny the divinity of Jesus. I have a problem with people who can’t use simple words like “Christian” correctly.
They say the only path to salvation is through their church. Lutherans, Baptists,*fundagelicals out by Wal-Mart: you’re all as wrong as I am!
They impose*compulsory church attendance on members.
They tell members not to join labor unions (well, that will get them in good with some South Dakotans).
They tell members to avoid going to court (that will get them in good with Kristi Noem).
They push members toward block-voting in public elections… wait a minute! I’ll bet Gordon Howie is bringing them here so he can get them to vote for him in a primary challenge against Noem! Now it all comes together!
Keep your cult radars tuned to Scenic over the coming weeks. I’d like to think that maybe we’ll just get some nice neighbors who boost our tourism dollars. Iglesia ni Cristo has millions of members worldwide; maybe some of them will come to South Dakota for a nice little revival meeting now and then.

But when a personality-based church buys an entire town in a relatively isolated region, I can’t help hearing “Warren Jeffs” and “Jim Jones” in my head.

Update 2011.10.05 05:42 MDT:*If you think I sound intolerant of other beliefs, take a look at what Iglesia ni Cristo thinks of Christians:

…we now ought to reject the catholic priests and the protestant pastors, for they are ministers of satan. We also ought to reject the Catholic Church and the different protestant churches, for they are not of God, but of satan or the devil [INC publication*Pasugo, August 1961, p. 39].

Madville Times

**renzo_d10** · April 21st, 2012 05:03 PM

Sana tinulong nalang nila yung $700k.

**uls** · April 21st, 2012 05:36 PM

i think last year pa yan

the town was put on sale for $799,000 in July 2011 by an old woman who was diagnosed with cancer

it got media attention

there were many potential buyers

a month after putting the town on sale the seller narrowed down the potential buyers to just one -- the only one willing to pay the asking price of $799,000

"low profile" daw ang buyer, from "out-of-state" daw

yun pala INC