WHAT THEY DID NOT TELL YOU ABOUT TOURISM

WHAT THEY DID NOT TELL YOU ABOUT TOURISM
Arnulfo Yu Laniba
Agape Foundation (Agasoft)

December 5, 2007, Badbad Oriental, Loon, Bohol (Philippines)

I have the following words about immorality being part and parcel of today’s version of progress and prosperity.

Do you notice the priority that the government is giving to TOURISM? Especially in our province of Bohol where beaches are as fine and as white as a maiden’s skin, and where the world-famous Chocolate Hills have cones as perfect as the beautiful lady’s breasts – these comparisons are intentional because TOURISM has a dark side.

For the ignorant, TOURISM connoted only positive things: tourists, dollars, clean appreciation of nature, quiet meditation, relaxation, fine food, good wine, and the likes – that’s the good part.

And I hope that’s all there is; and I would support the program of tourism all the way. But alas, in those physically beautiful sceneries, is committed what the Holy Scriptures calls the “great evil” of mankind. It is called PROSTITUTION.

Prostitution is a very serious thing, as a matter of fact the most serious thing, in that the Lord calls prostitution as the “most wicked act a man can commit against his fellow human.” That is, not so much on the woman [the victim] being the prostitute but on the act of men [the victimizers] who made the woman prostitute, through a number of misdeeds, such as: child abuse (the Lord calls it ‘breaking the flesh’ [hymen] which early exposure to intercourse converts a girl into a wanton [sexually promiscuous]; exposing the young to too much finery (physical adornment) leading her to later become lazy for hard honest works, thereby, pressing her to sell her body to meet her other material-physical needs; making use of the girl’s or woman’s poverty to exchange money for sex; other forms of seduction and coercion.

In the New Revelations, the Lord Jesus express His earnest anger to those who contribute to the conversion of an otherwise innocent, chaste girl into a wanton or prostitute:

“Woe betide of him who makes use of a virgin’s poverty and breaks her flesh! It would certainly be better for him if he had not been born. And he who sleeps with an already corrupt wanton, instead of endeavoring to turn her away from her ruinous path and help her back onto the right one, will one day be subjected to a multiple severe judgment by Me; for to beat a healthy person is by far not as sinful as the abuse of a cripple.

“For a harlot is a maiden who is completely ruined and broken in her flesh as well as her soul. Whoever will help her out of her great misery with an honest heart that is faithful to Me, shall one day be great in My kingdom. But he who sleeps with a harlot for money, thus making her even worse than she was before, shall once receive the reward that every malicious killer will receive in the bottomless pit that has been prepared for all the devils and their servants.

“Woe betide the land and the city where prostitution is practiced, and woe betide the earth when this great evil will have gained ground! I shall set up tyrants to rule such countries and cities, and these will have to oppress people with burdens beyond their means, so that all flesh may suffer starvation and refrain from the most wicked act a man can commit against his fellow human.

“A harlot shall lose all honor and respect, even with those who have used her for money, and her flesh shall be inflicted with all kinds of incurable, or at least hard to cure, diseases. If one of them should, however, mend her ways, I shall once more have mercy also upon her.

“The maidens shall be diligent and hard-working; then, they would never have to say that they had been forced unto this necessity [i.e., prostitution], for an upright man is always fond of a diligent and hard-working maiden and would not let her suffer want. If some employer is a stingy and hard-of-heart man, the maiden should leave his service and look for another, as it is not difficult for an industrious maiden to find a good service where she will not suffer want.”

Again, let me repeat: the Lord is very stern against those who victimize poor and weak women into prostitution.

He warns: “Woe betide of him who makes use of a virgin’s poverty and breaks her flesh! It would certainly be better for him if he had not been born. And he who sleeps with an already corrupt wanton, instead of endeavoring to turn her away from her ruinous path and help her back onto the right one, will one day be subjected to a multiple severe judgment by Me; for to beat a healthy person is by far not as sinful as the abuse of a cripple.”

“[He] who sleeps with a harlot for money, thus making her even worse than she was before, shall once receive the reward that every malicious killer will receive in the bottomless pit that has been prepared for all the devils and their servants.

