wfn.org | ALC Noticias Oct 31 2004 Costa Rica, Brazil, Cuba

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

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

----------------
CONTENT

COSTA RICA: Evangelicals oppose Free Trade Agreement with United States
BRAZIL: Black Awareness Week
MEXICO: Samuel Escobar: Study of Protestantism points to new paths
MEXICO: Aspects of discrimination against Evangelicals, presented by Carlos
Monsivais
CUBA: Presbyterian Pastor Relieves Virtue Award

--------------------
COSTA RICA
Evangelicals oppose Free Trade Agreement with United States

SAN JOSE, Oct 29 (ALC) - In a joint declaration, Evangelical churches from
Costa Rica expressed their opposition to Free Trade Agreements between the
Central American region and the United States arguing that they exclude the
most vulnerable sectors of the population.

The ecumenical declaration also expressed the rejection of the "corruption
that is embargoing and shadowing the national reality," as well as all the
power abuses.

It repudiated the "new forms of extortion and manipulation of people's faith
under the flag of the theology of prosperity."	We are opposed to the new
markets of faith negotiating and perverting the name of Jesus Christ, they
affirmed.

This declaration is the result of a series of meetings throughout September
and October on the part of leaders, bishops and presidents of Costa Rican
Churches that are members of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI).

The First Central American Evangelical Church, the Costa Rican Lutheran
Church (ILCO), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Costa Rica, the Lutheran
Central American Church and the Episcopal Church signed the declaration.

At the same time, the Presbyterian Church, the Moravian Church, the Baptist
Federation, the Baptist Seminary, the Mennonite Church, the Wesleyan
Methodist Church, the Community of Love Federation (FEDEICA), the Latin
American Biblical University (UBL) and the Central American Secretariat of
the Latin American Council of Churches.

The joint declaration also expresses the commitment of Evangelicals to
support all the efforts that are being carried out in the Public Ministry
aimed at putting an end to the state of corruption "that an irresponsible
leadership class has maintained us in for decades."

At the same time it called on the responsible Costa Rican institutions to
continue their strict monitoring and review of all individuals and
institutions that show signs of corruption or distorting public goods, said
the Rev. Eduardo Chinchilla Guevara, CLAI regional secretary for
Mesoamerica.

Together with the declaration published for the 487th anniversary of the XVI
Century Protestant Reform, on October 30 there will be a concentration in
the First Central American Church of San Jose, which will include a forum on
the theology of prosperity.

That same Saturday in the city of Limon, the Churches will meet for a
similar event and on the 31 there will be a meeting in the First Baptist
Church in the city of Alajuela.

-----------
BRAZIL
Black Awareness Week

SAO PAULO, Oct 28 (ALC) - Different Churches and Christian organizations are
gearing up to celebrate the I Evangelical Black Awareness Week (I SENECON)
from November 14-21.

The activity is sponsored by the Fale Movement, World Vision and the
Progressive Evangelical Movement and will include worship services,
seminars, movies, round tables discussions and conferences.

November is considered Black Awareness month, in memory of the death of
Zumbi dos Palmares (1655-1695). Zumbi was the most important leader of
Quilombo dos Palmares, a refuge for escaped slaves.

Quilombo, in the state of Halagaos, in eastern Brazil had an estimated
population of 30,000. It was eventually destroyed, after five years, by
11,000 soldiers sent by the King of Portugal on November 20, 1695.

In the Black Evangelical Leaders Forum, held in October last year, Methodist
Professor Jose Carlos Barbosa told an Evangelical Church conference that
Pentecostal Churches have the highest percentage of members who are of
African descent. However, they do not carry out any activity specifically
aimed at Black people.

Barboso is coordinator of the Methodist Investigations Center and author of
the book "El Negro no entra a la iglesia, espma del lado de afuera".

In neo-Pentecostal Churches the situation is even more complex, not only
because there is no activity related to Black people but because the
structure does not allow any such initiative to emerge, said Barbosa.

For its part, the United Presbyterian Church has included the celebration of
the Day of Black Awareness in its activities program and has a specific
Project to combat racism.

Black Evangelicals are trying to consolidate an articulated movement that is
visible and legitimate. However, in the Evangelical world there are some
sectors that demonize everything that is "black" -related.  Progressive
sectors believe that the next step is to raise the awareness of pastors so
that the issue reaches Church members.

