September 23, 2004

BUENOS AIRES - " Therefore, we pray fervently for the end of this atrocious and scandalous period that humanity has had to endure. ," said Federico J. Pagura, bishop emeritus of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina in an open setter addressed to US President George W. Bush.

In the letter, dated from the city of Rosario where the respected Argentine leader lives, Pagura added "We also pray for the illumining of the conscience of your people, Mr. President, so that it could finally shake off the wicked doctrine of "National Security" and the imperialist arrogance that are increasingly being repudiated by the vast majority of countries."

"We pray that your people, who as a nation have lost the way signaled by your most noble and visionary statesmen, will soon refuse in a humble, penitential and definitive way, those policies. Unless, blindly or stubbornly, they would opt for the extermination or suicide of entire the human family," added the Methodist Bishop.

"Meanwhile, Mr. President, instead of persisting in those lies, that have been made manifest in your presidential election and in your colonial policies, based in falsehood and terror, I would urge you to turn yourself honestly to the pages of the Bible," added Pagura, stating that Bush also claims to be a Methodist believer.

"Study the history of the true Methodist Movement, to which you claim to belong to, and remember the inexorable struggle of (John) Wesley, against slavery, against the love of money and the practice of usury, and in favor of a genuine defense and transformation of life, in its personal and social dimensions," he said.

"Some of us are simple spectators or actors in the "Third World," or better, "the South that also exists" (delightful expression of one of our poets); others, like you are leading figures in some of the most sad, shameful and bloody pages of that history. These pages at this stage opened with the monstrous terrorism that toppled the twin towers in New York, but have continued with the response of terrorism by the empire you preside over and represent.," he added.

"Such terrorism already had its precedent in another September 11th.(1973) in Chile, that put an end to the constitutional government of then President Dr. Salvador Allende, and thus intensified the chain of bloody dictatorships in all of Latin America and the Caribbean, that finally immersed us in the long night of the neo-liberal ideology, with its resulting unemployment, misery, social unrest, and endless corruption and violence, he said.

"After citing the words of the prophet Habakkuk and Gospel, the Methodist Bishop noted that the Bush government is characterized by arrogance, immeasurable ambition, bellicosity and hostility, and religious fundamentalism. These attitudes have taken you to surround yourself with false prophets ..while remaining deaf to major prophetic voices in your country, such as Michael Moore (that genius from the seventh art) and to the wisest and most respected voices within the church you claim to belong to."

Finally, the Bishop expressed his hope and prayer that "God have mercy on all of us, and for love of the poorest, the oppressed and excluded of our generation, who are the most privileged according to the Gospel, may we open our eyes and truly turn to God, so that we may see His Light, and abandon our wicked ways, which result only in death and desolation."

ALC News Service