In 2018, the KoGe working group on Religion and Development launched a platform of discussion bringing together faith-based partner organisations from Latin America in a workshop that was organized in Cuba. This opportunity for networking and exchange has been an important experience, bringing our partners closer together and allowing for a joint reflection on their societal roles as FBOs. Not astonishingly, increasing fundamentalist tendencies were identified as one of the major challenges faced by the partners in their daily work in the Latin-American context. In May 2019, the working group invited the same partner organisations to continue their discussion online, together with their partner organisations in Switzerland.
The following “Voices from FBOs” are a small selection of posts from this e-discussion entitled “our contribution to peaceful, just and inclusive societies”. We thank all those who have participated for their rich, important and honest contributions, which you can access under the KoGe Forum.
“Inclusion is a debate in our society and in our churches. It relates especially to women and children. The unfortunate thing is that some churches perpetuate the macho system in our society based on the word of God. In the case of women, many cannot assume leadership positions in the churches. In the case of children and adolescents, we still think that they are our property and therefore ignore that they have rights – for instance the right to be heard and to express themselves freely. Our work must therefore also address children and adolescents who make up a third of the world’s population. We need to form a new generation living inclusive values and principles and who are in solidarity with each other.” (Yvon, Asociación Ágape, Peru)
“The fundamentalist current intends to homogenize a single evangelical discourse, not tolerating a discussion of the topics of gender and sexual diversity. Moreover, this discourse promotes homophobia and therefore rejects the inclusion of sexual minorities in religious spaces. In Peru, there is a current trend working at eradicating the word gender from the school curriculum. In our own ecclesial congregations, we experienced misogynistic attitudes a few weeks ago when a group of pastors celebrated the ratification of the non-participation of women in the governance of the Church on social networks. My own institution just witnessed a series of shocking verbal attacks. We were called “infiltrated feminists,“ „pro abortionists,“ „deceivers” and even „Power of Darkness“. It was said that we work to „discredit the Word of God”. These expressions come from brothers and sisters in evangelical churches, pastors, theology students from conservative seminaries, even theologians, among others. In Peru this antagonism and intolerant postures are experienced daily by people close to the ecumenical movement or who studied in ecumenical institutions. As FBOs, we must therefore strengthen our commitment to work for an inclusive society. We must contribute to overcome intolerant positions, complicit silence and refusal of debates.” (Efraín, AETE, Peru)
