President’s Impeachment Shows Growing Evangelical Power in Brazil

CBN News

Comment by Julio Severo: Last year, the most significant position paper of the ruling socialist Workers’ Party in Brazil declared that Eduardo Cunha, a Pentecostal leader, is the most dangerous man in the Brazilian Congress, because Cunha has been advancing, as no one else, a conservative agenda. Under his leadership, the pro-abortion and homosexualist agendas are being weakened and pro-family and pro-life interests are a priority. Above all, Cunha is the man behind the impeachment. Read now the CBN report:

Dilma Rousseff

The impeachment of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is being led by a Pentecostal Christian and the speaker of Brazil's lower legislative house, Eduardo Cunha.

Some say it shows evangelical influence is rising inside the traditionally Catholic country.

Brazilian historian Karina Bellotti told the Christian Science Monitor that "during the last roll call vote for the continuation of the process of impeachment in the lower house, several politicians dedicated their vote 'for God.'" 

"Some of them were Catholic, but most were evangelical, from the Pentecostal churches," she added.

Estimates put the number of Pentecostals in Brazil at about 45 million.

"Brazil is at the vanguard of the global trend of the Pentecostalization of Christianity," as well as "the epicenter of world Christianity, with the largest Pentecostal population," Andrew Chesnut, author of Born Again in Brazil, told CSM.

The impeachment proceedings against Rousseff stem from allegations that illegal accounting tricks allowed her administration to maintain government spending to shore up flagging support.

Her critics contend that she also hid deficits that contributed to the country's worst recession since the 1930s.

Rousseff has defended such fiscal maneuvers as common practice in Brazil. She insists the accusations are a flimsy excuse by the traditional ruling elite to grab power back from her left-leaning Workers' Party, which has governed for 13 years.

The lower Chamber of Deputies didn't agree. On Sunday, the body voted in favor of impeachment. The measure is now in the Senate, which is expected to decide by mid-May whether to put the president on trial.

A simple majority vote by senators is needed to approve a trial, and Rousseff would be suspended for up to 180 days while it was conducted.

During that time, Vice President Michel Temer, a Lebanese-Brazilian Maronite Christian, would take over.

But the impeachment leader, Cunha, is also under a cloud after his name appeared in the recently disclosed Panama Papers. An opinion poll showed 77 percent of people believe he too should be impeached.

Source: CBN News

Divulgation: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Guatemala Lessons for Brazil in the Midst of a Powerful Political Crisis

A Charismatic Response to “The Growing Crisis Behind Brazil’s Evangelical Success Story”

Brazil, the Next (Regional or Global) Threat to the U.S. Economic Supremacy?

Brazilian Crisis Sparks Chances for Socialist Marina Silva in the 2018 Presidential Election

Understanding Anti-Government Protests in Brazil

Were Brazilian Protests an Anti-Marxist Counter-Revolution?

Anti-Marxist Conscience of the Brazilian Evangelical

Lula, the Ugliest Face of “the Brazilian Way of Doing Things”

The Hypocrisy of PayPal

By Julio Severo

PayPal has vowed to discontinue the expansion of its services in North Carolina after its governor passed a law to protect women and children against homosexual predators by not allowing biological men to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms.

In answer to the PayPal boycott, on Facebook Franklin Graham, son of the legendary evangelist Billy Graham, said, “PayPal gets the hypocrite of the year award!… PayPal operates in countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Yemen for Pete’s sake. Just last month PayPal announced they would be expanding in Cuba, a country in which homosexuals and transgender people have been imprisoned, tortured, and executed.”

PayPal’s boycott against North Carolina, the land of Billy Graham, makes no sense, since PayPal has no boycott policy against Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations that arrest, torture and kill homosexuals.

A “small” hypocrisy eventually leads to bigger hypocrisy. The PayPal hypocrisy began in 2011, after an international campaign against ten pro-family activists, including me, Julio Severo. The campaign accused us of “homophobia,” PayPal accepted its lies and closed my account definitively. The campaign was orchestrated by U.S. homosexualist group AllOut, denounced by WND (WorldNetDaily), which run this headline: PayPal blacklists Christian writer.

PayPal has never discontinued its services to Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations in a boycott against their “homophobia.” I was targeted exclusively because of my Christian values and stances.

