Brazil will host world event of religious freedom, under the direction of an adherent of the Islamic witch René Guénon. What can go wrong?

By Julio Severo

The Brazilian government announced in the United Nations on March 19, 2021 that will host a summit on religion in the country in the end of 2021, according to information from the Brazilian website UOL.

This effort looks like a similar event that the Trump administration held in 2019, including awarding religious individuals by alleged prominent services for religious freedom. It was the biggest award of religious freedom in the world.

At the Trump event, led by the former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the only awarded Brazilian was Ivanir dos Santos, a witchdoctor who is known for persecuting black Pentecostal pastors. His only activity of alleged religious tolerance is a movement he led along with Rev. Marcos Amaral, a far-left minister of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

Ivanir dos Santos was highly praised and supported by the past left-wing administrations of Brazil, including Lula and Dilma Rousseff.

So it is a wonder that the more conservative administration of Trump granted the left-wing witch an award to crown all the glory he had already received from other leftist rulers.

Shockingly the man in charge of awarding the witch considers himself a conservative evangelical. Mike Pompeo often quotes the Bible.

From a Christian and conservative point of view, the world event of religious freedom of Pompeo and Trump was a failure, as he awarded a sorcerer who persecutes conservative Christians and makes alliance only with leftist pastors.

If the original event of Trump and Pompeo failed, what to expect from its Brazilian imitation?

In Brazil the event will be held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty), which is under the direction of Ernesto Araujo.

Araújo is an open adherent of René Guénon, Julius Evola and Olavo de Carvalho.

Guénon was an Islamic occultist who sought the union of all major religions (Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) around universal traditions.

Evola, who was the most prominent disciple of Guénon, was guru of the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Evola wrote several books defending occultism and the right-wing ideology.

Carvalho is another adherent of Guénon. He is the Brazilian Evola.

Araújo used to praise Trump. But for him, Trump was just a tool to help advance the interests of traditionalists — as are called Guénon and his adherents and ideas.

Traditionalists are using Catholic leaders and they intend to use evangelicals, who are the base of the administration of Brazilian President of Jair Bolsonaro, even though he is a nominal Catholic.

As an adherent of the traditionalism of Guénon, Araújo understands that conservative politicians and movements should be used to spread this political occult. He is so committed to his occult ideas that he chose to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a specialist in Julius Evola.

The question I ask is: if a conservative evangelical as Pompeo, under the presidency of nominal evangelical Donald Trump, made a mess by awarding a Brazilian leftist sorcerer at the world’s largest religious freedom event, what to expect from the biggest event in Brazil by the adherent of an Islamic witch?

Portuguese version of this article: Brasil sediará evento mundial de liberdade religiosa, sob a direção de um adepto do bruxo islâmico René Guénon. O que pode dar errado?

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Brazilian Foreign Policy: From Marxism to Occultism

Olavo de Carvalho and Julius Evola, parallels of two prominent right-wing occultists of the Traditionalist School

Advocate of occultist Julius Evola was chosen as an examiner to approve new diplomats from Brazil

Brazilian Left-Wing Sorcerer with History of Fight against Conservative Christians Is Awarded by the Trump Administration

Mike Pompeo and his diplomatic Christian light. But who is it shining for?

Steve Bannon’s Occult Movement, Brazil and Conservative Evangelicals

Donald Trump Has Designated Churches and Mosques as Essential

By Julio Severo

President Donald Trump declared on 22 May 2020 that churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship are “essential services” and must reopen.

“Today I’m identifying houses of worship — churches, synagogues and mosques — as essential places that provide essential services,” Trump said in the White House briefing room.

Because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, all non-essential services have been closed. Churches have been put in this category, but abortion clinics not. Abortion, which was legalized in the United States in 1973 and kills about 4,000 American unborn babies, has been deemed an “essential service.”

“Some governors have deemed a liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship. It’s not right. So I’m correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential,” Trump said, reading from a statement.

“Many millions of Americans embrace worship as an essential part of life. The ministers, pastors, rabbis, imams and other faith leaders will make sure that their congregations are safe as they gather and pray,” Trump said.

“We need more prayer not less,” concluded Trump, who believes that the prayers of evangelical ministers, Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, Islamic imams and other faith leaders — including witchcraft leaders — can do a lot of good to the U.S. It is in this belief that he inaugurated, days ago, a totally new multifaith National Day of Prayer. While the National Day of Prayer was launched by evangelicals in the 1950s and was always prominently evangelical, now Trump turned it into a multifaith event, with evangelical ministers, Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, Islamic imams and many other leaders of different non-Christian and anti-Christian religions.

