RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION AROUND THE WORLD

Traditional Religious Leaders in Mexico Burn Churches

Monday, December 11, 2000

A Christian governor is working to bring peace to a violent Mexican state. Pablo Salazar is a member of the Nazarene Church, according to Assist Communications.
    Religious and political strife have made life in Chiapas dangerous, especially for evangelicals. Some have been killed, and others have been forced out of their villages or had their churches and houses burned by traditional religious leaders, according to news reports. Traditionalists, who practice a mixture of Catholic and pagan beliefs, are threatened by the growing evangelical population. In addition, Chiapas has been the center of a long military conflict between Zapatista rebels and the Mexican government.
    Salazar brings hope, evangelicals believe. As a senator from Chiapas, he once calmed a lynch mob that was about to hang an evangelical pastor, and has worked to reconcile both sides of the conflict, according to Assist.

--Used by permission of Religion Today