Posted on 04/17/2007 8:44:15 PM PDT by Terriergal
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico Juan Mendez Mendez became a Christian in a village outside of this city in Chiapas state on April 7, and two days later local authorities put him in jail for leaving their religious blend of Roman Catholicism and native custom.
A catechist or doctrinal instructor in the traditionalist Catholic church in the village of Pasté (pahs-TEH), the 25-year-old Mendez was released on Tuesday (April 10) after spending the night in jail. The previous Easter Sunday, political bosses in the Tzotzil Maya village noticed him missing from a church festival involving what Mendez considered to be idolatrous rites; they summoned him that evening.
They said, What do you mean that youve accepted Christ you mean you dont believe in our gods [Catholic saints]? Mendez told Compass. And I said, Well, those were just apostles, and now I belong to Christ.
The town leaders threatened to jail Mendez, and the following day they summoned him again after consulting with villagers, including other catechists. Mendez verified to them that he had heard the gospel in another community and now wanted to become part of an Alas de Aguila (Eagles Wings) church in Pasté, he said.
The officials threatened to strip him and throw cold water on him in jail, Mendez said. You know what else were going to do? one of them told the father of three pre-school children. Were going to beat you. Were going to hit you.
Mendez said he replied, You know, if youre going to beat me, then here I am. Here I am, if youre going to beat me. But another said, No, were not going to beat him.
After questioning Pasté Alas de Aguila pastor Jose Gomez Hernandez confirming that Mendez planned to attend his church, though he had not yet had the opportunity to do so village officials decided to jail the new Christian last Monday night (April 9).
Members of the Alas de Aguila church were allowed to visit him. He said he told one of them, If I have to be a prisoner, I have no other alternative but to continue pressing forward. He added that his wife, who put her trust in Christ along with Mendez, despite this situation has been very happy, and in her faith she wants to press forward also.
Mendez was not hurt while in jail from 5 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. and was released without further threats, he said, though another Alas de Aguila pastor, Antonio Vasquez, said there is certainly a threat.
What is further painful to me, Pastor Vasquez told Compass, is that the brethren in our church continue to contribute to and participate in the pagan festivals, because if they dont the local authorities will take all these people to jail.
Compass declined to contact Pasté village head Mariano Lopez Gomez, as an international news agency questioning him or other village officials about the jailing of Mendez could result in further abuse of the fledgling Christian. Pastor Vasquez said that in the municipality of Zinacatan, to which Pasté belongs, local traditionalist Catholic officials in some of the areas 46 communities prohibit any form of evangelization.
There are still areas where they do not permit the gospel, he said. They dont want it, and they reject it to the point that there are some brothers who have been prisoners in other communities.
Home Burned, Family Tortured
Vasquez, whose church has grown to 60 to 80 mainly Tzotzil- or Tzeltal-speaking people since he began it in 1996, is no stranger to area persecution from traditionalist Catholics.
In 1998, local political bosses (caciques) put him in jail for 24 hours without food. In 2000, he was released from jail only after the intervention of Chiapas Religious Affairs officials who promptly demanded that he contribute to and participate in the traditionalist Catholic religious festivals, which the pastor said amounted to a denial of his faith.
An attorney from the government told me, You know what? Im a Christian, but you have to do what we say, Pastor Vasquez recalled. And I told her, As an authority you cannot obligate me to deny my faith, because, as you know very well, that goes against the constitution. Secondly, as a Christian, you cannot obligate me to deny my faith and all the things that my faith requires. So she was left something ashamed.
The state religious affairs ministry had more success forcing his congregation to commit to participating in the traditionalist Catholic rites, which bring caciques not only festival fees but alcohol sales income. The congregation subsequently abandoned him, Pastor Vasquez said.
They said to me, You like to get into trouble, and we dont want trouble, so weve signed the agreement with the government, Pastor Vasquez said. He was going to leave the area, but he said God told him two things: Cowards flee, and Cowards have no part in me.
