In search of the ancient altars: Rejecting the Israel roots and welcoming the Afro roots

The spiritual meaning of the visit of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Bahia, Brazil

By Julio Severo

A US Secretary of State holds a privileged role that lets him take important decisions in the foreign policy issues. For instance, if he decides that Israel should turn its lands over to Palestinian Arabs, that determination should be met, with heavy pressure on Israel to fulfil the American whims.

Who fills this role today is Condoleezza Rice, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. In spite of having lived in an evangelical environment, with many sermons, her foreign policy attitudes toward Israel do not reflect and respect the borders established by God for the Promised Land that God assured to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

According to the Rice policy, Israel and Jerusalem may be divided with Palestinian Arabs, severely infringing the ancient roots and covenants of the Jewish people with God, but she does not have demonstrated the same attitude to infringe the ancient African roots and covenants. At least, this is what we saw in her recent trip to Bahia, Brazil, on 13-14 March 2008.

Wherever she goes, Rice is received with many protests. Yet, her trip to Bahia was oddly peaceful. There were no anti-American protests. In fact, the left-wingers that were with her — Marta Suplicy and Jaques Wagner, both members of the Workers’ Party (whose Portuguese acronym is PT) — were extremely gracious. It is a wonder (unless there are strong interests involved) how they managed to hold their usual anti-American feelings.

Pro-abortion Suplicy, the Tourism Minister in the Lula administration, studied in Harvard and she is the first Brazilian politician to introduce a same-sex domestic partnership bill in the Brazilian Congress. Wagner is the Bahia governor. Their strong interests were to draw and increase the number of Afro-American tourists to know African roots in Bahia, which is the Brazilian state that has most preserved a syncretism with African religions. And from Bahia the gods of those religions spread throughout Brazil, hitting Blacks and whites.

I could say, by the experience of millions in Africa and Brazil, that the occultist religions of African origin bring spiritual and material misery, but I do not need to use the experience of others. In my freedom to give a Gospel witness, I can say that the Afro religions bring destruction, because my mother used to follow those religions and she even worked as the assistant of a Black female priest. By experience we knew what defeat was in all aspects, but Jesus delivered her in a charismatic Baptist church, and her children got the opportunity to get delivered from the Afro-Brazilian witchcraft chains.

Therefore, as a man that knew by experience the Afro spiritual roots, living in a home consecrated to orishas, I can warn that it is a deadly danger to seek approximation to any contact point with orishas.

The first contact point of Condoleezza Rice happened in her arrival at Bahia, where an Afro-Brazilian female offered her religious ribbons in several colors. The Bahia woman said, “She liked, chose a red ribbon and insisted upon making her spiritual requests, following the tradition of the Bahia culture”. The red ribbon was tied on Rice’s left fist. In Candomblé, the red color has connection to Iansã, the powerful orisha (demon) of storms.

Rice came especially to discuss the program to encourage the Afro-ethnic tourism in Bahia. This program has been elaborated since 2007 by the ministry of Marta Suplicy and the Bahia government. Jaques Wagner, the Bahia governor, declared, “Our objective was to have the support from the US Secretary of State, especially because she is Black, for our tourism projects, enlarging the flow of American Black visitors to our state, because they have interest in the cultural roots of African origin”. These projects, which have already received about 700,000 dollars in investments, were inspired by the increasing interest from Afro-Americans to know places in the world with strong African roots. Bahia is the appropriate place, because its capital city, Salvador, has not only many of its streets named after African orishas, but 82% of its 2.9 million dwellers are Black. Salvador is considered as the largest Black city outside Africa.

Yet, no one discerned better the importance of the Rice trip than the Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil. He declared, “The coming of Condoleezza Rice to Bahia was above all the visit of an African descendant to an important cradle of the Black Diaspora, a personal visit, which is beyond her work as a US Secretary of State”. He escorted Rice in her entire trip to Bahia.

In a nation where religions like Candomblé are considered culture of African descendants, it is natural for Gilberto Gil to be the Minister of Culture. When the magazine Almanaque Brasil asked him what is to be a minister, Gil answered, “I know what is to be a minister… I have already been the minister of [the orisha] Shango in the temple of Afonjá, in Bahia”. Even though showing deep reverence for orishas, about God Gil declared, “God is a creation of man. He is the creator created by man.”

Gil is also a radical leftist militant. During the time of the anticommunist military government in Brazil, he was banished, living in travels through Europe and US, “suffering” economic comfort. In the same time, Christians persecuted by the leftist ideology were “banished” to Siberia or other prisons and concentration camps, where they lived under tortures and terrors — when they were “lucky” to escape shooting. No one of them “suffered” economic comfort or dreamed about having the privilege of being banished to London or Paris, rich cities that Gil endured by much sacrifice to live in.

So, as a left-winger, it is strange that he welcomed Rice so joyfully, because she is very close to Bush. In fact, in a show of Gil in 2004, a screen behind him showed terrorist communist Che Guevara smoking a cigar and George Bush in the gallows and the following phrase, “Die, Bush, die!” Later, Gil insisted he did not have anything to do with the scene of his show asking for Bush’s death.

However, he was able to put shortly aside his anti-American stances so that the spirituality of Bahia might spread to North America. That opportunity took place with the official interest of Rice to facilitate the tourism of Black Americans in Bahia to know the African roots. What is the gap between Black Americans and Black Brazilians?

In an interview to the liberal paper Folha de S. Paulo, anthropologist Antonio Risério complains about the “spiritual killing of Africans in the US”. He declared, “If what happened in the US had happened in Brazil and Cuba, we would have today no orisha in the whole territorial expanse of the American continent”.

The fundamental difference between Blacks in Brazil and Blacks in the US is orishas.

Brazil has an abundance of (Black and white) followers of the Afro-Brazilian syncretistic religions and their gods. Cuba has Santeria, the religion of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, similar to Candomblé. Yet, phenomenally, the descendants of Black slaves in the US do not have any heritage like Candomblé, voodoo or Santeria

There were many African slaves in the past of America, but their spirituality from Africa — with all their orishas, gods and demons — collapsed before the Christian culture of Americans. Contrary reality happened in Brazil, where the spirituality of Africans intermixed with the weak and sick spirituality of Portuguese.

To strengthen that spirituality among Blacks in Bahia, Gilberto Gil has traveled to Africa, getting in touch with important priests. No one better than him to help Rice and many other Black Americans to find certain “roots”. And no place better to show those roots than Bahia.

