Lausanne, Theology of Integral Mission and Israel
By Julio
Severo
The
Lausanne Movement was in full force in Brazil, April 2014, to discuss its most
important theological worry. No, no, their worry is not about Brazilian
theologians — all of them adherents of the Theology of Integral Mission (TIM) — who work together with the
ruling socialist Workers’ Party and its ideological campaign to advance its
anti-family agenda in Brazil.
According
to the Brazilian leftist Protestant magazine Ultimato, “45 specialists from 17
nations — prominent thinkers, ministers and professionals — gathered together
in Atibaia, SP (Brazil), from March 30—April 2 for the Lausanne Global
Consultation on Prosperity Theology, Poverty and the Gospel.”
The
consultation was headed by Valdir Steuernagel, a fervent TIM advocate. His
religious roots, as exposed by the Portuguese essay “Por que esconder a real intenção da
Teologia da Missão Integral?” (Why hide the Theology of Integral
Mission’s real intent?), go back to his denomination, the Evangelical Church of
Lutheran Confession, which embraces both the most radical variety of Christian
Marxism — Liberation Theology — and its hardly watered Protestant version, TIM.
The
second speech fell to Paul Freston, old TIM advocate. Freston, a former member
of the Workers’ Party, has always been a staunch PT opponent.
The
Portuguese essay “A maior ameaça à Igreja Evangélica do
Brasil” (The Most
Important Threat to the Brazilian Evangelical Church) explains why the most
prominent PT opponents are TIM theologians.
The
ruling Workers’ Party, in the person of Gilberto Carvalho, said that its most
important worry are neo-Pentecostal televangelists, whose PT basic message is
that the key supplier of all human needs should be God, as opposed to the
proposal that the Workers’ Party and other radical socialist movements want to
impose: government as a god supplier of all human needs.
These
two visions — God-Supplier versus Government-Supplier — are at the core of the
clash between socialists and neo-Pentecostals.
Carvalho,
as the chief minister in the General-Secretariat of the Presidency of the
Brazilian Republic, has a special friendly relationship with TIM theologians,
including Ariovaldo Ramos. The most important adviser to Carvalho for the
Workers’ Party administration in its relationship with the evangelical
community is the Presbyterian theologian Alexandre Brasil, who receives a
monthly wage of R$15,000 and has a classical pattern of TIM adherents: he has a
book against PT.
The
Global Consultation on Prosperity Theology also had a speech titled: “The New
Apostolic Reformation and Prosperity Theology.”
The
New Apostolic Reformation was founded by C. Peter Wagner, who in the 1st
Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974 confronted left-wing
theologians from Latin America who wanted to turn Lausanne into a platform for
the Marxist ideology.
The
central personality in the 1st Lausanne Congress was Billy Graham. Without him,
there would have been no Lausanne, but even he did not expect repercussion on
ideological level. When Graham perceived that the Protestant Left was trying to
co-opt everything, he stopped funding Lausanne, and it displeased Brazilian
Marxist Anglican Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, an old Ultimato columnist, who
openly charged that Lausanne was under a “hegemony from a conservative, white,
anti-WCC (World Council of Churches) and anti-socialist group,” etc. (Poor
Graham: white, Anglo-Saxon, conservative, etc!) Cavalcanti wanted Graham to
continue in the Lausanne movement to raise funds to advance the TIM revolution.
This revolution has been happening, but without Graham’s money and
participation. Valdir Steuernagel, a TIM leader, has said that today Lausanne
is much more TIM than ever. It is not, therefore, a movement with the Gospel’s
face, but with the face of an ideology.
For
his old opposition to the raging Left in Lausanne, even today C. Peter Wagner
is criticized by the Protestant Left, and even by the secular Left, which has been denouncing
his New Apostolic Reform.
Lausanne
has become a movement of the Protestant Left. And as usual for every left-wing
(secular or pseudo-Christian) movement, it sees neo-Pentecostals, especially
their PT, as the most important threat to the advance of socialism. Yet, with
theological tricks, the Protestant Left has changed slightly the rhetoric, by
saying that PT is a threat to the Gospel.
Socialism
in Lausanne is old. In the 1980s, Ultimato magazine was officially recommended
by Lausanne for Brazilians. It was the incipient left-wing Lausanne promoting
the Brazilian Protestant Left.
Today,
Lausanne and Ultimato advance in their socialism, though the so-called
“conservative” theological Presbyterian elite in Brazil, who have a fine relationship
with Ultimato and TIM leaders, have had a hard time to recognize TIM in
Lausanne or even in their own Presbyterian midst.
Ultimato
is Presbyterian and it has controversial Presbyterian columnists in its
magazine and publishing house, including Rev. Marcos Botelho, who had made the
strange point that Christians have a duty to fight for people’s right to commit
homosexual vices, and Rev. Rev. Luiz Longuini, a four-times divorced minister
in PCB (Presbyterian Church of Brazil) and author of a book defending TIM.
Another
Ultimato columnist, Marcos Amado, is the director for Latin America in the
Lausanne Movement, and he has been writing articles to deconstruct the
evangelical support for Israel. This deconstruction is a trend in the
Protestant Left around the world, often led and spurred by well-funded U.S.
Protestant groups.
Even
the left-wing Jewish-American billionaire George Soros has invested millions to make evangelical views
on Israel lesser positive. If I am asked how a Jew can campaign against Israel,
my answer is that the same socialism that turns Jews
against Israel
also turns evangelicals against the Gospel. There are thousands of left-wing
evangelicals with no sincere love for the Gospel, but passionate about using it
as a platform for the socialist ideology, which typically opposes Israel.
In
his deconstruction effort, Amado also shows, in Ultimato, that he is opposed to what he labels “evangelical
Christian Zionism,” and he stresses that in 2014 he took part in a special
conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Bethlehem. This conference was “Christ at the CheckPoint,” which seeks to present Jesus as
a “Palestinian” oppressed by Israelis.
In
2014 the Israeli government warned evangelicals around the world to steer clear of
“Christ at the Checkpoint.” Notwithstanding the Israeli warning, the Lausanne
Movement and the World Evangelical Alliance, two movements where Steuernagel
has prominent leadership posts, have supported “Christ at the CheckPoint.”
Steuernagel is also an Ultimato columnist.
Marcos
Amado and Ultimato want you to avoid PT, neo-Pentecostals, Israel and Zionist
evangelicals and they are already helping prepare Brazilian evangelicals for
the “Christ at the CheckPoint” message, whose contents is the Palestinian
Liberation Theology, a TIM sister.
Therefore,
you should be worried when you read about theologians “worried” about PT or the
so-called “evangelical Zionism.” Their “worry” has other interests.
Evidently,
you should oppose neo-Pentecostal abuses, but should you stand passively while
these abuses are maliciously attacked as a way to create an opportunity to
advance TIM and deconstruct the evangelical support for Israel?
The
defense of Israel that many Brazilian neo-Pentecostal leaders make is
necessary. Besides, their message, though defective, emphasizing God, not the
government, as the supplier of the human needs is fundamental for the people —
and abominable to the secular and Protestant Left.
The
Lausanne Movement has lost credibility, and it will only have respect from
evangelicals when actually it shows that it is worried about its Brazilian
adherents and leaders who work together with the ruling Workers’ Party, which
has made everything to advance its antifamily dictatorship in Brazil.
Portuguese version of this
article: Lausanne,
TMI e Israel
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