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A Brief Historical and Legal Description of Religious Liberty
Colombia is a constitutional, multiparty democracy dominated by the Liberal and Conservative parties. It declared independence from Spain in 1819 and joined the United Nations in 1945. Ernesto Samper is the current President of Colombia and a member of the Liberal party.1 When he assumed office in August 1993, Samper pledged to endorse religious liberty.2 Colombia maintains democracy in the country despite the high levels of internal violence. The President frequently declares a state of emergency so that he can issue decrees on public matters that normally require legislative action.3
Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion in Colombia. Roman Catholics constitute 96% of the population and Protestants make up 4% of the population.4 Although the Constitution of Colombia provides for complete freedom of religion, there are two limitations placed on the exercise of religion. Religion must follow "Christian morality" and "the law."5
The government allows foreign missionaries to proselytize among the indigenous population as long as they do not object to the foreign missionaries and as long as foreign missionaries do not force them to accept the new religion.6
The new Colombian Constitution approved in 1991, established the separation of the Catholic Church and the State. Following that measure, the government has taken several actions to implement this new regime of separation of church and state. For instance, in March 1993, the Constitutional Court declared parts of the 1973 Concordat with the Vatican unconstitutional. The Concordat with the Vatican required that public schools teach the Catholic religion. This provision was eliminated.7 Also, in June 1994, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional a law that allowed the President of Colombia to dedicate the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in a Catholic ceremony.8 Yet, even after the constitutional reform the Catholic Church continued to receive large financial contributions from the state.9 This fact did not promote the equality of all churches and religions.10
On May 22, 1995, the Colombian Constitutional Court announced a series of new rulings on religious expression within the country, following a 1993 accord between Colombia and the Vatican which redefined church-state relations.11 At the request of the Roman Catholic Church, the new rulings clarify the new accord with respect to extreme religious practices and what cannot be taught in religious education or included in liturgical rituals. The court affirmed that human sacrifice, or those acts which degrade or violate the integrity of people -- including sexual violations, human abuses, torture and other forms of physical violence -- would be banned.12
Constitutional Provisions and Legislation Relating to Religion
The following provisions of the Political Constitution of Colombia written on July 18, 1991 relate to religious freedom:
Article 18. It is guaranteed the freedom of conscience. No one will be inconvenienced due to his convictions or beliefs nor forced to reveal them nor forced to behave against his conscience.Article 19. It is guaranteed the freedom of worship. Every person has the right to profess freely his religion and to spread it in individual or collective form. All religious confessions and churches are equally free before the law.13
In May 1993, former President Cesar Gaviria signed the Religious Liberty Law.14 The law grants Protestant marriage the status of a legal union.15 Before this law was passed, a non-Catholic marriage was not recognized by law. This law also allows students to choose the type of religious instruction they receive in public schools, instead of being required to attend Catholic education, despite the parent's complaints.16 Protestant ministers may be appointed to serve in the military and with the police.17 Protestant ministers also have equal access to patients in state-run hospitals.18 All of these actions are granted and protected by the new Religious Liberty Law.
The Penal Code punishes offenses against the free exercise of worship such as demanding or preventing another person from participating in their worship, disrupting the religious activity, or causing injury or insulting those participating in the religious rite.19
Recent Reported Cases of Religious Intolerance
Although Colombia has freedom of religion and conscience, non-Catholics struggle to have their freedom realized. The Catholic Church plays a large role in Colombia and non-Catholics strive for equality. For example, in July 1994, the Minister of Foreign Relations announced that Colombia and the Vatican had reached an agreement concerning church and state relations that would provide for freedom of religion, freedom from religious influence in education, recognition of non-Catholic groups, and laws regarding the legal treatment of priests.20
Violent confrontation between the governmental forces (the army) and the leftist guerrillas has placed the evangelical churches of many rural areas in the crossfire. In the last years many evangelical pastors and laymen have been persecuted, tortured and murdered by the guerrillas and anti-terrorist troops.