And He warns the nation or city that promotes this “great evil of mankind”:

“Woe betide the land and the city where prostitution is practiced, and woe betide the earth when this great evil will have gained ground! I shall set up tyrants to rule such countries and cities, and these will have to oppress people with burdens beyond their means, so that all flesh may suffer starvation and refrain from the most wicked act a man can commit against his fellow human.”

The Lord’s will is that we stop this and help these poor prostitutes go back to clean life. This requires infinite (read: unlimited) support in terms of compassion, love, patience, earnest, assistance in skills training and the likes to provide the woman not just a bridge through which she can cross the line, but also the sustainability to stay, survive and flourish there once she has reached the other side. This often means having someone to marry and provide for her; in the least, this means having had all the help to find a decent job or to economically stand on her own.

As we shall see, the Lord has very nice words to those who, in one way or another, would help the prostitute get out of her slavery. He has very nice words.

“For a harlot is a maiden who is completely ruined and broken in her flesh as well as her soul. Whoever will help her out of her great misery with an honest heart that is faithful to Me, shall one day be great in My kingdom.”

A good man and a noble brother is one who is “endeavoring to turn her away from her ruinous path and help her back onto the right one.”

And God the Father of these poor women will reward us if we do His will and desist from further destroying the lives of these otherwise beautiful angels which they turned into citizens of lustful hell.

Friends, this is the main cause why I am against the move that would give our leaders more power – because it is more power to lead first our women and then, us, to our ruin. Instead of halting this insane trip to hell, shall we give our leaders more power to accelerate our arrival there?

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Prostitution is what they did not tell you about tourism which the government promotes vigorously, yet subtly in many ways such as the “Fly Now Pay Later” work-abroad program which gives our desperate women the way out of local misery only to enter international sex slavery. No matter how nicely they would phrase it, ‘GRO’, entertainer, waitress, VIP escort, bartender, etc., the bottom line is: selling sexual services.

Using the Words of God herein and elsewhere quoted as the true mirror, we can not escape the guilt and condemnation if we in one way or another, support the spread prostitution.

In the untiring campaign by our national and local government officials to promote tourism, let us flip a page of a not so distant past, that one which records the day when resident old folks in beach-renown Panglao island made their voice heard against the plan of the provincial government to turn Panglao into a full tourist destination. They had only one main reason for their opposition: Tourism will churn out prostitution. It will turn many local women [read: their daughters!] into prostitutes.

The government did not listen. The lonely voice of the old folks faded away. Now, you can hear in advance the roar of the jumbo jets a-coming when the planned Panglao International Airport will be constructed next year, 2008. Ahead of the airport are the many ‘beautiful beaches’ mostly owned by foreigners dotting around the island.

This bad side which always comes to the fore suppressing the good side of tourism is what makes tourism dangerous – morally speaking. In truth, under this present evil world system, the foreigners do not bring innocent dollars, they bring dangerous AIDS and STD viruses and with them the more dangerous virus of sexual sins! I bet, this will destroy our peaceful order of marriage and family, causing much marital and family troubles and destruction just what happened to America and Europe where they first remove sexual restraints imposed by the wise and loving laws of God, the 10 Commandments and the Law of Love.

This is one main reason why I, for one, do not agree with the 7-point charter change that ULAPowerful president, Bohol Governor Aumentado and fox-rabbit-like Ear-speaker De Venecia (I’m not insulting; I’m describing!) attempted to forcefully impose on the Filipinos via their fake People’s Initiative. Because those proposed 7 charter changes would remove much of the people’s power which is still necessary to sustain the present moral restraint against the more dangerous sexual promiscuity of the Americans and Europeans. While there are many good things that good foreigners brought to the locals for their own growth and development, for which reason the Lord does not favor any use of restraining travels, yet there are also germs [spiritual and bodily] that bad foreigners carry to contaminate the native inhabitants of the land.

If we, the people grant those 7 proposed charter changes, then this present evil breed of myopic, misguided leaders will gain more power to open the still-closed door towards promiscuity, prostitution which will lead to our own destruction.

