Thursday, May 18, 2006
May 2006 - The worst ever violence in São Paulo
Well, just for once, and just for a couple of days, Brazilian violence made it to the news reports of the whole world. So you all know about the PCC and the organised attacks on the police and public structures in general. While Britain mourned the death of one police officer, São Paulo lost 23 in a night. We find the sense of shock and pain over the death of the one officer extremely moving, against the backdrop here. Everyone knows her name! Everyone feels violated! There is a sense of outrage that our protectors should be attacked. In a country where big cities can lose a policeman or two every day even at normal times, there is no such feeling.
In some ways the statistics of the worst days are not the most striking part: what got to me were two headlines after the worst was over.
SÃO PAULO PASSES A QUIET NIGHT
What followed described the night: only five buses burnt out, and 9 dead in shoot-outs with the police. Such is a quiet night.
POLICE KILL MORE IN TWO DAYS THAN NORMALLY IN TWO MONTHS
This headline with its ingenuous echoes of rainfall or production statistics says it all. You almost expect to see a sub-head, "We can do better still, says Police Chief". Here it is normal for bandits to kill police and for police to kill bandits. To make headlines even in Brazil there has to be a reasonable number of each.
What was so alarming was that, as the number of police deaths plummeted in this burst of violence, so the number of "bandit" deaths soared. What we were seeing was not self-defence - it was the settling of scores. The next news may well be a wave of deaths in the prisons, as the leaders of the rebellions are systematically taken out: that has certainly happened in the past.
And the worst thing is that many members of the public welcome all this. I commented on this aspect of the situation in our travel agency on Wednesday, and a number gave the reply, "but these are lives that we are better off without", "they are not worth letting live."
I happen to be in favour of capital punishment. But a policy of "shoot to kill" - and actually, "hunt to shoot to kill" - on the part of the police is murder. This is the absolute absence of any kind of concept of "the rule of law." This is to perpetuate a situation in which the Police are simply bandits in uniform. This is to lose sight of all human values: that is, this is to disconnect finally from any sense of God's image in my fellow man. It makes us groan inside, "Até quando, SENHOR?" (Ps 13:1)
Although this problem was a special one, localised (by and large) in São Paulo, the safety situation is certainly getting worse in all parts of the country. Intense debate is going on as to how to deal with the situation, including a rash of new legislation as a result of the PCC attacks. In an election year, the politicisation of the violence issue is inevitable, but the real issues are moral, not political. Honest politicians of both left and right are honest: corrupt politicans of either side are corrupt. And it is not new legislation that will change Brazil, but a new heart.
For that issue of corruption, of lack of integrity, is at the root of the whole problem. The Minister of Justice has said that the root of the whole PCC bloodbath is money laundering. But money laundering is just one aspect of the whole structure of the parallel economy, which is one aspect of the jeitinho brasileiro which always finds a "way", where the end is more important than the means, where comfort, not truth, is the ultimate criterion.
We sometimes wonder aloud, how can there be so little impact at a social level in a country where the evangelical church already includes 20% of the population and is still growing? There is something very seriously wrong with this church growth. There is something very seriously wrong with the church.
Where does the problem start? When businessmen routinely falsify the salary figures for their employees in order to reduce tax bills - and Christians do EXACTLY the same ... when a pastor can ask for a discount at the recent Colloquium conference, on the basis that he is only coming for one day... and then, having got his badge, attend every day... when three girls at the same event can say at the registration desk that they have spoken to the organisers and been promised a discount, when no such conversation has taken place ... when a "way" can always be found to pass students in the Bible Institute even when they have failed their exams ... when lack of integrity is so endemic in society that even evangelicals are corrupt without blinking ... when (Isaiah 59:14) justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter ... when these things rule, it is not surprising to find a great deal of blood in the same streets. The population as a whole and the church in particular recoils in horror from the bloodshed - but the population as a whole and the church in particular has the smoking gun in its hand every time it lies and participates in the general corruption.
A church which provides comfort but no challenge, which is all glory and no cross, which is all party and no mourning, which is all heart but carefully avoids the head and never troubles the conscience, which is man-centred and not God-centred, which plays fast and loose with the scriptures and has no sense of awe and of "Thus says the Lord" in the pulpit - such a church has no capacity to change society. The grizzly end point of such an "evangelical revival" may be a Ruanda, where Evangelical Christian Hutus and Evangelical Christian Tutsis hacked each other to death in the 90s.
And the start point is a pastor preaching something less than what the Bible says.
Please pray for Brazil.
Well, just for once, and just for a couple of days, Brazilian violence made it to the news reports of the whole world. So you all know about the PCC and the organised attacks on the police and public structures in general. While Britain mourned the death of one police officer, São Paulo lost 23 in a night. We find the sense of shock and pain over the death of the one officer extremely moving, against the backdrop here. Everyone knows her name! Everyone feels violated! There is a sense of outrage that our protectors should be attacked. In a country where big cities can lose a policeman or two every day even at normal times, there is no such feeling.
In some ways the statistics of the worst days are not the most striking part: what got to me were two headlines after the worst was over.
SÃO PAULO PASSES A QUIET NIGHT
What followed described the night: only five buses burnt out, and 9 dead in shoot-outs with the police. Such is a quiet night.
POLICE KILL MORE IN TWO DAYS THAN NORMALLY IN TWO MONTHS
This headline with its ingenuous echoes of rainfall or production statistics says it all. You almost expect to see a sub-head, "We can do better still, says Police Chief". Here it is normal for bandits to kill police and for police to kill bandits. To make headlines even in Brazil there has to be a reasonable number of each.
What was so alarming was that, as the number of police deaths plummeted in this burst of violence, so the number of "bandit" deaths soared. What we were seeing was not self-defence - it was the settling of scores. The next news may well be a wave of deaths in the prisons, as the leaders of the rebellions are systematically taken out: that has certainly happened in the past.
