Brazilian Judge: Catholic Priest's Book Denouncing Witchcraft Must be Removed from Bookstores

Declares that state government has obligation to preserve "respectability" and "permanence" of such practices

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

BAHIA, BRAZIL, July 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A judge in the state of Bahia, Brazil, has ordered the confiscation of a book written by Catholic priest Jonas Abib, in which he condemns witchcraft as immoral.

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."

Ricardo Augusto Schmitt, a criminal court judge in the city of Salvador, Bahia ruled in favor of the prosecution in May, and ordered the confiscation of all copies of the book from book stores in the state.

The ruling follows other actions that have been taken against Christians in Brazil for publicly expressing their views regarding forms of behavior that are currently favored by the political establishment. The Evangelical Protestant organization National Vision for a Christian Conscience (VINACC) was censored by a judge last year when it initiated a campaign to affirm natural heterosexual marriage and condemn homosexual behavior (see LifeSiteNews coverage at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07073108.html).

Federal Deputy Miguel Martini denounced the latest ruling on the floor of the nation's Camber of Deputies (the lower legislative house), and expressed his concern that Brazil is beginning to censor the beliefs of Christians.

"Where is this country going?" he asked. "There is a bill under consideration in the Senate that seeks to limit the expression, on the part of Christians, of their Biblical and Evangelical convictions. And now there is a (court) decision, which clearly should be appealed. I am certain that it will be overturned, because the publisher's juridical board has already taken legal action."

The newspaper Folha da Bahia also reports that Fr. Abib will be required to appear before the court to be informed of the verdict, although there have been no reports of subsequent hearings. The publisher of the book, Canção Nova (New Song), has publicly denied the validity of the charges, and says that it was not informed of the trial.

Related LifeSiteNews Coverage:

Brazilian Government Punishes Dissenters of Pro-Homosexuality Policy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08032702.html

Brazilian Gay Groups Launch Multiple Lawsuits to Silence Christian Opposition
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07083007.html

Brazil Attacks Against Family Defenders Backed by Pro-Homosexual Regime of Nation's President
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07073108.html

Source: LifeSiteNews

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

See also:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Afro-Brazilian witchcraft

http://lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-search-of-ancient-altars-rejecting.html

Offend a homosexual ... Go to prison for 5 years

Teachers, pastors facing 'criminalization of homophobia'

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Christians will face prison for speaking out against homosexuality if Brazil's Senate passes a bill approved unanimously by its House of Representatives.

The measure is considered the country's newest attempt to promote homosexuality, disguised as an act to combat discrimination, the Catholic News Agency reports.

If anyone prevents actions of "homosexual affection" in public or private locations open to the public, they could face up to five years in prison for doing so, the Association of the Defense of Life reports.

The bill also seeks to penalize private and public school administrators with up to three years in prison if they refuse to hire openly "gay" teachers.

According to the CNA, the measure will force prison time for any "moral, ethical, philosophical or psychological expression that questions homosexual practices."

The ADL claims the bill could spell disaster for churches and teachers.

"[A] priest, a pastor, a teacher or even an average citizen who says in a sermon, a classroom or public conversation that homosexual acts are sinful, disordered or an illness could be denounced and detained," the association said.

Only weeks ago, WND reported the president of Brazil said "opposing" homosexuality makes you a sick person, and he believes such thoughts need to be criminalized.

Brazilian chief Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who won a narrow re-election following a cash-for-votes scandals, held the First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals to condemn the biblical belief that homosexuality is wrong.

Lula, on June 5, not only officially opened the event to promote homosexuality across his nation but also issued a presidential sanction for the conference.

Calling for "the criminalization of homophobia," he said opposition to homosexuality is "perhaps the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head."

He said "prejudiced" people need to "open their minds and clean them." Other speakers encouraged homosexuals to claim to be part of a civil rights campaign that already has brought reforms for treatment of blacks, the elderly and the disabled. They also announced the nation's public hospitals soon would begin to perform sex changes on people.

Source: WorldNetDaily

See also:

'Opposing homosexuality makes you sick'

Abortion Decriminalization Bills Overwhelmingly Rejected in Brazilian Congress

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

BRASILIA, July 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two bills to decriminalize abortion in Brazil were defeated for the third time in recent weeks, in what may be the final blow to legislation that has been under consideration for over 17 years in the Brazilian National Congress.

The latest defeat was dealt by the Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil's lower legislative house, in a crushing 30-4 vote, after the head of the committee, Eduardo Cunha, rejected the legislation on June 26th.

"The right to life constitutes the supreme value of the Constitution, because all other rights are derived from it," said Cunha at the time, noting that the right to life cannot be abolished even by a constitutional amendment.

