Crime in Juarez
A Great Evil Torments a Great People
Having received a few emails asking me how I can promote Ciudad Juarez in light of its problems with crime and, in particular, in light of the fact over 300 young women have been murdered here, I believe it is time to speak of these things publicly.
First, the killings of the young women in Juarez will no doubt go down as one of the most heinous crimes in the annals of human depravity. I cannot even imagine the horror of any young woman meeting the grisly fate so many have met here. Most of the victims were working 50-60 hours a week for $50 pay checks, young women doing their best to support their children and families, flowers of the nation's youth, snuffed out by some force which has to be called pure, unadulterated evil. The weeping and suffering the people of Juarez have endured, and many families across the border as well, is suffering of the kind no words could ever describe. To make the outrage even worse, until recently nothing concrete appeared to be being done about it.
It seems, at times, that the devil himself is hiding here in Juarez.
There are only questions surrounding these killings, and victims. No one in Ciudad Juarez is left untouched. Is it one killer, or a series of copy cat killers? Are the killers Mexican nationals, Americans with free access to the border, or some horrible mixture of both? Are the police involved? Why will the Mexican government not do whatever is necessary to end this situation after 10 long years? Why did even the FBI fail to crack the case? What, in the name of God, can be done to stop this nightmare? It is my hope that the new attention being placed on these crimes will bring some answers, but right now there are only questions, and victims.
This web site was created because my experiences here did not conform to the picture of Ciudad Juarez painted in the American press due to the unbalanced reporting of these events. Perhaps I am still foolish and idealistic enough to believe the truth (the whole truth) is important and should be heard. It did not take long to realize that my new friends here were good people, working hard to make an honest living, much harder than most of us north of the border have to work, and for much, much less. I asked myself why the entire 2 million people of Ciudad Juarez should be demonized as cut throats and thieves? I could see they were so demonized in the public perception north of the border. I knew better, because I had taken the time to let people into my life, to live here every weekend and drive and shop like anyone else. I found people here to be patient with this gringo who could not even speak Spanish, eager to teach me about their culture, and even willing to accept me as just another neighbor to be judged on his behavior, not by the color of his eyes or point of origin. It was an experience in my life like that of Kevin Costner's character in "Dances With Wolves" when after living among the Indians he writes, "Everything I was ever taught about these people is not true."
My friends in the City Market remember a time when the market was so crowded on weekends that one could barely move. Now the market has a busy day now and then, but most weekends business is very slow. My taxista friends near the bridge tell me some days they may get only 2-3 fares all day long. Juarez is heavily dependent upon tourism, and a huge number of people here look longingly north for business which never comes, business these good people need to put food on the table and buy clothes for their children. The great restaurants in this city now serve almost exclusively locals whereas once there were long lines of tourists every weekend. These people, too, are victims of these horrible events, and not merely in an indirect way considering the millions of tourist dollars which are lost each year due to the city's bad reputation north of the border.
Who speaks for them?
On Valentine's Day of 2004 two American movie stars, Jane Fonda and Sally Field, led a march in memory of the missing girls and demanding justice. I not only supported that effort, but applauded it. It's time for justice. But Jane Fonda's "I'm rich. I'm white." statements were insensitive, as were the festivities and theatrical performances which ensued that night. How did this help the victims or bring any comfort to their grieving families? Was their trip ever really about the missing girls? Or was it was really all about publicity for these Hollywood celebrities? I don't mean to jump to conclusions, but one cannot help but wonder.
It is my great hope that next time Ciudad Juarez comes to the attention of the world, the reporters and celebrities who come here will take the time to notice honest Mexican families having dinner together. They should be as equally moved by the hopeful faces of the children whose parents need business from the United States as they are by this great crime against humanity. These children and their parents don't know any mass murderers or drug lords and do not deserve to be punished because their city has these huge problems beyond their control.
And that is part of what is happening here.
The Juarez Travel Guide (JTG) exists because I sincerely believe someone needs to tell the positive side of the story about Juarez. I am not defending the government here or drawing any judgments about its actions or inactions in this matter. That issue is something so far beyond my knowledge I would look a fool to even touch the subject. Nor am I speaking out because of any profit motive. The JTG has been a black hole into which funds have steadily disappeared, not yet a money maker. This site is not about money. It's about balance. The horror of the murders cannot be denied, but neither can the honor and decency of the 2 million people in Juarez. I would ask anyone in the public eye as a celebrity or journalist to please not create more victims by demonizing the entire city any further. Headlines such as "The City of Death" only make the situation worse. Juarez is also a city of life and love of life which has a lot to offer any visitor. Let's vent our outrage in the right direction. That's what this web site is about, and I have no reason to be ashamed of that effort.
Millions of good people here are being harmed in a very direct way by our culture's penchant for sensationalism.
NEW WORLD ORDER....
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Pennyworth
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Re: Religious New World Order ....
Paul Pennyworth wrote:Paul Pennyworth wrote:http://allafrica.com/stories/200705231004.html EXTORTIONIST EDIR....THE PERFECT CRIME??? http://www.anis-online.de/1/rooms/latuff/2.htmBrazilian church builds an international empire.(Universal Church ...President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, an atheist, expressed-concern about it. ..... "Edir Macedo's people are determined to get what they want no matter what ...www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-18188263.html - 88k - Cached - Similar pages[/quote]
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, established in Brazil in 1977 by 'Bishop' Edir Macedo, has expanded to 40 countries and has built a vast economic empire in less than two decades. Leaders of the church are under investigation for ties to Colombian drug money and for tax fraud.
A NEW AND UNIQUE church accused of igniting holy war, consorting with the Colombian drug mafia and swindling. its own members has emerged in Latin America and swept onto five continents in less than two decades.
In late 1995 the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God gained center stage in Brazil as it clashed with the Catholic Church and the Globo TV Network, the world's fourth largest, in an attempt to increase its already considerable economic, political and religious power. Brazilian authorities are now scrutinizing its activities. Founded in Brazil in 1977, the Universal Church has hundreds of temples in some 40 countries, including the U.S. In recent years it has opened churches for Spanish-speaking communities in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Chicago, San Diego and other U.S. cities. In Brazil the UC has 3 million members, 2,1400 temples and 7,000 pastors. It draws crowds that rival those for Pope John Paul II, who has twice visited Brazil, a predominantly Catholic nation of 160 million people. The UC has also rapidly built a vast economic empire. It owns Brazil's third largest television network (with 25 outlets), 35 radio stations, two mass-circulation newspapers, a university, a bank and other businesses. The Brazilian press has reported that worldwide the UC takes in as much as $1 billion a year in tithes alone, making it,one of the biggest financial operations in Latin America.
UC's rags-to-riches founder, the self-appointed "Bishop" Edir Macedo, was investigated in the early 1990s for alleged links to Colombian drug traffickers suspected of supplying $1 million for the church's $45 million cash purchase of its first TV outlet. UC pastors and their wives allegedly flew to Colombia in a private jet and carried the money back to Brazil in their underwear. The government suspended the case when a dissident UC pastor backed away from his testimony after meeting with Macedo. In 1992 Macedo briefly went to jail on other charges. Since then he has lived mainly in New York. He also has a home in Los Angeles.
Last September Macedo and his pastors declared a religious war against the widely watched Globo Network and its billionaire owner Roberto Marinho after the network began airing a mini-series called Decadence, about a corrupt pastor who resembles the UC head. A traditional Catholic and supporter of the status quo, the octogenarian Marinho views the Universal Church's rise as a threat to his own multimedia empire. The conflict escalated into a national uproar when UC televangelist Sergio Von Helde kicked and punched a statue of Our Lady of Aparecida, the widely revered patroness of Brazil, on her October 12 national holiday. "Can God, who created the universe, be compared to such an ugly, horrible and disgraced doll?" Von Helde asked his audience. "God ordered me to say what I said," he later claimed.
Macedo removed Von Helde and apologized to Catholics. However, during a sermon in Buenos Aires he called Catholics "stupid" and "crazy" for worshiping images. The Catholic Church promotes the image of Mary because it is lucrative, " Macedo charged later in a rare interview. He assailed the Catholic Church on a number of issues, including its defense of celibacy and its opposition to abortion. He also termed women dangerous and AIDS the work of the devil.
Macedo wants to compete with the Globo Network and has discovered that the best way is through religious polarization," said Caio Fabio D'Araujo Filho, a Presbyterian minister, president of the Brazilian Evangelical Association and a critic of the UC. "He wants to establish a Macedian theocracy where he will be the Khomeini of the nation." Globo whipped the country into a media frenzy with ample coverage of Von Helde's attack. It provoked a further storm by playing a UC tape in which Macedo gleefully counts donations and tells his pastors how to extract more money from church members. UC pastors accused Globo of manipulating the tape but did not deny its authenticity.
