wfn.org | ALC Noticias June 5 2005 Argentina Peru Brazil Bolivia

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

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

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CONTENT

ARGENTINA: Evangelical women in solidarity with rape victim
PERU: Evangelical presidential candidate harshly critical of politicians
BRAZIL: Catholic Church loses faithful and political influence
BOLIVIA: ANDEB Calls for joint solution to problems in the country

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ARGENTINA
Evangelical women in solidarity with rape victim

BUENOS AIRES, June 2 (alc). Evangelical women expressed their solidarity
with Romina Tejerina, a young woman in jail since August 2002 and who is
currently being tried in Jujuy, a province in northern Argentina. Tejerina
is accused of second-degree murder for having killed her child who resulted
from rape.

"Our greatest wish is that God gives you His peace and that you can feel at
this time that you are in the palm of His hand," said the letter that
Pastor Margarita Lais Tourn, coordinator of the Women's Forum of member
Churches of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) in Argentine sent
Wednesday to the young woman.

Tejerina, was 17 years old in August 2002 when she was raped by a neighbor
after leaving a party. She became pregnant but hid both the rape and
pregnancy out of shame, guilt and fear of social pressure. When she was
seven months pregnant she gave birth in her bathroom and in the midst of a
psychotic episode she killed the baby because she thought she saw the face
of her rapist.

In the letter, the Evangelical women lamented the fact that Argentine
society views violence against women as natural and affirmed their support
for all measures aimed at ensuring that the context is taken into account
when the law is applied. "We do so motivated by the example of Jesus Christ
who was frequently accused of being outside of the law but whose ethics and
mercy are unquestionable," they said.

At the same time they expressed concern because justice is biased by
prejudices that allow a rapist to enjoy impunity while Romina is judged
from the ideal of what a mother should be and not a person who suffered
horrors that could be a factor in their actions.

We pray that it is not so and that all the involved people have the wisdom
and capacity of discernment to achieve justice, manifested the Evangelical
women.

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PERU
Evangelical presidential candidate harshly critical of politicians

By Fernando Oshige.

LIMA, June 2 (alc). Pastor Humberto Lay, a likely presidential candidate in
2006 for the National Restoration Movement, was harshly critical of the
government of President Alejandro Toledo and politicians that led the
country over the past 40 years.

"These governments seem like they have agreed upon a systematic plan to
destroy the country, each one complementing what the previous one did,"
said Lay.

"Today we are in the midst of a generalized crisis with a dangerous social
pressure that could produce a social explosion and lead to anarchy or
another extremist or dictatorial adventure."

Lay, a pastor from the Emmanuel Biblical Church, was a member of the
National Anti-Corruption Commission during the Valentin Paniagua (2001)
transition government and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission under the
Toledo government.

He currently presides the MRN, an Evangelical party that is waiting for the
National Electoral Processes Office to validate the signatures of those
supporting the movement and to formalize its inscription for upcoming April
2006 elections.

The Toledo government, said Lay, has shown some positive work in the
macro-economic arena but has lost support due to its lack of leadership,
generalized corruption, unfilled promises and scandals involving the
president and his relatives.

According to Lay, the most serious thing in the Fujimori government was the
systemic corruption affecting the highest levels of government and the loss
of moral values on the part of a major sector of the nation.

During the Alan Garcia government, he added, the people suffered the
consequences of hyperinflation, isolation from the international financial
system and the internal war that left more than 10,000 dead and $18 billion
in material damages.

The Peruvian people do not believe in the political class and for this
reason more than 70 percent of the population want politicians to "leave"
according to polls. Congress does not approve the laws that the country
needs to progress, investigative commissions do not reach any conclusions
and congress representatives collect 16 salaries in a country where more
than 50 percent lives in poverty and 15 percent in extreme poverty, he said.

This lack of credibility extends to the Judicial Brach, affected by
corruption, the public ministry that does not process the corrupt and human
rights violators and security forces, he added.

In the face of this dark panorama "We Christians must continue to pray for
the nation and for its governors and we must extend the Christian message
with passion and compassion for the dispossessed and those who suffer.
However, today our participation in society with the values of the
Christian faith but also with professionalism and excellent is more
necessary than ever, he said.

These are the reasons, said Lay in a manifest addressed to more than 3
million Peruvian Evangelicals that explain why a group of citizens have
decided to directly and decisively intervene in the political life of the
country.

