ALC NEWS SERVICE E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
------------ CONTENT
BRAZIL: Ministers of Joy dress up like clowns and announce good news CHILE: Evangelical Chaplain at La Moneda emphasizes progress under Lagos ARGENTINA: Few and anecdotal stories of women in Argentine media according to WACC monitoring ARGENTINA: Feminicide and gender violence should be included on Church agenda BRAZIL: Bishops? criticism of Lula government?s social policy sparks polemic
--------- BRAZIL Ministers of Joy dress up like clowns and announce good news
SAO PAULO, March 10 (ALC). In a bid to show that proclaiming the Gospel does not have to be limited to pulpits or public squares or offered solely by preachers wearing ties, Baptist Pastor Arlindo Barreto, age 52, better known as ?Bozo? the clown seeks to bring children and adults to Christ through laugher.
In April, Arlindo ?Bozo? Barreto and two of his sons Diego and David will be in Zurich to announce the Good News. The sons are known as ?ministers of joy? or Evangelical clowns. ?We will go to Switzerland to Evangelize because Churches grow with a great deal of difficulty in countries in the First World,? said Barreto.
A former soap opera actor, trapeze artist, tamer and clown, Barreto converted to the Gospel after he suffered an accident in 1986. He had lost his mother, cinema, theatre and television actress Marcia de Windsor and had sought solace in alcohol and drugs.
While he recovered in the Intensive Care Unit, Barreto was visited by a pastor who told him about Christ.? I had obtained everything we think is the true source of happiness: culture, fame, prestige, money and a very nice family but none of this managed to fill the existential emptiness there was in my being,? he said.
Once he recovered, he left being the clown ?Bozo? in the Brazilian Television System where he had lead the ratings for 10 consecutive years and went to study in the Theological Faculty in the Church of God, where he currently teaches. Barreto is a pastor in the Central Baptist Church of Santo Amaro, Sao Paulo and Pastor President of the Artists for Christ Ministry in Brazil.
He also coordinators the Missionary Hospital Ship "Luz de Tietê" that proclaims the Gospel through health teams made up of Evangelicals, pastors from several denominations along the 2,500 of the River Tietê.
He also provides creative Evangelism courses that consist in a six-hour workshop where he teaches magic, dramatic games, the art of telling stories, choreography applied to Evangelism and online Evangelism.
The ?Clown for God? receives hundreds of invitations to go Churches, institutions and congregations. ?I never charge a cent to carry out crusades and congresses,? affirmed the pastor who defines himself as someone who ?spreads joy? and whose slogan is ?Always laugh with Jesus.
--------- CHILE Evangelical Chaplain at La Moneda emphasizes progress under Lagos
SANTIAGO, March 10 (ALC). On his final day as the Evangelical Chaplain at the La Moneda Palace Methodist Bishop Neftali Aravena said he was fully satisfied with the work that had been carried out and emphasized that it was the lay government of President Ricardo Lagos, a confessed agnostic who created this position, unthinkable in a government linked to Catholicism.
There had never been an Evangelical chaplain in La Moneda before and this meant struggle against a majority Catholic culture, he told ALC. ?They were not accustomed to seeing an Evangelical chaplain in La Moneda and this was evident from the guards who, every time I went to the Palace, asked me who I was and why I wanted to enter,? the Bishop said.
?I had to ask for a document but they took a long time in giving it to me. One day I went to talk to the Minister of Interior of the time, Miguel Insulza, today secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) and they gave me the document in five minutes,? he recalled.
A second challenge was ?creating the path,? said the Methodist Bishop. ?As I am the first Evangelical chaplain no one could tell me what I had to do and I had to create my own way,? he said.
Aravena decided that the first task was to
facilitate the relationship between the Churches and the government ?to decide what the issues were and how to confront this conversation and on the other hand, to tell the government who the Evangelical Churches were because there was a complete lack of knowledge,? he said.
The government expected to find an organizational model similar to the Catholic Church. It did not understand the diversity of the Evangelicals where there is no single leader who can speak for all the Churches. Later, the Bishop dedicated himself to working with Evangelical officials in the Palace, some 40 including administrative and service personnel.
