wfn.org | ALC NEWS Noticias 12 October 2003

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ALC NEWS SERVICE
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org

ALC HEADLINES:
CUBA: Christian Youth Association presents book on sports
BRAZIL: Debate about the influence of polls on the voters choice
CHILE: Government calls on senate to step up debate on divorce law
CUBA: Dmaz Garcma Wins the Bible and I competition
URUGUAY: Uruguayan parliament celebrated act to pay homage to the Bible

CUBA
Christian Youth Association presents book on sports

By Josi Aurelio Paz
HAVANA, October 6, 2003 (alc). The presentation of the book: YMCA of 
Havana:  Sports Memorial 1905-1910 by historian Carlos E. Reig Romero was a 
significant contribution to the history of Cuban sports, said the Rev. 
Hector Mendez.

The book was presented September 30 in the Cuban Christian Youth 
Association (ACJ) headquarters, with the participation of sports, cultural, 
Church and ecumenical representatives.

Mendez, secretary general of the ACJ, voiced his gratitude to the author 
for the in-depth investigation of the mark that the YMCA made when it 
entered the country at the beginning of the 20th Century.

He said that the merit of the book, which covers the years 1905-1910, is 
that they give this organization the recognition it deserves as one of the 
main promoters of sports in Cuba, with the application of new techniques.

For his part, Professor Reig Romero spoke about how difficult it was to 
gather the material given that there is no recorded history of Cuban sports 
and the bibliographical material is scarce and very disperse. As a result 
he turned to press archives that were frequently deteriorated due to 
problems related to conservation.

The book, published by the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) 
Communications Department, includes 10 chapters about the work of this 
youth organization in promoting sports such as gymnastics, fencing, 
basketball, volleyball among others.

The first YMCA was organized by a group of 12 young people in London on 
June 6, 1844 in order to help their contemporaries deal with life in the 
cities, prostitution, alcoholism and other vices. The YMCA is considered 
the first international ecumenical organization.

In 1904, according to the book, the Foreign Division sent an expert in 
mission to create a chapter in Cuba. A year and a half later the YMCA of 
Cuba was inaugurated in Prado Street. It operated for nearly 70 years, with 
two interruptions between 1910 and 1916 and 1940 and 1991. In 1991 it 
reinitiated its work at the initiative of the Rev. Mendez, based in the 
First Presbyterian Reform Church of La Havana.

In this Church there is also a library on religious themes, the Telephone 
Friend program, the first psychological and pastoral hotline experience in 
Cuba and a baseball team.

YMCA of Havana, a Sports Memorial 1905-1910 will be distributed for free 
and includes two volumes. It also includes important photographic testimony.

BRAZIL
Debate about the influence of polls on the voters choice

By Edelberto Behs
PORTO ALEGRE, October 7, 2003 (alc). The orientation that Churches, unions 
and associations provide in electoral periods has less influence on 
Brazilian voters than conversations among families and friends and the 
news, according to a survey carried out by DataFolha last September 4.

In its poll of 635 people in Sao Paulo, DataFolha sought to determine the 
impact of the polls on the voters choice.

Of those polled, 81 percent said the surveys had no bearing on their vote 
while 13 percent said they did modify their vote after seeing the polls.

The Investigation Institute of Florianspolis reached a similar conclusion 
when it surveyed people in Santa Catarina. A total of 66 percent said that 
opinion polls had no bearing on their decision, 21 percent said they had 
some influence and 11 percent said they had a great deal of influence.

The data was presented during the seminar Communication media and 
electoral surveys, organized by the Southern Brazil Communications Network 
(RBS). Some 720 representatives from research institutes, the press, 
political parties, the electoral tribunal as well as professors and 
students participated in the event held in this capital October 3.

  Here we have representatives of those who produce the polls, those who 
make them public and those who are harmed or benefited from them, said 
event coordinator Nelson Jobim, vice president of the Supreme Federal Court 
when opening the event.

During state government elections in Rio Grande do Sul last year the RBS 
was harshly criticized for discrepancies between the polls and the final 
vote count. As a result, it decided to improve its methodology.

The executive director of Pisos Opinion, Vrjan Losen, said that voter 
intention polls have an enormous influence on the electoral process but 
less influence on the individual voter. The survey, he said, determines the 
agenda of the election, how funds are gathered, the orientation of the 
government program and electoral propaganda.

Others defended the polls, stating that they contain information that 
voters have the right to know.

