wfn.org | [PCUSAnews] Critics force Latin American council to withdraw mission

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Note #6339 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

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Critics force Latin American council to withdraw mission document

Dissenters say document represented 'Pentecostalization' of the ecumenical
movement

by Paul Jeffrey
Ecumenical News International

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia -- A lengthy document outlining the mission of the
church in Latin America during the new millennium has been withdrawn by
leaders of a regional consultation on mission after several groups --
including women, indigenous people, and blacks -- strongly objected to its
content.

	"The original document was exclusive and racist," Norman Bent, a Moravian
pastor from Nicaragua, told ENI. "It was written by white Latin Americans,
people with no awareness of indigenous people or people of African origin.
They consider their white power structure to represent the Evangelical
movement in Latin America."

	The document, Theology on the Road, was prepared over the past two years by
the Theology Commission of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI). It
was  distributed late last year to participants in this month's regional
Mission Consultation and CLAI general assembly which just concluded in this
Colombian port city.

	After three days of argument about the text, CLAI's president, Walter
Altmann, announced on Jan. 15 that the Theology Commission was retracting
the document. Using written commentaries from the critics, the commission
will now spend two months rewriting the text.

	Altmann made the announcement at the end of the Mission Consultation, which
overlapped with the five-day general assembly. The location for both events
is a Presbyterian-sponsored high school.

	Margarita de la Torre, a Quichua indigenous woman who teaches theology at
an  Evangelical seminary in Ecuador, said she was shocked by the original
document. "We're entering a new millennium, and I'm surprised there are
people who still write this way. They are obviously not involved with people
at the grassroots. The document shows their distance from people at the
grassroots, and it's a big distance," she told ENI.

	Beatriz Ferrari, a Methodist leader from Uruguay, told ENI that the
document "had lots of errors, and displayed little sensitivity to women,
indigenous, blacks, and youth. And children weren’t even discussed at all."

	Ferrari was part of a big group of women who discussed the document before
issuing a 14-page rebuttal of its contents.

	Other critical reactions were issued by a youth group and another group
including indigenous and black church leaders. The treatment of
homosexuality in the text also prompted many complaints.

	"The original was written as if Latin America had just one culture,"
Ferrari said, "when in fact we're a region made up of many cultures. The
writers chose the dominant culture as if that's all there is. The document
illustrated that much of our church leadership sadly continues to see the
world from the perspective of whites and mestizos [mixed race]. They have a
very masculine concept of mission that's largely oriented toward the
interior of the church."

	Ferrari added that discrimination against women was not limited to CLAI's
written documents. Whereas at CLAI's last general assembly, held in
Concepcion, Chile, in 1995, women had made up about 20 per cent of
delegates, at the current assembly the proportion of women had dropped to
about 12 per cent.

	"I hope God illuminates the people doing the rewriting of this document,"
Ferrari  said. "Because our churches are anxiously waiting for it. If we
take it to our churches the way it is, then once again we're going to get
involved in mission the wrong way."

	Alice Winters, a Presbyterian pastor from Colombia who worked on the
committee that drafted the original document, denied the writers were
insensitive. Winters, a professor of biblical studies at a Reformed Church
seminary here, said technological errors and a lack of time had contributed
to the report's shortcomings. "The section on sexuality was written by one
person and the comments that others sent via email were lost by mistake,"
Winters told ENI.

	"I don't believe there are irreconcilable 
differences. We're entering into territory that's new for many people. We
have to sit down and understand what's at play and try to understand the
other's positions."

	The six-page critique prepared by indigenous and black participants
complained that the mission document followed a missiology that "denigrates
indigenous peoples and blacks, conceiving of them as an object of mission,
refusing to recognize mission as a space for encountering the other where a
relationship of reciprocity is established between equals, where all who
participate in the relationship are mutually evangelized. It's time to let
ourselves be evangelized by indigenous peoples and blacks."

	The critique accused "the culture that until now we've lived inside the
churches" of negating the region's cultural pluralism and "attempting to
culturally homogenize our diverse peoples ...[and] failing to respect their
specific values and traditions."

	The indigenous and black group demanded "a wider understanding of ecumenism
that includes a frank and sincere dialogue with other religious and
spiritual expressions."

	Bent said the rejected document resulted from the "Pentecostalization" of
CLAI, which is made up of a mix of Evangelical and mainstream Protestant
churches. "The current general secretary and many members of the current
board of directors support that process," Bent said. "Yet the historical
churches are worried that CLAI is losing its prophetic vision in exchange
for gaining new member churches, members without any prophetic vision. As we
enter the 21st century, CLAI seems intent on losing its vision, on becoming
just one more of many organizations."

	Bent said he doubted whether Pentecostals genuinely wanted to participate
in ecumenical activities. "CLAI should quit struggling to get new members
and challenge those interested in ecumenism to work together," said Bent.
"It will do no good to have more members if you lose your prophetic vision.
Are Pentecostals really interested in ecumenism? I think that rather than
wanting to work together they’re only interested in the money they can get
from the ecumenical movement."

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