However, if even Rice, the daughter of an evangelical minister, was not able to see the peril of her contacts with orishas, how will crowds of Afro-American tourists be able to see it? Probably, many will think it as mythology, or actually as “culture”, and only too late they will discover that they touched much more powerful and evil forces. The book The Twilight Labyrinth: Why does spiritual darkness linger where it does?, by George Otis (Chosen Books: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1997), shows how witchcraft objects, practices and customs may bring destructive forces on individuals, families and whole societies.

There is no need to know the contact of Rice with Iansã for a discernment that something is wrong in her Christian life. Her foreign policy toward Israel discloses serious inadequacies in her own Christianity.

Ronald Reagan, as a Christian and US president, had always been opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the Israel lands, and he had never accepted the possibility of Jerusalem being divided with Palestinian Arabs. Yet, Rice has different and contrary views in those two issues, and those views are determining and forcing Israel to make concessions against its divinely legitimate right to occupy the lands that its deadly enemies reclaim with all the forces of Hell.

Other Afro-American evangelicals have taken more radical stances against Israel, as the Black evangelical church of the presidential hopeful Barack Obama, which supports a terrorist manifesto not acknowledging the right for Israel to exist and favoring anti-Israel terror groups. But the US liberal media does not condemn radical Blacks, even when is necessary, because the anti-prejudice ideology turns minorities into untouchable castes. If a white man said just half of their follies, he would instantly be labeled a Nazi criminal. Yet, the multiculturalism fad hinders the same standard to be applied to minorities, leaving them unpunished — through a politically correct immunity — in their own racial radicalism.

The biggest tragedy is not when satanists do Satan’s will, but when individuals from a Christian background do it. It is natural when Satanists, Muslims and even atheists want to divide the Promised Land between Jews and Palestinian Arabs. But is it natural for Christians to have the same feelings?

It is especially strange the daughter of an evangelical minister having this kind of stance. In fact, Rice sees herself as reluctantly or mildly pro-abortion — as if it were possible also, for instance, for somebody to be reluctantly or mildly Satanist or killer.

When a Christian habitually errs, the only remedy is for him to open himself to be touched by the Holy Spirit. After years of policies adverse to Israel in her tenure, it is doubtful that Rice is being able to open herself to God. That spiritual gap has been a breach for spiritual influences seeking to affect more Rice and, consequently, the US foreign policy — especially regarding to Israel.

In Bahia, Rice visited a Candomblé temple, considered a Brazilian national cultural heritage. That is, she entered a place consecrated for the worship and manifestation of orishas. She also played pandeiro with Gilberto Gil. It is not known what song Gil played, but what is known is that he is a composer of Afro-Brazilian songs. He is the author of the songs Iemanjá and Iansã, in tribute to two powerful orishas of the Afro-Brazilian “culture”.

By coincidence, besides the Iansã ribbon, which she received in her arrival at Bahia, before her departure Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received an Iansã statue. That entity — greatly adored in Candomblé and considered goddess in the African culture Yoruba — is the Lady of winds, thunders and storms. Rice’s foreign policy toward Israel has been in turmoil. Now, to turn it into a storm, a touch from Iansã is enough.

Rice’s example shows what may happen to the Black Americans coming to Bahia in search of their roots. They will come loaded with money and curiosity and return overloaded by the “culture” of Iansã and other orishas, bringing to their homes the same gods responsible for many of the miseries and poverty Rice saw in Bahia.

PT, the socialist party controlling Brazil today, preaches much the secular State and even does violence to the Christian values in its abortion and homosexuality promotion — in the name of the secular State. Nothing of this, however, has hindered PT militants Marta Suplicy, Gilberto Gil and Jaques Wagner from helping orishas in the establishment of a bridge between American Blacks and Afro spiritual roots in Bahia.

In fact, even though being anti-American, PT has been importing and amplifying in Brazil the minority ideology from the US. The Brazilian socialist government implements the federal program “Brazil without Homophobia”, whose objective is to eliminate all opposition to homosexuality in the Brazilian society. The Lula administration has been also implementing racial quotas for Blacks and it has even a Special Secretariat for the Political Promotion of Racial Equality, whose first Secretary, Afro-Brazilian Matilde Ribeiro, declared, “I think it is natural the discrimination by Blacks against white people”. She was never rebuked for such racist declaration, but months later she fell because of financial corruption.

In Brazil, Christians have been facing persecution because of the state support for the Black “culture”. Christian books exposing African witchcraft and animal (and sometimes even human) sacrifices are banished, condemned as racist literature. There are examples of important Christian books being removed from the market because they denounced the witchcraft of the Afro religions in Brazil.

American socialism brought to Brazil the racial-equality ideology, which has been protecting the African witchcraft as culture. Any criticism to that “culture” is considered crime of racism. In her visit to Brazil, Rice signed treaties to strengthen the fight against the discrimination against Blacks — meaning more protection for their “culture”. Now, in return, Brazilian socialism is going to inject that “culture” in the US Blacks (and whites).

According to the Bible, Rice got involved with demons in Bahia. According to Brazilian socialist officials, she just had a “cultural” involvement. But, perceiving or not, she has collaborated for the spreading of the Bahia gods to America.

Even not knowing Christ deeply, some past important US officials had more sense than Rice does. After defeating Japan on the World War 2, General Douglas MacArthur challenged US evangelical missionaries to take the opportunity to evangelize Japan. He was trying to build a bridge of spiritual transformation between the US and Japan.

The attitude of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice encouraging Black Americans to find their spiritual roots in Bahia is also building a spiritual bridge. From the viewpoint of the diversity and multiculturalism ideology, the spiritual actions of MacArthur and Rice have the same value. But on the God’s Word scale, only covenants and roots with Christ bring live, not destruction.

A true Christian, being or not a US Secretary of State, does not help orishas destroy people, but helps people to get delivered from orishas. It was this way, by the assistance of Christians showing a true Gospel witness, my mother knew Jesus, was delivered from orishas and was changed into a new creature. I thank God because in her life the power of the Holy Spirit prevailed over orishas. If it were not the Gospel power, I could be today one of the millions of slaves of that spiritual heritage from Africa.

Source: http://www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

Portuguese version of this article: Em busca dos altares antigos: Rejeitando as raízes de Israel e acolhendo as raízes afros

Persecution in Brazil: Challenges and sufferings in the Brazilian homeschooling movement

Julio Severo

Josue Bueno, his wife and their 9 children are ordered to submit to psychological treatment under social workers. Because of their homeschooling practices, state officials threaten to remove their children. They flee to Paraguay, where the Brazilian government sends a court official to warn them to return to Brazil and enroll the children in the school.

