Christian Persecution In Mexico

[Budge]

[quote] [b]New Believer Jailed in Mexico for Receiving Christ
[/b]
Jeff M. Sellers

Village officials in Chiapas punish convert for leaving 'traditionalist Catholic' religion.

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico – [b]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.[/b]

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 you’ve accepted Christ – you mean you don’t 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 (Eagle’s 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 we’re going to do?” one of them told the father of three pre-school children. “We’re going to beat you. We’re going to hit you.”

Mendez said he replied, “‘You know, if you’re going to beat me, then here I am. Here I am, if you’re going to beat me.’ But another said, ‘No, we’re 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.”
[b]
“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 don’t 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 area’s 46 communities prohibit any form of evangelization.

“There are still areas where they do not permit the gospel,” he said. “They don’t want it, and they reject it to the point that there are some brothers who have been prisoners in other communities.”
[/b]
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.

[b] 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? I’m 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.”[/b]

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 don’t want trouble, so we’ve 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 pastor’s 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.

[b] Because of the complicity of government agencies, “It’s easy for these kinds of abuses to be carried out with impunity,” said Esdras Alonso Gutierrez, head of San Cristobal’s 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.”[/b]

Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News[/quote]

[url="http://www.crosswalk.com/11538309/"]http://www.crosswalk.com/11538309/[/url]

So what do you think of what happened to these people?

[Akalyte]

it doesnt surprise me...Many Catholics imncluding protestants in mexico and in south texas follow pagan traditions..Some worship "death" statues. They are very mislead. I'm serious, ive seen statues being offered cups of rice and water. I just wanted to knock em over and smash em'. It disgusts me that some of these people are still following pagan traditions besides their christianity..When freemasons ran the governement in mexico, the catholic church was ltterally crucified.. Now budge, I know your smart enough not to use the incidence as so called "evidence" against our church...There are just troubled areas where they were not catechised correctly. The Catholic church preaches against idolatry and these idiots should know that. As for the Christian being jailed, like i said these people are mislead. Some of them do not really understand Catholicism. Especially if the communities are liberal.

Edited April 19, 2007 by Akalyte

[Akalyte]

and by the way whoever added "(catholic saints)" in there are not very smart. They are refering to their Pagan gods along side Christ. They do not believe Saints are god's i'm sure. Another example of misrepresenting catholicism.

[homeschoolmom]

sounds like a government problem-- not cracking down on abuses...

[Budge]

well government should lock up those who hurt and abuse and commit violence agianst others.

But where are the bishops and priests, one word and this nonsense would be stopped.

While certainlyu there are some bad Protestants off the rails, it is Catholicism in Latin America tat even after 500 years has retained pagan rituals and rites like the Mexican Day of the Dead.

[123]

Hmmmm, all of life is suffering, Christ wasn't lying. It seems as if killing is normal, common place within the last few months.

Heart of Jesus, Cause and center of all hearts
-Have mercy on us.

Holy Mother, vessel of peace and bulwark of truth,
-Pray for us

St. Gabriel protector and lover of our LORD,
-Pray for us, and defend us

Edited April 19, 2007 by GloriaIesusChristi

[Katholikos]

[quote name='Budge' post='1249127' date='Apr 19 2007, 10:54 AM']While certainlyu there are some bad Protestants off the rails, it is Catholicism in Latin America tat even after 500 years has retained pagan rituals and rites like the Mexican Day of the Dead.[/quote]

I've attended the Mexican Day of the Dead and found nothing offensive in it. In fact, I thought it was very beautiful and meaningful. I look forward to it every November. It's the Mexican expression of the feast of All Saints. What's your problem with it? Oh, yeah, it's communing with those "dead" relatives you object to, right?

Budgeanity doesn't accomodate ethnic religious expressions, eh? A pagan under every rock.

Likos

[Aloysius]

Take this artical with a grain of salt. While there is certainly stuff like Santeria and such, what Budge's fundamentalist friends would call "pagan rituals" would probably include Easter; the Native American culture was crowned with Christ and some rituals were converted.

These ridiculous pseudo-christian 'evangelists' are trying to destroy a culture; the way Native American culture was destroyed in North America. And it's absolutely reprehensible.

