wfn.org | ALC Noticias 22 Aug 2004 Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Columbia

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

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

CONTENT
VENEZUELA: Referendum: polemic between Evangelicals
BRAZIL: Investigation about how the press addresses issues of childhood and 
youth
BRAZIL: The Evangelical politician should be Evangelical in politics.
NICARAGUA: Indigenous hold forum and march for the ratification of the ILO 
Agreement
COLOMBIA: Well attended Event of Women Against the War

-----------------
VENEZUELA
Referendum: polemic between Evangelicals

CARACAS, August 18 (alc). The national referendum that ratified Hugo Chavez 
as president of Venezuela was aimed at resolving the major polarization in 
that country, however, it remains to be seen whether or not it was 
successful as underscored by a polemic among Evangelical organizations.

In a public statement on August 10, the Evangelical Council of Venezuela 
(CEV) declared that some meetings held at the end of July lacked authority 
and were not representative. International news agencies had reported that 
Evangelicals support Chavez in the wake of the meetings.

The CEV emphasized that it did not sponsor the meetings called Clamor for 
Venezuela and a Million Prayers for Peace, reportedly convened by the 
Philadelphia Pentecostal Evangelical Church and the Christian Center for 
the Nations (CNN) and the Rebirth Cathedral, bodies that are not members of 
the Council, are autonomous and have no authority to commit our
principles, it said.

In response, on August 12, Elias Rincon Aguirre, Apostle President of the 
Union of Christian Churches of Venezuela Confederation (UNICRISTIANA) 
specified that the July 31 event was convened by this body and by the 
Evangelical Christian Coalition. He said that
the Christian Center for the Nations and the Rebirth Cathedral supported, 
but did not convene the meeting. He also said that he is not familiar with 
the Philadelphia Church.

He said that just as the Rev. Samuel Olson, who signed the CEV declaration, 
can speak in the name of that body, an institution that barely represents 
a small percentage of the Evangelical people, he can speak in the name of 
the Evangelical Christian Coalition and UNICRISTIANA.

He emphasized that these organizations and the Confederation of Pentecostal 
Churches of Venezuela, are bodies that represent fractions of Evangelicals. 
However, the three confederations together do not represent the entire 
Evangelical population as there are many groups that are not affiliated.

Rincon was critical of the fact that Olson has echoed versions that stated 
that the Banfoandes Bank donated 2 billion Bolivares for the meeting. This, 
he said, is completely and utterly false. Neither the president of 
Banfoandes, nor any body related to this institution has provided a cent 
for this activity, he said.

We met to glorify our God and Lord, to pray for our nation and to bless the 
legitimate president who was constitutionally elected and ratified in 
grassroots elections by the Venezuelan people, because to pray for our 
leaders is an order clearly expressed in the Word of God, he emphasized.

Rincon recognized that in this act, which was attended by thousands of 
Evangelicals, there were spontaneous manifestations of support to ratify 
Chavez on August 15, but they were not in response to anything proclaimed 
from the pulpit.

For us, it was a profoundly Biblical and spiritual act, he affirmed. He 
also personally addressed Olson and said that the times we live in have 
changed since you and I were formed as Christians... It is not true that 
the Church is totally apolitical, it never has been. I know this after 61 
years in it and my 43 years of ministerial life, wrote Rincon.

Today, many of our faithful are involved in social struggles, they are 
candidates to be mayors,
governors, deputies, legislators and many of them deserve our open and 
unrestricted support, which we sometimes fail to provide because of this 
falsehood and hypocrisy we call apolitical.

It is one thing for the Church to support a political party and another 
thing to declare itself apolitical.
We must responsibly and seriously assume the mission that the Holy Book 
gives us to open our mouths for the mute and for all those who are 
handicapped, to judge with justice and to defend the cause of the poor.

Many times, in the name of our so-called apolitical, neutral, balanced 
stance, we have become silent accomplices to injustice and atrocities 
committed by governors and governments, against the weak or against people 
in general, he noted.

While we have different focuses, interpretations and criteria, we would 
like to join efforts to construct the country we long for, we must give 
ourselves the opportunity to listen to each other instead of condemning 
each other, and in some way we can strengthen the Church of Christ, 
concluded Rincon.

---------------
BRAZIL
Investigation about how the press addresses issues of childhood and youth

SAO LEOPOLDO, Aug. 18 (ALC) An investigation about how the press addresses 
issues related to childhood and adolescence showed that only 31 of 800 news 
stories published in the dailies in Rio Grande do Sul were in line with the 
Children and Adolescents Code.