Trump’s intent is to correct some states, which keep liquor stores, abortion clinics and homosexual clubs open because are deemed “essential.” By declaring churches and mosques essential, Trump has showed that states should grant to churches and mosques the same importance they have granted to liquor stores, abortion clinics and homosexual clubs.

I do not know if George Washington, the first U.S. president, would be happy that someday churches would be granted the same importance as mosques, liquor stores, abortion clinics and homosexual clubs. But I doubt that he would not be shocked.

And I doubt that when Islamic imams make their strange prayers, they are praying for the good of the U.S and its Christian foundation. But I would not doubt if they are praying for their Islamic brothers to be successful in all their efforts to spread Islam — including by sword and bombs.

To make churches and mosques as equally essential is a sign that the U.S. has become a religious Babylon. To make churches and abortion clinics as equally essential is a sign that the U.S. has become an opportunistic Babylon.

So in the current U.S., or Babylon, as David Wilkerson used to call America, if you want to open churches, you have to open abortion clinics too. If you consider churches important, you have to consider mosques equally important, for the sake of sacred equality, which is above God and the Bible in America. In fact, in America’s equality, God and Satan are… exactly equal in religious and legal worth! So you should not be surprised if someday a Satanist offers his prayers at the National Day of Prayer.

Perhaps this confusion explains why on the date celebrating the landmark 500 years of the Protestant Reformation (October 31, 2017), Trump not only did not celebrate it, but he did celebrate Halloween, a date traditionally connected to occultism. Perhaps aware that multiculturalism forces him to celebrate equally the special dates of other religions, he discarded the most important date of Protestantism in the largest Protestant nation in the world.

There is just one problem. Trump has celebrated special dates of other religions at the White House itself.

* In 2018, Trump host his first White House Ramadan dinner.

* Also in 2018, Trump host a pagan Hindu Festival at the White House.

* And Trump’s State Department has officially “blessed” Islamic holidays.

While Trump and his administration celebrate Islamic holidays at the White House, let us ask a very simple question: “Does Saudi Arabia, the capital of Islam and the most important Islamic ally of the U.S., celebrate Protestant holidays?”

So why does the U.S., the largest Protestant nation in the world, celebrate Islamic holidays?

What has the U.S. received by flattering Islam? A multitude of Islamic attacks, including the 9/11 — most of them with Saudi connections.

Could it be that celebration and flattery of Islam draw more hatred and terrorist attacks from Muslims? If this logic is correct, it could explain why Saudi Arabia does not celebrate Protestant holidays. Perhaps Saudi Arabia fears that by flattering and celebrating Protestantism they might eventually draw hatred and terrorist attacks from U.S. Protestants!

Can you imagine if such approach is used to deal with other criminals? To rapists? Incidentally, Saudi students who rape American women go unpunished by fleeing the U.S. under the protection of Saudi Arabia. The U.S. cannot be hard with Saudi rapists fleeing to Saudi Arabia because it could lose billions and billions and billions of dollars. After all, Saudi Arabia is the biggest purchaser of U.S. weapons.

So the U.S. apparently flatters Islam and does not punish Saudi rapists because they have a very good economic and military deal. Has ever Saudi Arabia flattered Protestantism and not punished American criminals just for the sake of this deal?

But Trump is not the first Republican president to flatter Islam.

Immediately after the 9/11, Republican President George W. Bush said that Islam is a “religion of peace,” to make sure that no one had some wrong idea that Islam and Saudi Arabia could be somewhat involved in this horrible attack.

And in the 1950s Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower inaugurated a mosque in Washington and in his speech, he said that Islam has for centuries contributed to the building of civilization. Could he have read, because of a visual impairment, “building” where there was “destruction” in his history books?

Remember the difference: Republicans are conservative and Democrats are socialists following a multicultural agenda. Republicans are different from Democrats. Now repeat it to yourself several times a day until you eventually believe it!

White evangelical Christians have been among the most loyal members of the Trump’s political base, because they are conservative and voted to have a conservative administration, not a multifaith Babylon, with non-Christian and anti-Christian religions having the same worth as the Christian religion that was the bedrock of the U.S. civilization.

With information from Daily Mail and Associated Press.