Cleber Andrade Nunes and his wife Bernadeth took his two teenage children from a public school to homeschool them. Astonishingly, the boys surpassed their peers and were approved for a law school with a high score. Nevertheless, their parents received the official threat: without a school enrolling, they will be jailed and lose the custody over their children.

Teaching children at home had always been a right in Brazil, because past Brazilian constitutions guaranteed it. For example, the Constitution of 1946 (Article 166) says, “The education is a right of all and it will be given at home and in the school. It should be inspired by the principles of freedom and in the ideals of human solidarity”. No Brazilian parent was threatened, fined or jailed for teaching children at home.

Yet, Socialist legislators insisted that there was a need for a new constitution. Under their inspiration and efforts, the current 1988 Federal Constitution was born, which says:

“The Government has the power to take a census of elementary school students, call them for enrollment and ensure that parents or guardians see to their children’s attendance to school”. (Article 208, paragraph 3.)

In 2001, Carlos Vilhena and his wife Márcia tried to challenge the compulsory school attendance Law by fighting in the courts. Mr. Vilhena was a famous attorney who wanted to ensure, for himself and other families, the right to homeschool. However, the Minister of Education, a communist, ordered his ministry to reject the request by Vilhena. The Vilhena case, which had received positive international and national coverage, eventually ended in the Superior Tribunal of Justice, where Carlos and Márcia lost and where justices declared, “Children don’t belong to their parents”. Being left with no choice, the Vilhena children were enrolled in a regular school.

The decision against the Vilhena family became a dangerous precedent, harming further legal efforts to make homeschooling legal again in Brazil.

Even so, many Brazilian families continue homeschooling and entering it.

Josue Bueno, a former Baptist minister, learnt about homeschooling in his youth years in the United States. Returning to Brazil, he attended a Baptist seminary, became a minister and, as soon as he married, he sought to live a Bible-centered family, where homeschooling was fundamental.

In America, Bueno had seen families freely educating their children. So he gave the same opportunity for his own children, who never attended a school since their birth. But his attempt to live the same freedom and Christian principles proved very costly. He remembers, “Because of false accusations, which were never proved, prosecutors ordered us to send our children to school. They also disagreed with our way to discipline our children”.

The accusations were made in 2005 to the Tutelary Council, a children protection service enforcing the Children and Adolescent Statute. They received citation to stand before judges and other authorities, because of homeschooling and child discipline. Then Mr. Bueno and all his family were ordered to submit to state psychological treatment and enroll the children in a school. After some time in such treatment, being greatly pressured (especially his pregnant wife) and seeing no human escape, they fled to Paraguay — exclusively to give to their children a Christian upbringing.

Mr. Bueno tells, “People talk a lot about respect and diversity, but our different way of life was not respected. I am sure that if my sons were homosexual and my daughters lesbian they would have an overwhelming state protection”.

It was a great suffering to leave Brazil, but greater sufferings forced them to such hard choice. Yet, their suffering did not end. The Brazilian government has discovered them and sent a court official to give them a citation to return to Brazil, continue state psychological treatment and enroll the children in a school.

Different from the Bueno family, Cleber and Bernadeth Nunes had not educated their children since their birth. He had known homeschooling in his visit to the United States. After much prayer and consideration, there was a decision and today he says, “Two years ago my wife and I decided to remove our two boys from the public school and take responsibility over their education. I ran a small business and at that time I downsized it because both of us are homeschooling”. His motive, as he told in an interview to BandNews (a national TV news channel in Brazil), is because “we do not agree with the education system”.

The BandNews program, which was broadcasted nationwide February 28, 2008, noted that Bernadeth left her university course on architecture for devoting herself to the education of their children. When journalist Adriana Spinelli interviewed the boys, Davi answered: “We like very much this method because we are free to study what we like”.

In their homeschool journey, the first effort of the Nunes family was to “unschool” their children.

After just two years, the results were worthy. Under the charge of education negligence by the Tutelary Council, Mr. Nunes tried to prove that there was no such negligence. So the boys made assessment tests to enter a law school. Davi, 14, was approved in the seventh ranking. His brother Jonatas, 13, got the 13th ranking. Their position was excellent, but the Tutelary Council, which has been harassing them since 2007, was unmoved.

In spite of the excellent educational scores of their sons, the Nunes family is under the official threat of losing the custody over their children and be jailed. They have a 9-month baby girl called Ana. Two voluntary and kind lawyers are fighting to defend the Nunes family against the state power opposing homeschooling.

Their problems began when someone denounced them to the Tutelary Council. As all homeschool families in Brazil, the Nunes and Bueno families had an underground homeschool life. When properly hidden, there is no danger, but often a relative, neighbor or an unknown individual intervenes to denounce to the Tutelary Council, which has dealt with all homeschool cases in Brazil.

This Council was created to implement in the Brazilian society the Children and Adolescent Statute, which in turn was created to meet the UN Convention on the Children Rights demands. As a signatory of this UN document, the Brazilian government was obliged to reflect it in the domestic laws. No Christian leader in Brazil was able to see its dangers, but today homeschool and Christian parents are suffering its consequences.

An evangelical minister told me that when disciplining his 10-year old, the boy threatened to denounce him and his wife to the Tutelary Council. When asked where he had learnt it, the boy answered, “in school”.

More and more evangelical and Catholic parents in Brazil have told me the same sad story. Other similar experiences show that evangelical families are being hardly hit by the UN-imposed legislation in Brazil.

The Tutelary Council and the Child and Adolescent Statute, which allege to defend children and their well-being, have been noted for their omissive role in the abortion debate and for not protecting children at risk of adoption by homosexuals. But they have no omission for homeschool families.

The Bueno family may be deported to Brazil and, as to the Nunes family, Cleber say, “We were condemned to pay a US$1800 fine and to enroll the boys back in school immediately. They threatened that we would lose custody over our children. They can even send us to jail if we keep disobeying them”.

The Nunes family, which is battling a radical anti-choice system, could consider fleeing to Paraguay. Yet, even in Paraguay the Bueno family is not free from tentacles from the Brazilian Tutelary Council.

Source: http://www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

Brazilian Government Prosecutes Homeschooling Family, Threatens to Remove Children

Authorities ignore failure of school system and amazing success of homeschooling parents

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman and Julio Severo

MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL, March 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Brazilian family in the town of Timóteo, in the state of Minas Gerais, has been threatened with imprisonment and the loss of custody of their children for the “crime” of homeschooling.

The couple, Cleber Andrade Nunes and his wife Bernadeth Nunes, removed their children from public school two years ago, concerned about immoral influences and low educational standards.

The Nunes’ children showed significant improvement, so much so that they passed law school entrance exams with high marks. Their only problem is that at the ages of 14 and 13, they are not eligible for admission.