CATHOLIC BISHOPS advised calm but criticized the UC and moved to rally support for their church. Catholicism has lost its monopoly over religious life in Brazil, though it retains quasi-official status. "The Catholic bishops must not remain silent before this aggression," declared Cardinal Lucas Moreira Neves, head of Brazil's National Conference of Bishops and frequently mentioned as a possible successor to John Paul II. He reported that the pontiff was "shocked" by the Von Helde incident. The growth of the Universal Church is worrisome because it is exploiting the faith of the least-informed individuals," said the moderate Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider, one of Brazil's most respected prelates and recently named archbishop of Aparecida. "If we insult Mary, we insult God. Let us defend our faith," he stated in a sermon before 30,000 people at the sanctuary of Our lady of Aparecida. In Rio de Janeiro Cardinal Eugenio Sales, the Brazilian church's most powerful voice in the Vatican, led more than 50,000 people in a mass dedicated to Mary. Protestant, Jewish and other religious leaders also criticized the UC for religious intolerance. In Rio one UC temple was stoned and two others received bomb threats, while in Brasilia someone tried to set a UC church on fire.
The conflict quickly took on political dimensions. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, an atheist, expressed-concern about it. Sergio Motta, the minister of communications, considered canceling the UCs broadcast license. Noting that Aparecida is the only black saint in this nation of dark-skinned people, Congressman Paulo Paim of the Workers' Party accused the UC of racism.
After its annual New Year's distribution of plastic swords to the faithful, the Universal Church organized a day of marches to protest the "campaign of persecution promoted by the Globo Network." Tens of thousands of UC followers took part in Rio, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Curitiba and Manaus. UC pastors and bishops took care to praise President Cardoso and to pray for Motta and Minister of justice Nelson Jobim. "We hope that God guides the president of the Republic to act with impartiality We don't want war, we want liberty," said Bishop Paulo Rodrigues Guimaraes.
Since the October 12 incident major newspapers and magazines have printed scores of negative articles on the church, including stories concerning political connections at the highest levels. One major revelation attributed Macedo's and the UCs success to protection provided by the administration of President Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992 on charges of massive corruption. Other articles discussed how Cardoso and top leaders of his centrist Brazilian Social Democratic Party sought electoral support from UC pastors. The UC has usually backed conservatives such as Collor, but as its influence has grown, moderates have also appealed to it for votes.
Macedo and the UC have increasingly flexed political muscle. The church already has six men in Congress. One of them introduced a bill to repeal the October 12 national holiday. In Rio, State Representative Carlos Mine of the Workers' Party accused Governor Marcello Alencar, a member of Cardoso's party, of cutting an electoral deal that gave the UC a cabinet position and the power to put hundreds of church followers in state jobs. Minc also blocked a proposal by UC state representatives to use tax money to build new temples (a privilege once enjoyed by the Catholic Church, which received public funds to help build the Aparecida sanctuary in the 1950s).
MACEDO AND his pastors aim to nm 500 UC candidates in the October nationwide city council elections in a bid to become Brazil's largest nonCatholic church by the year 2000. The Assemblies of God currently leads with some 13 million members. UC leaders have also proposed an alliance with evangelicals against the Catholic Church. They want to back influential Baptist pastor Nilson Fanini as a candidate in the 1998 presidential election. In a newspaper interview Fanini played down earlier Baptist criticism of the UC and praised the church's work. "We have seen so many people get out of the gutter, stop drinking, cast aside vices and immorality. Many lives have been transformed," he said. A Fanini candidacy could anger the Catholic hierarchy and reinforce Macedo's strategy of confrontation. Macedo himself is also a potential candidate.
As the controversy over the UC has mounted, numerous government agencies have taken action against the church. Geraldo Brindeiro, the permanent special federal prosecutor, ordered a probe into the UC. The central bank and internal revenue service are reviewing the finances of almost all UC pastors in what one newspaper termed "the biggest fiscal and financial inquiry" in those agencies' history. Macedo and his pastors are suspected of illegally transferring funds to overseas temples and maintaining links to drug traffickers. Revenue officials say that he and others must pay millions in back taxes on church funds diverted to personal use. "No matter who it is, religious activity should not produce riches from one day to the next," Brindeiro commented, comparing the Brazilian inquiry to the U.S. prosecution of Korean Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon in the 1980s. "The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but not in order to manipulate the population to obtain undue advantage."
State prosecutors in Rio and Brazil's Federal Police are looking into other allegations, such as money laundering. Still another prosecutor suggested that the courts could shut down UC temples to stop pastors from bilking the faithful. UC lawyers thwarted a similar measure several years ago. Former church members have sued for the return of tens of thousands of dollars in property. One woman gave $12,000 in exchange for a tithing diploma purportedly signed by Jesus. Macedo still faces 1991 charges of swindling, quackery and charlatanism.
Argentina and Portugal have already moved to block the UC's further expansion. Brindeiro announced that he would send the U.S. justice Department a dossier on the church. Whether the U.S. will take action is unclear. An investigator in the department's international division stated that he knew nothing of the matter. The Brazilian Federal Police have requested that Interpol, the international police agency, investigate the church in the U.S. and seven other countries. However, an employee at Interpol in Washington, D.C., noted that the agency's constitution prohibits it from investigating religious organizations. An FBI spokesman said he knew little about the UC. He added that while the FBI would be responsible for probing a foreign church, it does not comment on its investigations.
NO DOUBT MANY view Bishop Macedo as the leader of an army of unsavory Nonetheless, he has displayed brilliance in marketing his religion and winning adherents. He has discovered an effective combination of emotion, culture and social empowerment and matched these to people's deepest fears and aspirations. It is a formula that is complex in its main components but simple and direct in its appeal. Not surprisingly, in Brazil the UCs followers come from the poorest sectors--people with little formal education who face chronic unemployment, low wages, and long lines at public health clinics and who lack adequate social or religious structures for addressing such problems as marital strife and drug and alcohol abuse. These people stand at the margins of Brazilian society, with practically no chance of ever advancing into the middle class or gaining even the smallest voice in politics. They may yearn for the glamorous consumer lifestyle pushed daily by the conservative Globo Network, but for them it will remain only a dream.
The Universal Church offers hope. While Globo, the progressive wing of the Catholic Church, politicians and a spate of nongovernmental organizations have been busy promoting their own agendas, the UC addresses poor people's problems in their own language. As one research report demonstrated, the majority of UC members believe in the church's basic slogan: "Pare de sofrer", or "Stop suffering." Over the airwaves and in the temples UC followers reinforce this message with ample testimony about cures, sudden affluence and other benefits.
But the UCs success is more than just a story of responding to immediate needs. It is also rooted in Brazil's highly diverse and adaptive culture. One facet of Macedo's religion is undoubtedly Christian. The words "Jesus Christ is the Lord" emblazon the back wall of UC churches. Love of Jesus is a central part of UC theology. Citation of the Bible is common.
The Universal Church demonizes the spirit world of the Afro-Brazilian religions that are accepted in varying degrees by millions, but in doing so it implicitly acknowledges that world. African beliefs have survived centuries of opposition from the Catholic Church and European cultural norms that operated in tandem with slavery. Out of these divergent influences emerged Umbanda--a syncretic mixture of Candomble (known in the U.S. as Santeria), Roman Catholicism, and Kardecist spiritualism in which practitioners often enter into a trance and receive spirits. Also containing elements of Amerindian religion, Umbanda is uniquely Brazilian and nationalistic in its origins.
THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH is both a negation and a distorted reflection of Umbanda and other Afro-Brazilian religions. In fact, Macedo himself is an ex-Umbandista and an ex-catholic. He first used confrontational tactics by invading the sacred sites of Afro-Brazilian religions, destroying their images and seeking followers among disillusioned believers. The attack on Our Lady of Aparecida was an extension of this old strategy. To this religious mix the UC adds ingredients of Pentecostalism, such as an emphasis on the Holy Spirit and healing. It also contains elements of Catholicism-for instance, a highly organized hierarchical structure with bishops under the strong rule of Macedo, who is the equivalent of a pope.
Lumping the UC success in the category of "Protestant growth," as so many re ports have done, is thus inaccurate. The UC both intersects with and is distinct from Umbanda, Catholicism and Protestantism. As Caio Fabio put it, the UC is "the first product of syncretism to emerge among Brazilian evangelicals. It is a Christian version of macumba [a pejorative term for Afro-Brazilian religions]." Such contradictions do not matter in a culture that is the historical product of three continents. "We do not orient ourselves according to a European or American evangelical tradition," said one UC pastor. "We start from the faith, principles and religious practice of the people. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is the daughter of the people."
Donations flow almost naturally. According to researchers, the pastors preach the biblical obligation of tithing, but their message is bolstered by the fact that most UC members have participated in Umbanda and Candomble, in which it is customary to pay for ceremonial items. Like the old Catholic practice of indulgence, tithing is stressed as a payment in exchange for favors from God.
Rather than harm it, the recent controversy is likely to strengthen the UC. "[Its members] see this as persecution, which has been present in afl religions' history of consolidation," said Maria das Dores Campos Machado, a sociologist and observer of the UC. "Bishop Macedo is not your common pastor. He is competing for hegemony and is not alone in his struggle."