Portuguese version of this article: Donald Trump designou igrejas e mesquitas como essenciais

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Churches Closing and Mosques Opening in The United States

Muhammad is one of the top 10 baby names for first time in the U.S. history

Christian Freedom in the U.S., Russia, Israel and Brazil

Conservative Babylon in “Persecuted”: Hybrid Televangelist Framed by Pagan Neocon, and the Free Speech or Patriotic or Equality “Gospel” Replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Donald Trump inaugurated totally new multifaith National Day of Prayer, especially against coronavirus, with his charismatic adviser Paula White prophesying “you will recover all”

Religious Exemption: How Homosexuality Is Transforming U.S. Christianity into a Ghetto

By Julio Severo

U.S. conservatives have hailed the victory of Jack Phillips, a Christian baker who exercised his right not to make a wedding cake to a homosexual couple, because a homosexual “wedding” is an affront to God, biological sex and natural family. He was sued by the insolent predatory homosexual couple, but he won in a long legal battle.

In a free and democratic society, there would be no long or short legal battle because you are free to offer services to anyone you want and clients are free to reject you and find another provider. But freedom is becoming a rare commodity in the U.S. market and any petty issue of personal freedom becomes a big problem to be solved by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is utter shame that the highest court in America was necessary to solve so a small issue.

Homosexual activists began their campaign against traditional family and biological sexuality decades ago. They were on the defensive, but eventually they turned the tables. A radical minority put the non-radical majority on the defensive, and today their assault against the non-radical majority has been so atrocious that even when Christians have a success stand on a petty issue as a cake, it is hailed as a big victory — while they lost the major battle: marriage.

In the 1980s, U.S. conservative evangelicals fought against sodomy. Next, against gay “marriage” in the late 1990s and 2000s. Now they just fight for religious exemption. Next, will they be living in a ghetto or in jail? Is this what do they interpret as “victory”?

Free speech or religious freedom has become the last stand of the non-radical majority suffering systematic assault from the radical minority. And what is such strategy producing? Reduction of U.S. Christianity. Protestants, who were 98% of the U.S. population in the foundation of the U.S. Republic, now comprise less than 50%.

The fight for free speech is not helping U.S. Christianity. In fact, it is creating a hybrid Christian creature, as I have showed in my article “’Free Speech,’ The Ultimate False Gospel in America.”

While the suffering Christianity, which had no religious exemption and freedom, kept expanding in the Roman Empire and the Soviet Union, in the U.S. is happening just the contrary. It is being constricted by the radical minority.

The fact is, as recognized by U.S. conservatives, “acceptance of homosexuality is growing even among ‘conservatives.’”

When “conservatives” accept homosexuality or even embrace the impossible — “conservative” homosexuals —, the end is near. Last year, pedophilia advocacy knocked down the most prominent “conservative” gay in the U.S. More to come among “conservatives”? Yes, more has come. This year, CPAC, the top U.S. conservative conference, banned a pro-family Christian group and approved homosexualist group.

Yet, the signs were already coming and conservatives did not protest. In the Republican National Convention endorsing Donald Trump in 2016, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who was one of the main speakers at this convention, shamelessly announced, “I’m a proud gay man.” Instead of being repudiated for his proud and impudent homosexuality, Thiel was hailed. Trump was also hailed for holding a homosexual flag during his campaign.

More recently, State Department Secretary Mike Pompeo recognized June as LGBTI Pride Month. Pompeo, who is one of the most important officials of Trump, is considered a very devout evangelical Christian. While conservatives are celebrating a slice of the cake — the Jack Phillips case —, homosexual activists are celebrating homosexual “marriage” as the law of the land and a very devout evangelical Christian leading the State Department in the celebration of sodomy. Most of the cake belongs to them. There is no doubt that homosexual activists are achieving the biggest victories and celebrations.

While homosexual activists will keep fighting for big game, conservatives will be fighting for cookies and crumbs. They will be fighting for exemptions — the right to enter and stay in the closet. Homosexual activists went out, and conservatives are going in.

Homosexual activists demand — and are granted — more and more rights to impose on everything and everyone, including the indoctrination of children. Conservative Christians are fighting just for the right to remain “protected” in their Christian closets.

The worse is the bad example. If America is, with her power and her State Department, leading nations around the world to celebrate homosexuality, what kind of example U.S. conservative evangelicals are giving to conservative evangelicals around the world regarding homosexuality? Compromise and shameful concession.

So U.S. Christians won on a cake issue, but they are losing all other major battles involving homosexuality. And because evangelicals were Trump’s main voting block in 2016, if evangelical numbers keep being reduced, genuine conservative candidates will not be elected anymore, and “conservative” candidates will have to look like more like liberals, including by supporting homosexuality. This is already happening. Trump has taken no measure against homosexual “marriage” and similar advances made by Obama.