This guy was not a "new Christian", he was a "new heretic"

[Mateo el Feo]

In all my years of speaking with Latin Americans, I've never heard a single person refer to Catholic saints as "gods", as is claimed by the article.

On the other hand, Chiapas is a bit of a maverick government, and neither the federal government of Mexico nor the Catholic Church have real control over this area, where things are driven far more by a kind of xenophobia than a particular fidelity to religion...unless the religion you're talking about is Marxism.

[thessalonian]

So budge how do you feel about the protestants in england killing preists and imprisoning people for participating in Mass. And charging extra taxes for Catholics? Protestants call her "good queen bess". She enjoyed having her "servants' rip the bowls out of the priests and letting them die.

[thessalonian]

[quote name='Budge' post='1249127' date='Apr 19 2007, 10:54 AM']well government should lock up those who hurt and abuse and commit violence agianst others.

But where are the bishops and priests, one word and this nonsense would be stopped.

While certainlyu there are some bad Protestants off the rails, it is Catholicism in Latin America tat even after 500 years has retained pagan rituals and rites like the Mexican Day of the Dead.[/quote]


In case you haven't heard, the Mexican government is very unfavorable to Catholics and Catholicism, which makes me highly skeptical of your article. The people are mostly Catholic. The government is mostly a corrupt dictatorship.

Bishops and preists don't have much leeway with the lawless.

Edited April 19, 2007 by thessalonian

[Socrates]

During the 1920s, Catholics in Mexico (particularly the clergy) suffered vicious persecution at the hands of the viciously anti-religious, anti-clerical Marxist government, resulting in many martyrdoms. The government has remained largely anti-Catholic in its practice.
The Church in Mexico has suffered much more persecution in Mexico than it has caused.

The article is not from an unbiased source, so I take it with a grain of salt, but even if true, all it proves is that there are messed-up people in positions of authority in Mexico, which is hardly breaking news. Mexico is infamous for the corruption of many of its public officials.

But to use this individual story to bash the Catholic Church in general is ignorant and dishonest.

[Katholikos]

My guess is that Budge got her informatiion from her usual source -- "Former Catholics for Christ" -- a nest of venomous anti-Catholic bigots who are dedicated to destroying the Church. She claims to have been Catholic twice -- and obviously didn't learn much either time.

[Mateo el Feo]

[quote name='thessalonian' post='1249572' date='Apr 19 2007, 07:44 PM']In case you haven't heard, the Mexican government is very unfavorable to Catholics and Catholicism, which makes me highly skeptical of your article. The people are mostly Catholic. The government is mostly a corrupt dictatorship.

Bishops and preists don't have much leeway with the lawless.[/quote]The local gov't in Chiapas is much worse than the Mexican Fed. Gov't.

[Budge]

[quote]I've attended the Mexican Day of the Dead and found nothing offensive in it. In fact, I thought it was very beautiful and meaningful. I look forward to it every November. It's the Mexican expression of the feast of All Saints. What's your problem with it? Oh, yeah, it's communing with those "dead" relatives you object to, right?[/quote]Dont you all realize on the Day of the Dead they believe they are calling their dead home, which is wrong! The Bible prohbits conjuring up spirits! Unless youre going to tell me right now whipping out a Ouija board and calling grandma home is ok, then you are confused becuase they are doing the same thing!

[quote]
Most Oaxacan homes have a highly adorned Day of the Dead altar.[u][b] Sugar skulls with the names of dead loved ones inscribed in their icing indicate to the returning spirits that they have indeed returned to the right spot, where the living await their arrival. The altar is a sort of landing pad and its objects serve as signals to guide the spirits home.[/b][/u][/quote]




[img]http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/sdwells/oaxdd/Pino10-20-2001_640_1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.silvercrowcreations.com/Images/DODCharactersLarge.jpg[/img]

[quote]Budgeanity doesn't accomodate ethnic religious expressions, eh? A pagan under every rock.[/quote]

I dont care what ethnicity people are, there are good HISPANIC Christians who have been born again and left the paganism fully behind.

Edited April 21, 2007 by Budge