Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin – No. 257 – Wed 04 Feb 2004

————————————- COLOMBIA: CHURCH TARGETED IN CONFLICT ————————————-

In August-September 2003, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) visited Colombia to investigate the reported persecution of Christians occurring within the wider Colombian conflict. They found it ‘far more serious and disturbing than expected’.

Colombia has been wracked with conflict for four decades. The multiple opposing forces have lost most of their ideological base and are today engaged primarily in what is little more than massive- scale gang warfare over territory and drug business. CSW discovered that ‘Church leaders who speak out publicly against the violence, injustice, corruption, and the narcotics trade often become instant targets’. Also, those who persuade others not to participate in violence are assassinated, and those refusing to co-operate with armed groups are forced out of their homes and off their land.

Anna-Lee Stangl, Latin America Research and Advocacy Officer for CSW, reports that in 2000 a high-ranking deserter from FARC (guerrilla group) advised that evangelical pastors have been declared legitimate military targets. Since then over 100 pastors and church leaders have been assassinated by Colombian armed groups, with more than 40 in 2003. Stangl also reports that Christians are being targeted ‘not just for faith in action, but also just for being Christians’.

According to CSW, in the areas controlled by armed groups ‘more than 400 Protestant churches have been forced to close, the pastors commanded to stop preaching or even forced to leave, and local Christians prohibited from praying, singing or meeting in groups of more than two families’. This is mainly because the Church and its gospel message is a threat to the drug and conflict industries.

Deann Alford (Compass Direct) writes in Christianity Today magazine (2 Feb 2004) about a guerrilla sub-commander who attacked and burnt a church in 1999 before becoming a Christian in prison in early 2003. He is now persecuted in prison. A guerrilla commandant burnt his Bible, maintaining that those in the guerrilla ranks can’t be involved in religion. He struggles daily, but he says that he would never go back to his former life. ‘I was looking for peace,’ he explains, ‘and found it in Christ.’

The evangelical Protestant Church in Colombia has grown ‘explosively’ and ‘miraculously’ in recent decades, but the conflict and displacement keeps it in a constantly traumatised, fractured and therefore weakened state. Anna-Lee Stangl comments, ‘The Evangelical Church is absolutely KEY to bringing in a new, more just and peaceful order to Colombia. Precisely because of that, there is a very intense spiritual element to all of this.’ Indeed, it is Satan himself who holds Colombia captive. His power can only be broken by prayer and by the liberating, redeeming power of Christ who is supreme (Col 1:16; 1 Pet 3:22).

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR

* God to send his heavenly forces to protect his courageous witnesses, frustrating the plans of the wicked (Psalms 146:9).

* fighters, drug merchants and all who are engaged in or profit from conflict, that God will turn their hearts towards peace and open their hearts to the gospel. ‘The king’s heart is in the hands of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.’ Proverbs 21:1

* God to build up and unify the Colombian Church, the Colombian Council of Evangelical Churches (Cedecol) and its Commission for Restoration, Life and Peace, praying especially for wisdom and strength for evangelical leaders, particularly Ricardo Esquvia who is presently under threat of arrest.

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SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE: ———————————————————— CHURCH TARGETED IN COLOMBIAN CONFLICT

Colombia is one the world’s most violent nations. For decades it has been crippled by conflict between guerrilla groups, paramilitary forces, drug cartels and the government. Despite this the Church has grown explosively in the villages, the war zones and even in the prisons. This is primarily why the Church and Christians – especially pastors and evangelists – are increasingly targeted. The gospel is a real threat to the conflict industry from which many people profit. Armed groups assassinated 40 pastors in 2003 and over 100 since 2000. Christian leaders are convinced there is a strong spiritual element to this destructive conflict. Only Christ can destroy Satan’s grip on this nation.

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The WEA Religious Liberty Commission sponsors this RL Prayer List to help individuals and groups pray specifically and regularly for religious liberty issues, and in particular to uphold the Church where it is suffering persecution.

RL Prayer is moderated by Ron Clough, a commissioner of the WEA RLC and convenor of the Australian EA RLC.

Elizabeth Kendal researched and authored this message.

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