What could Iglesia executive minister Eduardo Manalo be thinking when he approved the purchase of a desolate Old West town in the United States?

According to the Rapid City Journal, the Iglesia Ni Cristo has acquired the 46-acre (18.6-hectare) town of Scenic, South Dakota for $700,000, taking a $99,000 discount from the earlier quoted price of $799,000.

The town, on the edge of Badlands National Park, has two houses remaining with a population of nine.

Included in the sale is an old-fashioned Western saloon, two shops, a dance hall and two jails, dating back to the town’s 1906 founding. The original listing price when the entire town was put on the market two years ago was $3 million.

The Iglesia Ni Cristo, according to other press reports, has already hired private security teams to protect the property from vandalism and has restored power and phone service to the town, which has its own US Post Office land lease.

Source:

Manila Standard Today