United Church of God has always had problems with its South American churches. Now it seems witchcraft is now infecting their Brazilian churches. Vik Kubik and Jorge de Campos went to Brazil recently to see what was going on.
At a church service this past week in Oklahoma, de Campos spilled the beans about those ornery Brazilians and the witchcraft issue.
Brazil has been dealing with Candomblé, a religion that developed from the animist beliefs of African slaves that were traded in Brazil. Candomblé gatherings usually last four hours, with singing, drumming and dancing. Its followers scream and freeze in place as they become possessed by their deities called Orixás. Many of these deities are associated with forces of nature and they are also combined with Catholic saints, tieing them into Christianity. The slaves deceived their Portuguese masters by claiming to believe in the saints but were actually worshipping their Candomblé deities.
With the widespread influence of evangelicalism in Brazil, there have been major confrontations between Christians and the Candomblé followers. Now even fringe American cults groups are having to deal with it.
This is a reality in that part of the world that they are going to have to find a way to deal with. Armstrongism has generally tried to impose their own American versions of solutions on their members throughout the rest of the world. That's most likely not going to be useful in dealing with the voodoo family of religions. This is one situation for which they ought to seek advice from mainstream Christians.
ReplyDeleteBB
there is a correlation between the bizarre submission to an evil spirit and the fact that we are, and have always been dominated by our enemies and subject to persistent failure as a people...
ReplyDeleteFools rush in where angels fear to tread. it's not their church group, its a preexisiting group that decided to associate with them. they rushed in and this is the result.
ReplyDeleteOh...I had heard representatives from Camdomble' we're sending two priests to Cincinnati to investigate reports the church members and ministry were practicing Old Covenant Crafts
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that "BRAZIL NUTS" are not good for us??
ReplyDeleteNo! It means that the COG nuts are not good for us.
DeleteTarzan
Which deity do they associate with Herb?
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like United is desperate to increase its numbers. Like Bob and his Africans.
ReplyDeleteKubik and others in UCG have been more than willing to sell themselves out by coddling up to many different groups in order to add numbers to the UCG membership count. Ever since COGWA humiliated them, they have been trying to recover and outshine COGWA in numbers and income. No matter how hard they try to find isolated groups, they still cannot accomplish their goal. More people now leave UCG than join.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:05 said:- "it's not their church group, its a preexisiting group that decided to associate with them. they rushed in and this is the result."
ReplyDeleteUntrue, there was no rush - this group has been part of UCG since around 2000.
Im anon 11:55 and Questeruk is correct. I mistakenly got Angora mixed up with Brazil. De Campos oversees both areas. I was the fool.
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