Hence he signed the government agreement, which allowed him to continue preaching as long as he contributed to and participated in the traditionalist Catholic festivals something very painful, he said. The church grew so much, however, that by August 20, 2000, the caciques again jailed him, his father and his two brothers and burned down his house.
The next day, when they took me out of jail and to the municipal manager, he told me, Hey, Antonio, how was it that you came to burn down your house? Pastor Vasquez said. I said, How am I, a prisoner, going to burn down my house? He said, Go see your mother, because my mother and my two younger sisters had remained at home.
Pastor Vasquez found that his family members were able to flee the house, which was reduced to ashes.
He managed to build a house from donated wood and sheets of laminate for a roof, but local authorities cut his water line and electricity. He has lived by candle light, cistern capture and water sold from vendors for the past six years.
Chiapas state officials had secured an agreement from local chieftains to restore the pastors water and electricity, but secretly they conspired to let leave him without the services, he said. The last statement on the matter that Pastor Vasquez heard from a state official was, Forget about it nothing can be done.
No longer contributing funds or participating in the alcohol-drenched festivals that pay homage to Catholic saints, in 2004 Pastor Vasquez found his father and brothers jailed while he was preaching in another city. The caciques stripped them and threw cold water on them, he said, as well as stung them with chile juices and a sprayed chemical compound that burns the skin.
They were freed only after intervention from state officials.
Because of the complicity of government agencies, Its easy for these kinds of abuses to be carried out with impunity, said Esdras Alonso Gutierrez, head of San Cristobals ministry of religious affairs and founder of the Alas de Aguila movement.
The situation in the areas around San Cristobal has calmed in San Juan Chamula, but beginning in 1998-2000, violence in the region outside of San Juan Chamula has been increasing, Alonso told Compass. In the last Chiapas administration under Gov. Pablo Salazar, there were no murders in San Juan Chamula, but there has been persecution in other areas: Huistan, Zinacatan, Las Margaritas, San Cristobal de las Casas, Ocosingo and La Trinitaria, among others.
Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News
AMEN.
Certainly ANYTHING AND ANYONE that takes PRIORITY over God Almighty, Our Lord Jesus, His Spirit—has assumed an idol’s place in our lives...
And what seems to be so very difficult to get across effectively is that COMFORT is a very short step from idolatry. Taking UNDUE, UNFITTING COMFORT in else but GOD IS idolatry.
Indeed. It is so important, but I wonder how many
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INDEED.
It’s also the camel nose under the tent problem. Sigh.
God have mercy on me a sinner. Pull out by the roots ANY AND EVERYTHING that is less than your Highest, Oh, Lord. In Jesus’ Name.
I’ve had dozens of conversations with people that come up with the most cockamamie ideas about why praying to a statue or a picture is Biblical, but they can’t ever give me chapter and verse. One of the reasons Jesus came to Earth was to destroy the “traditions of men”. You can’t just make up some mumbo jumbo and call it God’s Will. He was quite specific in who to pray to and how to pray. He even specifically said don’t pray the same prayer over and over again and you can go to any Catholic church and get 10 “hail Mary’s and a couple of “Our Fathers.” This stuff is basic Christianity 101. I can’t believe they read the Bible and don’t pick up on this.
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INDEED. Well put and exceedingly accurate from my experience.
I have rarely seen anything so despicable.
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Sadly, this is the impression, feeling, conviction that a LOT of the flaws in various sectors of the RC edifice leave many thoughtful Proties feeling.
I suppose ignorance would be a convenient out.
Alas, ignorance is not an adequate explanation for the truths and for the impressions and perspectives that we share.
It’s still fascinating that I can fiercely write about Calvinists, Baptists, Pent/Char folks and congregations . . . and the give and take is pretty normal.
But the moment I touch virtually ANY part of the RC edifice in a way that construes it as less than perfect, . . . well . . .
I hate to say it . . . but it as though I’d just poked a nest of demonic forces. The eruptions are so similar, I’m not sure, at the moment, how to tell the difference.