The investigation, called Media and Childhood, looked at 450 news stories 
published in the daily Zero Hora of Porto Alegre and 350 in Valle de Los 
Sinos of Sao Leopoldo, between July and October last year. In the texts 
related to violence, 73.3% presented the young person as a victim and 26.7% 
percent as aggressor.  However, the study carried out by Children and
Adolescents Defense Center Bertholdo Weber (Cedeca - Proame) of Sao 
Leopoldo, registered progress in these two media. Zero Hora carried out the 
campaign Love is the best legacy - take care of the Church, and VS 
encouraged cultural activities related to young people
through the project Culture Station.

Cedeca - Proame concluded that there is still a great deal to be done 
regarding issues related to children and young people. These issues, they 
said have timid coverage and little is heard about the children and 
adolescents who are protagonists in civil actions, and they continue to 
use inadequate terms whose meaning represents decades of disdain and lack 
of respect for children.

One of these incorrect terms, they said, is minor, which appeared in 25 
articles. This is a negative
term, as it means a miniature adult or a being who is inferior to adults. 
They also criticized the phrase child prostitution, stating that children 
and adolescents who are developing subjects, do not prostitute themselves, 
but are induced into this activity by criminal adults.

Of the 800 stories that were analyzed, 97 were reports and 3 percent were 
interviews. In 152 children were mentioned on the front page. Close to 320 
were based on a single source and in 44 percent, two sources were cited. 
The Children and Adolescents Statute were only
mentioned in 4%.

Cedeca - Proame is a non government organization, created in 1998, based in 
Sao Leopoldo, dedicated to supporting marginalized children and 
adolescents. This investigation seeks to encourage the role of the media to 
improve childrens quality of life. (562/2004).

---------------
BRAZIL
The Evangelical politician should be Evangelical in politics.

PORTO ALEGRE,  August 17 (alc) - As the Evangelical presence increases in 
society and in Brazilian politics, statements, pastoral letters and 
decalogues that Churches and other bodies use to orient voters and 
candidates are also increasing.

Among Brazils nearly 120 million voters, Evangelicals, according to 
statistics, represent some
20 million voters.  On this occasion, with an eye to municipal elections 
next October 3, the Brazilian Evangelical Alliance (AEB) prepared a 
Decalogue about the ethical vote to contribute to an electoral process 
in which the Evangelical vote is not manipulated as it has been
many times in the past.

The tenth commandment of the decalogue emphasizes that no Evangelical 
voter should feel guilty if they have a different political opinion than 
that of their pastor or spiritual leader.

The decalogue warns in its fifth paragraph that the social, economic and 
ideological diversity that
characterizes the Evangelical Church in Brazil, stipulates that it must not 
support candidates or
parties within the Church, because this would mean pressuring the voters 
(which is a crime) and dividing the community.

The AEB emphasizes that no Christian should feel obligated to vote for a 
candidate for the simple fact that they declare themselves to be an 
evangelical Christian. It also affirms that an Evangelical
politician should be an  Evangelical in politics and not just attend a 
Church.

For its part, the Pastor-President of the Evangelical Church of the 
Lutheran Confession of Brazil (IECLB),	Walter Altmann wrote, in a pastoral 
letter about Christian responsibility in the elections and political 
processes, that Out of love, Christian people are servants to one another 
and this service includes politics.

The relationship between faith and politics should be understood as an 
example of Gods sovereignty, Lord of both the Church and the State. In 
the Church, we feed our faith with the Word and the Sacraments. In our 
public life we exercise justice and care for the weakest, as a divine 
purpose against the temptation of injustice and exclusions, the pastoral 
letter stated.

Altmann noted that the elections are an important instrument to build a 
free and democratic society,
with a consistent social pact, that promotes freedom, justice and peace.

The pastoral letter emphasizes that the role of Christians in politics and 
society does not end with
voting, but to the contrary begins and deepens public responsibility.

The Ethos Institute also redrafted a letter about the Social 
responsibility of businesses in the electoral process, that emphasizes 
that funding for a candidate should be understood as a manifestation of 
business citizenship and not as a business.

It also condemned the common practice among major business to give 
donations to candidates with opposing purposes, with the hope of 
maintaining good relations with whoever wins.

The Ethos Institute recommends that businesses publicize which candidates 
they are supporting and how much they are donating and that they promote 
political debate among officials, presenting the programs of the main 
candidates.

-----------------
NICARAGUA
Indigenous hold forum and march for the ratification of the ILO Agreement

By Trinidad Vasquez

MANAGUA, Aug. 19 (alc) - Leaders from indigenous organizations from the 
Nicaraguan Pacific and
Caribbean Coast, announced that next September they will hold the Fifth 
International Forum about the Autonomy of the Atlantic Coast in this 
capital and will invite 500 indigenous leaders from America.