I first attended a UC service in the Botafogo district of Rio de Janeiro. Botafogo's middle-class high-rise apartments stand below the tall Corcovado peak where the famous Christ the Redeemer statue, a symbol of Brazil's Roman Catholic heritage, spreads it arms. On a slope between the Corcovado and Botafogo lies a large favela named Santa Marta. Like other shantytowns it is not mentioned on tourist maps. Santa Marta recently made headlines when Rio officials became indignant at movie director Spike Lee and Michael Jackson's recent visit to the favela to tape a videoclip on poverty. More customary in the area are the reports of violence by drug traffickers (who often deal to the well-off). Several years ago a dump for bodies of murder victims was found near Santa Marta. I remember thinking that the humbly dressed faithful who filled the seats at the Botafogo temple, one of many old movie houses bought up by the UC in its accelerating expansion, must have come from Santa Marta or another of a myriad of poor areas.
Hundreds of people filled the seats. The pastor called for witnesses to testify to the changes in their lives after joining the church. One by one about a dozen individuals ascended the altar to tell of defeating alcoholism, drugs, homosexuality and other difficulties. The theme of the service typified the UC: exorcism. The church preaches that ills and misfortunes are caused by the devil and wicked spirits. With eerie music blaring, the pastor spoke about these evils. All were asked to close their eyes and lower their heads. A few dozen obreiros, young male and female workers" dressed in drab uniforms, stationed themselves throughout the temple or paced up and down the aisle, at times whispering to worshipers to obey the rules.
A FEW ROWS AHEAD a slight Afro-Brazilian woman began to manifest the convulsive fits of an individual going into a trance. Obreiros ran to her and held her, and one of them placed his hands on her head and prayed for the evil spirit to leave. She eventually came out of the trance. The obreiros circulated intensively, looking for others who might be possessed. The pastor stirred the congregation into near-hysteria. "Sai! Get out!" he shouted over and over again, exhorting the people to repeat his orders against the devil. "Get out!" We all turned around to face the rear doors of the church, using our arms to push out the devil. "Get out! Get out! Get out!" we repeated over and over. When this mass exorcism reached a crescendo of emotion, the pastor proclaimed that we had victoriously expelled the devil from the temple and our lives. We clapped as triumphant music filled the room.
After the controversy over UC exploded in Brazil last year, I decided to study the UCs methods in San Diego. The flexibility of Brazilian culture has helped the Universal Church achieve an historic turnabout for Latin America: after absorbing foreign spiritual influences for centuries, the area is now exporting its own unique religion. I wanted to see how the UC appealed to the southern California immigrant and Latino poor. After all, though these people share with Brazilians a Catholic heritage and the problems of poverty, they do not include African spiritism in their belief system. lake the seven other UC temples in southern California, the recently opened church in National City was once a movie theater. (Macedo is also planning a temple for the heart of movieland in Hollywood.) Except for the Spanish lettering announcing that "Jesus Christ is the Lord," the building appears unchanged. One area businessman thought it was a Spanish-language movie house. Some 350 people of all ages attended the service. The majority were women, and everyone seemed to be of Latin American origin and of humble status.
THE TWO-HOUR-15-MINUTE Sunday observance was subdued and showed little novelty compared to the Brazilian version. But the UC marketing strategy was clearly at work. Bishop Ronaldo Sales, a Brazilian, skillfully sought to build an emotional bond with the congregation, leading them in rather maudlin songs about the love of Jesus and even crying. At other times he had us clap loudly to thank Jesus. The women especially looked up to the bishop, even helping him with his Spanish. When I revisited the temple a month later for a Friday afternoon service, women waited to pray with him individually and have him lay hands on their heads. Bishop Sales blended beliefs and practices to appeal to the familiar in people's culture and circumstances. This included a dose of Catholicity that has marked the, UCs strategy in San Diego. Completely avoiding the confrontational tactics used in Brazil, the bishop did not even mention the Virgin of Guadalupe. Instead he subtly distinguished the UC from Catholicism and other Christian traditions.
One example was the way the church conducted a communion service. Ob-reiros distributed small cups of wine and chunks of bread to everybody. Bishop Sales then read verses pertaining to the Last Supper, and several times he referred to the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. He invited us to take communion in unison. Unlike other churches, he said, here nobody asks if a person has been baptized. Nor is a First Communion required. Sales preached similarly on baptism. Calling the people down to hear him "at the feet of Jesus," he said that although infant baptism has a legitimate social significance, it has no spiritual value. Only an adult can choose, he said. Significantly, he added that baptism or any other religious act is never for a particular church or leader, whether it be the pope, Baptists or even the Universal Church. It is for Christ.
Underlying this eclectic religiosity was the UCs slogan: "Stop suffering." This message is highly effective among people who, while perhaps not as bad off as the residents of Santa Marta in Brazil, nevertheless sit at the bottom of the social pyramid in a state where anti-immigrant sentiment has soared and not all can afford health care. Sales spoke frequently of problems such as marital difficulties, children and illnesses but also unemployment and the need for migration papers. He assured the congregation that God would resolve such problemas.
In UC services witnesses speak of blessings and miracles: families reunited, addicts recovered, work found, tumors disappeared, a gang member turned pastor. Satan is blamed for sickness and misfortune. The church distributes holy oils and a holy water that believers say has cured them of cancer and other maladies. In San Diego the UC publicizes these miracles on three TV stations, on radio and in the pages of a weekly newspaper. In addition, each daily service deals with a theme. The theme for Tuesday, for example, is the sick; Wednesday, addicts; Friday, victims of witchcraft; and Sunday, miracles.
Along with health, "prosperity" is a core concern. Bishop Sales began and ended his service with the promise that the unemployed would find work, and he frequently mentioned economic hardships. There is nothing wrong with wanting prosperity, he stressed. Monday services concentrate on the "prosperity of businessmen," while Saturday, the day of "economic blessings," focuses on legal difficulties, unemployment, debt and bankruptcy. The UC newspaper has drawings of coins, money bags and dollar signs. One ad asks: "Do you want your own home? To own your own business? Do you wish to prosper?" Witnesses and articles tell of financial windfalls. Although the UC says entrance to its observances is "totally free," its pastors stress tithing and other offerings. When Sales called for donations, about two thirds of the congregation walked to the stage to hand in envelopes printed with a large blue number ten and-the biblical exhortation "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Again assuring the unemployed that they would find work, he gave a traditional exhortation on tithing as an obligation to God. When he asked who would bring their tithes next time, many hands went up. Many also bought small hymnals sold by the obreiros for $5. At the end of the service Sales called for additional contributions to help pay for the church's expenses. A large number of people again went to the front to place bills in red felt sacks held by assistants. The bishop suggested $100 but said any amount would be acceptable.
THE CATHOLIC clergy of the diocese of San Diego have little knowledge of the Universal Church, although some priests reported that several of their parishioners had been attracted to it. "All I know is that some of our people go to the healing services there. It is something that we need to look at a little bit more closely," acknowledged Father Henry Rodriguez of St. Jude's Shrine parish, located a mile and a half from the National City UC. "We encourage people to keep coming to our own services here, rather than confuse themselves. "
For Father Dennis Mikulanis, head of ecumenical relations for the diocese, the UC is not unlike some of the storefront churches that have cropped up to cater to the city?s large latino community. "Their leaders abscond with tons of money. It's nothing unique to Brazil or Hispanic groups. Look at the Bakkers," he said. "They do what they accuse the Catholic Church of, which is trying to buy their way into heaven. It's cheap, easy grace. There's no commitment, there's no discipline there." He added that if the UC tried to malign the Virgin of Guadalupe, "there would be an outrage. . . . They would expose themselves as people of hate, not of love."
I DON'T THINK THAT people are looking for a new religion," said Bishop Gilbert Chavez, a native of southern California with 17 years' experience in San Diego who learned about the UC from its TV broadcasts. "As far as I know, there are a lot of people that do attend, but they are mostly looking for cures, because that's what they see on television." He added that some have complained of "high pressure" tactics to buy Bibles and other religious material. "Here in the U.S. there are many things that draw people away from faith, not only. other religions but a secular life that emphasizes a faithless way of living." Chavez said. "I think these religions even help people to have faith, and eventually they will come back to the church. In time of need they go to these places. It's like a competitive business. It helps us to figure out that we're not doing as good a job as we could. It makes us aware that we should be helping people to develop their faith."
Despite the flood of reports in recent months, much of the UCs operation remains a mystery. How it recruits and transfers pastors across borders and handles its funds are only two of the many unanswered questions. Bishop Sales in San Diego and representatives at UC headquarters in Los Angeles and New York refused to be interviewed for this article. Sales's Spanish assistant would talk only about the Bible and his own conversion and refused to give his name. In Brazil much information about the UCs internal workings comes from dissident pastors and disgruntled former members. The church refuses to cooperate with academic researchers. In the city of Belo Horizonte pastors warned their followers that local Catholics were conspiring against the UC because journalism students from the Catholic university had observed UC services. One graduate student waiting to see a pastor sat for hours with an armed guard standing by. "Edir Macedo's people are determined to get what they want no matter what the price, and that is dangerous, " said Renato Suhett, a former UC pastor.