The ensuing debate in the Committee provoked an impassioned response on the part of pro-life deputies, who constituted the overwhelming majority.

Deputy Carlos William brought a baby coffin and two dolls to illustrate his position, and cited verses from the Bible. Deputies Miguel Martini and Luiz Bassuma brought poster-sized photos of unborn children killed by abortion.

After a brief period of discussion, the committee voted for a motion to close debate and hold the vote, angering pro-abortion forces, who protested outside the building.

According to the newspaper Jornal do Comercio, the bill will be permanently archived without a special vote to bring it to the full floor. "This bill won't prosper in the chamber," Cunha was quoted as saying.

The decision follows an earlier rejection by the Social Security and Family Committee, which nixed the legislation on May 7th. The vote was 33-0 after the small, pro-abortion minority left in protest.

The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies' firm pro-life stance is reflected by the majority of Brazilians, who, according to polls, are more opposed than ever to decriminalizing abortion.

After a year in which the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops launched a nationwide pro-life campaign, Brazilians opposed to decriminalizing abortion rose from 63% to 68% (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08020810.html).

A recent online poll held by the liberal newspaper O Globo also resulted in a clear majority against the decriminalization bills. Pro-life readers sounded off against the legislation in statements published by the newspaper on its website.

Expressing disbelief at the idea, advanced by pro-abortion groups, that decriminalization will reduce the number of abortions, one reader wrote: "Think before speaking! A woman can decide what to do with her body, yes! She just can't interfere with another life in the process. Freeing the practice to reduce it? That's nonsense! Prohibit and prosecute to diminish it. Fulfill the law!"

Another wrote: "Abortion is a weak attitude that denotes irresponsibility. It is to flee the consequences of one's actions. And, for the other cases, there is legal support for the issue. It is inconceivable to accept abortion as a way of making up for mistakes."

Abortion is currently decriminalized in Brazil in cases of rape and to save the mother's life.

Previous LifeSiteNews Coverage:

Brazilian Abortion Decriminalization Bill Suffers New Defeat

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08062714.html

On the Pro-Life Victory in Brazil: "I have Never Seen This Happen in the National Congress!"

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08051503.html

Smashing Defeat for Pro-Abortion Forces in Brazil

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08050809.html

More than Two-Thirds of Brazilians are Against the Legalization of Abortion

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08040803.html

Brazilian Bishops Launch Major National Campaign Against Abortion, Euthanasia, and Embryonic Stem Cell Research

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08020810.html

Source: LifeSiteNews

Brazil to Place Condom Dispensers in All Public High Schools

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

SAO PAULO, Brazil, July 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An official of the Brazilian federal government has announced that 400 condom vending machines will be placed in public schools by October of this year in the beginning stages of a massive distribution to the entire public school system.

According to Eduardo Barbosa, head of the National Program for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS, the program will eventually be expanded to include all schools.

"The expectation is that all of the public schools will have at least one machine. At the end of the year, we will evaluate the usage and the appropriateness of the machines in the school environment, and how we give information and guidance regarding them," said Barbosa to the newspaper Jornal do Brasil.

Although such projects are designed to combat the spread of AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases, the United Nations states that condoms have a 10% failure rate. In addition, critics observe that condom promotion programs often seem to give recipients a false sense of security, and therefore encourage promiscuity and increase the transmission of such diseases.

Dom Dimas Lara Barbosa, the Secretary-General of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB), expressed skepticism about the program.

"The big problem with this government program for distributing condom machines to the schools is that, rather than teaching fidelity and respect in relationships with others, it runs the risk of creating an incentive to engage in sexual intercourse, including premature sexual intercourse," he said.

"Our mission as Catholics must be to reaffirm the beauty of human sexuality, but above all, the respect that one should have in every action, including the conjugal act. Safe sex, only in marriage, blessed by God."

Source: LifeSiteNews

Divulgation: Last Days Watchman

Brazilian Abortion Decriminalization Bill Suffers New Defeat

"The right to life constitutes the supreme value of the Constitution" says committee chairman.

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

BRASILIA, June 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- A bill to decriminalize abortion that has been in process in the Brazilian Congress for 17 years has received its second major defeat in recent weeks after being rejected by the President of the Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship Committee of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies (the nation's lower legislative house).

"The fetus has the right not to be killed," said Eduardo Cunha, explaining why he would recommended a "no" vote to the legislation (PL-1135/1991), which is supported by the administration of Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva. He also recommended rejecting another bill, PL-176/1995, which would establish abortion as a "right".