That’s difficult to explain. That’s my EXPERIENCE.
What is it that makes dealing with the obvious and deeply entrenched, inherent flaws of the RC edifice are SOOOOOO . . . virtually impossible to dialogue about meaningfully without RC’s going bonkers with the irate, hostile wording?
And responding to my fierce language is not an adequate explanation because the RC fierceness assaulting me and my perspective was FIRST.
This Mediator [Jesus Christ], having spoken what He judged sufficient first by the prophets, then by His own lips, and afterwards by the apostles, has besides produced the Scripture which is called canonical, which has paramount authority, and to which we yield assent in all matters of which we ought not to be ignorant, and yet cannot know of ourselves.
St. Augustine, quoted from his City of God, book XI, Chapter 3.
Whatever our Saviour would have us read of his actions and sayings he commanded his apostles and disciples, as his hands, to write. (De Consensu Evang. 1:ult)
"If anyone preaches either concerning Christ or concerning His church or concerning any other matter which pertains to our faith and life; I will not say, if we, but what Paul adds, if an angel from heaven should preach to you anything besides what you have received in the Scriptures of the Law and the Gospels, let him be anathema."
Augustine "Contra litteras Petiliana", (Against the Letters of Petiliana) Bk.3, ch.6:
Will try to when the semester is over by the end of the week.
The forum used to be a badgering, assaulting gauntlet for any NON-RC that dared raise their voice.
I realize that the change in status is jolting.
However, the description is a wholesale distortion of facts, to me.
We Proties no longer roll over and play dead to a lot of the outrageous statements of some RC’s. I realize that also must be disconcerting. But it’s much more in balance, as well.
RC’s still have A LOT of ‘air time’ hereon and their views are spread far and wide with caucus threads without hassle. Further, they are very forceful in expressing their views.
I suppose folks can call that meaningless but it sure seems like a grossly inaccurate rubber dictionary to do so.
The Christianity Today editor, author is top filght. It’s not a schlocky article just because it presents facts difficult for the perspective discussed to accept, stomach.
I do. I was in Mexico a few years ago. I was shown a small shrine where the local people will put money, locks of hair, fingernail clippings, etc, all as sacrifice to god. What is in the center of the shrine? Mary. Off in one corner was a small cross and a figure of Christ, but everything in the shrine pointed to Mary and glorified Mary, not our Saviour Jesus Christ.
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That’s OBVIOUS AND CLEAR IDOLATRY. But I’m sure the lengthy rationalizations and balderdash excusing such will try and pile it on.
Actually I don’t see how this article clears up imprisoning evangelical Christians.
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INDEED.
The best and most informed post of this thread!
That's the best line in the whole piece.
Thank you for your replies but don't bother anymore. I know when to step back and let God be God. I will not change your attitude and I have to step back from things and people who tempt me to sin. Bye.
GREAT ARTICLE. THANKS.
Will try to respond more later or tomorrow.
Praise God for this:
The expelled evangelicals I spoke with don’t have any problem with Bishop Ruiz, and many affectionately refer to him as Tatic, the Tzotzil word for “Great Father.” They see him, as well as Josefina de la Torre and the other SYJAC staff, as people truly interested in their welfare, people who aren’t going to patronize or proselytize them. “Our problem isn’t with the bishop,” says Perez, “but with those Catholics who refuse to hear the word of God.”
Is there a particular reason why you felt it necessary to bring up an execution which took place in 1927 with current happenings?
While we need not 'roll over and play dead' in response to outrageous statements, we also need not respond with outrageous statements ourselves.
I must say that I am surprised and dissapointed by the way you have conducted yourself in this thread. While I am disgusted with many other's posts, only you surprised me. You I hold to a higher standard than them. You are the one who's idea it was to start the "one anothers" devotional as an example of what we are supposed to be. From you I expect more.
I appreciate your exhortation.
Will prayerfully ponder it and get back to you.
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