Probably, no American conservative has seen this issue better than Matthew Trewhella, in his article “Religious Liberty and the Ghettoization of Christianity in America.” He said,

Most of the conservative, pro-family, and Christian groups have made ‘religious liberty’ their rallying cry over the last two years. The matter comes to an apex [with] the case about a Colorado baker, Jack Phillips…

I do not share the enthusiasm of many over this matter of ‘religious liberty,’ however. Let us step back and look at the larger picture.

The cry for religious liberty began after the Supreme Court issued their depraved opinion on homosexual marriage in 2015. Religious liberty became the latest retreat of the GOP and the conservatives. Religious liberty became the latest retreat of the pro-family and Christian groups.

First they stood against sodomy itself. Then they accommodated themselves to sodomy and retreated to opposing homosexual marriage. Now they have accommodated themselves to homosexual marriage and have retreated to defending religious liberty.

But here is the rub — If the Supreme Court rules in Jack Phillips favor, the result will be Christians do not have to participate in homosexual marriages, but homosexual marriage remains entrenched in the land.

And this is what religious liberty accomplishes in this matter – it assures the evil will continue in the land and it accommodates the continued ghettoization of Christianity in America.

Evil should be stopped, not accommodated. When the government enacts evil in the land, but they make an accommodation for Christians to not participate in it, they are marginalizing Christianity in the land; they are putting Christianity in the ghetto.

Christians love religious liberty not because it acts as a bulwark against evil in the land, but because it allows them to continue to sit and sip their lattes while there is evil in the land.

It allows Christians to continue to be “Christians,” while they continue to remain indifferent towards the evil in the land.

It also prevents them from suffering for their faith.

For decades now, when certain immoral laws have been passed, there is a religious exemption added. These laws seem good to the average self-absorbed, Pietistic Christian, but in reality they serve to belittle and depreciate Christianity and Christians within the culture. And this is what the pro-family and Christian groups are appealing to SCOTUS to do.

With hat in hand, they are pleading with the tyrant — the Supreme Court which has trampled state laws outlawing sodomy and trampled state constitutions declaring marriage between only a man and a woman — and asking the tyrant for a dispensation. This is whoredom.

Laws or policies that protect Christians from being personally affected by evil laws – but which allow the evil to continue in the nation – are themselves evil laws or policies.

Why should Christians be allowed to bypass the evil while the rest of the culture has to imbibe upon it and become further debauched? If you allow the evil of sodomy to fester in the land, the effects of such filth will be felt by all – believer and unbeliever.

Let me make clear: Jack Phillips is one of those rare Christians that actually loves Christ and neighbor. The vast majority of Christians in America wouldn’t give a passing thought to standing true to Christ if it meant missing out on making a buck (or saving a buck). So for his sake, I hope he wins…

Christians need to understand that they must demonstrate vigilance against tyranny. They must give up what most Americans pursue — wealth and ease. They must give some time and effort to good governance, and not continue to ignore the magistrates.

Portuguese version of this article: Isenção religiosa: como o homossexualismo está transformando o Cristianismo dos EUA num gueto

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

“Free Speech,” The Ultimate False Gospel in America

Conservative Babylon in “Persecuted”: Hybrid Televangelist Framed by Pagan Neocon, and the Free Speech or Patriotic or Equality “Gospel” Replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Christian Freedom in the U.S., Russia, Israel and Brazil

PayPal Founder Peter Thiel Gets Standing Ovation by Affirming His Pride on Homosexuality Among Republicans

For Second Year, Trump’s State Department Recognizes June as LGBTI Pride Month

What Will America Gain by Making Sodomy Great?

Pedophilia Advocacy Knocks Down Prominent “Conservative” Gay

Top U.S. conservative conference bans pro-family Christian group and approves homosexualist group

Christian Freedom in the U.S., Russia, Israel and Brazil

By Julio Severo

Even though overwhelmingly evangelical in its origin, the United States does not privilege today evangelicalism and the U.S. government clearly does not favor it. In the U.S. religious freedom, all the religions are equal. So the evangelicalism that founded the U.S. is officially in the same level as Islam, Hinduism, Catholicism, witchcraft, etc.

According to this U.S. equality system, officially Jesus Christ is in the same level as Mohammed, Beelzebub and Satan. In fact, in American schools you can pray to Satan and recite the Islamic Koran, but you cannot pray to Jesus Christ or recite the Bible.