--------------
MEXICO
Samuel Escobar: Study of Protestantism points to new paths

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, October 25 (alc) -	While I maintain many of the
perspectives and proposals that I expressed in my work a decade ago, I think
there is a need for a review because there has been a qualitative leap in
the study of Protestantism in Latin America, said Peruvian theologian Samuel
Escobar, in a conference given in this city in southern Mexico.

In an intervention in the II Symposium on Evangelical Protestantism in Latin
America, Escobar said that this progress has taken place thanks to the work
of a new generation of professional historians within the Protestant field,
united with historians who observe and interpret the Protestant reality of
the continent from outside.

The Symposium held here October 19-22 was convened by the Mexican branch of
the Latin American Theological Fraternity (FTL), the Mexican Center for
Studies of Protestantism and professors from the National Autonomous
University of Mixico.

Escobar noted that a book by Argentine theologian Jose Miguez Bonino,
"Rostros del Protestantismo Latinoamericano" (The faces of Latin American
Protestantism), addresses the issues as if there was a Latin American
Protestantism that is marked by different faces. The book raises the
question of whether they are different "faces" because they are different
subjects or whether they are the "masks" of a single subject. If that is the
case, what is the face hiding behind these masks?

The Peruvian theologian said that personally he is places himself in what he
called "Evangelical Protestantism" one of the faces that Miguez describes.
This means recognizing that within Latin America there is a historical and
current fact called Protestantism which is multifaceted and that my own
position is one of those faces, said Escobar.

In his book, Miguez states that there are areas of our history and our way
of being Latin American evangelicals that are only recently being explored
but which are indispensable for the reflection about our identity. I think
this symposium is part of this line of work, dialogue and reflection, said
Escobar.

He stated that the XVI Century Reform was a movement with a wide variety of
expressions. The subsequent historic reconstruction speaks of major lines of
Protestantism: Lutherans, Anglicans, Reformed or Calvinists, Anabaptists,
among others.

Protestantism was a confusing movement, rich in variants, sometimes anarchic
and marked by the effects of the major transformations that characterized
the emergence of the modern world: the breakdown of Latin Christianity, the
breakdown of the feudal order, the affirmation of European nationalisms, and
the invention of the printing press.

Regarding the understanding of the Protestantism in Latin America, the data
that anthropologists and sociologists have gathered can be interpreted in
different ways and we are witnessing this conflict. Protestant growth has
become a privileged field of observations for historians and social
scientists, said Escobar.

It is possible to say that the first global interpretations of Protestantism
in Latin America, and which have persisted in different forms could be
described as a type of "conspiracy theory," he said.

The contemporary version of the mentioned theory relates to foreign
connections in the Protestant world, linked to imperialist plans within the
Pax Americana. Up to the middle of the twentieth century, Protestant
missionary action and presence was interpreted as part of a
Liberal-Masonic-Communist conspiracy. Forty years ago, within the framework
of the Cold War, the conspiracy theory linked Protestant penetration to
Communism.

Protestant interpretations recognized that the Protestant movement was due
to the initial work of foreign missionaries but sustain that "Protestantism
in Iber-America is a deeply rooted movement, and which is assuming, with
increasing vigor, its own defined character. It no longer depends
exclusively on missionaries from North America," said Escobar.

The adequate understanding of these exogenous factors obligate us to process
information we have regarding the motivation, strategies and methods of
missionary movements. According to Carlos Mondragsn there is a need to pay a
great deal of attention to the endogenous factors that contribute to
explaining the Protestant presence in Latin America.

The numerical growth of grassroots Churches and the political participation
of evangelicals in recent decades have caught the attention of journalists
and social scientists. This obligates us to realize that our own Protestant
identity is not only defined by our beliefs but also our experience: our
place and way of participate in society and interpreting the reality that
surrounds us, said the Peruvian theologian.

Regarding Protestant growth among indigenous communities, he emphasizes,
there are studies about cultural changes that are full of suggestions for
historians of the future. Indigenous communities have offered true
laboratory situations where it is possible to more clearly notice and
measure the effect of Protestant conversion as a factor of social change and
to what point the elements of a Protestant identity are conserved in the
experience of faith within other cultures.

--------------
MEXICO
Aspects of discrimination against Evangelicals, presented by Carlos
Monsivais

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Oct 25 (alc)- Episodes of persecution of
Evangelicals in Mexico in the past and heated questions about how they
continue today were raised by Mexican intellectual and political analyst
Carlos Monsivais.

Monsivais spoke during the inaugural conference of the "Second Symposium
about Protestantism in Latin America and the Caribbean," held in this city
in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, from October 19 - 22.