On June 26, Cunha presented his case before the committee, stating that the bills seek to decriminalize abortions, but in the judicial system of Brazil "the inviolability of the right to life is assured".

"The right to life constitutes the supreme value of the Constitution, because all other rights are derived from it," he added. He noted that not even a constitutional amendment can abolish the right to life.

The rejection by Cunha follows the historic defeat of PL 1135/1991 in the Chamber's Social Security and Family Committee on May 7 of this year, 33-0.

The Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship Committee will hold a full vote after two rounds of public hearings, which will receive testimony from José Gomes Temporão, President Lula's pro-abortion health minister, as well as other representatives of both sides of the debate.

Related Links:

Text and History of Abortion Decriminalization Bill PL-1135/1991 (Portuguese)
http://www2.camara.gov.br/internet/proposicoes/chamadaExtern...

Text and History of Abortion "Rights" Bill PL-176/1995 (Portuguese)
http://www2.camara.gov.br/internet/proposicoes/chamadaExtern...

Related LifeSiteNews Coverage:

Smashing Defeat for Pro-Abortion Forces in Brazil
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08050809.html

On the Pro-Life Victory in Brazil: "I have Never Seen This Happen in the National Congress!"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08051503.html

Source: LifeSiteNews

Divulgation: LAST DAYS WATCHMAN

A Satanic Joke

By Olavo de Carvalho

Translated from the Portuguese by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

The other day a friend asked me if I had noticed that, within a single generation, forms of conduct described by psychiatry as neurotic or even psychotic have become accepted as normal. Not just normal - I responded - but normative, laudable, and obligatory. The next steps are: (a) marginalize and criminalize every reaction of revulsion, (b) make revulsion psychologically impossible, expelling it from the repertoire of conduct admitted by society.

Only unconcealed paranoia could allow, for example, a country where there are 50,000 homicides every year, spread over the whole territory of eight and a half million square kilometers, to describe the murder of 120 homosexuals as a wave of homophobic genocide. However, it is only necessary for someone to appeal to such a statistical comparison and instantly, among cries of revulsion and tears of indignation from the crowd, he is accused of homophobia and of being an apostle of genocide. The idea of comparing the number of gays who are murdered with those who are murderers, scientifically indispensable for distinguishing between a threatened group, a threatening group, and a group that is neither one or the other, ends up being so offensive that the mere temptation to suggest it is sufficient for one to be prosecuted for homophobia, without the law even having to prove it.

Likewise, Mr. Luiz Mott alleges as proof of generalized anti-homosexual hatred, some ninety cases of aggressions against homosexuals that have occurred in the space of four months in São Paulo, but who dares to compare that number with the number of aggressions committed by the very gay militants themselves in only one day of the Gay Parade in the same city? Applying the statistical criteria of Mr. Mott, we would say that gays are a danger to the public. The conclusion is absurd, but no more absurd than claiming that they themselves are in danger.

A sense of proportion being prohibited, and the hysterical posturing and hyperbolic paranoia in favor of interest groups become absolute civic obligations. Insanity becomes obligatory, and whoever refuses to be contaminated by it is a criminal, a reprobate, a lunatic who is unable to live in society.

The President of the Republic recently participated in emergency forums regarding this psychotic stupidity, declaring that any and all opposition to homosexualism is "the most perverse illness that ever entered the human mind".

He reinforces his words, insisting in appearing in official ceremonies with Mr. Luiz Mott at his side, the same individual who talks about pornographic art while embracing the statue of a naked baby of the male sex, transmitting in a not at all subtle manner the idea that babies are, or should be made into, objects of sexual desire like anyone else (if you don't believe it, verify it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlmfZdyk2YA).

The propaganda of pedophilia is more than evident here, but, upon decorating Mr. Mott for "cultural merit" (as if he himself had merit or culture), Mr. Lula throws all of the weight of his presidential authority in a cynical bluff that forces us to deny what we see, and to believe instead the official pretense of elevated humanitarian and cultural intentions. There is no greater arrogance than demanding that a human being sacrifice his conscience, his intelligence, and even his capacity of sense perception on the altar of the absurd. "In the end, who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes," Groucho Marx used to ask. When the joke is transformed into reality, humor becomes a satanic farce.

Totally oblivious to the grotesque nature of his performance, the lunatic ascends the chair and gives lessons in psychiatry, categorizing as "sick" those who think there is something wrong about eroticizing an image of a baby, and even proposing, as therapy, to imprison all of them.

And there are those who think that it is possible to have a rational, polite discussion with people like Messrs. Lula and Mott...

Originally published in Jornal do Brasil, June 12, 2008
Translated and published with permission of the author.

Source: LifeSiteNews

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