According to this system, the U.S. government cannot honor its evangelical foundation above Islam, Hinduism, Catholicism, witchcraft, etc. If the U.S. government wants religious partnership, it cannot give preference to evangelicalism. It is obliged to give equal partnership to Islam, Hinduism, Catholicism, witchcraft, etc.

In Russia, which is the largest Christian Orthodox country in the world, there is no such equality. The Christian Orthodox Church is recognized by the Russian government as the largest Christian religion in Russia. Catholics and evangelicals, who are 2 percent of the Russian population, are second-rate religious citizens. Orthodoxies have their reasons to do it with Catholics, considering that the Vatican has always antagonized the Orthodox Church, seeing it as an opponent of its supremacy.

Orthodoxies seem to bear a grudge against Catholics because of an invasion of Catholic crusaders in Constantinople, which was the capital of the Orthodox Church. Constantinople was looted, raped and victimized because of this old hatred. Even though with its focus largely on Muslims, the Catholic Crusades victimized also multitudes of innocent Jews and Orthodox Christians. But evangelicals never acted this way toward Orthodox Christians. Then Orthodoxies should not put evangelicals in Russia as second-rate religious citizens.

Brazil imitates the U.S. in religious freedom. In the recent Olympic Games in Brazil, football player Neymar, who is a nominal evangelical, was criticized by the Olympic Committee because he used a headband titled “100% JESUS.” But the same Olympic Committee did not criticize the official closing of the Olympic Games, which showed fetishistic sorcerers and a blatant glorification of Afro-Brazilian religions (which are similar to voodoo).

Many Christians protested that it was discriminatory. But what did they want? Did they want the same respect and consideration afforded to demons to be equally granted to Jesus? Did they want Jesus to be equated with demons?

In the equality democracy, Jesus is no better than a voodoo demon or Satan. In Jornalismo TV Cultura (Brazilian Culture TV News) on August 20, 2015 Brazilian historian Leandro Karnal said, “If it is forbidden to mock or insult religions, an issue being considered in Rio de Janeiro, let us remember that Satanism is also a religion and when an evangelical minister begins to expel the devil of someone, we can fine him because he is insulting the faith of a Satanist, because the devil also produces a religion. Whoever wants to attack the devil, whip the devil should also be fined because he is insulting faith on Satan.” You can watch his comments here: https://youtu.be/VkXm3nOm-rg

Many can think that the fight for legal equality is helpful, but it is bringing more rights to Satan and his demons and does not glorify Jesus, and to glorify Jesus is the most important mission for a Christian. A Christian’s mission is not to fight for Jesus to have, in democracy, the same worth as Satan and his demons.

Whether laws acknowledge it or not, Jesus is above demons and Satan, who are fallen creatures condemned to Hell. He is the Creator and Lord. It is blasphemous to agree with laws that equate fallen creatures with the Lord who creates, saves and changes.

I do not like the current American system that equates Jesus with Beelzebub. If risen today, George Washington would fight this system, because he supported the practice, common in the U.S. beginnings, that all politicians, to be inaugurated, should swear, with his hand on the Bible, that he believed in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And I do not like the Russian system that puts the Orthodox Church as a Christian church above evangelical churches. But the current U.S. system seems the worst.

Yet, if the U.S. thinks the Russian system worse, why not criticize Israel too? Just as in Russia, evangelicals in Israel are no more than 2 percent. Pew Research Center has identified Israel as one of the countries that places high restrictions on religion. Pew said,

“But the list of countries with high restrictions also contains some that are widely seen as democratic, such as… Israel. Israel’s score is driven up by… its preferential treatment of Orthodox Jews. The government recognizes only Orthodox Jewish religious authorities in some personal status matters (such as marriage) concerning Jews and devotes the bulk of state funds provided for religion to Orthodox Jews, even though they make up only a small portion of all Jews in Israel.”

In his book “Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians” (Thomas Nelson, 2013), Paul Marshall says,

“In another instance, in Israel, proselytism is legal as long as no material benefits are offered for conversion. But elements within the government sometimes act as though this isn’t so. People suspected of being missionaries have been denied visas and sometimes detained and required to post bail and pledge not to evangelize. There are also occasional mob attacks on churches or other buildings hosting converts.”

In comparison with Islamic nations, Israel offers much more freedom to Christians. But in comparison with the U.S., Israel offers them less freedom. In fact, if in the U.S. the Jews were treated as Christians are treated in Israel, there would be complaints of “anti-Semitism.”