What is clear is that people go to the Universal Church to satisfy their needs. One first-time churchgoer told me he had lost his job and had come to the UC because of its promises of prosperity. I watched an old woman who had difficulty walking smile after a pastor prayed with her and encouraged her to go up and down the stairs to the stage. In the faces of others I saw contentment as they gave over their tithes. If nothing else, the UC provides the poor and outcast with hope. Its critics say that it preys on the ignorant. As the gap between rich and poor grows in the U.S. and elsewhere, the UC will find opportunity ripe.
Ken Serbin teaches Latin American history at the University of San Diego and frequently visits Brazil.
COPYRIGHT 1996 The Christian Century Foundation
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The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, established in Brazil in 1977 by 'Bishop' Edir Macedo, has expanded to 40 countries and has built a vast economic empire in less than two decades. Leaders of the church are under investigation for ties to Colombian drug money and for tax fraud.
A NEW AND UNIQUE church accused of igniting holy war, consorting with the Colombian drug mafia and swindling. its own members has emerged in Latin America and swept onto five continents in less than two decades.
In late 1995 the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God gained center stage in Brazil as it clashed with the Catholic Church and the Globo TV Network, the world's fourth largest, in an attempt to increase its already considerable economic, political and religious power. Brazilian authorities are now scrutinizing its activities. Founded in Brazil in 1977, the Universal Church has hundreds of temples in some 40 countries, including the U.S. In recent years it has opened churches for Spanish-speaking communities in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Chicago, San Diego and other U.S. cities. In Brazil the UC has 3 million members, 2,1400 temples and 7,000 pastors. It draws crowds that rival those for Pope John Paul II, who has twice visited Brazil, a predominantly Catholic nation of 160 million people. The UC has also rapidly built a vast economic empire. It owns Brazil's third largest television network (with 25 outlets), 35 radio stations, two mass-circulation newspapers, a university, a bank and other businesses. The Brazilian press has reported that worldwide the UC takes in as much as $1 billion a year in tithes alone, making it,one of the biggest financial operations in Latin America.
UC's rags-to-riches founder, the self-appointed "Bishop" Edir Macedo, was investigated in the early 1990s for alleged links to Colombian drug traffickers suspected of supplying $1 million for the church's $45 million cash purchase of its first TV outlet. UC pastors and their wives allegedly flew to Colombia in a private jet and carried the money back to Brazil in their underwear. The government suspended the case when a dissident UC pastor backed away from his testimony after meeting with Macedo. In 1992 Macedo briefly went to jail on other charges. Since then he has lived mainly in New York. He also has a home in Los Angeles.
Last September Macedo and his pastors declared a religious war against the widely watched Globo Network and its billionaire owner Roberto Marinho after the network began airing a mini-series called Decadence, about a corrupt pastor who resembles the UC head. A traditional Catholic and supporter of the status quo, the octogenarian Marinho views the Universal Church's rise as a threat to his own multimedia empire. The conflict escalated into a national uproar when UC televangelist Sergio Von Helde kicked and punched a statue of Our Lady of Aparecida, the widely revered patroness of Brazil, on her October 12 national holiday. "Can God, who created the universe, be compared to such an ugly, horrible and disgraced doll?" Von Helde asked his audience. "God ordered me to say what I said," he later claimed.
Macedo removed Von Helde and apologized to Catholics. However, during a sermon in Buenos Aires he called Catholics "stupid" and "crazy" for worshiping images. The Catholic Church promotes the image of Mary because it is lucrative, " Macedo charged later in a rare interview. He assailed the Catholic Church on a number of issues, including its defense of celibacy and its opposition to abortion. He also termed women dangerous and AIDS the work of the devil.
Macedo wants to compete with the Globo Network and has discovered that the best way is through religious polarization," said Caio Fabio D'Araujo Filho, a Presbyterian minister, president of the Brazilian Evangelical Association and a critic of the UC. "He wants to establish a Macedian theocracy where he will be the Khomeini of the nation." Globo whipped the country into a media frenzy with ample coverage of Von Helde's attack. It provoked a further storm by playing a UC tape in which Macedo gleefully counts donations and tells his pastors how to extract more money from church members. UC pastors accused Globo of manipulating the tape but did not deny its authenticity.
CATHOLIC BISHOPS advised calm but criticized the UC and moved to rally support for their church. Catholicism has lost its monopoly over religious life in Brazil, though it retains quasi-official status. "The Catholic bishops must not remain silent before this aggression," declared Cardinal Lucas Moreira Neves, head of Brazil's National Conference of Bishops and frequently mentioned as a possible successor to John Paul II. He reported that the pontiff was "shocked" by the Von Helde incident. The growth of the Universal Church is worrisome because it is exploiting the faith of the least-informed individuals," said the moderate Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider, one of Brazil's most respected prelates and recently named archbishop of Aparecida. "If we insult Mary, we insult God. Let us defend our faith," he stated in a sermon before 30,000 people at the sanctuary of Our lady of Aparecida. In Rio de Janeiro Cardinal Eugenio Sales, the Brazilian church's most powerful voice in the Vatican, led more than 50,000 people in a mass dedicated to Mary. Protestant, Jewish and other religious leaders also criticized the UC for religious intolerance. In Rio one UC temple was stoned and two others received bomb threats, while in Brasilia someone tried to set a UC church on fire.
The conflict quickly took on political dimensions. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, an atheist, expressed-concern about it. Sergio Motta, the minister of communications, considered canceling the UCs broadcast license. Noting that Aparecida is the only black saint in this nation of dark-skinned people, Congressman Paulo Paim of the Workers' Party accused the UC of racism.
After its annual New Year's distribution of plastic swords to the faithful, the Universal Church organized a day of marches to protest the "campaign of persecution promoted by the Globo Network." Tens of thousands of UC followers took part in Rio, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Curitiba and Manaus. UC pastors and bishops took care to praise President Cardoso and to pray for Motta and Minister of justice Nelson Jobim. "We hope that God guides the president of the Republic to act with impartiality We don't want war, we want liberty," said Bishop Paulo Rodrigues Guimaraes.
Since the October 12 incident major newspapers and magazines have printed scores of negative articles on the church, including stories concerning political connections at the highest levels. One major revelation attributed Macedo's and the UCs success to protection provided by the administration of President Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992 on charges of massive corruption. Other articles discussed how Cardoso and top leaders of his centrist Brazilian Social Democratic Party sought electoral support from UC pastors. The UC has usually backed conservatives such as Collor, but as its influence has grown, moderates have also appealed to it for votes.
Macedo and the UC have increasingly flexed political muscle. The church already has six men in Congress. One of them introduced a bill to repeal the October 12 national holiday. In Rio, State Representative Carlos Mine of the Workers' Party accused Governor Marcello Alencar, a member of Cardoso's party, of cutting an electoral deal that gave the UC a cabinet position and the power to put hundreds of church followers in state jobs. Minc also blocked a proposal by UC state representatives to use tax money to build new temples (a privilege once enjoyed by the Catholic Church, which received public funds to help build the Aparecida sanctuary in the 1950s).
MACEDO AND his pastors aim to nm 500 UC candidates in the October nationwide city council elections in a bid to become Brazil's largest nonCatholic church by the year 2000. The Assemblies of God currently leads with some 13 million members. UC leaders have also proposed an alliance with evangelicals against the Catholic Church. They want to back influential Baptist pastor Nilson Fanini as a candidate in the 1998 presidential election. In a newspaper interview Fanini played down earlier Baptist criticism of the UC and praised the church's work. "We have seen so many people get out of the gutter, stop drinking, cast aside vices and immorality. Many lives have been transformed," he said. A Fanini candidacy could anger the Catholic hierarchy and reinforce Macedo's strategy of confrontation. Macedo himself is also a potential candidate.
As the controversy over the UC has mounted, numerous government agencies have taken action against the church. Geraldo Brindeiro, the permanent special federal prosecutor, ordered a probe into the UC. The central bank and internal revenue service are reviewing the finances of almost all UC pastors in what one newspaper termed "the biggest fiscal and financial inquiry" in those agencies' history. Macedo and his pastors are suspected of illegally transferring funds to overseas temples and maintaining links to drug traffickers. Revenue officials say that he and others must pay millions in back taxes on church funds diverted to personal use. "No matter who it is, religious activity should not produce riches from one day to the next," Brindeiro commented, comparing the Brazilian inquiry to the U.S. prosecution of Korean Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon in the 1980s. "The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but not in order to manipulate the population to obtain undue advantage."
State prosecutors in Rio and Brazil's Federal Police are looking into other allegations, such as money laundering. Still another prosecutor suggested that the courts could shut down UC temples to stop pastors from bilking the faithful. UC lawyers thwarted a similar measure several years ago. Former church members have sued for the return of tens of thousands of dollars in property. One woman gave $12,000 in exchange for a tithing diploma purportedly signed by Jesus. Macedo still faces 1991 charges of swindling, quackery and charlatanism.