However, the success of the Nunes in educating their children has not impressed the socialist government of Brazil, which has ordered them to return the children to school and pay a fine equivalent to $1,800. If they refuse, the children will be removed from their parents’ custody.

The plight of the Nunes family is shared by others in Brazil who have taken the initiative to homeschool their children. Josue Bueno, a former Baptist minister, decided to homeschool his nine sons and daughters after learning about the practice during his adolescence in the United States. He was motivated in part by the desire to shield his children from immoral influences in the schools.

But his attempt to live according to his religious beliefs proved to be costly. He was accused in 2005 before the Tutelary Council, a child protective service. In the end Mr. Bueno and his family were ordered to submit to state “psychological treatment” and enroll the children in a school.

Their subsequent experience with the schools, however, has been a nightmare. “Our children were physically attacked by other students and even verbally humiliated by some teachers who made fun of them when they came to ask for help after being persecuted by their peers,” say the parents in a written statement.

“Ariel, our fourth child, was punished after reporting another student for beating her...She was taught in the classroom that a prostitute is a professional just like any other and should be respected. The school teaches the idea of evolution not as a theory, but as something proven. My oldest daughter was harassed by a female student who wanted to kiss her on the mouth, which she resisted.”

Ultimately the Buenos decided to flee to Paraguay, where they now live. But even there they were not safe from pressure from the Brazilian government. A court officer was sent to order them to return to Brazil and continue their “treatment”. Although the Buenos remain where they are, they are afraid that the Brazilian government might somehow secure their deportation.

“People talk a lot about respect and diversity, but our different way of life was not respected. I am sure that if my sons were homosexual and my daughters lesbian they would have an overwhelming state protection,” says Josue Bueno. “The school socializes them much more to violence, or disrespect, the values of a society that expelled God from its laws, from its schools and from its lives.”

In an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Cleber Nunes said that the Brazilian school system is a proven failure, with low ranks given by domestic studies as well as by the International Student Assessment Program, which ranks Brazilian students at 57th worldwide in educational achievement.

He also cited disturbing statistics concerning social problems in Brazilian schools, including a study done in 2000 that found that 71% of students had suffered some kind of violence. He said that condoms are distributed freely in dispensers to students as young as ten years old, and that “sex education” programs in the schools are little more than propaganda for sexual license.

Nunes says that despite the amazing progress of his children and the comparative failure of public schooling, the courts have so far insisted that he must return his children to the local public school. When he showed them the law school test results, he says, “They ignored (them) and went on with the process. They said that the law must be fulfilled.”

However, unlike the Bueno case, the Nunes have received sympathetic attention from the national media, which has publicized the success of their homeschooling efforts. Nunes is confident that his children will not be taken from him, despite the negative verdicts, which he is appealing with the help of volunteer attorneys. “The reason they are pointing (to) is so ridiculous that the foolishness would be shown to the entire nation,” he says.

“I think it time for the Brazilian society to shout that the emperor is naked!” Nunes told LifeSiteNews.com, observing that the failure of the system has been well publicized.

Nunes says that he has received many emails from Brazilians supporting his cause, and that other families in his area are interested in home schooling as well. “They don’t know how to do it. That’s why we're willing to help people. Most of them think they can’t but the truth is that they don't know they can….There is no Portuguese material available. We want to translate some to help them.”

Nunes believes he will win, and is refusing to send his children back to school while he appeals the verdict against him. “I will fight until the end,” he says. However, if he loses, he acknowledges that a “as a last case” he will have to do what the Bueno family did: leave Brazil.

Contact Information:

Cleber Nunes (he speaks English) can be contacted at:cleber@andradenunes.org

Josue Bueno (also speaks English) can be contacted at: josuepbueno@gmail.com

To contact the Brazilian Embassy:

Embassy of Brazil in the USA
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20008-3634
Phone: (202) 238-2700
Fax: (202) 238-2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org

Embassy of Brazil in Canada
450 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6M8
Phone: (613) 237-1090 or (613) 755-5160
Fax: (613) 237-6144
E-mail: mailbox@brasembottawa.org

Embassies of Brazil to other Nations: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Brazil/Brazil1.html

Source: LifeSiteNews

The Indian Child who was Buried Alive

By Hugo Marques

BRAZIL, February 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Amalé is four years old. Like many other children, he went to school for the first time on Thursday, February 12th, in Brasilia. A Kamiurá Indian from Mato Grosso, Amalé attracted attention from the rest of the children because he was the only child who was without a uniform and a backpack. But Amalé stands out from the rest for a much more troubling reason. The little Indian is actually a survivor of his own history.

After being born, November 21, 2003 at 7 am, he was buried alive by his mother, Kanui. She was carrying out a ritual prescribed by the cultural norms of the Kamaiurás, which require that children of unwed mothers be buried alive. To seal the fate of Amalé his grandparents walked on top of the mound. Nobody heard even a cry from the child. Two hours after the ceremony, in a gesture of defiance against the whole tribe, his aunt Kamiru set out to disinter the baby. She recalls that his eyes and nose were bleeding profusely and that he first began to cry only eight hours later. The older Indians believe that Amalé only escaped death because that day the earth of the pit was mixed with numerous leaves and sticks, which could have created a small air bubble.

The dramatic story of this little Indian is the visible face of a cruel reality, one that is repeated in many tribes spread throughout Brazil and that is often done with the connivance of the administrators of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), the government agency that cares for Indians.

"Before digging up Amalé, I had already heard the cries of three buried children," says Kamiru, today 36 years old. "I tried to dig up all of them, but Amalé was the only one who didn't cry and escaped with his life," she says. FUNAI hides many cases like this one, but the investigators have discovered the practice of infanticide in at least 13 ethnic groups, such as the Ianomâmis, the Tapirapés and the Madihas. The Ianomâmis alone, in 2004, killed 98 children. The Kamaiurás, the tribe of Amalé and Kamiru, kill between 20 and 30 per year.

The motives of infanticide vary from tribe to tribe, as do the methods used to kill the little ones. In addition to the children of single mothers, handicapped and mentally retarded children are also condemned to death. Twins can also be sacrificed. Some ethnic groups believe that one represents good and the other evil, and therefore, because they don't know which is which, eliminate both of them. Others believe that only animals can give birth to more than one offspring at a time. There are other motives, even more worthless, such as cases of Indians that kill those who are born with simple birth marks - those children, according to them, might bring a curse upon the tribe. The rituals of execution consist in burying alive, choking, or hanging the babies. Generally it is the mother herself who must execute the child, although there may be cases in which she can be helped by the father.

