The Bosque Boys

Another excerpt from the speech of the Rev. Israel Batista Guerra, the General Secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches. (For an earlier excerpt click here.

"In 1916, at the Congress of Panama, when Latin America was declared a land of mission, there were a couple thousand evangelicals: 14,500 in 1938, a million in 1950, then 37 million in 1980. At the end of the last millenium between 15 and 20 percent of the Latin American population was evangelical. Of that figure less than 15 percent belong to historic Protestant churches." (an okie gardener again) by "historic Protestant churches" he is referring to Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, etc. Most of the growth of evangelicalism is among pentecostal and neopentecostal groups.

(okie again) The shift I think will have political ramifications. In the past Latin American social upheaval has been associated with communism, socialism, Peronism, and assorted mostly secular movements. Protestantism, world-wide historically, has been associated with unrest and even revolution in the direction of democratic or republican government. Lest you say, 'But Pentecostals never will do that,' read below

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Drudge links to this article from the Washington Post reporting that the average American is more socially isolated than ever before. The first two paragraphs read

"Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States.

A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two."

(cont.)

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Foxnews reports that President Bush, on his European trip has paid tribute to those Hungarians who resisted Soviet tyranny in 1956.

"Bush's tribute to what he called the "unbelievable thirst for freedom" that was exhibited by Hungarians in 1956 officially got under way when he placed a wreath at a black marble Eternal Flame Memorial in honor of those who died in the revolt. The president and first lady Laura Bush bowed their heads briefly as they laid a bouquet of cut irises, lilies and other flowers at the memorial where a bugler played.
In an open-air speech in a Buda Castle courtyard, the president was urging other nations to celebrate the hard-won freedoms in such former Iron Curtain countries by helping to nurture new democracies in places like Iraq. Bush was to recall the difficulty of the transition to democracy in Hungary and other nations as a way of urging patience at home and abroad with the fits and starts of Baghdad's transition to democracy.
"All of us who have the blessings of freedom must remember the spirit that took place here and we must not take freedom for granted," Bush said as he toasted his hosts in a long, opulent hall where they had lunch.
Bush's commemoration of the 1956 uprising comes more than four months early.
The country that endured the Austro-Hungarian Empire, fascism, German occupation and then communism revolted on Oct. 23, 1956 when Hungarians encouraged by anti-Soviet protests in Poland began protesting the Kremlin.
Pro-Soviet forces fired on a crowd of 100,000 peaceful protesters and killed more than 500. The following month, armored Soviet divisions rolled into Budapest, brutally crushing the revolt and leaving thousands dead in the fighting.
The United States did not help the Hungarian protesters — a fact Bush was not expected to mention — and it would be more than 30 years before Soviet rule ended."

(An Okie Gardener again) I have been anticommunist for as long as I can remember, back to childhood. I must give credit to two books for confirming my thoughts and attitudes. One was One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn. The other was The Bridge at Andau by James Michener, his chronicle of the Hungarian uprising based on interviews with refugees. Michener allows the events to speak for themselves, conveying the horror and inhumanity of communism as practiced by the Soviets and their subjegated nations. As memories fade and as a new generation arises that only knows a fallen Wall, I think we should encourage people to read these books.

Recently I had the privilege of hearing an address by the Rev. Israel Batista Guerra, the General Secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches. Afterward I asked him for, and was granted, permission to share some of his comments in this blog. He cited the Christians Church in Cuba as an example of bringing theology and life together.

“Many ask why it is that the Cuban church is growing so much. It has not been because of evangelistic methods, or the use of television (to which we have no access), nor massive evangelistic campaigns. Its growth is based on the value of its Christian witness, on the commitment to the values of faith, on lives of holiness and on the faithful commitment to Jesus Christ. The Cuban churches are communities that, in the name of the Lord, save and heal.”

No gimmicks. No slick ads. Just communities living their faith in difficult circumstances. Amen. So may it be here. To read the full address link here. The pdf file link is at the bottom of the page.

Great article on the war leadership of Winston Churchill related to the present war. Steadiness. Realism. Courage. Honesty. Moral Vision. Read the article. From National Review. Courtesy of Powerline.

An interesting tidbit in these times: according to Richard Morriss' book Witnesses at the Creation, one of the reasons John Jay (one of the Federalist writers) pushed for the adoption of a stronger central government to replace the Articles of Confederation was the inability of the Confederation government to respond to the attacks by the Barbary pirates. These pirates were North African Muslims who justified their attacks as strikes against the infidels. So indirectly Islam helped prompt us to adopt our present Constitution.

During the rise of Islam several Christian leaders, such as John of Damascus, regarded it as a Christian heresy. That is, instead of seeing it as an independent religion, these leaders regarded it as a perversion of true Christianity. Perhaps this is because Islam has a place for Jesus as a prophet leading up to the ultimate prophet Mohammad, though not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. Also, Mohammad and early Islam did have contact with Arabian Christians, and rejected Christianity as the one true religion.

Do I “respect” Islam? In a way, but not in the same sense I respect Buddhism or animistic religions. And certainly not in the way I respect Judaism, which I believe to be a God-revealed religion (though I pray that Jews will acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah). cont.

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In the last two days Islamists have exploded over 70 bombs in Thailand. Full article. From LGF.

I guess it must be the presence of Thai troops in Iraq. Nope, none there. Well, it must be the firm and unequivocal support of Israel that Thailand is know world-wide for. What? Haven't heard that one. Then how about this explanation: for the entire history of Islam there has been conflict as Islam pushed to expand its borders. Islam itself divides the world into the Realm of Submission (lands governed by Islamic law)and the Realm of War (everywhere else). Ask Vienna. Ask Spain. Ask Sicily. Ask Greece. The conflicts have waxed and waned, but we now are in another period of Islamic expansion.

Drudge links to this article which states that charitable giving by Americans is near a new high. To my mind a healthy society is one with citizen initiative, as evidenced by charitable giving among other things. An unhealthy society is characterized by citizen passivity while waiting for "somebody" (usually government) to do something. Like France during their last bad heat wave. See my earlier post on Lower Taxes and Voluntary Societies. We are a healthy society, in part, because instead of embracing totally the liberal vision of The People and their Government as the only social realities, we remain a nation of The People, Government, and a plethora of voluntary societies expressing citizen initiative.

Our country has its flaws, but still has a generous heart. So, what are the Saudis doing with their petrodollars?

As the armies of Islam spread their faith, they destroyed works of art from Arabia outward. What will happen in Europe as the Muslim population increases? The following article raises this question. Perhaps a good measure of Muslim accommodation to European culture, or Muslim rejection of European culture, will be the treatment of art. Will the statues, paintings, frescoes, mosaics, bas reliefs, etc., many with Christian themes, be left alone or destroyed? Keep an eye on the art in the years ahead.

"Already statues have been vandalized by Muslims in public places, and in churches, in both France and Italy. The destruction of the monuments and artifacts and hence part of the histories of Infidels, that so many Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists in the Middle East, in North Africa, in the Balkans and southeastern Europe, in Central Asia and Hindustan and in southeast Asia know well, now has come to Western Europe. What will happen in Italy, where every street corner in Rome has something that could be damaged by determined Muslims? What will happen to the churches, to the frescoes (including that which Muslims have been taped planning to destroy in Bologna), to the paintings in the Louvre, the Prado, the National Gallery, the Rijksmuseum, the Alte Pinakothek, the Uffizi? Has any organized association of museum curators, or of art scholars, even dared to think of organizing a conference on the protection of art in Europe, and the prohibitions of Islam against sculpture of all kinds, against paintings of living creatures? "

Read the full article from Jihadwatch.