We do not need much research to retrieve the glaring lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sexual perversion which violates God’s commandment against committing adultery, covetousness, and for chastity, marital fidelity and the recommended monogamous relationship. Although God tolerated the patriarchs including Abraham and Jacob or the king Solomon to engage in polygamy or more exactly, polygyny [which means ‘having many wives’ Polygamy applies to both man and woman, hence, has two meanings: 1) having many husbands, or 2) having many wives. Polygyny applies to men only], and even explicitly advising the Chinese and Japanese patriarchs to have more than one wife, for the purpose of generation [population] but without committing unchastity, harlotry, or adultery, the Lord’s ideal, ultimate order is MONOGAMY.

So whatever deviates from that order of chaste monogamy such as sex before marriage and outside marriage or with someone not your lawful wedded wife, is against God’s holy order.

And this government initiative to promote tourism is a blind move to support Satan’s subtle insinuation to open the gates wide for sexual immoralities to come rushing like floods from other promiscuous nations into our cities and countryside, to hasten our own destruction, forewarned by the Lord Jesus Christ: “Wide is way that leads to destruction and many come and take it rushing to their own destruction.”

Morally and spiritually speaking, I do not consider our so-called great leaders, including my father’s college law classmate, the now Governor Aumentado, [I’m sorry sir] to be our safe guide towards our spiritual salvation.

This is unfortunate. But we must see things as they really are. Aumentado et al’s frenzy towards tourism and his recent obsessive support to empower our national and local leaders via Parliamentary shift and other increase of term and tenure which all boils down to one objective: the consolidation and perpetuation of their power --- is a dangerous move by these blind leaders. Let us not be blinded by the glitters of Aumentado’s infrastructure projects [the high ways, the irrigations, the electrifications, etc.] which are good per se; I praise him for those. But I do not praise him for his other moves which are blind moves!
Their recent 7 Cha-Chas that met defeat, I hope not temporarily, will systematically remove power from the people and transfer it to the leaders so that the people would become less able to have their say or prosper their protest.

“People perishes for lack of vision” so says the Proverbs. Other translation puts it more specifically: “The cause of a people’s fall is when they cast off their moral restraints.” That is, when they no longer say “No” and “Don’t” to fornication, adultery, incest, prostitution, pornography, rape, homosexuality, lesbianism, etc.

The Bible is our reliable guide. It shows us the right attitude and approach: Abhor [that is, vigorously hate] the sin, and equally fervently love the sinner.

If we are able to achieve that kind of perfect, balanced attitude towards sins and sinners [victims of sins], then, our preservation and liberation is not far.

We must not mistake sins from sinners. Sins are spiritual oppressors who hold captive our brothers and sisters whom we wrongly condemn as sinners. No, condemn the sins, but love-pity the sinners. Ours is not to allow our sinner brethren from getting destroyed. And so we have to save them from sins so sins will not succeed in destroying them!

WE MUST BECOME STRONGER AND STRONGER, LOUDER AND LOUDER IN OUR CAMPAIGNS AGAINST SINS, BUT MORE AND MORE KINDER AND COMPASSIONATE TOWARDS ALL KINDS OF SINNERS, WE AND THEY!

This is the route to our salvation: love towards the sinners and hatred towards sins.

Our government continues to commit the crime of driving more and more Filipino women to prostitution, outside the country most notedly. The “Fly Now Pay Later” offered ‘concerns’ most our women, because it is the women are more saleable or in demand out there! Our female OFWs have overtaken the number of male OFWs! Question: What do you think are the jobs in demand for our women out there? Some are reasonably good, such as taking care of these foreigners’ children and elderly, sick and disabled. But it cannot be denied that more have fallen into the trap of the flesh trade or prostitutions and sex slavery. The figure which says 10 million Filipinos are abroad include only those who let themselves be accounted for by government agencies. But who of us really know the greater number of women who had left the country, willingly or less willingly, through the route of the flesh traders?

We need a new breed of more highly righteous leaders than the present breed. A new breed of leaders who are not “blind guiding the blind to the ditch”! Specifically speaking with no pun intended, we need leaders who are morally and spiritually far better than Aumentado, De Venecia, Gloria, etc. They worship gold, guns, goons and roads and cements and their variations.