The same reality is applicable to Russia. In comparison with Islamic countries, Russia offers much more freedom to Christians. But just as Israel protects and privileges its main religion, Russia does the same thing for the Russian Orthodox Church.

Therefore, the U.S. media’s hysteria against Russia is baseless. When Russia establishes some restriction for non-registered religious activities, the U.S. media cries “censorship” and a “return of the Soviet Union.” But this same media does not cry anything over the Israeli restrictions on activities of Christian evangelism in Israel. In fact, it remains silent.

The media, which makes a great stir against Russia, does not make the same stir against Saudi Arabia, which murders Christians and bans the Bible and worship meetings. The only difference seems to be that Russia is a political enemy of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is officially a “friend.” Just as Israel, Russia does not murder Christians and does not ban the Bible and registered worship meetings.

Evidently, all these nations need a powerful change.

Israel needs a revival, to live the wonders of Messiah Jesus Christ.

Russia needs a revival, to understand that better than the Russian Orthodox Church is to live for Jesus Christ.

The U.S. and Brazil need a revival, to stop equating Jesus and Satan and putting them in the same level in their laws of religious freedom.

The Pink Swastika author Scott Lively, who is very familiar with the religious-freedom challenges in the U.S. and Russia, has offered his comment for my blog:

In this age-old conflict of doctrinal camps, it is important to recognize the failure of all denominations and church institutions to fully reflect “The Way of the Messiah” as it taught in the Whole Bible. Any religious movement or institution that pretends to speak for God or provide the “one true path” to fellowship with Him commits the sin of arrogance. None of the Apostles claimed infallibility and their perspectives varied widely, resolving their differences practically (by voting). Paul addressed the question of doctrinal disputes squarely in 1 Corinthians, admonishing the church “do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes.” In the meantime, we should seek the spiritual unity of ALL believers in Christ on the points on which we can agree — including the Torah-faithful Jews who simply haven’t yet recognized Jesus as the Messiah — and approach our differences with charity and humility.  

Portuguese version of this article: Liberdade cristã nos EUA, Rússia, Israel e Brasil

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Conservative Babylon in “Persecuted”: Hybrid Televangelist Framed by Pagan Neocon, and the Free Speech or Patriotic or Equality “Gospel” Replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

A New Russian Law Against Christians?

At Mosque, Brazil Celebrates First Place in Religious Freedom

At Mosque, Brazil Celebrates First Place in Religious Freedom

Brazil ahead of the United States in religious freedom, according to Pew Research Center

By Julio Severo

Brazil lost the world soccer cup last year, but at least it is being celebrated for achieving the first place in religious freedom in late April, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, in a report by the Religious News Service.

Ecumenical meeting in Mesquita Brasil (Brazilian Mosque)

On April 29, Latin America’s largest and oldest mosque, Mesquita Brasil, brought some 700 leaders together for its Celebration of Religious Freedom where Muslims, Afro-Brazilians (similar to voodoo) adherents, Mormons, Sikhs, spiritualists, Jews, Catholics, Protestants and Rev. Moon adherents dined side-by-side to commemorate Brazil’s status as a leader in religious freedom. The theme was, “Brazil a voice to the world.”

Among the 25 most populous countries, Brazil is in the first place in religious freedom, even ahead of the United States, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

Sheikh Abdel Hammed Metwally, religious leader of Mesquita Brasil, said, “This will be the first of many meetings.” He highlighted this event will show “the world how Brazil stands out in leading position, by tolerating and peacefully accommodating the most diverse creeds.”

Among the speakers was Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said, “I encourage you to hold fast to the freedoms you have forged at home and to lead courageously in promoting religious freedom on the world stage.”

About the first place of Brazil in religious freedom, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF) said:

“The high level of religious freedom in Brazil is notable as the country arguably undergoes one of the most dynamic religious shifts in the world today, with no religious or sectarian conflict. In light of recent research showing that religion is on the rise worldwide, the Brazilian example is worth highlighting and understanding, particularly when day to day we witness stories from across the world on the role of religion in conflict situations. Brazil is exceptional in terms of religious freedom. Among the 26 most populous countries, Brazil has the lowest restrictions on religious freedom of them all. Brazil has lower restrictions, in fact, than the United Kingdom and the United States, where restrictions have been rising.”

TBFF also said on Brazil, “there have been no reported incidents of hostility over conversions or proselytism.”

Brazil has the world’s largest Catholic population, but religious freedom was not a Brazilian tradition for a long time. While in the U.S., the largest Protestant nation in the world, Catholics enjoyed significant freedom in the 1700s and 1800s, in Brazil Protestants enjoyed minimal or no freedom at all. Even in the 1900s, Protestants were persecuted in Brazil, and this persecution was not merely criticism, but physical and economical persecution.

