Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
The Filipino Cult Leader - The Apollo Quiboloy story
Mon, 03 Feb 2025
This is the story of Apollo Quiboloy, the megachurch preacher from the Philippines who is now involved in a scandal.
Chapter 1: Who is Apollo Quiboloy and what is his story?
So this guy is a mega church preacher. And he gets a little pervy. And now he's on the run from the FBI. Now the guy's name is Apollo. He's 24, he's from the Philippines, and he's a small-time preacher there. And one day he's preaching in a little chapel when suddenly angels appear to him. And they come and they tell him that he's actually the son of his God.
So he starts telling everyone that he is the appointed son of God. Well, I'm sure this will end well for him. So anyway, because of this, he decides to start his own church. And a few years later, after the church is founded, this guy shows up. Rodrigo. And Rodrigo's running for mayor, and he comes to speak to the congregation at the church.
And they welcome him, and soon enough, he and Apollo become good friends. And later, Rodrigo actually gets elected mayor, and he appoints Apollo to be his spiritual advisor. And so then more people find out about Apollo and his teachings, and his church starts to grow, and soon the donations start rolling in. Because, of course they do. But these donations aren't enough for Apollo. He wants more.
So he gets the full-time working members of the church to go out at 6 a.m. every morning and solicit money from strangers for the church. The only catch is they can't come home until they reach their daily quota of money collected. So, to avoid sleeping on the street, the members of the church start playing on people's sympathy.
Like they pretend to be poor college students, or they pretend to be disabled, but whatever. It works, and the church makes a ton of money. And so pretty quickly, Pastor Apollo becomes a very wealthy man. He's so wealthy, in fact, that he's able to start his own broadcasting network, and this helps spread his teachings beyond the Philippines.
So now he's got followers around the world in many different countries, including the United States. And this is where Apollo really levels up. And with the help of his innermost circle, he traffics his most obedient followers into the US, where they start working and soliciting donations from people full time. So he's making even more money.
Oh, and I haven't even gotten to some of the crazy stuff this guy claims. Aside from saying he's the son of some god, he once claimed that he yelled at an earthquake and made it stop. Like, there was an earthquake happening, and he's just like, and it just stopped. And he also says that the public should thank him for stopping that earthquake. Thanks, Apollo.
He also claims that he talks to his God directly, not metaphorically, but like conversations directly. He also says that he has visions of his God. He claims that he has been physically taken up into heaven on multiple occasions. I mean, this guy has said and done way too much for me to cover in one video.
But anyway, and if that's not crazy enough, here's the part of the story where things start to get creepy. Among his church workers, the ones who are young, attractive women and who excel at getting donations, they get to move up and become what's called pastoral assistants.
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Chapter 2: How did Apollo Quiboloy gain influence in the Philippines?
But two weeks later Apollo finally gives up and he turns himself in and BAM they arrest him Here's his mugshot and as of right now, he hasn't actually been to trial yet. So we'll see how this plays out