?We carried out a worship service on Thursdays. The brothers felt very supported by the Chaplain because they finally had someone to talk to, to share their problems,? said the Methodist leader who then extended his pastoral support to non Evangelicals.
Aravena underscored that in the past 10 years
Chile advanced a great deal in dialogue between Evangelical Churches and the government. With President Lagos, the Evangelicals managed to agree on a working agenda, including 20 issues of concern for Evangelicals, including chaplains in the armed forces, in the jails and hospitals, Evangelical religious education in public schools. Moreover, in December last year the government named October 31 as the Day of the Evangelical Churches.
According to the census, 16 percent of the population is Evangelical, although Church organizations estimate the number is 18.6 percent. However this growth, according to Aravena, has not accompanied an impact in society.
?We are lacking unity in order to impact the country. The fact that we are not united in the same project, for example, in programs related to drug addiction, prevention and accompaniment of people with HIV/AIDs, etc keeps the Evangelical opinion from being felt with more strength in society,? concluded Bishop Aravena.
------------ ARGENTINA Few and anecdotal stories of women in Argentine media according to WACC monitoring
BUENOS AIRES, March 9 (ALC). A woman who betrays her husband, a bank robber, a 12-year old girl in the interior who is raped, pregnant actresses, are some of the stories of women who make the front pages of Argentine dailies.
Who decides why some and not others appear?, asked Sonia Santoro in a story in Artemisa Noticias based on the Argentine results for the Global Media Monitoring Project, carried out by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). In Argentina, the monitoring revealed that 78 percent of local news is about men while 22 percent is about women.
The WACC monitoring in Argentina included eight national TV news programs, three AM radio programs, six national and regional dailies and 289 news items were analyzed. The work was coordinated by Claudia Florentin of the WACC and 21 volunteers from Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba and Bariloche participated.
Mariana Carbajal, journalist from the daily Pagina/12 affirmed that the figures are not surprising ?if we consider that the percentage of women in power is still very low and at the same time, they are less involved in crimes, it is understandable that journalists pays so little attention to us.
Liliana Hendel, psychologist and journalist from the channel 13 news show said that the way the news is produced also has an influence. ?The female producers would feel offended if they were called feminists,? she said.
According to Hendel, in her experience as a
journalist, men are more accessible. Professional women, on the other hand, are not as aware of the importance of a swift answer for people who have to finish a story.
The results also reflect the roles assigned to society by the different genders. While at least 30 percent of the interviewed women are asked about their family life, only 7 percent of men are asked the same question.
Why are women so rarely consulted as experts?
According to Luisa Valmaggia, who has a program on Plus Satelital, the response is that there is ?a type of thematic pigeon holing. Women talk about education, social issues, and maternity while men are consulted about economics, politics and sports.
Luciana Peker, a journalist from Pagina/12 and Radio Ciudad said that there no journalism or enough journalists dedicated to covering the news from a gender perspective. ?For men and women journalists in Argentina to cover gender issues is a lesser journalistic genre, in terms of economics, prestige, etc and this has an impact on why these issues are so infrequently or badly covered.
------------ ARGENTINA
Feminicide and gender violence should be included on Church agenda
BUENOS AIRES, Mar. 7 (ALC). The phenomenon of femnicide, or the murder of women, should be incorporated onto the Church agenda said Argentine Lutheran Pastor Judith Van Osdol, who expressed her concern about the growing violence against women in Latin America.
Van Osdol, coordination of the Women and General Pastoral Committee of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) said that despite the fact that an increasing number of women lose their lives due to domestic violence and other causes of feminicide ?very little is known about this.
The Mexican cities of Juarez and Chihuahua have become symbols of feminicide and the corresponding impunity. In Guatemala more than 1,000 women have been murdered. Of these only two cases were investigated and none went to trial, said Van Osdol.
In an interview with ALC, the pastor also said that the feminization of poverty and structural violence in the region is also alarming.