The Indians themselves are beginning to rebel against the barbarity. At this moment, there are at least ten indigenous children in Brasilia who were condemned to death in their villages. They fled with the help of religious people and survive in the capital thanks to a private organization, Atini, directed by protestant missionaries and supported by Catholics.

An official policy of FUNAI is to send exiled tribal members back to the jungle, which means putting their lives at risk. "It isn't true that there is more violence and cruelty against infants among indigenous people than in the general population," asserts Aloysio Guapindaia, acting president of FUNAI, in a written response to ISTOÉ. "The topic, treated in a superficial way, reveals prejudice against the customs of indigenous people."

There are Indians who don't agree. "No one in the government helps us to resolve the problem," complains Kamiru, with the help of an interpreter. The reward for her gesture of defiance against the customs of her people comes from the one she saved. "My real mother isn't my mother. My mother is Kamiru," says the little Amalé.

Another Indian who dared to confront the tradition was Juraka, who is also a Kamaiurá, from a village close to Amalé's. She has taken refuge with her daughter, Sheila, nine years old, in a shelter next to the Granja do Torto (one of the official residences of the President of Brazil). The child receives treatment in the Sarah Kubitschek hospital. She was born with progressive muscular dystrophy, a disease that makes her unable to walk. The tribe discovered the problem when it was time for Sheila to take her first steps. The mother fled before she was required to apply the tradition. "I don't like this custom of burying people alive," says Juraka, also with the help of an interpreter. In the hospital the doctors said that there is nothing they can do. Sheila will have to spend her life in a wheelchair. "She is the one I love most in this world, more than my other children," says Juraka. Mother and child have returned several times to the tribe. The Indians have come to respect the courage of Juraka and have begun to accept Sheila.

"It's absurd to close one's eyes to genocide against children, under any pretext," says Edson Suzuki, director of Atini. "A culture that goes against life cannot preserve itself. Having black slaves was also once a cultural right." Suzuki is raising a child named Hakani, from the Surwahás of the Amazon rain forest. She is thirteen years old. The girl was born with difficulty walking. Her parents refused to kill her; they committed suicide instead. Her older brother, fifteen years old at the time, tried to strike her face with a machete, but she survived.

"Infanticide is a destructive traditional practice" says Maíra Barreto, an attorney who is researching indigenous genocide for her doctoral thesis at the University of Salamanca in Spain. "And the worst aspect of this is that FUNAI has become infected with that cultural relativism that regards genocide as correct," says Henrique Afonos, a Worker's Party representative from Acre, and author of a bill that would punish any non-Indian who fails to give aid to a child who is in danger of death.

Away from the tribe, Amalé wants to continue going to school, but is demanding a backpack. He now speaks Portuguese well and says that he likes cars a lot. He wants to drive one when he grows up. "We are going to learn much more from Amalé than he learns from others," says Aline Carvalho, director of the school.

"A culture that goes against life cannot preserve itself." - Edson Suzuki, Director of Atini

Originally Published in ISTOÉ Magazine (http://www.terra.com.br/istoe/edicoes/1998/artigo72492-1.htm)

Translated by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman for LifeSiteNews.com, with permission from the author and publisher.

To contact the Brazilian Embassy:

Embassy of Brazil in the USA
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20008-3634
Phone: (202) 238-2700
Fax: (202) 238-2827
Email: consular@brasilemb.org
Web: http://www.brasilemb.org/

Embassy of Brazil in Canada
450 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6M8
Phone: (613) 237-1090 or (613) 755-5160
Fax: (613) 237-6144
E-mail: mailbox@brasembottawa.org

Brazilian embassies in other countries: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Brazil/Brazil1.html

To Contact FUNAI (Brazilian Agency that Oversees Indian Affairs):

National Indian Foundation (FUNAI)
SEPS Quadra 702/902
Projeção A, Ed. Lex 70.390-025
Brasília/DF
Phone: (55) (61) 3313-3500
Email: cgae@funai.gov.br
Web: http://www.funai.gov.br/

To Contact Atini (organization that shelters Indian children):

Atini - A Voice for Life
SCRN 714/715 BlocoF Loja 18
CEP 70 761-660 Brasilia - DF
Phone (55) (61) 3272 3035
Email: vozpelavida@gmail.com
Web: http://vozpelavida-nossascriancas.blogspot.com/
To Contribute: Banco do Brasil C/C 13645-X Ag. 2727-8

By deciding on Israel, Bush is deciding the destiny of the United States

Under the pressure of left-wing evangelicals, Bush wants the division of the Promised Land between Jews and Palestinian Arabs

Julio Severo

In his recent trip to Israel, President George W. Bush called on the Israelis to withdraw from the “Arab lands”. That is, Bush called “Arab lands” the territorial parts of the Promised Land occupied by Palestinian Arabs. He caused a stir among Muslims by saying, “There should be an end to the [Jewish] occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people”. Such homeland would be created through great sacrifices from Jews, who will be forced to cede important parts of the Promised Land to Palestinian Arabs.

Pentagon advisor Bob Maginnis, an Army retired officer, says that as an evangelical Christian he is distressed by the president’s shift of policy in regards to Israel. Maginnis told, “The president rewrote history when he announced that, after 60 years of a U.S. policy stating very clearly that we believe that this land belongs to Israel”.

Under the pressure of left-wing evangelicals and political interests, Bush is pressuring Jews to surrender parts of Jerusalem and the Promised Land to Palestinian Arabs.

Yet, could Bush welcome the idea of relinquishing U.S. territorial parts in exchange of peace? Could he deliver them to Palestinian Arabs for the establishment of a Palestinian homeland?

Arab nations have much more territorial extension than Israel and have the same Muslim traditions of the most Palestinians, but they are unwilling to sacrifice any part of their own Muslim lands to establish a homeland for their faith and blood brothers.

Even Lula, the Socialist president of Brazil supporting Muslim dictators and the Palestinian cause, would not be willing to sacrifice the Amazonas state to create a Palestinian nation. There would be no problem if Lula did so, because there are no biblical promises saying that Amazonas state is of Brazilians forever. Yet, there are biblical promises for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In fact, that whole land is called Promised Land because it was promised to Jews, not to Brazilians, not to Americans and not to Palestinian Arabs.

By referring to the permanence of Jews in parts of the Promised Land as “military occupation”, Bush, advancing in the Bill Clinton policies of compelling Jews to relinquish their lands in exchange of peace, is also deciding the destiny of his country.