Argentina and Portugal have already moved to block the UC's further expansion. Brindeiro announced that he would send the U.S. justice Department a dossier on the church. Whether the U.S. will take action is unclear. An investigator in the department's international division stated that he knew nothing of the matter. The Brazilian Federal Police have requested that Interpol, the international police agency, investigate the church in the U.S. and seven other countries. However, an employee at Interpol in Washington, D.C., noted that the agency's constitution prohibits it from investigating religious organizations. An FBI spokesman said he knew little about the UC. He added that while the FBI would be responsible for probing a foreign church, it does not comment on its investigations.
NO DOUBT MANY view Bishop Macedo as the leader of an army of unsavory Nonetheless, he has displayed brilliance in marketing his religion and winning adherents. He has discovered an effective combination of emotion, culture and social empowerment and matched these to people's deepest fears and aspirations. It is a formula that is complex in its main components but simple and direct in its appeal. Not surprisingly, in Brazil the UCs followers come from the poorest sectors--people with little formal education who face chronic unemployment, low wages, and long lines at public health clinics and who lack adequate social or religious structures for addressing such problems as marital strife and drug and alcohol abuse. These people stand at the margins of Brazilian society, with practically no chance of ever advancing into the middle class or gaining even the smallest voice in politics. They may yearn for the glamorous consumer lifestyle pushed daily by the conservative Globo Network, but for them it will remain only a dream.
The Universal Church offers hope. While Globo, the progressive wing of the Catholic Church, politicians and a spate of nongovernmental organizations have been busy promoting their own agendas, the UC addresses poor people's problems in their own language. As one research report demonstrated, the majority of UC members believe in the church's basic slogan: "Pare de sofrer", or "Stop suffering." Over the airwaves and in the temples UC followers reinforce this message with ample testimony about cures, sudden affluence and other benefits.
But the UCs success is more than just a story of responding to immediate needs. It is also rooted in Brazil's highly diverse and adaptive culture. One facet of Macedo's religion is undoubtedly Christian. The words "Jesus Christ is the Lord" emblazon the back wall of UC churches. Love of Jesus is a central part of UC theology. Citation of the Bible is common.
The Universal Church demonizes the spirit world of the Afro-Brazilian religions that are accepted in varying degrees by millions, but in doing so it implicitly acknowledges that world. African beliefs have survived centuries of opposition from the Catholic Church and European cultural norms that operated in tandem with slavery. Out of these divergent influences emerged Umbanda--a syncretic mixture of Candomble (known in the U.S. as Santeria), Roman Catholicism, and Kardecist spiritualism in which practitioners often enter into a trance and receive spirits. Also containing elements of Amerindian religion, Umbanda is uniquely Brazilian and nationalistic in its origins.
THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH is both a negation and a distorted reflection of Umbanda and other Afro-Brazilian religions. In fact, Macedo himself is an ex-Umbandista and an ex-catholic. He first used confrontational tactics by invading the sacred sites of Afro-Brazilian religions, destroying their images and seeking followers among disillusioned believers. The attack on Our Lady of Aparecida was an extension of this old strategy. To this religious mix the UC adds ingredients of Pentecostalism, such as an emphasis on the Holy Spirit and healing. It also contains elements of Catholicism-for instance, a highly organized hierarchical structure with bishops under the strong rule of Macedo, who is the equivalent of a pope.
Lumping the UC success in the category of "Protestant growth," as so many re ports have done, is thus inaccurate. The UC both intersects with and is distinct from Umbanda, Catholicism and Protestantism. As Caio Fabio put it, the UC is "the first product of syncretism to emerge among Brazilian evangelicals. It is a Christian version of macumba [a pejorative term for Afro-Brazilian religions]." Such contradictions do not matter in a culture that is the historical product of three continents. "We do not orient ourselves according to a European or American evangelical tradition," said one UC pastor. "We start from the faith, principles and religious practice of the people. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is the daughter of the people."
Donations flow almost naturally. According to researchers, the pastors preach the biblical obligation of tithing, but their message is bolstered by the fact that most UC members have participated in Umbanda and Candomble, in which it is customary to pay for ceremonial items. Like the old Catholic practice of indulgence, tithing is stressed as a payment in exchange for favors from God.
Rather than harm it, the recent controversy is likely to strengthen the UC. "[Its members] see this as persecution, which has been present in afl religions' history of consolidation," said Maria das Dores Campos Machado, a sociologist and observer of the UC. "Bishop Macedo is not your common pastor. He is competing for hegemony and is not alone in his struggle."
I first attended a UC service in the Botafogo district of Rio de Janeiro. Botafogo's middle-class high-rise apartments stand below the tall Corcovado peak where the famous Christ the Redeemer statue, a symbol of Brazil's Roman Catholic heritage, spreads it arms. On a slope between the Corcovado and Botafogo lies a large favela named Santa Marta. Like other shantytowns it is not mentioned on tourist maps. Santa Marta recently made headlines when Rio officials became indignant at movie director Spike Lee and Michael Jackson's recent visit to the favela to tape a videoclip on poverty. More customary in the area are the reports of violence by drug traffickers (who often deal to the well-off). Several years ago a dump for bodies of murder victims was found near Santa Marta. I remember thinking that the humbly dressed faithful who filled the seats at the Botafogo temple, one of many old movie houses bought up by the UC in its accelerating expansion, must have come from Santa Marta or another of a myriad of poor areas.
Hundreds of people filled the seats. The pastor called for witnesses to testify to the changes in their lives after joining the church. One by one about a dozen individuals ascended the altar to tell of defeating alcoholism, drugs, homosexuality and other difficulties. The theme of the service typified the UC: exorcism. The church preaches that ills and misfortunes are caused by the devil and wicked spirits. With eerie music blaring, the pastor spoke about these evils. All were asked to close their eyes and lower their heads. A few dozen obreiros, young male and female workers" dressed in drab uniforms, stationed themselves throughout the temple or paced up and down the aisle, at times whispering to worshipers to obey the rules.
A FEW ROWS AHEAD a slight Afro-Brazilian woman began to manifest the convulsive fits of an individual going into a trance. Obreiros ran to her and held her, and one of them placed his hands on her head and prayed for the evil spirit to leave. She eventually came out of the trance. The obreiros circulated intensively, looking for others who might be possessed. The pastor stirred the congregation into near-hysteria. "Sai! Get out!" he shouted over and over again, exhorting the people to repeat his orders against the devil. "Get out!" We all turned around to face the rear doors of the church, using our arms to push out the devil. "Get out! Get out! Get out!" we repeated over and over. When this mass exorcism reached a crescendo of emotion, the pastor proclaimed that we had victoriously expelled the devil from the temple and our lives. We clapped as triumphant music filled the room.
After the controversy over UC exploded in Brazil last year, I decided to study the UCs methods in San Diego. The flexibility of Brazilian culture has helped the Universal Church achieve an historic turnabout for Latin America: after absorbing foreign spiritual influences for centuries, the area is now exporting its own unique religion. I wanted to see how the UC appealed to the southern California immigrant and Latino poor. After all, though these people share with Brazilians a Catholic heritage and the problems of poverty, they do not include African spiritism in their belief system. lake the seven other UC temples in southern California, the recently opened church in National City was once a movie theater. (Macedo is also planning a temple for the heart of movieland in Hollywood.) Except for the Spanish lettering announcing that "Jesus Christ is the Lord," the building appears unchanged. One area businessman thought it was a Spanish-language movie house. Some 350 people of all ages attended the service. The majority were women, and everyone seemed to be of Latin American origin and of humble status.
THE TWO-HOUR-15-MINUTE Sunday observance was subdued and showed little novelty compared to the Brazilian version. But the UC marketing strategy was clearly at work. Bishop Ronaldo Sales, a Brazilian, skillfully sought to build an emotional bond with the congregation, leading them in rather maudlin songs about the love of Jesus and even crying. At other times he had us clap loudly to thank Jesus. The women especially looked up to the bishop, even helping him with his Spanish. When I revisited the temple a month later for a Friday afternoon service, women waited to pray with him individually and have him lay hands on their heads. Bishop Sales blended beliefs and practices to appeal to the familiar in people's culture and circumstances. This included a dose of Catholicity that has marked the, UCs strategy in San Diego. Completely avoiding the confrontational tactics used in Brazil, the bishop did not even mention the Virgin of Guadalupe. Instead he subtly distinguished the UC from Catholicism and other Christian traditions.
One example was the way the church conducted a communion service. Ob-reiros distributed small cups of wine and chunks of bread to everybody. Bishop Sales then read verses pertaining to the Last Supper, and several times he referred to the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. He invited us to take communion in unison. Unlike other churches, he said, here nobody asks if a person has been baptized. Nor is a First Communion required. Sales preached similarly on baptism. Calling the people down to hear him "at the feet of Jesus," he said that although infant baptism has a legitimate social significance, it has no spiritual value. Only an adult can choose, he said. Significantly, he added that baptism or any other religious act is never for a particular church or leader, whether it be the pope, Baptists or even the Universal Church. It is for Christ.
