January (Web-only) 2001

ARTICLE TOOLS

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A lengthy document outlining the mission of the church in Latin America during the new millennium has been withdrawn by leaders of a regional consultation on mission after several groups—including women, indigenous people, and blacks—strongly objected to its content.

"The original document was exclusive and racist," Norman Bent, a Moravian pastor from Nicaragua, told ENI. "It was written by white Latin Americans, people with no awareness of indigenous people or people of African origin. They consider their white power structure to represent the Evangelical movement in Latin America."

The document, Theology on the Road, was prepared over the past two years by the Theology Commission of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI). It was distributed late last year to participants in this month's regional Mission Consultation and CLAI general assembly that is being held in the Colombian port city of Barranquilla.

After three days of argument about the text, CLAI's president, Walter Altmann, announced on January 15 that the Theology Commission was retracting the document. Using written commentaries from the critics, the commission will now spend two months rewriting the text. Altmann made the announcement at the end of the Mission Consultation, which overlapped with the five-day general assembly..

Margarita de la Torre, a Quichua indigenous woman who teaches theology at an Evangelical seminary in Ecuador, said she was shocked by the original document. "We're entering a new millennium, and I'm surprised there are people who still write this way. They are obviously not involved with people at the grassroots. The document shows their distance from people at the grassroots, and it's a big distance," she told ENI.

Beatriz ...