The fact that Brazil has been congratulated for a supposed distinction of peaceful tolerance and religious freedom is very strange, and stranger when such distinction is celebrated in a mosque.

In the 1990s, under Marxist President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the Ministry of Education instructed Brazilian schools to address witchcraft, or Brazilian voodoo, as mere and unharmful “culture.”

In the past decade, under the socialist Lula administration, the Brazilian government advanced this conception, by treating witchcraft adherents as “oppressed minorities” and by treating Christian preaching against witchcraft as “hate crime.” The witchcraft religions are mostly from Umbanda and Candomblé, very similar to Santeria and voodoo.

The traditional Christian preaching against witchcraft began to be labeled as “persecution” against “oppressed minorities,” and witchcraft leaders were allowed to accompany the Brazilian delegation in the United Nations to voice their denunciations against “oppression” by Brazilian evangelicals against Umbanda and Candomblé adherents.

The denunciations were made especially by Ivanir dos Santos, a pai-de-santo from Rio de Janeiro. According to the Michaelis Dictionary, “pai-de-santo is a priest of an Afro-Brazilian voodoo cult,” including Macumba and Candomblé. Ivanir denounced at UN “a new kind of religious persecution in Brazil, which has aimed at temples of Candomble and the followers of African religions, in acts provoked by modern Pentecostals.” Brazil, said he, “is the only country preserving religions brought by slaves and these religions should be defended.”

The “oppression” denounced by him consists mostly of evangelicals TV shows where former Umbanda and Candomblé adherents testified about their past experiences in witchcraft and how Jesus Christ had delivered them, especially from demonic spirits.

They were not testimonies of Umbanda and Candomblé adherents being murdered by evangelicals, especially from the charismatic, Pentecostal neo-Pentecostal persuasion, but testimonies of them being transformed by Jesus Christ.

These TV shows have suffered censorship. Last year, YouTube videos containing testimonies of former adherents of Afro-Brazilian religions who are Pentecostals today were removed by judicial order, incited by Ivanir dos Santos. In his ruling, the judge stated that their testimonies were not against a religion, but against a “culture.”

These judicial persecutions are not against Pentecostals only.

In 1998, a judge in the state of Bahia, Brazil, had ordered the confiscation of a book written by Catholic priest Jonas Abib, in which he condemns witchcraft as immoral, as reported by LifeSiteNews, which said:

“The book, ‘Yes, Yes! No, No!  Reflections on Healing and Liberation,’ warns readers against the dangers of the occult, which includes the ‘Afro-Brazilian’ religions known as ‘spiritualism.’  According to Fr. Abib's website, the book has gone through 81 printings and has sold over 400,000 copies. ‘Father Jonas, like Paul, dares to denounce works of darkness, making the reader aware of mind control, yoga, astrology, magic, and the invocation of the dead, revealing the truth about works of darkness, with which it is urgently necessary to separate,’ says a summary of the book posted on the same site. Public prosecutor Almiro Sena, however, has accused Abib of ‘making false and prejudiced statements about the spiritualist religion as well as religions from Africa, like Umbanda and Candomble, as well as a flagrant incitement to destruction and disrespect for their objects of worship.’ He added that the violation was more serious because ‘the State Constitution (of Bahia) says that it is the obligation of the state to preserve and guarantee the integrity, respectability, and permanence of the values of Afro-Brazilian religion.’”

Former Lula administration and the current Dilma Rousseff administration (both the most socialist governments in the Brazilian history) had and have active policies to protect Afro-Brazilian religions as a “culture” inherited from African slaves. While Catholic and Protestant traditions have increasingly been banned from schools and other government places because the State is “secular,” Afro-Brazilian religions and their practices are making inroads, with state assistance, into schools and other places, in a privileged way. Because Christianity is religion, and Afro-Brazilian religions are “culture.”

With such state protections, even Brazilian Blacks are banned from criticizing Afro-Brazilian gods, as reported by me in WND:

“In Rio, a Pentecostal [Black] minister led a criminal to Jesus and convinced him to deliver himself to police. Rev. Isaías da Silva Andrade accompanied the former criminal to police and when they asked how his life had been changed, the minister answered that the former criminal lived under the influence of demons from Afro-Brazilian religions which inspired him to criminal conduct, but now he found salvation in Jesus. Because of this innocent account, Rev. Andrade is now being prosecuted for discrimination against the Afro-Brazilian ‘culture’! If condemned, he will serve between two and five years in jail.”