Underlying this eclectic religiosity was the UCs slogan: "Stop suffering." This message is highly effective among people who, while perhaps not as bad off as the residents of Santa Marta in Brazil, nevertheless sit at the bottom of the social pyramid in a state where anti-immigrant sentiment has soared and not all can afford health care. Sales spoke frequently of problems such as marital difficulties, children and illnesses but also unemployment and the need for migration papers. He assured the congregation that God would resolve such problemas.
In UC services witnesses speak of blessings and miracles: families reunited, addicts recovered, work found, tumors disappeared, a gang member turned pastor. Satan is blamed for sickness and misfortune. The church distributes holy oils and a holy water that believers say has cured them of cancer and other maladies. In San Diego the UC publicizes these miracles on three TV stations, on radio and in the pages of a weekly newspaper. In addition, each daily service deals with a theme. The theme for Tuesday, for example, is the sick; Wednesday, addicts; Friday, victims of witchcraft; and Sunday, miracles.
Along with health, "prosperity" is a core concern. Bishop Sales began and ended his service with the promise that the unemployed would find work, and he frequently mentioned economic hardships. There is nothing wrong with wanting prosperity, he stressed. Monday services concentrate on the "prosperity of businessmen," while Saturday, the day of "economic blessings," focuses on legal difficulties, unemployment, debt and bankruptcy. The UC newspaper has drawings of coins, money bags and dollar signs. One ad asks: "Do you want your own home? To own your own business? Do you wish to prosper?" Witnesses and articles tell of financial windfalls. Although the UC says entrance to its observances is "totally free," its pastors stress tithing and other offerings. When Sales called for donations, about two thirds of the congregation walked to the stage to hand in envelopes printed with a large blue number ten and-the biblical exhortation "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Again assuring the unemployed that they would find work, he gave a traditional exhortation on tithing as an obligation to God. When he asked who would bring their tithes next time, many hands went up. Many also bought small hymnals sold by the obreiros for $5. At the end of the service Sales called for additional contributions to help pay for the church's expenses. A large number of people again went to the front to place bills in red felt sacks held by assistants. The bishop suggested $100 but said any amount would be acceptable.
THE CATHOLIC clergy of the diocese of San Diego have little knowledge of the Universal Church, although some priests reported that several of their parishioners had been attracted to it. "All I know is that some of our people go to the healing services there. It is something that we need to look at a little bit more closely," acknowledged Father Henry Rodriguez of St. Jude's Shrine parish, located a mile and a half from the National City UC. "We encourage people to keep coming to our own services here, rather than confuse themselves. "
For Father Dennis Mikulanis, head of ecumenical relations for the diocese, the UC is not unlike some of the storefront churches that have cropped up to cater to the city?s large latino community. "Their leaders abscond with tons of money. It's nothing unique to Brazil or Hispanic groups. Look at the Bakkers," he said. "They do what they accuse the Catholic Church of, which is trying to buy their way into heaven. It's cheap, easy grace. There's no commitment, there's no discipline there." He added that if the UC tried to malign the Virgin of Guadalupe, "there would be an outrage. . . . They would expose themselves as people of hate, not of love."
I DON'T THINK THAT people are looking for a new religion," said Bishop Gilbert Chavez, a native of southern California with 17 years' experience in San Diego who learned about the UC from its TV broadcasts. "As far as I know, there are a lot of people that do attend, but they are mostly looking for cures, because that's what they see on television." He added that some have complained of "high pressure" tactics to buy Bibles and other religious material. "Here in the U.S. there are many things that draw people away from faith, not only. other religions but a secular life that emphasizes a faithless way of living." Chavez said. "I think these religions even help people to have faith, and eventually they will come back to the church. In time of need they go to these places. It's like a competitive business. It helps us to figure out that we're not doing as good a job as we could. It makes us aware that we should be helping people to develop their faith."
Despite the flood of reports in recent months, much of the UCs operation remains a mystery. How it recruits and transfers pastors across borders and handles its funds are only two of the many unanswered questions. Bishop Sales in San Diego and representatives at UC headquarters in Los Angeles and New York refused to be interviewed for this article. Sales's Spanish assistant would talk only about the Bible and his own conversion and refused to give his name. In Brazil much information about the UCs internal workings comes from dissident pastors and disgruntled former members. The church refuses to cooperate with academic researchers. In the city of Belo Horizonte pastors warned their followers that local Catholics were conspiring against the UC because journalism students from the Catholic university had observed UC services. One graduate student waiting to see a pastor sat for hours with an armed guard standing by. "Edir Macedo's people are determined to get what they want no matter what the price, and that is dangerous, " said Renato Suhett, a former UC pastor.
What is clear is that people go to the Universal Church to satisfy their needs. One first-time churchgoer told me he had lost his job and had come to the UC because of its promises of prosperity. I watched an old woman who had difficulty walking smile after a pastor prayed with her and encouraged her to go up and down the stairs to the stage. In the faces of others I saw contentment as they gave over their tithes. If nothing else, the UC provides the poor and outcast with hope. Its critics say that it preys on the ignorant. As the gap between rich and poor grows in the U.S. and elsewhere, the UC will find opportunity ripe.
Ken Serbin teaches Latin American history at the University of San Diego and frequently visits Brazil.
COPYRIGHT 1996 The Christian Century Foundation
This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.
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Pennyworth
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Excerpt from above...
Since the October 12 incident major newspapers and magazines have printed scores of negative articles on the church, including stories concerning political connections at the highest levels. One major revelation attributed Macedo's and the UCs success to protection provided by the administration of President Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992 on charges of massive corruption. Other articles discussed how Cardoso and top leaders of his centrist Brazilian Social Democratic Party sought electoral support from UC pastors. The UC has usually backed conservatives such as Collor, but as its influence has grown, moderates have also appealed to it for votes.
Macedo and the UC have increasingly flexed political muscle. The church already has six men in Congress. One of them introduced a bill to repeal the October 12 national holiday. In Rio, State Representative Carlos Mine of the Workers' Party accused Governor Marcello Alencar, a member of Cardoso's party, of cutting an electoral deal that gave the UC a cabinet position and the power to put hundreds of church followers in state jobs. Minc also blocked a proposal by UC state representatives to use tax money to build new temples (a privilege once enjoyed by the Catholic Church, which received public funds to help build the Aparecida sanctuary in the 1950s).
Macedo and the UC have increasingly flexed political muscle. The church already has six men in Congress. One of them introduced a bill to repeal the October 12 national holiday. In Rio, State Representative Carlos Mine of the Workers' Party accused Governor Marcello Alencar, a member of Cardoso's party, of cutting an electoral deal that gave the UC a cabinet position and the power to put hundreds of church followers in state jobs. Minc also blocked a proposal by UC state representatives to use tax money to build new temples (a privilege once enjoyed by the Catholic Church, which received public funds to help build the Aparecida sanctuary in the 1950s).
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Pennyworth
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The church Satan established is a universal church.....
Oct 15 - What Is A Church and Why Did Jesus Start It?The church Jesus established is a local assembly of saved, scripturally baptized people. The church Satan established is a universal church that never meets ...
independencebaptist.org/Sermon%20Outlines/2003/oct%2015.htm - 18k - Cached - Similar pages
independencebaptist.org/Sermon%20Outlines/2003/oct%2015.htm - 18k - Cached - Similar pages
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Pennyworth
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Re: The church Satan established is a universal church.....
Paul Pennyworth wrote:Oct 15 - What Is A Church and Why Did Jesus Start It?The church Jesus established is a local assembly of saved, scripturally baptized people. The church Satan established is a universal church that never meets ...independencebaptist.org/Sermon%20Outlines/2003/oct%2015.htm - 18k - Cached - Similar pages
Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Some people claim that Jesus Christ didn’t start His kind of church, but that isn’t what this verse says. It is clear that Jesus is God and that God is the Rock of Ages, not Peter or some other man. Anybody that tells you the church of Jesus Christ was started on the Day of Pentecost is either sadly mistaken, or is an outright deceiver. The Bible clearly states that Jesus will build His kind of church.
But the question this morning is not who started the church that Jesus built, but why did He start it?
A church, and being a member and a part of the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ is very important. God knows it, that is why Christ organized his kind of church during His personal ministry. Satan knows it, that is why he has caused so much confusion about what the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is and which church is the right church to join and be a part of.
Why is there so much confusion about which church is the right church? Because Satan knows where the power is, and Satan desires saved people to lack the power to properly worship and serve God. Satan has filled this world with false ideas about the church.
Listen, have you ever heard this statement - "One church is as good as another"? One church is not as good as another. Is one job the same as another? Is one car the same as another? Is one house the same as another? Is one doctor the same as another? Is one operation the same as another? (Operations are different - If I need an ingrown toenail removed, I don’t want brain surgery! If I have a heart attack, I don’t want to go to the dentist for a tooth exam.) Is one kind of medicine the same as all the other kinds? (If you have a headache, you need medicine for a headache. You don’t need medicine for polio.) Is one preacher the same as another? Is one pastor the same as another? Of course not. All things are different from all other things. That is why there are so many kinds of things. Churches are different, but God is the same.