By insisting that Jerusalem is to be divided between Jews and Palestinian Arabs, Bush is at a point now where he may seal forever the final stage of the U.S. grandness. In this issue, Bush is following the steps of the liberal Clinton and distancing himself from the upstanding and sensible anti-socialist policies of Ronald Reagan. Reagan understood Jerusalem could not be divided, and that there cannot be a Palestinian state because the latter would spell the end of Israel.

“In Israel, free men and women are every day demonstrating the power of courage and faith,” Reagan once remarked. “Back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today, no one questions that. Israel is a land of stability and democracy in a region of tyranny and unrest.”

Behind Reagan, there were many sensible evangelical leaders guiding him and helping him in the Israel issues. Those leaders had the positive perception that the Promised Land was only for Jews.

Today, there are also like-minded evangelical leaders trying to help Bush, but other evangelical leaders appeared in the scene. They think that God’s promises for Jews have no more validity and that the Promised Land can be divided between Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

Before Bush’s trip to Israel, on January 8, 2008 the ultra-leftist Sojourners sent a message mobilizing left-wing evangelicals throughout the U.S. to sign a petition to press the U.S. government. The ideologically charged message says:

“The extreme right says U.S. Christians oppose peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Tell Condi Rice they don’t speak for you. As President Bush prepares to travel to the Middle East for the first time this week, he’s been hearing a lot from Christians on the extreme right who oppose a just peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. They’d like our political leaders to believe that their misguided fundamentalist theology… represent the views of all U.S. Christians. Tell Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the religious right doesn’t speak for you. Don’t underestimate how extreme these groups are — the leader of ‘Christians United for Israel’ has gone as far as to suggest that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment from God for U.S. support of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”.

To increase their pressure on Bush and his administration, those leaders issued the manifesto “An Evangelical Statement on Israel/Palestine”. It says:

“As evangelical Christians committed to the full authority of the Scriptures, we feel compelled to make a statement together at this historic moment in the life of the Holy Land. The Bible clearly teaches that God longs for justice and peace for all people. We believe that the principles about justice taught so powerfully by the Hebrew prophets apply to all nations including the United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Therefore… We call on all evangelicals, all Christians, and everyone of good will to join us to work and pray faithfully in the coming months for a just, lasting two-state solution in the Holy Land”.

The manifesto, which closes by saying “Blessed are the peacemakers”, is undersigned by many evangelical leaders, including Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis (Sojourners editor) and David Neff, Christianity Today editor.

In Brazil, Ultimato magazine, copying ideologically Sojourners magazine, said:

“Because of a particular trend in the interpretation of Christian eschatology, many Protestants generally take the side of Israel… The appropriate attitude would be to fight for a definite recognition of both [Jew and Palestinian Arab] States [within the Promised Land]”.

The Holy Land, which was determined by God’s promise to be only one nation — Israel — is now under the determinations of left-wing evangelicals, who want turn the Promised Land into two totally opposite countries, antagonizing God’s purposes.

Evangelical leader Gary Bauer, a leading pro-Israel activist in America and member of the executive board for Christians United for Israel, declared, “I think they’re putting undue pressure on the state of Israel to make more concessions. I think that’s a dangerous, dangerous thing to do that will not only harm Israel, but ultimately harm the United States”.

Reagan was honored by God with the U.S. presidency and he used the opportunity to demonstrate and strengthen his friendship to Israel. Yet, Bush, who was equally honored, is giving way to the pressures of evangelicals that want the U.S. government to continue the Clinton policies on Israel.

By putting in danger the peace, the safety and the stability of the Promised Land — not mentioning God’s promises —, the United States is also putting in danger her own peace and safety, to suffer the curses coming on those interfering in God’s plans for Jews and their land.

The pursuit for peace by the sacrifice of the Promised Land and its rightful heirs will have a cost: “When they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction will come upon them”. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

Source: Last Days Watchman

Portuguese version of this article: Ao decidir sobre Israel, Bush está decidindo o destino dos Estados Unidos

Recommended reading:

I will bless them that bless thee

What every Christian should know about Israel

Reagan: A Staunch Friend of Israel

LifeSiteNews interviews Julio Severo

Interview with Brazil’s “most discriminated against and persecuted” Pro-Life Activist

Julio Severo reveals details of lengthy struggle against attempts of UN and US organizations to corrupt Brazil society

By Steve Jalsevac and Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

SAO PAULO, August 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) — LifeSiteNews.com’s Matthew Cullinan Hoffman recently had the opportunity to extensively interview Julio Severo, to ask him about the situation in Brazil, and the challenges he faces as a pro-life and pro-family activist increasingly under fire by anti-life forces in his country.

Severo was recently described by the Brazilian philosopher and political commentator Olavo de Carvalho as “the most discriminated against and persecuted of Brazilians”. Involved in the pro-life and pro-family movement in Brazil since 1987, Severo has written the definitive work on gay activism in the country and more recently has written a pro-life prayer book.

Severo’s work has been mentioned in the Brazilian National Congress, as well as major national magazines, including Show da Fe, Eclesia, and Enfoque Gospel. He is a theological consultant and correspondent for the Christian Research Institute in Brazil. He is also a leader in the homeschooling movement in that country, which operates underground due to government persecution.

Through his blog, http://juliosevero.blogspot.com, Severo writes critiques of the pro-abortion and pro-homosexual movements, as well as the administration of Luiz Lula, the current president of Brazil, who favors both movements. The blog, which is read and published widely in Brazil, recently came under attack from homosexual activists, who convinced Google to block it for several days. After receiving numerous protests, including articles written by Olavo de Carvalho and others in major Brazilian newspapers, Google restored the site (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.blogger.com/profile/03079977728841299575).

In the interview Severo provides a fascinating history of his far-sighted and courageous efforts to warm Brazilians about foreign attempts to bring both full abortion access and acceptance of homosexuality to his strongly pro-life and pro-family nation.

He began by spearheading a successful effort to close an illegal abortion clinic and by protesting at the US embassy over its abortion on demand situation. Soon after, UN and US based forces, together with Brazil's very liberal media successfully campaigned to expand abortion rights in Brazil. It was unthinkable during Severo’s early protests at the US embassy that many Brazilians would themselves soon begin to be subject to and believe abortion propaganda.

In 1995 Severo began writing his book, “The Homosexual Movement”, which, when published in 1998, was perceived by Brazilians as being unnecessary and alarmist. As it has turned out, Severo tells LifeSiteNews, “Now, my book is very outdated, because the Brazilian gay movement ran ahead of all the warnings of my book!”

Brazil’s prominent pro-life, pro-family activist also exposes the duplicity of President Luiz Lula who, prior to his election, emphasized he was a God-fearing man who respected family values. Since Lula's election, reveals Severo, “abortion and homosexual ‘rights’ are advancing in a fast pace”.

