PBMA membership

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PBMA cult leader gave magic amulets to his followers to ward off bullets. “And be sure to pack your suitcases and wear rubber shoes!”

Claims of PBMA membership are bouncing between 1 million, 3.5 million and 10 million. Not surprising, considering most cults’ penchant for gross overestimation. I wonder what the membership numbers transform into when it comes time to pay taxes? They are, after all, a corporation as well as a cult, right? ;)

PBMA’s “other” website, apparently. Hmmm, they believed their Divine Master Ruben Ecleo was Jesus reincarnated? Well, that’s original.

Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association

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Blood and gore in the Manila headlines today: violence broke out between “Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association” cultists and the policemen who came to arrest their leader. Here’s the PBMA website, those of you who are interested. Lots of suspicious overlaps between a twisted idea of Christianity and New Age guruism:

“The story of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, Incorporated, established and founded at San Jose, Dinagat, Surigao del Norte, Philippines, portrays an abstract picture, showing a multi-dimensional aspect that gives a dramatic and colorful episode of a unique civilization and culture of a distinct group of people struggling for spiritual emancipation and striving to achieve a purposive and progressive goal for mankind, in their sincere desire to bridge the chasm of ignorance between man and the Divine.”

Wow, that was one of the longest, most ambiguous run-on sentences I’ve ever read. I don’t think it any coincidence that they refer to a “Master” Jesus, and also to their “Master” Ruben Ecleo, now arrested for the murder of his young wife. And, what’s this: another “incorporated” religion?

UPDATE: Read my entry on false messiahs, and also see Rick Ross Institute’s Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association cult archive.

Little Italy

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I’m back from Baltimore, having found a charming pair of rooms in Little Italy. (Not Fells Point, as I originally thought.) Things are shaping up for a pretty good schoolyear.

That’s all. I must work now. Go look at this funny signature graphic.

Fells Point

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It’s back to Baltimore for me tomorrow morning, this time to look at a promising homeshare opportunity in Fells Point. Hopefully the mess from Monday’s collision at Penn Station has been cleaned up.

Christians Smoking

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From Razormouth: Christians who smoke — are they “defiling” the temple of the Spirit with nicotine? While Jamey argues that a Christian can be a moderate smoker and still be living by the Gospel, I wonder if this line of thought would hold for, say, a moderate Ecstacy-user? A moderate cocaine-user? If a Christian smoker can smoke to the glory of God, can an occasional LSD-tripper also hallucinate to the glory of God? Can a Christian marijuana-user… well, let’s not get into that… ;)

I won’t stand upon on a pulpit to declare tobacco as decidedly un-Christian, any more than food or drink is decidedly un-Christian. I don’t deny that C.S. Lewis was a smoker, or that many other great Christian minds (which I am currently at a loss to name) did puff away at one time or another. But given what we now know: that nicotine is addictive, that even light smokers are at risk, and that secondhand smoke is a health threat to others — well, that makes the question of tobacco a lot more serious than comparison to mere food and drink, doesn’t it?

(Sorry to step on the toes of my fellow brothers and sisters in the faith who do smoke. You do know my current line of work. My intention is not to make you uncomfortable, but just please don’t let any smoke float in my direction. I was getting more than enough of that poison riding jeepneys back in Manila, thank you.)

Ledhead for PalmOS

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Ledhead. Must remember to download that later, so I can play old-style Game and Watch on my Palm.

Paul Amurao and W32/Perrun

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A Filipino named Paul Amurao claims to have been the creator of the W32/Perrun “JPEG virus,” according to this Inq7 story. And here’s his site. Why this unceasing repetition of the words “desperate” and “lame,” I wonder? Why so desperate about the lameness of a “picture” virus that doesn’t even work unless an executable comes into the system first?

Index37 and the “clear” fix

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Raffy tells me that Index 37‘s blog column was getting bumped below the sidebar in IE5/Mac. I’ve attempted to rectify the error with another “clear: left” property on the blog DIV, but having no access to a Mac, I can’t verify that it has worked. Any IE5/Mac users want to check it for me?

(I’m well aware that other indexes probably don’t look so great in IE5/Mac, which is worrisome to me. Fixing those Mac display problems will have to be my next project, considering that more and more people are switching.)