This is an interview in Spanish that I did with Anyul Rivas and Natanael Disla about “the emerging movement in Latin America and the Caribbean”. Both Anyul and Natanael follow the discussions in North America and know Latin-American theologies and the realities of its churches in practice. How do we in Latin-America and the Caribbean want to shape the church emerging?
Gustavo Frederico: Natanael, what would be the emerging movement in Latin America?
Natanael Disla: We can’t say that there is an “emerging movement” in Latin America, at least as people know it in the United States currently. Changes have been proposed for decades in Latin America and the Caribbean, but these did not resonate deeply within the churches and faith communities.
Gustavo: What would be some of these changes and their causes?
Natanael:
1. The human being as subject of theology. Theology was seen as “the study of God”, without taking into account the subject as producer of this theology, and not even the vital context that determined this theology. From this comes the preoccupation from Latin America and the Caribbean with placing the human being as subjects of theology... well, this has a whole historical baggage that blends with its theology.
2. The action and social justice as the cyclical climax of the make-theology. The entrenchment of evangelical churches in the region and their dependency on the missionary societies at the time to carry on the mission and the pastoral went beyond the aesthetical fulfillment of the needs of the communities, leading to poking around the structural causes that caused these needs, and 3rd...
3. The inclusion of excluded individualities. There are suggestions not only that the church must be “the voice of the voiceless”, but that these voices “come to the forefront” without distinctions of any kind. I won’t try to be exhaustive, but I believe that these three points give us a general view of the changes that were proposed.
I was suggested by Mustard Seed Associates Alternative Calendar that today (December, 28), we remember the innocent martys killed by Herod when he tried to kill Jesus Christ. This was the first time I ever know about this day. The most dramatic words came from prophecy told by Jeremiah:
I was listening to a Brazilian journalist in August who was comparing numbers of the violence in Iraq and in Rio de Janeiro[1]. Rio de Janeiro is one among 26 States in the Federation. The rate of killings was higher in Rio de Janeiro than in Iraq in the beginning of 2008. As he was saying, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count website, from January to May 3458 Iraqis – both militaries and civilians – were killed. For the same period in Rio de Janeiro, according to official records from the Secretaria de Segurança Pública, there were 2441 homicides, 87 deaths by thievery, 17 episodes of bodily harm followed by death and 6 policemen killed in action, yielding a total of 2551 assassinations. Considering that the population of Iraq is twice bigger than that of Rio de Janeiro, one can say that Brazilian’s death toll is higher than Iraq’s.
In the Gospels, Jesus, who was poor and lived as poor, summarizes his ministry as he reads the book of Isaiah in the Synagogue:
"'The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.'" (Luke 4.18,19)
Indeed, in the Kingdom described by Jesus, the poor and those who hunger are happy. The ministry of Jesus was full of miracles in favour of the marginalized by the society of the day.
They have been in lot of countries and even countries with a very small Christian witness, this year they will be presenting on Poland, Lebanon, Turkey, Croatia, Finland and Iceland.
You might have an idea of No Longer Music presentation in the video below.
You will find most of the interviews made in this blog tour, it sarted with Andrew Jones (TallSkinnyKiwi) on May 28th, I performed the second leg in May 31st and Steve Kinght (Knightopia) closed this tour on June 2nd