'I think aid should be given without religious strings attached.'
In the mid-90s there was a religious group came to Chiapas from the south or mid-west of the US, likely baptists or something like that, presbyterian maybe, i never knew ... they had representatives in San Cristóbal prior to the events of Dec '94, but in Jan or Feb '95 they absolutely invaded a village some distance from there, near twenty of them if not more ... they had little to no spanish to start, and neither did many of the locals of course ... they were clearly a group bound together and motivated by their religion, but they would not speak of it, they were there to 1. learn the local language, 2. just generally join the community, and 3. in so doing, provide a human shield between the locals and the people with guns, and help out in whatever way presented itself ... one was a young lady from medical school, not yet a doctor, others had various useful skills including nursing and farming background etc ... this was one of many groups who came, but one of the earliest
Over a period of at least six weeks they did not push religion of any kind, in fact you couldn't pry out of them any specifics on what their religion was, beyond the very general 'christian', they were entirely pragmatic folk and they respected the elders who form local government there .... i never went back to the place, so i don't know, maybe they snuck the religion in later, but from all i saw they were excellent representatives of one people to another |
