{"id":17240,"date":"2013-06-10T08:43:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T12:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=17240"},"modified":"2015-04-21T22:46:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T02:46:26","slug":"mexican-pastor-lobbies-for-religious-tolerance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/mexican-pastor-lobbies-for-religious-tolerance\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican pastor lobbies for religious tolerance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn order to survive we have to do a lot of things,\u201d explains Carlos Martinez-Garcia, as he responds to a reporter\u2019s question by listing the various hats he wears: human rights activist, Anabaptist pastor, sociologist, journalist, author of ten books.<\/p>\n

Martinez-Garcia directs Mennonite theological education in Mexico, a program partly supported by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)<\/a>. This program puts a strong emphasis not only on the Bible and theological issues, but on peacebuilding, justice, and reconciliation in local communities that have been shattered by the presence of drug cartels and violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cMCC sponsored me to SPI\u201d \u2013 the 2013 Summer Peacebuilding Institute<\/a> at Eastern Mennonite University \u2013 \u201cbecause they believe I will take what I learn back home and use it to benefit Mexico as a whole, especially through my writings on justice and human rights,\u201d explains Martinez-Garcia.<\/p>\n

Martinez-Garcia is a regular columnist for a Mexican newspaper and for Protestante Digital<\/em>, published in Spain. He primarily uses this column to lobby for religious tolerance and peace between Mexicans who incorporate traditional indigenous beliefs into their Catholicism and the orthodox Catholics who worship in much the same way that Catholics in European countries and the United States do.<\/p>\n

The proudly indigenous group of Catholics feel that those who abandon traditional-indigenous beliefs and practices are betraying much of what makes Mexicans distinctive \u2013\u00a0that is, their deeply rooted customs and rich history. Therefore there is religious tension between the two groups of Catholics, and it is not unusual for disagreements to quickly turn violent, says Martinez-Garcia.<\/p>\n

When he is not writing for the newspaper and Protestante Digital<\/em>, Martinez-Garcia serves as the pastor of a small Anabaptist church of about 60-70 people. When he gets back to Mexico he wants share what he has learned at SPI with other pastors and even more widely, through organizing conferences and workshops.<\/p>\n

Primarily he is worried about the violence in many of Mexico\u2019s communities and wants to work with churches and other organizations with similar concerns to develop programs for reconciliation. \u201cWe have to be mature Christians,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have to know the word of God and reality in order to grow in faith and in order to serve the needs of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn order to survive we have to do a lot of things,\u201d explains Carlos Martinez-Garcia, as he responds to a reporter\u2019s question by listing the various hats he wears: human ... read more about Mexican pastor lobbies for religious tolerance<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":17243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12499],"tags":[6100],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-17240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spi","tag-mennonite-central-committee"],"yoast_head":"\nMexican pastor lobbies for religious tolerance - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/mexican-pastor-lobbies-for-religious-tolerance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mexican pastor lobbies for religious tolerance - 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