As a son of a former Umbanda leader who accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I see no problem in speaking the truth about the witchcraft derived from Africa. In fact, Brazilians remember, when there was no threat of politically-correct racial censorship, the regular scandals reported by media of pai-de-santos (Afro-Brazilian priests) involved in a number of child sacrifices.

In the past, newspapers were free to report and denounce child sacrifices in the Afro-Brazilian religions. You can find a lot of old reports on these crimes involving child rapes and murders by Afro-Brazilian priests. But nowadays, under the watchful state eye, only flattering reports are allowed, such as “oppressed” religion, “threatened” religion, etc.

Today, the Brazilian media no longer reports pai-de-santos sacrificing children. And they are unwilling to talk about other related crimes.

When Pentecostal minister Francisco de Paula Cunha de Miranda was stabbed to death by an Afro-Brazilian priest in 2008, the Brazilian media remained silent.

Miranda, 47, was murdered in Rio Grande do Sul. He was Black (and cannot, even after his death, be accused of “racism”) and was on his 33rd day of fasting and prayer when pai-de-santo Júlio César Bonato, possessed by exu caveira (demon of death in the Afro-Brazilian “culture”), left his temple during a ritual to go to the minister.

The pai-de-santo returned to his ritual with his ritualistic knife bloody.

The minister, who was very weak because of the long fasting, was stabbed to death.

The Brazilian media remains silent about this horrific murder even today.

Last year, a group of Umbanda adherents stabbed to death another evangelical, Nilton Rodrigues, 34, and wounded others, including an evangelical minister, João Carlos de Oliveira. The Brazilian Media remained silent again.

I am worried that the special protection afforded to Afro-Brazilian religions may have been reinforced by Condoleezza Rice, a famous daughter of an American Presbyterian minister. In 2008, she came to Brazil to strengthen the roots of the Afro-Brazilian religions. Her example shows that the Afro-Brazilian religions are now an international interest.

As in the case of homosexuality, a mere criticism of Brazilian voodoo is treated as “prejudice, bias, discrimination, intolerance,” etc. Now, even Catholic books criticizing them are banned.

Afro-Brazilian practices that have always been seen as witchcraft by the Brazilian society have increasingly been protected by the Brazilian government and media. And Christianity and its values have increasingly lost protection and even been attacked by them.

Sodomy, which has been extoled and afforded the status of a special human right by the Brazilian socialist government, is largely practiced by Afro-Brazilian religions, where their gods and spirits entice and lead their adherents, especially their priests, into prostitution, including homosexuality.

What has been termed “religious freedom” in Brazil is merely the socialist elites following politically correct trends, especially from the U.S., where homosexuality is now culturally sanctified and Christian rights are subordinated to homosexualist whims. Brazil is following this trend. Now homosexuality cannot be criticized in the Brazilian government and media.

Along homosexuality, now Islam cannot also be criticized trend in Brazil.

The celebration in a mosque of Brazil as a champion of “religious freedom” shows that Brazil is following with complete submission U.S. leftist trends. And if the U.S. is not in the first place of such “religious freedom,” why is Brazil? Can a disciple be above his master?

Try to criticize Islam in Brazil. In 2009, four Muslim journalists filed complaints against me with federal prosecutors because of texts in my blog criticizing Islam.

Complaints were also made by homosexual militants and witchcraft adherents against my blog.

This is religious freedom in Brazil.

The event at a Brazilian mosque celebrating the alleged first place of Brazil in religious freedom is good for Islam and it is good for Brazilian voodoo.

But it is not good for Christians who are former adherents of these religions, who suffer discrimination, repression and censorship for telling the truth about their suffering in these religions.

Brazil is being catapulted into a first place of a religious freedom at the expense of these silent victims of voodoo oppression.

Even so, Sheikh Abdel Hammed Metwally, religious leader of the Mesquita Brasil, assured, “This will be the first of many meetings.”

Will mosques now be politically correct platforms for presenting the world a Brazil champion on a religious freedom at the expense of Christians and their free speech?

Portuguese version of this article: Em mesquita, Brasil celebra primeiro lugar em liberdade religiosa

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Conservative Babylon in “Persecuted”: Hybrid Televangelist Framed by Pagan Neocon, and the Free Speech or Patriotic or Equality “Gospel” Replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Theological Faggoting: Liberation Theology and Theology of Integral Mission Environment Producing Gay Theology in Brazil