The Mexican intellectual dealt with the origins of Protestantism in Mexico
in the XIX Century and offered family references when he mentioned that his
grandfather was one of the first converts in the state of Zacatecas in
northern Mexico.

With the entertaining and ironic style that characterizes him, he spoke of
personal experiences of his childhood when, for being a Protestant, he was
the victim of scorn and segregation on the part of neighbors, class mates
and teachers.

  "I cannot resist the temptation to refer to other episodes of my heretic
memory. A history Professor, aware of the fact that there were four
Protestants in his class said very seriously, "think carefully about your
beliefs because in Mexico no Protestant can be president of the Republic."

The teacher asked us what we thought about this prohibition and as I
remember I said "it is unfair because I believe that we should all be
presidents of the Republic."

Monsivais spoke about the 1929 historic episode when the National
Revolutionary Party elected Pascual Ortiz Rubio as a candidate for president
as opposed to Aaron Saenz, who everyone thought was a sure thing. The
reason: Saenz was a Protestant.

Monsivais noted that Protestants ended up accepting the rejection and the
martyrdom, as well as self determination as third class citizens. He also
mentioned the multiple persecutions that have taken place, above all in
rural zones "where preaching the Protestant faith was a great risk."

At the same time, he said that leftist groups and Progressives have never
raised their voice in favor of this religious minority that participated in
social movements and diverse educational projects, such as those registered
by Swiss historian Jean-Pierre Bastian.

He maintained moreover that the Bible, in the Reina-Valera translation is a
monument to the language which the Protestant Church must not give up. "I
think it should continue to use the Reina-Valera version and complement it
with new versions. To give it up is to give up the relationship of
Protestant communities with an idiomatic tradition of the first level."

Monsivais recalled the case of the Summer Institute of Linguists that
Marxist anthropologists demonized as sent and allied with "Yankee"
imperialism and even CIA spies, a campaign that ended with the removal of
the SIL from Mexico.

Monsivais ended the conference by lamenting the silence of the Mexican left
and leader of the Zapatista movement, sub commander Marcos who in his long
list of minorities never mentioned Protestant groups.

Finally, he said that it is not possible to ignore the expulsions that took
place in San Juan Chamula during the past three decades of the past century
and recalled the lynching and the sexual abuse of women and children.

He concluded by asking "What do none of the groups that defend indigenous
rights even mention religious persecution? Why is the inclusion of religious
persecution within the field of human rights so slow?

And added, why when Catholic Bishops talk about religious liberty the
context is Catholic education and not freedom of worship? Why have
professional atheist Marxists defended the Catholic religion as the only
possible religion of the indigenous?

---------
CUBA
Presbyterian Pastor Relieves Virtue Award

By Jose Aurelio Paz

HAVANA, Oct 25 (ALC) - Presbyterian pastor and former president of the Cuban
Council of Churches Rafael Cepeda received the "Usefulness of Virtue" award,
granted by the Jose Marti Cultural Society to individuals who live a life in
line with the integrity and honor that characterized the great Cuban thinker
and Patriot.

In the act, celebrated Friday at the foot of the Jose Marti monument in the
historic Revolution Plaza was also given to 20 Cuban intellectuals including
Eusebio Leal Espencer, historian from the City of Havana, film maker Alfredo
Guevara and writer and researcher Salvador Bueno.

Cepeda who together with being an exemplary Christian is an upright citizen
and a scholar of Marti's work, received the diploma from Armando Hart
Davalos, president of the institution.

The prize was accompanied by a text chosen specifically for the man who was
also one of the founders of the Latin American Union of Evangelical Youth
(ULAJE) on the continent. "The soul of a man, like the heavens in the water
of the ocean, is always reflected in his work."

Cepeda was also president of the History of the Latin American Church Study
Commission (CEHILA) in Cuba and a teacher of generations of Cuban
Evangelicals.

The award also belongs to the Cuban Church, which has given rise to renowned
theologians in the generation that this pastor belongs to and who have
exemplified the ethical conduct of Cuban Evangelicals within the complicated
Cuban reality, said Church leaders.

A prolific writer, Cepeda is author of La herencia misionera en Cuba (1986);
Josi Martm, perspectivas iticas de la vida cristiana (1991); Josi Martm: su
verdad sobre los Estados Unidos (1995); and Vivir el Evangelio: reflexiones
y experiencias (2003), among others.
----------------------------
Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency LAC)
P.O. Box 14-225 Lima 14 Perz
Tel. (51 1) 462 0189 - Telefax (51 1) 463 2496
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org