Chavez moves against US preachers

[spiritblows]

BBC Article **Chavez moves against US preachers **

I was wondering what everyone thought A) Generally about the activities of American Evangelical missionaries in Latin America and B) Specifically about the details of this case.

Generally, Evangelicals in Latin America target Catholics. Of course, many of these are poorly catechised nominal Catholics. Is the Church simply spread too thin in Latin America, making people vulnerable to these well funded, zealous groups? Do you think Evangelicals should be doing this? Should the Catholic Church be doing more?

Specifically, in this case native non-Christians were being evangelized. Why isn’t the Catholic Church able to reach these people? Even though this Chavez is an anti-USA leftist, some of his complaints sound valid. Also, after Pat Robertson’s intemperate remarks suggesting that Chavez needs to be assasinated, maybe he has some grounds to be paranoid.

So, any opinions or thoughts?

 

[Cockney_Clive]

Oh good, its about time someone stood up to New Tribes Mission. Yes, you are about right spiritblows, these groups talk a lot about ‘saving souls in the mission fields’ but the reality is that they target Catholics rather than evangelise non-believers. Its the same in Iraq now with the Graham mission targetting the Melchite Rite Catholic Christians.

New Tribes have a particularly bad reputation and I have heard that the missionaries like to have a good living and a bit of luxury.

Of course the Catholic Church could do more, especially out on the margins. The Bishops in Brazil are beginning to fight back, the Bishop of Sao Paulho ( I think) himself is knocking on doors and inviting people to come back home to the One true Church.
His Diocese have also published materials aimed at nailing some of the lies that the Evangelicals are prone to spread about the Catholic Church. The faithful must be helped and encouraged to fight back when the SDA’s or the Mormons and all the rest come knocking on doors.

As to Chavez, I don’t see him getting another term in office - elections are only about a year away now. He has seriously let down the middle classes and they aren’t about to forgiver him any time soon but even his buddies in the unions and in the Favalas have been underwhelmed by his government so far.

 

[kmktexas]

Cockney Clive:

As to Chavez, I don’t see him getting another term in office - elections are only about a year away now. He has seriously let down the middle classes and they aren’t about to forgiver him any time soon but even his buddies in the unions and in the Favalas have been underwhelmed by his government so far.

Unfortunately, he has changed the election system to ensure that he will continue to be re-elected. He has publically bragged that there is no way he can be removed until the year 2020 (unless the CIA takes him out ). By then, he will have gutted the country and destroyed all of its infrastructure. The only bright side is that he seems to have alienated organized labor - they were once one of his biggest allies. My husband is there on business now and being able to even get to the refineries is very spasmotic because of the protests and demonstrations (which almost allway involve burning something and blockading traffic).

As to the original question, I was there until this past March and the Church is really stretched thin. Our pastor was the only priest and he said 7 Masses at our Church each weekend and one at a nearby Church that had no priest. Each Mass was full beyond SRO with people filling the courtyard and kneeling on the ground. There was a second parish in town that was similarly full. This was a medium size town and the first Sunday I was amazed. I didn’t know that many people even lived there, let alone that many practicing Catholics.

We didn’t get to the country-side much (because of the political situation) but the one trip we made to the mountains we were in a little town where the only Mass was Sat. night. It must have been served by a priest from a nearby town who was otherwise busy on Sunday.

Chavez seems to be hitting back at the Protestant evangelicals because of what Pat Robertson said. He probably thinks they are all CIA operatives. This doesn’t mean any good for the Catholic Church, though. He has said that the Bishops have been sent from Satan because the oppose his plan to legalize abortion on demand and have the nerve to speak out about it at Mass.

The good news is that the seminaries are booming. The seminary in the Diocese of Barcelona, where we lived and where the first Catholic church in SA was founded, has more seminarians than we have here in Houston. This is particularly good news since they have been importing priests for decades now. Our own pastor there was originally from Cuba.

 

[WanderAimlessly]

In my opinion, this is only the first step in the process of banning all (except state sanctioned) religion. This is typical of the Marxist mindset. By using sentiment against foreign missionaries, he can easily get rid of them. Next will be the weaker religious sects, then then the stronger ones.

PF

 

[WanderAimlessly]

Further news on this:

**Chavez Orders U.S. Missionaries Out Of Venezuelan Jungle **
Thursday, February 09, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela — U.S. missionaries accused by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of espionage have been forced from their remote outposts among jungle tribes by a government order, the final pair leaving Thursday after years of evangelical work.

The New Tribes Mission flew those two out of the rain forest to regroup with other missionaries in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz. There they will decide what to do next: leave the country or continue with a legal battle seeking to overturn the government’s order to expel them from indigenous areas by Sunday.

Full Story

It is my opinion that Chavez is using this to get foreign missionaries out of the country befor he uses a Marxist style purge of religion.

PF