The poll is a snapshot of the moment, said the director of the 
Investigation Institute of Florianspolis Jose Nazareno. Publishing the 
polls is of public service and an exercise of citizenship, on the part of 
research institutes, he said.

In the childhood of our democracy, damaged by more than 20 years of 
military dictatorship, it is important to restructure the importance that 
the media gives to the polls, transforming them into accessory 
information, said Sandro Vaia, editor-in-chief of the daily O Estado de 
Sco Paulo.

  The director president of Ibope, Carlos Augusto Montenegro asked that the 
legislation should demand the same commitment from political parties as it 
does from the press. In free electoral programs it is not usual for 
politicians to manipulate the polls as they see fit, he said.

In Brazil, said Montenegro, people tend to vote more for individuals rather 
than parties. He also criticized the fact that a third of elected 
representatives in the Federal Chamber have switched benches this year.

In the conference on The practice of the voter survey in the media, the 
president of the National Association of Dailies and Superintendent 
Director of the group O Estado de Sco Paulo, Francisco Mesquita said that 
the surveys show trends.

Mesquita recalled that the press is, following the Catholic Church, the 
institution that Brazilians trust the most. He said it is necessary to put 
an end to the idea that Brazilians do not know how to vote.

Olsen, executive director of Pisos Opinion, said We must stop being 
evaluators of the election criteria of voters from our point of view.

  In the final document of the seminary, prepared by the invited observers, 
he defended carrying out and disseminating electoral surveys, with due 
care, guaranteeing the constitutional right of citizens to freely elect 
their governors.

CHILE
Government calls on senate to step up debate on divorce law

SANTIAGO , October 8, 2003 (alc). The Executive Branch called on Senate to 
urgently discuss a legal bill that will modify the marriage system and 
introduce divorce in one of the few remaining countries in the Western 
world where it is not possible to legally dissolve a marriage.

In this manner, the legal bill will be debated two days a week in the Upper 
Chamber and could be ready by November and not in early 2004 as was expected.

Senators had until last Tuesday to present proposals about the project. A 
total of 22 senators presented proposed modifications after Senate agreed 
to debate the project last August 26.

Some of those proposals are aimed at making divorce even easier, shortening 
the period from three to one year if a marriage is dissolved by mutual 
consent and from five to three years if it is a unilateral decision. 
Another proposal seeks to eliminate the civil validity of the religious 
marriage.

The decision to step up the debate was apparently influenced by a series of 
television ads against divorce, broadcast by three open TV channels at the 
end of September. Among other things, these ads include US statistics that 
indicate that the children of separated parents are more likely to be 
alcoholics and drug addicts.

Three days later, the Rev. Felipe Berrios (SJ) asked forgiveness from the 
children of separated parents, stating that the ads stigmatized them. Other 
priests also criticized the campaign.

Last week, before leaving for Rome to attend celebrations marking 25 years 
since the pontification of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Francisco Javier 
Errazuriz recognized that mistakes were made in the campaign against divorce.

According to La Tercera, a meeting was convened by the Bishops Conferences 
Press Office to examine the repercussions of the campaign.

The majority of participants, lay people and priests and communications 
experts, agreed that the campaign should be withdrawn. However, they 
objected to the keeping the names of those who elaborated the spots secret. 
According to the press, citing sources from the bishops conference, the 
main person responsible was one of the cardinals advisors, the Rev. Juan 
Ignacio Gonzalez, a member of Opus Dei.

Benito Baranda, director of the Hogar de Cristo, said that the campaign 
should emphasize the positive aspects of marriage 98 percent of Chileans 
know about the difficulties of living a married life. What we need is 
something hopeful in order to be happy in our married life, he said.

Education Minister Sergio Bitar criticized the campaign for underlining the 
supposed negative affects suffered by children with separated parents. I 
have a daughter who is separated and I have a beautiful grand-daughter and 
it pains me that someone would say that she has a propensity to not be the 
best. She is going to be the best, regardless of whether the marriage has 
broken down.

Christian Democrat Senator Rafael Moreno told La Tercera I doubt that any 
senator will change their mind because of the spots... one thing is to 
offer a legitimate opinion and another thing is to reach conclusions that 
could be highly debatable.

Socialist and Catholic Senator Jaime Naranjo emphasized, Not even those 
most in favor of divorce imagined that the Church would carry out a 
campaign in favor of divorce. The only thing this campaign achieved was to 
strengthen the pro-divorce positions. It was a provocation. A tremendous 
provocation to Chilean society and the parliamentary representatives 
themselves.

