Philologos wrote:
'The Philippines was already converted to Christianity I would think because it was under Spanish control. "
Except for the Moros and probably some deep forest groups, like the Tasaday if they exist.
Well, okay. If you want to be all technical about it, and if you want to consider the Roman Catholic church to be Christian, then, yes, the Philippines was in fact Christian before the advent of the Americans.
And, if you want to be even more technical, American soldiers did, in fact, slaughter Filipinos by the thousands during the ensuing Philippine-American war. But, you have to remember--some American soldiers died in the war, too.
So, maybe President McKinley didn't know about Filipinos being Christians. So what? You can't expect an American president to know everything. And, President McKinley did pray about it. That's good enough for me. If God didn't want the Philippines to become a part of the American empire, then He certainly would have told President McKinley about His wishes.