Why are churches different? And why are there so many different kinds of churches in this world? Because Satan is the author of confusion. Satan knows that He can’t get God’s people to be lost once they are truly saved. He knows he can’t get the souls of saved people, but he knows he can get their lives. He knows he can cause a lot of confusion in the lives of saved people. Satan knows there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth. There is joy in the presence of God, great contentment, lasting pleasure and endless happiness. Satan knows he cannot stop the church of the Lord Jesus Christ from continuing, because that is based on the promises of God, so he has decided to establish his own kind of church.
The church Jesus established is a local assembly of saved, scripturally baptized people. The church Satan established is a universal church that never meets together. Jesus knows His children need companionship with other believers. Satan knows that too. Jesus knows that believers find strength to fight Satan from other believers. Deut 32:30,31 states, "How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? 31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." Because there is so much strength in believers gathering together to worship God and share with one another how God has blessed them, Satan does all he can do stop this fellowship. He has created his own universal invisible or universal visible church where believers cannot assemble.
Some folks will say, "I, or our church, believe in the local assembly, but we also believe in the big universal church." There are some people who say this, but have you ever noticed which is these two churches is the most important? The local assembly is never as important as the big universal church, right? Isn’t it true that the local assembly must always give in to the demands of the "big" church?
I only have time for one example of the power that is available when God’s children assemble together. Acts 4:23 - Peter and John, by the power of God, have healed the lame man by the gate beautiful. They have been brought before the Pharisees and Scribes of the land, where they have been threatened with physical harm if they don’t stop preaching and healing in the name of Jesus Christ. Notice in verse 24-30 the reaction and subsequent prayer of the church. Verse 31 records that they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke the Word of God with boldness.
Why is all this confusion going on about which church is the right church? Because Satan knows the strength individual saved, scripturally baptized people can have when they assembly with each other. Satan understands the fellowship of believers is greatest in a local assembly.
How can I tell if a church is one of the kind of churches established by Jesus Christ? Now listen, the church Jesus build during His own personal ministry didn’t start at Pentecost. This is one way you can tell if a church is a true church or not. If a church claims to have started on the Day of Pentecost, they are actually saying they were not started by Jesus Christ during His own personal ministry. And Matthew 16:18 says that Jesus will build His own church, and that He will keep that church alive and well until the rapture.
Christ has started His kind of church, during His own personal ministry, and has promised this kind of church a continued existence until He comes back at the rapture.
A church is a special kind of assembly of saved, scripturally baptized people who have covenanted together by the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God for the explicit purpose of worshipping and glorifying God, who is their eternal Saviour.
It is not a building. Some folks say, "I am going to the church" when they actually mean they are going to the church building.
There can be a church without a building.
There can be a church without a pastor.
There can be a preacher who is not a pastor, but there can’t be a pastor without a church. A pastor must have a church.
A church is an assembly. Without an assembly, there is no church.
A church is a special kind of assembly. Not every assembly is a church. Some assemblies are simply family gatherings. Other assemblies are business related, or recreational related. A church is a special kind of assembly of saved, scripturally baptized people who have covenanted together by the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God for the explicit purpose of worshipping and glorifying God, who is their eternal Saviour.
How many different organizations are built around the church? BBF MBF BFM SBC ABA MBA. All of these organizations are supposed to help the church, but these organizations can’t even hold themselves together. The church is the pillare and ground of the truth, no man made organization can hold that place.
Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Some people claim that Jesus Christ didn’t start His kind of church, but that isn’t what this verse says. It is clear that Jesus is God and that God is the Rock of Ages, not Peter or some other man. Anybody that tells you the church of Jesus Christ was started on the Day of Pentecost is either sadly mistaken, or is an outright deceiver. The Bible clearly states that Jesus will build His kind of church.
But the question this morning is not who started the church that Jesus built, but why did He start it?
A church, and being a member and a part of the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ is very important. God knows it, that is why Christ organized his kind of church during His personal ministry. Satan knows it, that is why he has caused so much confusion about what the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is and which church is the right church to join and be a part of.
Why is there so much confusion about which church is the right church? Because Satan knows where the power is, and Satan desires saved people to lack the power to properly worship and serve God. Satan has filled this world with false ideas about the church.
Listen, have you ever heard this statement - "One church is as good as another"? One church is not as good as another. Is one job the same as another? Is one car the same as another? Is one house the same as another? Is one doctor the same as another? Is one operation the same as another? (Operations are different - If I need an ingrown toenail removed, I don’t want brain surgery! If I have a heart attack, I don’t want to go to the dentist for a tooth exam.) Is one kind of medicine the same as all the other kinds? (If you have a headache, you need medicine for a headache. You don’t need medicine for polio.) Is one preacher the same as another? Is one pastor the same as another? Of course not. All things are different from all other things. That is why there are so many kinds of things. Churches are different, but God is the same.
Why are churches different? And why are there so many different kinds of churches in this world? Because Satan is the author of confusion. Satan knows that He can’t get God’s people to be lost once they are truly saved. He knows he can’t get the souls of saved people, but he knows he can get their lives. He knows he can cause a lot of confusion in the lives of saved people. Satan knows there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth. There is joy in the presence of God, great contentment, lasting pleasure and endless happiness. Satan knows he cannot stop the church of the Lord Jesus Christ from continuing, because that is based on the promises of God, so he has decided to establish his own kind of church.
The church Jesus established is a local assembly of saved, scripturally baptized people. The church Satan established is a universal church that never meets together. Jesus knows His children need companionship with other believers. Satan knows that too. Jesus knows that believers find strength to fight Satan from other believers. Deut 32:30,31 states, "How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? 31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." Because there is so much strength in believers gathering together to worship God and share with one another how God has blessed them, Satan does all he can do stop this fellowship. He has created his own universal invisible or universal visible church where believers cannot assemble.
Some folks will say, "I, or our church, believe in the local assembly, but we also believe in the big universal church." There are some people who say this, but have you ever noticed which is these two churches is the most important? The local assembly is never as important as the big universal church, right? Isn’t it true that the local assembly must always give in to the demands of the "big" church?
I only have time for one example of the power that is available when God’s children assemble together. Acts 4:23 - Peter and John, by the power of God, have healed the lame man by the gate beautiful. They have been brought before the Pharisees and Scribes of the land, where they have been threatened with physical harm if they don’t stop preaching and healing in the name of Jesus Christ. Notice in verse 24-30 the reaction and subsequent prayer of the church. Verse 31 records that they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke the Word of God with boldness.
Why is all this confusion going on about which church is the right church? Because Satan knows the strength individual saved, scripturally baptized people can have when they assembly with each other. Satan understands the fellowship of believers is greatest in a local assembly.
How can I tell if a church is one of the kind of churches established by Jesus Christ? Now listen, the church Jesus build during His own personal ministry didn’t start at Pentecost. This is one way you can tell if a church is a true church or not. If a church claims to have started on the Day of Pentecost, they are actually saying they were not started by Jesus Christ during His own personal ministry. And Matthew 16:18 says that Jesus will build His own church, and that He will keep that church alive and well until the rapture.
Christ has started His kind of church, during His own personal ministry, and has promised this kind of church a continued existence until He comes back at the rapture.
A church is a special kind of assembly of saved, scripturally baptized people who have covenanted together by the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God for the explicit purpose of worshipping and glorifying God, who is their eternal Saviour.
It is not a building. Some folks say, "I am going to the church" when they actually mean they are going to the church building.
There can be a church without a building.
There can be a church without a pastor.
There can be a preacher who is not a pastor, but there can’t be a pastor without a church. A pastor must have a church.
A church is an assembly. Without an assembly, there is no church.
A church is a special kind of assembly. Not every assembly is a church. Some assemblies are simply family gatherings. Other assemblies are business related, or recreational related. A church is a special kind of assembly of saved, scripturally baptized people who have covenanted together by the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God for the explicit purpose of worshipping and glorifying God, who is their eternal Saviour.
How many different organizations are built around the church? BBF MBF BFM SBC ABA MBA. All of these organizations are supposed to help the church, but these organizations can’t even hold themselves together. The church is the pillare and ground of the truth, no man made organization can hold that place.
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Pennyworth
- Posts: 2931
- Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm
Anna Climbie murder.....
The Anna Climbie Murder: The church that `drives evil from the
Independent, The (London), Jan 13, 2001 by Mary Braid
AT TIMES, evidence in the trial of Marie Therese Kouao and Carl Manning seemed to have come straight from the film The Exorcist. One pastor from the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), in north London, said eight-year-Anna was "possessed" and ran down the aisle during a service, screaming: "Prayer doesn't help". Manning told the Old Bailey that Kouao had coached Anna to make the run.
Another pastor, Alvero Lima, 21, told the Old Bailey that Anna had said a snake came to her in her dreams and told her to wet and soil herself and injure her own body. "She named this snake," he said. "She said it was Satan." Anna also said she hated him because he was going to pray for her.