CUBA
Dmaz Garcma Wins the Bible and I competition

By Josi Aurelio Paz
HAVANA, October 9, 2003 (alc). Roberto Dmaz Garcma, an actor and member of 
an Evangelical Church in the Cuban capital won the Bible and I 
competition organized by the Cuban Council of Churches (CCC) Biblical 
Commission and Communications Area.

Diazs letter was chosen from nearly 100 entries because of the moving 
story it told.

He wrote about how he had abandoned his home in 1993 because he was no 
longer welcome there. He had been married for 30 years and has two grown up 
children and everything fell apart in a matter of minutes. He lost his job 
as an actor and became an alcoholic.

He went to an abandoned house to seek shelter. However, a few days later it 
was up for demolition and he essentially became a street person. He sought 
help from some friends but they turned their backs. With dirty clothes, a 
beard and long hair, overnight be became an outcast.

So, on October 1 that same year I decided to end my life. I walked 
aimlessly and thought only of how to do it, said Diaz.

He recalled a thorny, rocky hillside where he had filmed the death of Jose 
Marti for a documentary in 1970, a place where no one had been since.

I thought that to die where I had lived the high point of my career, when 
I played the most important person in Cuban history, would be ideal and 
very ironic. I would take some 50 pills and leave a note exonerating any 
supposed murderer from guilt, he wrote.

It was perfect. They would likely find my body when all that was left was 
a group of bones spread across the rocks. And, at this point, even my 
children would have forgotten me, he said.

According to the author as he planned and got drunk in order to implement 
his plan he somehow ended up in a long corridor and met a pastor from the 
Evangelical Free Church. He had reached a church in one of the poorest 
neighborhoods in Havana

When that man smiled at me and invited me to Bible Study it was like being 
carried in Jesus arms. We talked for more than an hour. I told him my 
drama and he taught me about who could carry my load and redeem me.

That same afternoon I had a revelation when he opened the Bible and read 
from its pages: You have turned my lament to dancing, you filled me with joy.

The guest preacher that night based his words on Luke 9:62; "No one who 
puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom 
of God." In that same instant I was cured. My empty life began to be 
filled. I recovered my family and was once again a good man. Jesus had 
rescued me.

The competition was convened to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 
creation of the CCCs Bible Commission. The awards ceremony will take place 
on the first Sunday in December when Cubans celebrate World Bible Day.

URUGUAY
Uruguayan parliament celebrated act to pay homage to the Bible

MONTEVIDEO, October 9, 2003 (alc). The president of the Chamber of Deputies 
Jorge Chapper and the Uruguayan Bible Society organized an event to 
celebrate the bicentenary of the foundation of the United Bible Society.

At the end of the event, Pastor Jose Beltrami, general secretary of the 
Uruguayan Bible Society said that in a country with a profound lay and 
secular tradition, celebrating this important anniversary such an 
emblematic place for Uruguayan democracy, like Parliament, marks a before 
and after in the spiritual reality of the country.

The act took place Oct. 2 in the Legislative Palace, the headquarters of 
the National Parliament, reported Iglesia en Marcha.

Former presidents Dr. Luis Alberto Lacalle, who belongs to the National 
Party and Julio Maria Sanguinetti, of the ruling Colorado Party, spoke 
about the Influence of the Bible in Uruguayan culture.

Tabare Vazquez, president of the Encuentro Progresista - Frente Amplio, the 
principal leftist force in the country was also invited. However, he was 
unable to attend as he was traveling in Europe.

The Encuentro Progresista - Frente Amplio currently governs the 
municipality of Montevideo, capital of Uruguay.

According to Chapper, who inaugurated the event, the Bible is ... the book 
of freedom.

Former President Lacalle identified himself as a Catholic who recognized 
Martin Luther as a major figure who struggled for freedom and said that 
Christianity cannot be separated from the national being in Uruguay. 
Lacalle was also categorical in affirming, We must rebuild the country on 
Biblical values.

He also emphasized, Love is the only thing capable of changing man, and 
ended by saying that we live in a Biblical culture although we do not 
realize it.

For his part, Sanguinetti, after presenting himself as an agnostic, said 
the Biblical message is a message of human dignity and an ethical code.

The second part of the ceremony included the musical presentation Make me 
an instrument, created by the SBU Publications Unit for the Americas, 
which tells about Maria Jones and her influence in the first Biblical 
Society in Wales.

The choir and the Hope in the city theatre group, a community support 
program sponsored by the Armenian Evangelical Church also participated.

More than 500 people attended the act, including congressmen and senators, 
government representatives from public ministries, the press and the public 
in general.

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