Persecution of Christians in Mexico Accelerates

The National Bar of Christian lawyers say that evangelical Christians are being persecuted daily in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. They are being pressured to pay quotas for the festivals of 'traditional Catholics'. Traditional catholics are a blend of native 'traditional' religions and Catholicism.

If the quotas are not paid, they are expelled from their homes and lose their property.

The organization directed by Farrera has told the government it has records of 200 cases of unresolved religious intolerance in Chiapas, including “threats, intimidation, and robbery or expulsion from their communities, or death.”

Last January 31, three evangelicals from San Juan Chamula municipality were driving home from San Cristobal de las Casas when they were ambushed and shot at, requiring hospitalization. Authorities concluded that it was a case of religious persecution.

State government has met with local leaders, insisting that the evangelical Christians are backed by the law and they should not be expelled. The evangelicals say they will help in every thing, but they refuse to pay the quotas for the Catholic festivals. They say these festivals involve drunkenness and immoral behavior.

In a statement in Mexico City’s La Jornada newspaper published yesterday (February 8), the Roman Catholic bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Felipe Arizmendi, declared his church had no relationship with the “so-called traditional Catholics, who do not depend on our diocese, do not take into account the Bible nor the laws of this country, but are governed by their own agreements and traditions.”

Linked at Conservative Cat
Don Surber

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