Two years ago, the traditional Catholics destroyed the evangelical church building in Los Pozos and dozens of evangelicals have been sent to jail for their faith, so the believers are taking these latest threats seriously.
Evangelical pastor Reynaldo Gomez Ton, who leads a small group of nine families in the Alas de Aguila Church, asserts that the believers fulfill all the community projects they are assigned and that they respect the traditional Catholic festivities. However, they believe they should have freedom to hold the religious beliefs they prefer.
Bias against evangelicals is not limited to Chiapas. A doctor living near Mexico City recently reported an incident where a teacher beat a schoolgirl because of the child's evangelical beliefs. Doctor Abigail Muñoz Gonzalez told Compass that she treated eight-year-old Virginia Hernandez Diaz after the girl's upper lip was cut open by her school teacher.
Virginia attends the Benito Juarez School in Ecatepec, a city north of Mexico's national capital. During recess on January 11, the children were comparing gifts they had received a few days earlier on Kings' Day, celebrated in Mexico in honor of the Magi. One boy said his auto set was the best, but Virginia said her gift of the love of Jesus was even better and she pulled her Bible out of her knapsack to show the others.
When her schoolmates saw the Bible, they began to make fun of Virginia and throw bits of food and paper spitballs at her. The teacher heard the commotion and ordered Virginia to return to the classroom where she took out a ruler and struck her in the mouth so hard that the child required a surgical stitch to sew it up. As the teacher hit her, she kept repeating, "We don't want evangelicals here!" Virginia controlled the bleeding with tissue until school was over.
Virginia's mother has refused to press charges against the teacher because she has two other children in the same school and fears they will all be expelled or treated with intolerance. She does not have finances to pay for a private school and does not want the children to suffer. Meanwhile, Virginia has been warned to keep quiet about her religious faith and she has become very timid in class.
Copyright 2005 Compass Direct, May not be reprinted by nonsubscribers
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