She proposed the need to raise awareness about the violence that affects women, on several levels. ?I am proposing that this begins from early education. We have proven through studies that gender roles are incorporated before children are 6 years old. When they reach adolescence it is much more difficult to achieve a change in attitude,? she affirmed.
She said that this awareness raising includes
formation and education about women?s rights. ?Even the historic and evangelical Churches that have worked for years on the defense of human dignity do not tend to recognize women?s human rights,? she said.
She warned about some weaknesses in the churches regarding domestic violence. ?Sometimes our Churches do not have a telephone number that allows them to address these emergencies,? she said.
She said that another pending issue for Churches are women?s economic, social and reproductive rights that in many countries are ratified ?but not respected.
According to Pastor Van Osdol, what needs to be impelled is prevention. She said that in every workshop on violence there are two or three women who have been the victims of some kind of violence and this is in line with the statistics that are higher in countries like Colombia and El Salvador.
She said that this year, which corresponds to the Decade to Overcome Violence in Latin America, CLAI has established a series of working areas that are related to young people, gangs in Central America, women and domestic violence, training and conflict resolution. ?We are still seeking peace,? concluded the Lutheran Pastor.
-------- BRAZIL Bishops? criticism of Lula government?s social policy sparks polemic
PORTO ALEGRE, Mar 6 (ALC). The Church should take a stance regarding political and economic questions according to listeners of the program ?Polemic,? broadcast March 3 and hosted by journalist Lauro Quadro of Radio Gaucha in this capital.
The program focused on criticism that leaders from the Bolivian Bishops Conference (CNBB) formulated against the economic and social policies of the President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government and asked ?Should the Church take a stance on this issue.? Of those who responded to the program?s interactive survey 61 percent said ?yes? and 39 percent said ?no.
In a press conference to launch the 2006
Fraternity Campaign on March 1, CNBB Secretary General Odilo Pedro Scherer said that Brazil is a ?financial haven? referring to banking profits. He also said that the Lula government has dashed society?s hopes regarding the implementation of more efficient social policies to distribute profits and combat inequality and poverty.
The same day in Sao Paulo, Archbishop Claudio
Hummes criticized the low gross domestic product growth last year. Brazil grew 2.3 percent, slightly higher than Haiti.
?The GDP was below what was hoped for and what was forecast,? he said.
While he has not made a public statement, according to columnist accredited in the government place, Lula is uncomfortable with the criticism levied by the bishops.
Initially 77 percent of listeners to ?Polemic? which is broadcast daily, said that the Church should take a stance. However, after political scientist Fernando Schüller spoke, a guest panelist on the program, the percentage began to decline, eventually reaching 61 percent.
Schüller admitted that the Church should speak out on political and economic issues because it is an organization that forms part of the society, focused on ethical parameters. ?However, that is different from taking a stance,? as one sector of the Church has been doing for the past 20 years in favor of the Workers Party, he said.
He criticized the ?ingenuity? of the Church in its analysis of the economy and the ?magic vision? it has regarding foreign debt interest payments, which follow technical criteria. ?The Church needs to renew its thinking,? he added.
According to Schüller, the problem in Brazil is not how the wealth is distributed but education. The average Brazilian worker has 6.5 years of schooling, he said, making it difficult to pay them properly.
The Rev. Jose Odelso Schneider, professor from the Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) University, another guest panelist, said that the problem in Brazil is not just the income distribution but the distribution of goods, of education, of technology. He called on the government to encourage policies that generate work and income, such as the case of the micro-business.
Federal legislators Enio Egon Bergmann Bacci, of the opposition Democratic Labor Party and Marco Aurelio Spall Maia, of the PT of Río Grande do Sul. Bacci emphasized that the social policy of the Lula government is a ?failure? and said that the Church must take a stance on political and economic questions that concern the nation.
Marco Maia also admitted the right of the Church to take a stance in political and economic issues. He mentioned government efforts like the creation of 3.7 million formal jobs and the increase of minimum wage to $165. --------------------- Latin American and Caribbean News Agency (ALC) P.O. Box 14-225 Lima 14 Peru Tel. (511) 242 7312 - E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org http: //www.alcpress.org