The spread of evangelical Christianity must be having an impact. On several occasions I have seen the above poster on the doors of homes in our area and near the church. It says, "This home is Catholic. We do not accept protestant propaganda nor from other sects. King Jesus Lives!" The words are pro-Jesus, but note who the picture is of: The Virgin Guadalupe, sometimes known here as the Mother of Mexico. The worship of virgin Guadalupe takes a much greater preeminence than Jesus Christ in the lives of people. Sadly, she is considered to not only be a co-redeptrix with Jesus Christ, but she is the medium to speak to God in all aspects of worship. A Norwegian missionary to Argentina that we met here recently told us that she had no idea Mexico was so strongly Catholic. Even we can't believe it at times. Shrines and images are everywhere and there are so many skewed understandings of salvation. A neighbour told us that her husband, that died some years ago, died on the same day as a certain saint, therefore she said, "He is in heaven." The message that we must give these people is that we are not saved on the basis of our righteousness or that of another Christian but on the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. Soli Deo Gloria.
On a different note, Ingrid and I faced our first shakedown by the local police. We often get pulled over by the police to check our documents; about 10-15 times since we arrived here in June. But we are usually released within a minute or two with a handshake from the officer. Not this past Saturday. We were driving out to the retreat centre to spend the night and practise our Spanish with Juan and Carolina when we were pulled over in heavy traffic in the suburb of Tultitlan (an area famous for corrupt police we are told). The officer wanted our documents and then told us that the tinted windows are illegal and that he was taking our licence away, going to impound our truck, and fine us 60 days wages. One must understand at this point that I am a libertarian; not a conservative, not a liberal or socialist (like a famous distant relative of mine, Tommy Douglas). I don't believe in government...I'm kinda like a right-wing hippy. So this shakedown rubbed me very wrong. After 10 or 15 minutes of politely arguing with the man, that, 1. As a tourist my vehicle comes under federal law, 2. My windows were tinted at the factory, not after market and 3. Securing my Canadian driver's licence would force me to call the Canadian embassy because the licence is the property of a Canadian government. I was forced to call my Mexican lawyer. She argued with him for about 10 minutes before she called his boss. Then Moises talked with the guy by cellphone for about 5 or 10 minutes. Nothing seemed to work. He said he wanted a deposit on the fine and then I could have my licence back but on Monday, I would have to pay the rest of the fine at the police station. I said to him, "I am a Christian, a man of integrity. I will pay a fine but not a mordida (lit. "bite" - a bribe) but I will fight this injustice. The bible says not to pay bribes." After another 5 minutes, he talked with his partner, who was much kinder to us, told us to put on our seat belts and go because it would soon be dark and it would be dangerous for us to be parked beside the road, giving us back our licence and going on his way with no handshake. It was an awful experience... actually kind of frightening. In the US and Canada, we pride ourselves on good policing but here, things are not the same. We are taking some advice from our somewhat charismatic dentist in Mexico, whom we've come to love. We're going to pray over our truck and hope that God limits our interactions with the police...unless it's for good, of course.
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