For his dedicated efforts Severo has been repeatedly threatened by abortion and homosexual activists. He has nevertheless continued his efforts for the protection of life and family, with a special emphasis on prayer. His hopes for the growth of what is still only a small pro-life movement in Brazil are greater now that Brazil’s evangelicals are becoming involved.

See LifeSiteNews.com Interviews Brazil’s Pro-Life Evangelist Julio Severo - Part 1
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082810.html

Julio Severo Interview — Part 1

Severo tells how he became involved in pro-life and how Brazil has been changed since the late 1980s

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
See introductory story at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082811.html

SAO PAULO, August 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com)

LifeSiteNews.com: How long have you been involved in pro-life and pro-family work? How did you get started?

Julio Severo: My first contact with the pro-life message was through publications from Last Days Ministries, in 1986. Through them I learned about Americans Against Abortion (a branch of Last Days Ministries). Before, I supported abortion in cases of rape and risk of life. Later, after reading the LDM materials, I had a change of mind.

In 1986, I wrote LDM asking for their help because I wanted to close a clandestine abortion clinic in Sao Paulo. But I was afraid, because I did know that there were policemen covering this clinic. LDM could not help me, but they gave me several contacts in the US. One of these pro-life contacts suggested that I get in touch with Fr. Paul Marx [founder of Human Life International], which I did. Fr. Marx put me in touch with Dr. Talmir Rodrigues and Dr. Humberto Vieira. They gave me a lot of guidance, but they could not help me. So I found a special police agency and explained the problem, but what helped most was that a friend of mine, who worked in a police station, asked the police officers to get involved. They were able to close the clinic.

The next year, 1987, I went to the American consulate in São Paulo and delivered Americans Against Abortion leaflets. I did it because I had read, through Americans Against Abortion literature, that America had a horrible abortion law, but that President Reagan was against it. I greatly admired Reagan because of his strong moral stances.

LifeSiteNews.com: When you took this anti-abortion literature to the US consulate, what were you trying to accomplish?

Julio Severo: Well, I was 22 years old and I had read a lot about Americans getting jailed at the front of abortion clinics just because they were peacefully praying. I did not understand it. America had much more democracy than Brazil, but Brazil had never jailed pro-life people. This was unthinkable.

I heard about cases where American pro-lifers were jailed just because they had distributed pro-life literature and I decided to get involved in this battle. Within the consulate, I received an order to stop my activities and an American official told me that I should deliver to her all my pro-life leaflets. I told her that if she took them I was going to get in touch with Brazilian TV channels, and she did not take them from me. I told her that even though she hindered me from distributing them within the consulate, I was going immediately to distribute on the sidewalk of the consulate, because that place was Brazilian territory, and in Brazil abortion was illegal. They respected my decision, even though some American officials were near. I distributed them to all people entering the consulate.

LifeSiteNews.com: Do you find it ironic that you began this battle fighting against legal abortion in the USA, and now you are fighting against US-based organizations in Brazil who are attempting to expand legal abortion in your country?

Julio Severo: Yes. My two first great battles were: to close a clandestine abortion clinic and help and sympathize with all my pro-life brothers and sisters who were getting jailed in America. That is why I decided to distribute pro-life leaflets in the US consulate. It was also a frightening experience, because in the next days a dark car was near my house in a very suspicious way!!

LifeSiteNews.com: Did anything happen with regard to the car?

Julio Severo: It came sometimes, but some time later it did not come back. Were they watching me? Today I think: could my name be on some U.S. black list?

LifeSiteNews.com: And so, you began your pro-life work in a political environment that was very different from the one that you have today in Brazil, correct?

Julio Severo: Oh, yes! I do not remember any pro-abortion activities.

LifeSiteNews.com: Abortion was illegal in almost all circumstances, and the public was strongly against it?

Julio Severo: Yes! The Brazilian people were completely against it, but I believe popular soap operas were slightly undermining moral and religious stances. Soap operas were and are extremely popular in Brazil. Brazil at that time was much, much different from the current Brazil.

LifeSiteNews.com: How has Brazil changed since the late 1980s with regard to human life issues?

Julio Severo: The great difference is that today there are many organized and coordinated efforts and NGOs promoting abortion. Moreover, the current Brazilian government supports abortion. No past Brazilian government has supported abortion.

LifeSiteNews.com: How has the culture changed? Are Brazilians as opposed to abortion today as they were in the 1980s?

Julio Severo: There is a survey showing that most Brazilians do not want abortion decriminalization. Yet, in the past Brazilians could not even hear and see support for abortion on TV and radio. Today they tolerate this, but are against abortion.

LifeSiteNews.com: Would you say, then, that the media has changed, but the culture has changed less?

Julio Severo: I would say that the liberal media could not freely reveal its views on abortion, but today it does it freely. The public has been molded by it. This is my perception. I remember that in early 1990 Rede Globo, the biggest TV channel in Brazil, was given an award because its soap operas were indoctrinating the public with family planning ideals.

LifeSiteNews.com: Who gave them the award? Do you remember?

Julio Severo: Yes, the United Nations. I have this UN document in some place of my things.

LifeSiteNews.com: Let’s go back to the issue of NGOs and other organizations involved in promoting abortion in Brazil. Generally, from where are these organizations receiving their support, and where are they based?

Julio Severo: In early 1990, I visited the UNFPA office in Brazil, and I saw that they had a book showing all international groups funding many anti-life groups in Brazil. Most of these groups were based in America. Yet, through Fr. Paul Marx, I already knew that Brazil and other Third World countries were being heavily assaulted by the investments from anti-life groups in America, Canada and Europe. Yearly, I visited the UNFPA office in Brazil.

LifeSiteNews.com: What are the principle struggles that pro-life people are involved in and have been involved from the time when you began your work in the late 80s, to today?

Julio Severo: In the late 80s, I saw only Catholics in the pro-life movement, and their focus was abortion. In the 90s, the pro-life movement was still Catholic, and in the mid 90s they added sex education to the important items on the pro-life agenda. Through their kind assistance I came to know the Brazilian Congress and I learned how to promote the pro-life principles and values there. I am specially indebted to Dr. Humberto Vieia, the president of Providafamilia [Pro-Life and Family].

More recently, evangelicals entered in the battles, not only because of abortion, but also because of the furious advance of the gay movement. Interestingly, Catholics until very recently did not want to get involved in the fight against the gay agenda, because they feared that it could in some way harm their focus on abortion. But now they are increasingly conscious that the anti-life forces are composed by pro-abortion and gay militants, This is a very recent change, though. As you have seen, I have struggled to awaken people about the gay agenda since 1998.