Invited people will include leaders from Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and other 
countries. Moreover, they
are contemplating holding a march from the site of the meeting to the 
national Assembly, in order to demand the urgent ratification of ILO 169 
Agreement.

This agreement, signed more than a year ago, according to the Special 
Attorney for Indigenous People, Norman Bent, offers legal protection for 
indigenous from the Pacific and the center of the country, who run the 
danger of losing  ancestral land due to action on the part of major 
landowners.

In this city of Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, autonomous region of the Atlantic, 
the Misquito Indigenous
celebrated the International Indigenous Day, on August 11, with a cultural 
exchange and fraternal meeting with indigenous delegates from Honduras. 
They exchanged traditional native dances, typical food and natural medicine.

In Managua, they met with leaders from the Indigenous Council of Central 
America and the Caribbean (CICA).  Attorney Bent, who is pastor of the 
Moravian Church and was secretary of the Aboriginal Pastoral Mission of the 
Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI)
attended as a guest.  On that occasion, they signed the Managua declaration,
where they recalled that 10 years after the International Day of the 
Indigenous by the United
Nations, the situation has changed very little because governments treat 
indigenous as third class citizens and in many cases they lose their land 
due to a lack of legal protection.

In the case of Nicaragua, indigenous achieved their rights with the 
autonomy of the Atlantic Coast, but indigenous from the Pacific region are 
unprotected, as the government has not ratified the ILO Agreement 169.

The priority of the indigenous is to apply Law 445, that recognizes the 
right to title and to demarcate
their land. The forum was supported by several Nicaraguan universities.

----------
COLOMBIA
Well attended Event of Women Against the War

BOGOTA, Aug. 19 (alc). Nearly 300 women coming from 18 countries and 18 
regions of Colombia attended the International Event of Women Against 
War, that took place in the Colombian capital on August 10 -12.

The event, geared toward strengthening efforts against war that take place 
in the world, was attended by delegates from Costa Rica, Spain, Georgia, 
Palestine, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the United Kingdom, 
Italy, Germany, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, the United States and 
different parts of Colombia.

Convened by the Colombian Women for Peace Initiative and the Peaceful Route 
of Women for a Negotiated Solution to the Armed Conflict. For the past two 
years, both organizations have been carrying out a sustained campaign 
against wars, under the slogan Women do not give birth to boys and girls 
for war.

At the event, participants specified that the peace they refer to is a 
peace for fullness of life, with no
exclusions, no discrimination against women. During the event women 
clamored No war that kills us, nor peace that oppresses us.

Marma Eugenia Sanchez, one of the leaders from the Peaceful Route, 
specified that the objectives of the event were above all to share 
experiences, reflections and proposals at an international level on the 
part of women who are against war. Moreover, to be in solidarity with the 
movement women are impelling in Colombian for a negotiated solution to the 
armed conflict.

We know that it will not be war that puts an end to conflict in Colombia, 
but dialogue, through which it will be possible to reach some agreements, 
that not only put an end to war but allow Colombians to live a dignified 
life, in particular women who suffer the most painful consequences of war. 
For this we say an emphatic NO to war, it added.

The pressure of women at this event will serve so that the Colombia will 
lift the exception it made
regarding ratification of the International Criminal Court, to exclude 
judging war crimes for seven years. This is what we are hoping for, said 
Ana Elena Obando, another of the organizers.

Luisa Morgantini, delegate from the European Parliament for women against 
war said I have come
because I want to share with brave Colombian woman a policy to struggle to 
remove war from history. We are women from around the world who have 
elected peace as a way of life.

Colombians are making a major effort to leave this situation of war that 
has been in place for many
years. They are perfectly aware that war is not an solution, but rather 
peace with justice and against
inequality, said Morgantini.

She said that participants agreed to lobby for a negotiated solution to the 
armed conflict in Colombia and conform an international network of women 
against war, to construct peace, with social justice and gender, for 
autonomy and the freedom of women.

At the same time, to articulate peace agendas, which include economic, 
social, cultural and environmental rights and promote peace, justice and 
reparation in a post-conflict society.

They also agreed to support fulfillment of Resolution 1325 of the UN 
Security Council. Michael Fruhling, Colombia Director for the High UN 
Commissioner on Human Rights, explained that the resolution, in synthesis, 
means that Peace processes are the best way to construct and sustain 
democracies, to reduce the impact of armed conflict and achieve human 
development.

At the end of the event, participants painted their hands and left their 
hand prints on a huge sign.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
Agencia Latinoamericana y Caribeqa de Comunicacisn (ALC)
Apartado 14-225 Lima 14 Perz
Tel. (51 1) 462 0189 - Telefax (51 1) 463 2496
Correo-e: director@alcnoticias.org