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FEATURE
WORLD NEWSGRAMS
James O. Henry, M.A., Editor, Associate prof, of History, Biola Bible College
P e r s e c u t i o n i n C o l o m b i a
A B id for Church Trade General Mills was busy on a grass roots campaign this month to cap ture church and other organization trade. The gimmick is coupons in their Gold Medal flour. The coupons are redeemable for cash by organiza tions but not individuals. The unus ual part of the campaign is that General Mills placed full-page ads in small Christian publications announc ing the coupons. By-and-large the bigger companies have steadfastly re fused to place ads in magazines' with circulation as small as most evangeli cal publications. Spanish Ed ition BSV Recently the American Bible So ciety produced a Spanish edition of the Revised Standard Version, which was copyrighted by the International Council of Religious Education in 1946. Fortunately, the glaring mis translations of the RSV which ap peared in 1953, are not incorporated in, this particular Spanish edition. It is to be devoutly hoped that the American Bible Society, which has stood so stalwartly for the faith through the years, will not succumb to present trends so far as to publish the entire Revised Standard Version, 1953 edition, in Spanish. Champion Acknow ledges God’ s B e lp Godfrey Bowen, husky sawmill mafiager and accountant who has be come the world’s champion sheep- shearer, said in Wellington, New Zea land, -that God had helped him set the new shearing record. Bowen sheared 456 sheep in nine hours of work. The champion said he had finished the last half hour in a trance and would never, be able to dupli cate the feat. “I am a humble Christian in my daily life,” he said, “and yesterday I set out to prove that a man can be a Christian and a man, too. I prayed to God before I started the day, and never before has a day been blessed more by God. I was helped by a greater Power than we have any where on this earth.”
decided, at a street meeting of the church in Villanueva, to reopen the chapel. October 2. Mayor of Villanueva is sues another decree prohibiting anew all evangelical meetings, and order ing the missionaries out of the mu nicipality within two weeks. October 5. Mayor of Chimichagua, one of our southern stations, pro hibited all evangelical meetings and propaganda. October 15. Appeal to military com mander in Barranquilla results in de cree of Villanueva mayor being nul lified, and meetings began again with special evangelistic campaign which was greatly blessed of the Lord. The same day, however, the work in Valle- dupar, another of our stations, was closed by local authorities.. October 30. Outgoing governor of Magdalena, as one of his last official acts, put old decrees into effect again, Missionaries in Villanueva were again ordered to leave town. October 31. Word from Bogota told of clarification by the minister of government as regards “Mission Ter ritories” agreement, allowing evan gelical pastors to remain “if they insist,” but they are not allowed to propagate their doctrines.” November 4. Mayor of Villanueva, ignoring the new ruling permitting evangelicals to remain, and ignoring a written communication from the army headquarters, sent police to drive out missionaries. Since the object of the mayor’s wrath was Vic tor Leng, it was decided that he go into exile in Valledupar, while an appeal was sent to the new military governor of Magdalena. November 10. Telegram to new gov ernor brought no response. Mrs. Leng and Miss Anderson, who remained in Villanueva were threatened with ex pulsion. Trip to coast and interview with governor finally got results, and Mr. Leng was permitted to return to his home and family.
In a letter received by the editor of N e w s g r a m s from a missionary re cently returned from Colombia the following report was given: “As re gards' Colombia, we find that the general impression here at home is that the change of government in June has resulted in complete free dom for the propagation of the gospel. That is far from true. The summary herewith may give you some idea of what many missionaries in Colom bia are facing at the present time.” June 14. Overthrow of government by the military brings wonderful de liverance to all of us in Villanueva, Magdalena, and brings to an end the physical persecution in most parts of the country. However, the respite was a very brief one. August 13. The Governor of Magda lena, in telegram to the Mayor of Villanueva, declared that building of Protestant chapels is against the con stitution. August 21. On the strength of the Governor’s telegram, the Mayor 6f Villanueva, at the insistence of the local priest, issued a decree prohibit ing “Evangelical propaganda,” and participation of Colombians in Evan gelical worship. September 3. Publication of a circu lar by the ministers of government stating that “the- presence of non- Catholic pastors in mission territory is inadmissable,” brings to light the fact that in January (1953) the agree ment which the Roman Catholic Church had with the Colombian gov ernment, as touching certain Indian territories, had been extended to in clude more than half of Colombia. In these areas Roman Catholic mis sionaries were to have exclusive rights. All of our mission stations except one, j EI Banco , are located in this territory. September 20. Since the constitution of Colombia guarantees freedom of Worship, and appeals to Bogota brought no response whatever, it was
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