And the worst thing is that many members of the public welcome all this. I commented on this aspect of the situation in our travel agency on Wednesday, and a number gave the reply, "but these are lives that we are better off without", "they are not worth letting live."
I happen to be in favour of capital punishment. But a policy of "shoot to kill" - and actually, "hunt to shoot to kill" - on the part of the police is murder. This is the absolute absence of any kind of concept of "the rule of law." This is to perpetuate a situation in which the Police are simply bandits in uniform. This is to lose sight of all human values: that is, this is to disconnect finally from any sense of God's image in my fellow man. It makes us groan inside, "Até quando, SENHOR?" (Ps 13:1)
Although this problem was a special one, localised (by and large) in São Paulo, the safety situation is certainly getting worse in all parts of the country. Intense debate is going on as to how to deal with the situation, including a rash of new legislation as a result of the PCC attacks. In an election year, the politicisation of the violence issue is inevitable, but the real issues are moral, not political. Honest politicians of both left and right are honest: corrupt politicans of either side are corrupt. And it is not new legislation that will change Brazil, but a new heart.
For that issue of corruption, of lack of integrity, is at the root of the whole problem. The Minister of Justice has said that the root of the whole PCC bloodbath is money laundering. But money laundering is just one aspect of the whole structure of the parallel economy, which is one aspect of the jeitinho brasileiro which always finds a "way", where the end is more important than the means, where comfort, not truth, is the ultimate criterion.
We sometimes wonder aloud, how can there be so little impact at a social level in a country where the evangelical church already includes 20% of the population and is still growing? There is something very seriously wrong with this church growth. There is something very seriously wrong with the church.
Where does the problem start? When businessmen routinely falsify the salary figures for their employees in order to reduce tax bills - and Christians do EXACTLY the same ... when a pastor can ask for a discount at the recent Colloquium conference, on the basis that he is only coming for one day... and then, having got his badge, attend every day... when three girls at the same event can say at the registration desk that they have spoken to the organisers and been promised a discount, when no such conversation has taken place ... when a "way" can always be found to pass students in the Bible Institute even when they have failed their exams ... when lack of integrity is so endemic in society that even evangelicals are corrupt without blinking ... when (Isaiah 59:14) justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter ... when these things rule, it is not surprising to find a great deal of blood in the same streets. The population as a whole and the church in particular recoils in horror from the bloodshed - but the population as a whole and the church in particular has the smoking gun in its hand every time it lies and participates in the general corruption.
A church which provides comfort but no challenge, which is all glory and no cross, which is all party and no mourning, which is all heart but carefully avoids the head and never troubles the conscience, which is man-centred and not God-centred, which plays fast and loose with the scriptures and has no sense of awe and of "Thus says the Lord" in the pulpit - such a church has no capacity to change society. The grizzly end point of such an "evangelical revival" may be a Ruanda, where Evangelical Christian Hutus and Evangelical Christian Tutsis hacked each other to death in the 90s.
And the start point is a pastor preaching something less than what the Bible says.
Please pray for Brazil.
# posted by Andrew and Cora @ 9:43:00 pm 
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Pastor Andrew, can I write in portuguese? It's better to me.
Pastor, bandidos matando policiais, policiais matando bandidos é coisa comum onde há completa desordem. A polícia brasileira já deu provas de que não tem controle algum sobre bandidos. É uma polícia incapaz. Uma polícia desmoralizada e, em sua grande parte, corrupta. O brasileiro de um modo geral só pode contar com uma coisa: a providência divina.
Triste é perceber que o crescimento numérico dos evangélicos realmente não tenha nenhum, mas nenhum, efeito sobre a socidade. Talvez seja o fato de que, no Brasil, a igreja que cresce não é a igreja verdadeira. São pequenos ou grandes empresas com placas de igreja, mas estão longe de um compromotimento com os valores do Reino de Deus.
É preciso também levar em conta a dicotomia entre vida secular e vida espiritual. A maior parte dos evangélicos não tem uma perspectiva integral da vida; poucos entendem o que é trabalhar pela redenção e transformação da sociedade. Estão preocupados com a salvação da "alma", como se fosse possível salvar a alma e deixar perecer o corpo. Não entendem que a igreja é voz profética, agente de transformação das estruturas desse mundo.
Lamentável nossa situação. Deus nos ajude.
Abraços.
PS: sou da Igreja Batista Bíblica, pastor Maurício.
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Pastor, bandidos matando policiais, policiais matando bandidos é coisa comum onde há completa desordem. A polícia brasileira já deu provas de que não tem controle algum sobre bandidos. É uma polícia incapaz. Uma polícia desmoralizada e, em sua grande parte, corrupta. O brasileiro de um modo geral só pode contar com uma coisa: a providência divina.
Triste é perceber que o crescimento numérico dos evangélicos realmente não tenha nenhum, mas nenhum, efeito sobre a socidade. Talvez seja o fato de que, no Brasil, a igreja que cresce não é a igreja verdadeira. São pequenos ou grandes empresas com placas de igreja, mas estão longe de um compromotimento com os valores do Reino de Deus.
É preciso também levar em conta a dicotomia entre vida secular e vida espiritual. A maior parte dos evangélicos não tem uma perspectiva integral da vida; poucos entendem o que é trabalhar pela redenção e transformação da sociedade. Estão preocupados com a salvação da "alma", como se fosse possível salvar a alma e deixar perecer o corpo. Não entendem que a igreja é voz profética, agente de transformação das estruturas desse mundo.
Lamentável nossa situação. Deus nos ajude.
Abraços.
PS: sou da Igreja Batista Bíblica, pastor Maurício.
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