Venezuela curbs missionaries after Robertson spat

[steve2470]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26102822.htm

By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Venezuela's government has temporarily suspended permits for foreign missionaries after a U.S. evangelist said Washington should assassinate President Hugo Chavez.

The policy announcement came four days after conservative evangelist Pat Robertson said Washington should execute Chavez, a former soldier who often accuses the United States of plotting to kill him.

The chief of the Justice Ministry's religious affairs unit, Carlos Gonzalez, said on Friday authorization of good office permits for missionaries would be curbed while the government tightened regulations on preachers inside Venezuela.

The permits "are suspended for a short time, it could be three or four weeks, while we organize a system to see what additional data we need for people coming into the country to preach," Gonzalez told Reuters.


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[Selatius]

1. How ironic, fighting religious extremists coming into the country?

[GeorgeBushytail]

2. Curbing missionaries is always a good thing. Thanks, Pat!

[Bluebear]

3. Sounds right!

Good going, Pat. You have painted missionaries as possible assassins.

[pitohui]

4. sounds like a fair compromise

a lot better than the original idea of not letting any americanos visit at all

we are not all in the 700 club

[evilqueen]

5. LOL

Methinks the evangelicals are getting a bit of backlash.

[me b zola]

6. Makes sense.

After all, ya can't just let radical fundamentalist clerics just run nilly-willy in your country.

[Canuckistanian]

7. Oooo, now he's hit a nerve...

I read an article the other day speculating on just why Robertson said these disgusting words.

It wasn't about oil or socialism or thumbing his nose at the U.S.

It was about religion.

Apparently, there are 3 branches of Christianity battling it out in Central and South America - Conservative Catholicism, Liberation Theology and Protestantism.

Liberation Theology teaches that the Catholic Church should get involved in politics whenever the poor are being victimized.

This is not a popular theme in either the Catholic or Protestant churches these days.

And Robertson is a chief proponent of... guess what? Protestantism.

And this is being threatened by Hugo Chavez, whose message is, the people need to benefit from natural riches, not just the elites.

Ergo, the messenger must be destroyed, before he gets a foothold.

(And I guess a little profiteering on the side wouldn't hurt)

[Cats Against Frist]

8. If I'm not mistaken, it's not just "Protestantism"

but stadium-sized crowds of faith-healing, tounge-speaking Pentecostals. There is a huge war for the hearts and minds between the Catholic Church and this Pentacostal stuff -- there's liberation theology, too -- but, as you say, it's taken a hit.

I sat next to a big wig married couple for the Trinity broadcasting network, in Latin America, on the way back, from Costa Rica. They talked about how Costa Rica was so "nice," -- not with all the "dirty beggars" like in Nicaragua.

Good Christian love, 24/7.