Evangelical bloc gaining strength in Brazilian Parliament

Brasilia, June 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Adelor Vieira, a Brazilian MP, believes everything necessary on how to lead a moral life is found in the Bible. As an evangelical Christian, he is determined that Brazilian legislation should reflect the principles found in God’s Word.

“I believe it’s a duty. One cannot isolate Church from society. Evangelical churches have a mission, which is to promote the kingdom of God.” The key is how to legislate both for Christians and non-Christians, given that Christian morals cannot be imposed on unbelievers (it is hard enough for Christians to stick to them). However, without wishing to fall into the trap of imposing religious norms on a pluralist society, a new generation of Latin American evangelicals are entering politics, leaving the safety of the churches, and expressing their views with greater vigour. They are seeking seats in regional and national governments which, for so long, have been dominated by Catholics.

The Governor of Chiapas Province and a number of Mayors in Brazil are evangelicals, while the Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, although himself a Catholic, meets regularly with an evangelical pastor to study the Bible and pray. This move into the political arena comes after years of spectacular evangelical church growth in Latin America. In Guatemala, more than 40% of the population of 13.3 million are evangelical Christians, while the proportion in Brazil has reached around 15% - 27 million people.

The ‘evangelical bloc’ in the Brazilian Parliament has become a pressure-group to be reckoned with, and its aim is “act according to God’s purposes and His Word.” The bloc is made up of 58 MPs and 3 Senators out of a total of 600 parliamentary representatives. Fewer than half of the 61 evangelicals held office 10 years ago. They follow a similar line to the Christian Right in the USA, opposing the loosening of the ban on abortion, as well as homosexual unions, drug legalisation or the handing-out of contraceptives in schools.

One of their greatest victories to date came last year when they managed to modify the law on embryonic research so as to ban the use of human embryos for cloning. The law allows embryos to be kept for the development of stem cells for therapeutic research.

Havana, June 21st, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The second workshop for evangelical prison chaplains in Cuba has just ended in Havana, at which those involved exchanged experiences. Even though there is not yet legislation to cover this work, various church members have been offering pastoral help to inmates and their families for several years.

The work is carried out under the auspices of the Cuban Council of Churches and one of its representatives, Humberto Fuentes, said prison visits were vital in helping local churches understand and get involved in the problems faced by their communities. One speaker read out a letter detailing the conversion of a prisoner while another speaker, one of the chaplains, said what had started as an obligation had become a vocation, as he discovered the joy of taking the Gospel to prisoners and offering them hope and consolation.

Enoc Pou Jober, of the Free Pentecostal Church, said their denomination had 11 people working in prison ministry and spoke about the way the authorities were giving them increased opportunities, little by little, seeing the good work they were doing and especially the changed lives of many long-term inmates. He added that they have also helped bring reconciliation between prisoners and their families, who have learned to forgive them. Other cases include getting ex-wives taking their children to visit them, and developing sport inside the prisons. Jober himself played for the Cuban national football team for 14 years.

Bogotá, June 21st, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The Colombian state TV network has given permission for Bethesda Missionary Centre to start broadcasting on VHF Channel 49. Programmes should start any day.

Bethesda is one of the largest evangelical groups in Colombia with around 30,000 members in the capital Bogotá, and more than 200,000 in the rest of the country. It has over 100 local congregations. Marcela Gómez, the new station’s Director, says “Bethesda is responding to the need of a message which recovers Christian and family values in our society. Gómez is the daughter of Bethesda’s pastor and Chairman, an organisation which already runs 8 radio stations around Colombia.

In 1984, a Christian radio station began broadcasting in Bogotá. In 1991, Bethesda’s radio network opened stations in Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Cartagena, Villavicencio, Melgar and Pacho, along with 24-hour programming. There are also two other religious stations in Bogotá, the evangelical ‘Revival Broadcasting Network’, and a Catholic one.

Colombo, June 21st, 2004 (ACPress.net).
On Sunday, May 23rd an Assemblies of God Church in the District of Gampaha in Sri Lanka was attacked.

During the intervening week, the Pastor had received information that his Church would be attacked on the 23rd. However, the worship service was held as usual. At the end of the service, while the congregation was still there, a group of about 20 people arrived, some armed with clubs and sticks.  The Pastor hid from the mob, fearing that they would attack him. He succeeded in calling the Police from his hiding-place. Meanwhile, the mob proceeded to abuse the congregation verbally and assaulted some of them. They also assaulted a lady, mistaking her for the Pastor's wife. Chairs, the pulpit and musical instruments were broken. When the Police arrived on the scene, the attackers ran away. However, one of them was caught by the Police. A police entry has been made, identifying some of the attackers. It is commendable that the police and local authorities have acted impartially in this case. Investigations are continuing. The attack followed another one which had occurred on the previous Sunday.

Los Angeles, June 22nth, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Two American pastors, Mike Foster and Craig Gross, defend their website ­ the ‘first site of Christian pornography’ - with the premise: “There is something better than pornography and His name is Jesus.”

The website www.xxxchurch.com is the novel creation of two young pastors from California, USA, who dream of drawing people away from the scourge of pornography. The site offers Bible studies for downloading, a virtual prayer wall and lots of practical advice on how to avoid pornography and its influence. There is also a service offering counselling on dealing with personal problems.