We need leaders who are truly spiritual, namely: full of God’s intelligence and wisdom in their minds [Don’t tell me you belittle God’s intellect!] and full of God’s love in their hearts. Only God’s love is perfect, balanced, all-encompassing, all-embracing, hence, it is the only kind of love that is capable of embracing all, thus, recognizing no enemy, treating no one as foe.

The present group of leaders would instantly flunk the interview and test as well as in their bio-data if they were applying for a leadership position under God’s government. Their character as well as their wisdom is of this world’s kind, not suitable for the Kingdom of God!

During his visit to Bohol a few days ago, Chief Justice Ricardo Puno, made an eloquent differentiation of what a God-certified leader (whom he calls ‘servant-leader’) is in comparison to the cannot-pass-before-God leader (a.k.a. trapo!). Chief Justice Puno said in his speech before the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI) – Bohol chapter: “Servant leaders are those who will save souls and not their skin,” [Note that the trapos sell the souls of our women to the devil via prostitution!]. The material leaders “become leaders by the process of ascending the ladder of power, by allying themselves with powerful vested interests of society; by kowtowing to the majority even if it is wrong; by following the fashion of the time, by continuously pushing themselves up and pushing down those against them” he was quoted as saying.

“On the other hand,” Puno, continued, the spiritual leaders “lead by descending from the ladder of power; they descend to ally themselves not with the powerful but with the powerless; they do not follow the fad and the fashion of the time but what is right and righteous for all time; they do not push themselves up but down so that others may be elevated”!

What a superb statement! Only the speech of Jesus Christ on servant-leadership could surpass the Chief Justice’s eloquent discourse on servant-leadership.

What they did not tell us about tourism?

That it will spread prostitution, corrupt the moral of our people and cause sexual promiscuity especially among the more vulnerable young generation, so that the society that will ensue from them will be filled with sexual immoralities.

Prostitution and sexual promiscuity will not bring peace to our families and society. It will cause sexual immorality among the youth; chastity and faithfulness as the strong foundations of a strong, happy marriage will It will increase marital infidelity among married men; this will not bring peace upon the mind of the wives. Pre-marital sex as well as extra-marital sex will abound, guaranteeing the spread of AIDS and STDs as in Africa where a family is rare to have no victim of the diseases.

Prostitution will not bring peace to our community and nation. And most certainly, its AIDS-STDs will not bring peace upon the mind and body of those who will get sick and those who will be concerned to take care of those sick!

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Therefore, what we can do is form a growing resistance against tourism, as a front of prostitution. Government and parents must mature and become vigilant to check the whereabouts of the latter’s beautiful daughters. Our girls and women should also be educated about the whole matter.

Men shall also be reminded of their duty as protectors of the women of the community. God’s Will and Words regarding prostitution shall be taught to the churches and families. These truths shall be preached and observed to deliver true freedom to all concerned.

If we want peace in marriage, family, community and nation, we shall above all meet tourism with great suspicion and resistance because it brings prostitution to our yard, the destroyer of peace!

And as Christians, we shall define and have the kind of tourism that is all “above-board”.
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I have expressed myself quite wholeheartedly and frankly without anymore following standard rule of composition, just what my heart wants me to say and say without hesitation and reservation. I do not even plan to make a conclusion or end an appeal. I prefer to hang this article up… for future addition and topic expansion.

I have spoken fairly much. But I will continue to speak in the future. May you have come to comprehend the things our Lord and Father wants all of us to know so that we can take heed what He told us in Revelation 18:4 – “Get out of her evil system My people, so you will not become conspirators and participants of her sins and then share of the evil consequences!”

“God bless” to all! And may all of us learn to really hate the sins to the point of abhorrence, and equally come to fervently be concerned of the salvation and welfare of our fellowmen. One hint I would like to see from all of you that you really have come to love your fellowmen as yourselves, is when you will HIT THE SIN WITH FULL FORCE, AND NO LONGER WELCOME AND EMBRACE IT AS A FRIEND.

And only with God’s help will it be possible. Go, ask His help.