National Restoration is born, according to Lay, with a vision to reach
government to benefit the people regardless of their class, to serve and
not be served, to be a powerful motor against corruption and which impels
the country to prosperity. It is not born to impose our faith but rather to
contribute with the values of the Word of God in the construction of a new
republic, that is truly in solidarity and dignified where we Peruvians can
life in peace, he concluded.

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BRAZIL
Catholic Church loses faithful and political influence

SÃO PAULO, May 30 (ALC). In recent years the Catholic Church has not only
lost thousands of faithful but also its capacity for political influence
and its prerogative to speak in the name of the masses, affirmed
Sociologist Reginaldo Prandi in a note published in the influential daily
Folha of Sao Paulo.

"Today the Catholic cathedrals compete in Brazil, with the cathedrals of
the believers in terms of visibility and importance," said Prandi,
professor at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and author of the book
"Segredos Guardados" (Guarded Secrets) whose central theme is Candomble.

Prandi added that Catholicism has difficulty placing itself in the
partisan-political arena, while Evangelicals easily elect representatives.

In his book Prandi analyzes, among other themes, the decline of Catholicism
in Brazil. With the election of Benedict XVI, Catholicism will continue to
lose support in the country, the sociologist predicted.

"Latin American had already lost a great deal with the Papacy of John Paul
II, who turned his back on the region. This lack of interest is going to
get worse," he predicted.

Prandi told the Folha de Sao Paulo that the Churches that have television
channels are not necessarily the ones that grow. "The audience of these
Churches on TV is very small. What still counts is the presence of the
faithful in the temple. What changed a great deal is that today the temple
is more adapted to life in the big city and there are temples that operate
24 hours a day," he said.

The USP professor admitted that Brazilian society is tolerant of different
religions but this  does not mean that the religions are equally tolerant.
As an example he mentioned the fact that Evangelical denominations are
aggressive toward Afro-Brazilian religions.

According to Prandi, there is a theological explication for the aggression.
For Neo-Pentecostal religions, the source of evil is the devil. According
to these Neo-Pentecostals, the devil is present in Afro-Brazilian religions."

Candomble is the religion that has grown the most in recent years. This
growth, however, has not compensated the loss of faithful to Umbanda.
Candomble has gone through a type of "whitewash," due to the growing middle
class interest in the places of religious celebration, known as the
"terreiros."

Today the Candomble is the "religion with the highest educational level of
all religions. Why. Because of this middle class that came from the
counterculture" of the 1960s in the past century, when the phenomenon to
search for roots, traditions, began.

Prandi pointed to another change in the religious focus. "The history of
religion showed that it was more connected to the world of values. today
religion is used to ask, to obtain things that not only refer to a
spiritual life, but also to a material life. It is a return to the world of
ritual," he affirmed.

Evangelical Churches and Afro-Brazilian religions adapted well to this new
religious profile. While the Evangelicals developed the theology of
prosperity, in Afro beliefs, said the sociologist, it is possible to have
access to magic services without becoming committed to the religion. "For
this, each terreiro has a higher number of clients than devout," he concluded.

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BOLIVIA
ANDEB Calls for joint solution to problems in the country

LA PAZ, May 30 (alc). In the midst of a tense environment due to grassroots
mobilizations and rumors of a conspiracy to overthrow the government, the
National Association of Evangelicals of Bolivia (ANDEB) called on
authorities and the people to seek dialogue and a joint solution to the
crisis in the country.

The body representing Evangelical Churches called on governors, political
and social leaders to return their eyes to God and to give preference to
faith in Jesus Christ in their actions and to work according to that faith,
to give signs of generosity that will make it possible to find solutions to
their problems.

La Paz has been the site, since May 24 of constant protests on the part of
social sectors with a variety of demands, which range from nationalizing
hydrocarbons, to increasing taxes for oil companies, to calling a
constituent assembly and rejecting a bid for autonomy from regions such as
Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando.

ANDEB leaders, presided by Pastor Bruno Ossio, called on pastors and
believers to pray so that "God has mercy on Bolivia and guides us in the
decisions we make without confrontations and divisions among Bolivians."

He called on Churches to "seek to raise the awareness of the Bolivian
Evangelical people, about the need to persevere in the clamor to God for
Bolivia."
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Latin American and Caribbean
Communication Agency (ALC)
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