Gross says: “We saw that the Church was not doing anything for the problem of pornography, so we decided to intervene and do something.” The sex industry moves millions in their part of America and the need to offer alternatives and a way out is obvious.

Ambon, Indonesia. June 22nth, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Tension between communities remains high in Ambon, the capital of the Molucca Islands in western Indonesia. People are afraid to go out of doors as the city tries to return to normal life after the latest series of violent clashes, which follow 3 years of civil war between 1998 and 2001.

Terror has returned to the region and the temporary calm is not expected to last. Local observers say the tension between Christians and Muslims has been exacerbated by “ a third party”, keen to incite inter-ethnic violence. The clashes of the last month are explained by the involvement of foreign provocateurs who came from abroad precisely to cause trouble. Religious leaders blame them for the trouble.

Radical Islamic fighters from the terrorist group ‘Laskar Jihad’ flooded into the area during the earlier conflict, and fears exist that they might now be returning. A peace deal was signed in February after a conflict which had left 15,000 dead and half a million homeless. Since then, Ambon had been slowly getting back to normal, with most people keen to work and live and in atmosphere of reconciliation. A group comprising Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Confucionist leaders stated that the violence was not religious in nature, and that they would not give way to people who had political motives for provoking trouble. The group called on the police to deal firmly with all who did not seek peace in the Moluccas.

Religious leaders, civic and political leaders and various social organisations are working to try and contain the latest wave of violence and restore a climate of peace and social harmony.

Cairo, June 22nth, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Scores of deaf people in Egypt, many of whom have, until now, been excluded from meaningful employment or proper education because of their disability, are soon to receive training in a trade or skill, thanks to a successful appeal by international Christian charity, BibleLands.

BibleLands' Easter appeal, which has raised over £40,000 in just five weeks, will help fund the construction of a new purpose-built Vocational Training Centre [VTC] for the deaf in Cairo. While the existing training centre can only accommodate 30 deaf men and women each year, the new facility will improve capacity, enabling the VTC to provide high quality vocational skills training in areas such as carpentry, sewing, metalwork and business management for 100 people.

The Vocational Training Centre is the only training facility for the deaf in the Cairo region. Since it opened in 1998, the centre has proved so successful that there is now a long list of young people waiting to train at the facility. Students are taught to produce high quality hand-crafted goods that are sold either in the local area or overseas through organisations such as BibleLands. As well teaching technical and craft skills, the Centre seeks to build up young people's confidence, self-esteem and relational skills.

The Vocational Training Centre is part of the Deaf Unit run by the Anglican Church in Egypt. The Deaf Unit, which was founded in 1982, comprises a school - the only one of its kind in Cairo - a parental support unit and the VTC. In the school, pupils follow the same curriculum as other mainstream local schools and children are given special sign language lessons and speech therapy training, which enables them to take the same exams as their peers. At the Parent Support Club, parents are taught sign language, hearing aid management and other useful skills to help them cope with their child's full integration into the family and local community.

Founded in 1854, BibleLands is a non-denominational Christian charity that works in partnership with some 60 local Christian-led projects in the lands of the Bible, in the fields of Education; Social Care; Special Needs; Medical Care; Vocational and Adult Training; Support and Care of Refugees.

Rawalpindi, June 22nth, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A young Christian man died from severe head trauma after three days in a coma following an attack by a Muslim police constable who struck him with a hammer while he lay defenceless in hospital.

Samuel Masih was taken to hospital on 22nd May having contracted tuberculosis in prison. Samuel had been detained since August 2003 under Pakistan's controversial "blasphemy law" for allegedly defiling a mosque. In the early hours of 24th May, police constable Faryad Ali entered Samuel's hospital room and despite the presence of a police guard assaulted Samuel with a brick-cutter's hammer. Faryad Ali sought to kill Samuel because of the accusation of blasphemy. Samuel went into a coma from which he never recovered. He died on 28th May.

Faryad Ali said that he felt it was his duty as a Muslim to kill Samuel. He told police, "I wanted to earn a place in heaven." He had previously expressed hatred for Samuel to his colleagues. He was arrested for attempted murder, which was changed to formal murder charges after Samuel died.

The "blasphemy law" is often misused by Muslims in Pakistan to get revenge in personal disputes, especially against Christians who are particularly vulnerable because the testimony of a Muslim in court is valued above that of a non-Muslim. Librarian Muhammad Yaqoob of the Idara Darusalam Jinnah Garden Mosque in Lahore, who filed the charges against Samuel, claimed he saw Samuel spit on the wall of the mosque near the library. Before his arrest Samuel had worked as a painter and whitewasher.

Devout Muslims often feel they should kill alleged blasphemers, whether convicted or not. Four Christians accused of blasphemy have been murdered between 1992 and 2002. Most Christians who have been accused and acquitted have had to leave Pakistan and come to the West after their release because anyone even accused of blasphemy is considered by Muslim extremists to be guilty for life. Prayers are requested for  Samuel's family, that God would give them His peace and grace at this tragic time.