Mr Lima admitted he thought the child, subjected to months of brutal abuse by Kouao and Manning, was "possessed". He offered to drive the Devil out at one of the UCKG's weekly Friday "deliverance" services, where the church offers strong prayer to "destroy witchcraft, devil possession, bad luck, bad dreams and spiritual problems".
Mr Lima claimed he had driven out evil before. He just could not remember how many times, he told the court. He said he felt no responsibility for Anna's death.
Manning's defence barrister, Nigel Rumfitt, questioned another pastor, Pat Mensah, from the Joy Baptist Church in Harlesden, north- west London, about her response when Kouao told her Anna's "witchcraft" made her wet herself. "This was London 1999 and a woman was talking about a child behaving like this because of witchcraft," he said. "Why didn't you say that is ridiculous, see a doctor?"
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Ms Mensah said she did not believe it was nonsense. She told the unstable, violent Kouao to pray, and believe in God, and eventually recommended she attend the UCKG.
Ms Mensah was one of the last outsiders to see Anna alive. When she visited her at Manning's flat in Tottenham, north London, she had not seen Anna for months. By then the child was being beaten every day, and tied up naked in a bin bag in a metal bath. Ms Mensah says she noticed that Anna did not smile in the way she used to, but was "hostile and unfriendly".
At Kouao's invitation, members of the UCKG prayed round Anna's hospital bed, as she lay dying. Church members had also fasted and prayed for Anna in the week leading up to the exorcism, which was due the day she died.
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is controversial in its home country, Brazil, where it has millions of followers. Its founder, self- proclaimed "Bishop" Edir Macedo, was briefly jailed in 1992 on charges of fraud and illicit enrichment.
In 1995, Brazil's attorney general, Geraldo Brindeiro, ordered an investigation of the church and Mr Macedo, for alleged tax fraud, extortion and links with Colombia's cocaine barons.
Mr Macedo's former deputy, Carlos Magno, had also made a videotape of Mr Macedo and other pastors mocking their congregations as suckers and making obscene gestures.
More than pounds 1.3m a day is believed to pour into the coffers of the church, founded in 1977, and in more than 30 countries. It has extensive media, business, banking and sporting interests and is often spoken of as a business empire, rather than a religious organisation.
Mr Macedo is believed to live mostly in America. The church focuses heavily on healing and exorcism, and has gathered a large following since setting up in Britain. Its main church was in the Rainbow theatre, a former rock venue in north London, which the church bought for pounds 2.35m in 1995.
That year, the Advertising Standards Authority criticised it for advertising its services as combatant against demonic possession.
In a magazine advertisement, the church had claimed that headaches, depression, insomnia, back luck and disease were caused by demons. The ASA decided such claims could exploit "vulnerable people".
Ian Haworth, of the Cult Information Centre, says he has had complaints about the way the church operates. "It is a group about which we remain very concerned," he said.
Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest
Independent, The (London), Jan 13, 2001 by Mary Braid
AT TIMES, evidence in the trial of Marie Therese Kouao and Carl Manning seemed to have come straight from the film The Exorcist. One pastor from the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), in north London, said eight-year-Anna was "possessed" and ran down the aisle during a service, screaming: "Prayer doesn't help". Manning told the Old Bailey that Kouao had coached Anna to make the run.
Another pastor, Alvero Lima, 21, told the Old Bailey that Anna had said a snake came to her in her dreams and told her to wet and soil herself and injure her own body. "She named this snake," he said. "She said it was Satan." Anna also said she hated him because he was going to pray for her.
Mr Lima admitted he thought the child, subjected to months of brutal abuse by Kouao and Manning, was "possessed". He offered to drive the Devil out at one of the UCKG's weekly Friday "deliverance" services, where the church offers strong prayer to "destroy witchcraft, devil possession, bad luck, bad dreams and spiritual problems".
Mr Lima claimed he had driven out evil before. He just could not remember how many times, he told the court. He said he felt no responsibility for Anna's death.
Manning's defence barrister, Nigel Rumfitt, questioned another pastor, Pat Mensah, from the Joy Baptist Church in Harlesden, north- west London, about her response when Kouao told her Anna's "witchcraft" made her wet herself. "This was London 1999 and a woman was talking about a child behaving like this because of witchcraft," he said. "Why didn't you say that is ridiculous, see a doctor?"
Advertisement
Ms Mensah said she did not believe it was nonsense. She told the unstable, violent Kouao to pray, and believe in God, and eventually recommended she attend the UCKG.
Ms Mensah was one of the last outsiders to see Anna alive. When she visited her at Manning's flat in Tottenham, north London, she had not seen Anna for months. By then the child was being beaten every day, and tied up naked in a bin bag in a metal bath. Ms Mensah says she noticed that Anna did not smile in the way she used to, but was "hostile and unfriendly".
At Kouao's invitation, members of the UCKG prayed round Anna's hospital bed, as she lay dying. Church members had also fasted and prayed for Anna in the week leading up to the exorcism, which was due the day she died.
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is controversial in its home country, Brazil, where it has millions of followers. Its founder, self- proclaimed "Bishop" Edir Macedo, was briefly jailed in 1992 on charges of fraud and illicit enrichment.
In 1995, Brazil's attorney general, Geraldo Brindeiro, ordered an investigation of the church and Mr Macedo, for alleged tax fraud, extortion and links with Colombia's cocaine barons.
Mr Macedo's former deputy, Carlos Magno, had also made a videotape of Mr Macedo and other pastors mocking their congregations as suckers and making obscene gestures.
More than pounds 1.3m a day is believed to pour into the coffers of the church, founded in 1977, and in more than 30 countries. It has extensive media, business, banking and sporting interests and is often spoken of as a business empire, rather than a religious organisation.
Mr Macedo is believed to live mostly in America. The church focuses heavily on healing and exorcism, and has gathered a large following since setting up in Britain. Its main church was in the Rainbow theatre, a former rock venue in north London, which the church bought for pounds 2.35m in 1995.
That year, the Advertising Standards Authority criticised it for advertising its services as combatant against demonic possession.
In a magazine advertisement, the church had claimed that headaches, depression, insomnia, back luck and disease were caused by demons. The ASA decided such claims could exploit "vulnerable people".
Ian Haworth, of the Cult Information Centre, says he has had complaints about the way the church operates. "It is a group about which we remain very concerned," he said.
Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest
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Pennyworth
- Posts: 2931
- Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm
Re: Religious New World Order ....
Excerpt...
I first attended a UC service in the Botafogo district of Rio de Janeiro. Botafogo's middle-class high-rise apartments stand below the tall Corcovado peak where the famous Christ the Redeemer statue, a symbol of Brazil's Roman Catholic heritage, spreads it arms. On a slope between the Corcovado and Botafogo lies a large favela named Santa Marta. Like other shantytowns it is not mentioned on tourist maps. Santa Marta recently made headlines when Rio officials became indignant at movie director Spike Lee and Michael Jackson's recent visit to the favela to tape a videoclip on poverty. More customary in the area are the reports of violence by drug traffickers (who often deal to the well-off). Several years ago a dump for bodies of murder victims was found near Santa Marta. I remember thinking that the humbly dressed faithful who filled the seats at the Botafogo temple, one of many old movie houses bought up by the UC in its accelerating expansion, must have come from Santa Marta or another of a myriad of poor areas.
I first attended a UC service in the Botafogo district of Rio de Janeiro. Botafogo's middle-class high-rise apartments stand below the tall Corcovado peak where the famous Christ the Redeemer statue, a symbol of Brazil's Roman Catholic heritage, spreads it arms. On a slope between the Corcovado and Botafogo lies a large favela named Santa Marta. Like other shantytowns it is not mentioned on tourist maps. Santa Marta recently made headlines when Rio officials became indignant at movie director Spike Lee and Michael Jackson's recent visit to the favela to tape a videoclip on poverty. More customary in the area are the reports of violence by drug traffickers (who often deal to the well-off). Several years ago a dump for bodies of murder victims was found near Santa Marta. I remember thinking that the humbly dressed faithful who filled the seats at the Botafogo temple, one of many old movie houses bought up by the UC in its accelerating expansion, must have come from Santa Marta or another of a myriad of poor areas.
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Pennyworth
- Posts: 2931
- Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm
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Pennyworth
- Posts: 2931
- Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm
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Pennyworth
- Posts: 2931
- Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm
Re: NWO Universal Iglesia/Church locations.....
Paul Pennyworth wrote:http://www.centrodeayudacol.com/links_2007.htm
Check out the Mexican link as to where locations of the churches are in Mexico...
http://www.paredesufrir.com.mx/direcciones_int.htm
Even though Ciudad Juarez is the 4th largest city in Mexico, Universal Iglesia has not planted itself there....
Check out the Mexican link as to where locations of the churches are in Mexico...
http://www.paredesufrir.com.mx/direcciones_int.htm
Even though Ciudad Juarez is the 4th largest city in Mexico, Universal Iglesia has not planted itself there....