Part II http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082901.html

LifeSiteNews.com Interviews Brazil’s Pro-Life Evangelist Julio Severo — Part II

Pro-abort and homosexual movement tactics, the disaster of Luiz Lula, homosexual activism in Brazil, persecution of Severo, a prayer book

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

See Part I at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082810.html

SAO PAULO, August 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com)

LifeSiteNews.com: What are the tactics used by the pro-abortion and homosexual movements in Brazil?

Julio Severo: They are undermining rights linked to family and sexuality. There are pervasive propaganda efforts showing that women are vulnerable and need state protection. Then they are trained for empowerment, to understand that the ideal life is to enter the work force, put the children in the dayschool, etc.

In the sexual area, abortion has been systematically presented as a health issue, not a criminal issue. IPPF [International Planned Parenthood Federation] has been very active in the abortion debate in Brazil, introducing statistics on the abortion impact on Brazilian women. There are also similar reports by the Alan Gutmacher Institute. Brazil is a signatory of CEDAW [Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women] and other UN documents, without any opposition, because the Brazilian people were not aware of their risks. Only recently have pro-lifers been getting involved in the role of our government in the UN, but I fear that it is too late, because Brazil has already signed all major UN documents.

LifeSiteNews.com: What has been the effect of the election of Luiz Lula on the politics of human life and human sexuality in Brazil?

Julio Severo: Disastrous for two reasons: 1) He was supported by a majority of Christians, who were misled by progressive Catholic and evangelical leaders. 2) He himself misled Christians to become president, because during the election campaigns he told everybody that he was a God-fearing man, that he respected family values, that after his victory he would not let his government promote and get involved in the abortion and homosexual issues. Then you can see that many people were misled.

LifeSiteNews.com: How were they misled? What has Lula’s conduct been since he entered office?

Julio Severo: Now abortion and homosexual "rights" are advancing in a fast pace. He has publicly defended and supported gay parades. He has publicly defended explicit sex education. He has publicly spurned moral and Christian values. His Minister of Health has publicly supported abortion. His Minister for Women Affairs, who worked in the Brazilian delegation in the UN supporting abortion rights, is now promoting such "rights" in national policies for women.

LifeSiteNews.com: Does the content of Lula’s sex education programs contradict traditional sexual morality?

Julio Severo: Yes, because it has transmitted values, but not traditional values. Such education accepts sex without marriage, sex only for pleasure -- for children and teens! It teaches them how to avoid pregnancy and sexual diseases, but it does not teach them how to get prepared for marriage. In fact, it does not teach in any way anything positive about marriage, husband, wife, etc. Children at school cannot be exposed or taught about the traditional role for men and women. Instead, they learn that women can do anything men do. Sports cannot be limited for one sex only in schools. For teens, education is more elaborated and "advanced". In the schools, there is no mention of "wife" or "husband". Usually, government propaganda uses "wife" and "husband" in negative contexts, like wife-battering, etc.

LifeSiteNews.com: You wrote a book in 1998 called “The Homosexual Movement” in Portuguese. Why did you choose to write this book in 1998, and what is it about?

Julio Severo says: Well, the initial inspiration came in March 1995. It was a spiritual urging, in fact. I felt God telling in my heart that I should write a book on the homosexual movement, but I was afraid, because in that time to get involved in homosexual issues was shameful. Yet, after some time I decided to answer to this urging. And I saw the confirmation of such a need when ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) had its first meeting in the Southern Hemisphere, in Rio de Janeiro, in July 1995 (I think that this is the right month, but I am not sure). It took three years to be written. When it was published, many people said that it was unnecessary.

LifeSiteNews.com: Does it only cover homosexual activism in Brazil, or worldwide?

Julio Severo: It discusses the timid activism in Brazil, presenting evidence that Brazilian groups were receiving support and know-how from American groups. It also showed many examples of the aggressive advance of the homosexual movement in America and Europe and how Brazilian groups would eventually copy their American and European counterparts. Back in late 1990s people used to tell me that Brazil would never suffer such violent promotion of the homosexual agenda. Now, my book is very outdated, because the Brazilian gay movement ran ahead of all the warnings of my book!

LifeSiteNews.com: You have recently written another book, this time on prayer. Is it also related to human life and sexuality issues?

Julio Severo says: Yes! It teaches how to pray for our families, work and about government. It teaches also how to pray against the promotion of abortion and homosexual issues. This book has my pro-life imprint!

LifeSiteNews.com: Recently, homosexual activists attempted to silence your blog, juliosevero.blogspot.com. At that time, the Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho wrote in a national newspaper: “Julio Severo, as a reprisal against his moral crusade, now has his social and professional life totally destroyed. He is the most discriminated against and persecuted of Brazilians. He cannot confront, alone, a gigantic mass movement subsidized by billionaire foundations that, having made itself out to be a victim persecuted by a solitary and poor adversary, now shows a monstrous, cynical, and perverse dishonesty.” What kind of persecution have you received from the homosexual movement in Brazil?

Julio Severo: The initial persecution was by a homosexual government official in my former town. Frequently, I have received threats by email. There was also an explicit threat against me, published online. Besides, there are articles calling me names and inventing homosexual lies about me.

LifeSiteNews.com: What were the threats?

Julio Severo: More recently I was informed about attempts by Luiz Mott [the leader of Brazil's homosexual movement] to find my address. The article online said "Vamos dar um fim físico ao maníaco Julio Severo"; Let us physically destroy the maniac Julio Severo.

LifeSiteNews.com: These threats are on homosexual websites?

Julio Severo: They have been posted in major leftist websites. I have received an email where gay writer Fabricio Viana threatened to sue me. I have received it in August. My lawyer told me that while they do not know my physical address, I am secure.

LifeSiteNews.com: What are your thoughts about Brazil's future? Do you see any signs of hope?

Julio Severo: I think Brazil is in a fast spiral destructive course. Its great weakness was believing the left and liberal ideology. These ideologies are eating the Brazilian society as a cancer, eroding family and religious values. I think that the only hope is a strong pro-life and pro-family movement detached from the leftist contamination so common in Brazilian politics and society.

LifeSiteNews.com: Do you see such a movement emerging in Brazil today?

Julio Severo: I see a very small pro-life movement, and the good news is that Evangelicals are getting involved.

For more information about Julio Severo's struggle in Brazil:

His blog in English: http://lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com
His blog in Portuguese: http://juliosevero.blogspot.com
His email can be found at this address: http://www.blogger.com/profile/03079977728841299575

Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Plan to Shut Down Blog of Brazil Pro-Family Leader Backfires
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jul/07073011.htm