Jose V. wanted to debate Alan Watts
This short story happened some time between 2015-2018, I don't remember the exact year anymore.
To preface, I had (unofficially) left INC in 2012. I just stopped attending, without talking to anyone or writing up a report or anything like that. Just stopped on my own accord. Without going into too much detail, my family -- but mostly my boomer dad -- was not happy about this.
Fast forward to a few years later, my dad approaches me and requested to show him something that influenced me to leave the church.
(Before you read on, if you can't already tell, the local INC church, including my dad, were on-and-off at times pestering me about my lack of attendance. But this is neither here nor there for now, so continuing on...)
I was not aware he was going to approach me with this kind of request so I did not have anything prepared to show him. There are actually numerous sources that HELPED me to leave the church, but the only thing I could think of to offer, on the spot, was a YouTube video of a speech by the philosopher Alan Watts. [speech title redacted to avoid Reddit's filter]
Anyway, my dad told me that he would pass it on to Jose Ventilacion. This was around the time Jose spent about 6 months officiating at their local INC church.
A few days pass. My dad approaches me with an update. He shows me a text from Jose saying that he wants to debate Alan Watts on a certain passage from the Bible (I forgot which verse it was). I wish I could've asked why that verse, but I was more caught off-guard with such proposal. In my head, I was kinda laughing because of Jose's lack of research on Watts. First of all, Watts has been dead since 1973. Secondly, I don't think Watts would have agreed to the debate anyway. I'm not speaking for him but I'm pretty damn sure he would have saw it as a waste of time.
I feel, in my opinion, that Watts' speech left such an impact on Jose that he regarded him to be a formidable opponent, and if true, rightfully so. Relative to Jose's background, which is not to be overlooked either, Watts' research and studies extend to several religions, including his studies on different languages. But I won't press on, his biography can be found on the internet.
In addition to this part of the story, Jose passed on two books to my dad for me to read. I don't remember the title of both books, however, one of them was written by a former atheist-turned-Christian. I thought this was funny because Jose was operating on the assumption that I was an atheist, which I am not. I didn't bother reading the books, they went straight into the waste bin.
Anyway, that's it. I feel proud knowing that a top official INC member has at least got to hear that AW speech. I wish there was a way to contact Jose directly. I'd like to pass on to him an essay written by Watts (it's about the Bible), and get his thoughts on it. Although, I doubt he would concede.
Thanks for reading.