The official PayPal answer to my case was very hypocritical. To me, PayPal explained that I am ineligible to receive donations from my friends and readers because “you are not a registered non-profit organization.” To AllOut, PayPal explained that it closed my account because “We take very seriously any cases where a user has incited hatred, violence or intolerance because of a person’s sexual orientation”.

Since 2011, I have been hindered from receiving donations from my friends through PayPal.

In a listing of the top ten anti-Christian acts in 2011, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission ranked the gay pressure on PayPal as fourth top anti-Christian act, as reported by Charisma magazine.

Portuguese version of this article: A hipocrisia do PayPal

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

PayPal implicated in criminal activity

Gay Pressure on PayPal Named as Fourth Top Anti-Christian Act of 2011

PayPal blacklists Julio Severo

A Gulag of Your Own Making

Online ‘hate’ campaign targets Christian sites

Catholic TV on PayPal vs. Julio Severo

Guatemala Lessons for Brazil in the Midst of a Powerful Political Crisis

By Julio Severo

Protests against a corrupt president? A population calling for the impeachment of the corrupt president? This is what Brazil is living right now. And this is what Guatemala lived last year.

But there is a huge difference between the presidents of both nations. While Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was a Marxist terrorist who fought the military rule in Brazil in the 1960s, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina was a general who fought communists in the past. In fact, he was trained for such fight.

Molina was a graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas, an institution whose specific goal was to teach “anti-communist counterinsurgency training.” He was also a graduate of the Washington DC-based Inter-American Defense College. He is one of the distinguished alumni of this college.

As a retired general, Molina founded in 2001 the Patriotic Party (Spanish: Partido Patriota, PP), which is conservative and right-wing.

The past political activism of Molina and Rousseff is opposed and antagonistic. She is an atheist with a perfect Marxist history. He is a Catholic with a perfect anti-Marxist history. But their presidencies were equally plagued by massive corruption, and massive protests.

In spite of their irreconcilable ideological differences, they equally suffered protests from contrary political forces. Molina, from left-wing forces; Rousseff, from right-wing forces.

Rousseff may be impeached or deposed in 2016, while Molina, whose opposition wanted to impeach him, resigned due to fraud and corruption in 2015.

But in Guatemala, a corrupt Left was not victorious against a corrupt right-wing president. The Guatemalan Church had been active throughout the process of political crisis, holding prayer meetings, prayer vigils and fasting.

“God put His hand in Guatemala, it’s a miracle what happened,” prayer participant Marco Antonio Ruiz said. “We came together as Church and cried out with one voice. The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. God heard the voice of all those who joined us in prayer.”

After Molina’s resignation, Guatemala held new elections, and Jimmy Morales, who is a conservative evangelical Christian and has studied theology, was elected in an election process equally marked by prayer meetings, prayer vigils and fasting. Morales supports the death penalty and opposes abortion and gay “marriage.”

About laws promoting these evils, which are plaguing Brazil and especially the U.S., Morales said, “According to my belief, my ideology, I would have to veto such laws. I think in Guatemala we will not have this because of conservative thinking. In case Congress approves such laws, my position would be against them.”

Many Guatemalan Christians believe President Morales is an answer to their prayers. Because of prayer meetings, prayer vigils and fasting, the transition from a corrupt right-wing president to a conservative evangelical president was very peaceful.

Is there a more powerful lesson to Brazil than the Guatemala example in this time of intense Brazilian crisis?

The answer is not in leftist politicians, including Marina Silva.

Many Brazilians see anti-communist Army officials as the only hope for Brazil.

But the ultimate answer is not in them.

The answer is in God, who answers prayers.

Perhaps the Brazilian Church should invite the Guatemalan Church to teach her about prayer meetings, prayer vigils and fasting.

If God gave a real conservative president to Guatemala, what hinders him from giving the same blessing to Brazil?

With information from ChristianHeadLines.

Portuguese version of this article: Lições da Guatemala para o Brasil no meio de uma forte crise política

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Brazilian Crisis Sparks Chances for Socialist Marina Silva in the 2018 Presidential Election

Understanding Anti-Government Protests in Brazil

Were Brazilian Protests an Anti-Marxist Counter-Revolution?

Anti-Marxist Conscience of the Brazilian Evangelical

Lula, the Ugliest Face of “the Brazilian Way of Doing Things”