I just got some disturbing news from
www.crosswalk.com, they do daily religion news summaries from around the world.
Today, there was one about Brazil, charging evangelicals with "hate crimes" for evangelizing in public, being charged by those that practice voodoo, or candomble. This is a disturbing trend, and one of the problems with any "hate crimes" kind of legislation. (see the article below) Christians, stop being complacent, sit up and take notice. It can not be long before they are dragging Christians from their homes, and killing them for being "hateful". They do it in many countries already. They just killed four people in Columbia, because they were Christians.
In fact, there are more Christians being put to death now for their belief in God, right now in our time, than at any other time in the history of our civilization. And some still cling to the hope, or is it the hype? that we are in some kind of age of enlightenment. Check any reputable site that concerns religious freedoms, and you will see that the numbers are striking and horrific. Men tortured and killed, their women and children raped right in front of them.
Look for more of this kind of "hate crime" thing, especially against Christians, both in Brazil and in the US. Please join me in prayer, that some sense of justice would be restored to a judicial system run amok. I just read in the "Cutting Edge", the church planting mag of the Vineyard, about how Christians should really have a sense of social justice. It should grieve us when we see the judicial system not working. I have seen so much injustice. Murder going unpunished, because it is just poor people killing poor people. Those that defend themselves against thieves and murderers being prosecuted- by the criminals no less! The rich just running over the poor, and a sense of despair from the poor, because they could never afford the high-powered lawyers that the rich people that are ripping them off could afford. And lest you think that I am talking only about Brasil, these very same injustices are taking place in the United States also. These types of things should grieve the Christians heart. God cares as much about social justice as He does about anything else. He hates injustice, because He is Just. One of His names in the Bible is Justice. Justice- that gives comfort to me somehow.
>> Evangelicals Tried For ‘Hate Crime’ Violation
Compass News Service
Umbanda and Candomble spiritist groups in Brazil are pressing a lawsuit
against Baptist pastor Joaquim de Andrade, 41, and Aldo dos Santos
Menezes, 33, a deacon of the Anglican Church, in connection with an
annual evangelistic outreach on the beaches of Sao Paulo state.
Spiritists accuse the two men of violating Brazil’s “hate crime” law by
distributing evangelistic tracts that, they say, disparage the African
goddess Iemanja. They charge Andrade and Menezes with “inciting
evangelicals to commit acts contrary to the liberty of religious
belief.” At a hearing on April 16, a Sao Paulo judge found Andrade and
Menezes guilty and fined them each 1,000 reais (about $300). The judge
warned that if they did not stop proselytizing spiritists, they would
face stiffer consequences next time. “This is a precedent-setting case,”
said former Brazilian resident Paul Carden, director of the Centers for
Apologetics Research. “If Christians cannot freely share their faith
with interested bystanders in a public place without the potential of
some punishment under the pretext of having committed a hate crime, then
this profoundly alters the spiritual equation in that country.”
posted by Eduardo Buck at Saturday, May 24, 2003
