Tag Archives: Democracy

Nonviolence, Politics

This is the Full Fruit of Trumpism

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by Alexander Venter.

What we witnessed and are witnessing in the US on Capitol Hill…

…captured in these images of the confederacy flag in the house and the fascist aryan fist raised in the chairperson’s, Vice President Mike Pence, seat of government (the equivalent of displaying the old Apartheid flag and raising the Hitler salute of Eugene Terblanche in our South African parliament)…

…is the full fruit of Trumpism, the full fruit of the root of bad character, mixed in with the ideology of ‘Christian’ nationalism, white supremacy.

Quote from Trump’s speech before the attack, reported by the Washington Post.

Trump himself called for this “stop the steal” “wild protest” on Capitol Hill, publicly in-spirit-ing his followers on The Hill (with words of fraudulent lies of massive election rigging) to do what they did: invade the house and stop the ratification process of the election result.

Continue reading This is the Full Fruit of Trumpism →
History, Politics

Chile’s Prophetic Pentecostals that Refused to Support Pinochet

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Prophetic pentecostalism: the case, challenges and hopes

by Luis Aranguiz Kahn.

“Prophetic Pentecostalism” is the name that a particular group of Pentecostal believers put to distinguish themselves from the main Pentecostal branch in Chile. So, what was the difference? In first place, it is necessary to say that Pentecostals in Chile has been mainly conservative in terms of politics. Before the coup d’etat of Pinochet, they used to declare themselves “apolitical” to avoid the political struggle between the strong leftwing winds that ultimately took Allende to presidency in 1970 and the rightwing counterpart.

In the middle of this complex political context, appeared a different kind of Pentecostal that was not apolitical but openly leftist. Highly influenced by Liberation Theology, they then faced the dictatorship and at the same time went against the general Pentecostal tide. Meanwhile in 1974 many important leaders of the biggest Pentecostals churches of the country signed a public letter supporting Pinochet, this little group was resisting in its denomination (Mision Iglesia Pentecostal – MIP) and its communities.

Prophetic Pentecostals were also involved in ecumenical activity, something very strange to find in Pentecostals of that time given the many prejudices about the World Council of Churches and the suspicion of some kind of Marxist influence inside it. Those were times of a deep split among Christians. Chile, as a post-colonial State was largely influenced by USA not only in political terms, but also political, cultural and therefore religious. Continue reading Chile’s Prophetic Pentecostals that Refused to Support Pinochet →