For instance, in December 1995, a prominent Bolivian evangelist, Julio Ruibal, was murdered by gunmen in Cali as he left a meeting of Protestant pastors.21 It is believed his murder by "sicarios" or professional assasins was because his evangelical organization owned land wanted by the Cali drug cartel.22
In July 1995, two U.S. evangelical missionaries that had been kidnapped by leftist guerrillas were found killed after one year of captivity.23 Three U.S. missionaries were still being held hostage as of October 1995 in Colombia.24 Those missionaries are affiliated with the Florida-based New Tribes Mission, as were the two other missionary-hostages killed in July. Since October 1995, New Tribes Mission has been working to reopen direct communication with the guerrilla kidnappers. The Christian ministry has received unsubstantiated reports that the missionaries are still alive, but there is no proof to verify the claims.25
In April 1994, an evangelical missionary was kidnapped and tortured by army officials in Valle Yumbo.26 The missionary stated that he was kidnapped and threatened because he had witnessed a fellow evangelical being thrown out from a flying military helicopter.27
In March 1993, an evangelical teacher, Patricia Murillo, disappeared in Buenaventura Valle without any known reason.28
In January 1993, an evangelical pastor, Miguel Mejía, and another unidentified pastor of the Pentecostal Church in Caldas de Samuna were kidnapped by unknown attackers.29 According to an anonymous witness, they both were tortured and drowned.30
In May 1992, an evangelical layman, Roberto Londoño, was kidnapped by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in Choco.31 He was released after spending a month as a prisoner. The kidnappers warned him not to continue preaching the Christian gospel in the region.32
In May 1992, two police officers violently entered an evangelical church while the members were celebrating a service in Guacarí.33 The policemen threatened the evangelicals with their guns and especially the pastor, who had been a member of the FARC guerrilla a number of years before his conversion to Christianity.34
In July 12, 1992, two young missionaries from Youth With A Mission, were kidnapped by the FARC guerrillas while travelling to a town in Llanos Orientales.35 The guerrillas held them as prisoners for one night and released them the next day. The same day of the kidnapping, the same terrorists attacked the town where the missionaries were planning to go and killed several people.36
In June 1992, another group of missionaries from Youth With A Mission were threatened by members of the ELN guerrilla (National Liberation Army) in Bucaramanga and were compelled to go back to Bogotá.37
On June 3, 1992, an evangelical pastor, Luis Herrera, reported to the members of his congregation that he and other church leaders had received death threats. According to Herrera, those threats were a result of the success of his church in evangelizing the region of Choco. He also said that "leftist groups and spies sent by the Catholic church" were "infiltrating" his church.38
On May 30, 1992, a group of leftists "guerrilleros" violently entered an evangelical church while a service was taking place in Chigorodo, Antioquia.39 The attackers threatened the evangelicals and demanded all the money in the church.40 Once they had collected the money, they fled.41
In September 1991, two unidentified gunmen interrupted a service of the "Shalom Temple," which belongs to the Assemblies of God in Zipaquira.42 After threatening the evangelicals, they asked for an "economical donation." When the Christians refused to pay such "donation" the gunmen took several members of the church and killed them, shooting each twice.43
ENDNOTES
1. Kenneth D. MacHarg, "Vatican and Government Reach Church-State Agreement." News Network International (July 26, 1994): 20.2. ibid.
3. U.S. Department of State. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1993 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1994): 392-393.
4. Edward H. Lawson, ed., The Encyclopedia of Human Rights (New York: Taylor & Francis, Inc., 1991): 206.
5. ibid.
6. U.S. Department of State, 398.
7. ibid.
8. "Derogan en Colombia leyes de matiz religioso." El Nuevo Herald (Miami, 5 August 1994).
9. David Miller, "Concordat Discord." Church & State, Vol. 46, No. 5 (May 1993): 10.
10. ibid.
11. "Court Issues New Rulings on Religious Liberty Matters." News Network International (June 2, 1995): 28.
12. ibid.
13. Pedro C. Moreno, "Constitutional Reforms in Latin America Promoting Religious Freedom," at the XXXI Annual Conference of the Inter-American Bar Association (Paper Presented in Puerto Rico: June 25-30, 1994): 15.
14. ibid.
15. David Miller, "Protestants See New Era of Religious Equality." News Network International (August 17, 1994): 41.
16. ibid.
17. ibid.
18. ibid.
19. Lawson, 207.
20. MacHarg, 19.
21. Djanira Blanco, "Prominent Bolivian Evangelist Asassinated in Cali." News Network International (December 22, 1995): 4.
22. ibid.
23. ibid.
24. ibid.
25. "Colombia - Peace Talks Stall With No Progress for Missionary Hostages." News Network International (October 6, 1995): 24.
26. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº004) (Santa Ana, CA: Puretas Abiertas, 1993).
27. ibid.
28. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº023).
29. "Colomia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº024).
30. ibid.
31. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº005b).
32. ibid.
33. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº001).
34. ibid.
35. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración (Perfil Nº016).
36. ibid.
37. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº013).
38. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº006).
39. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº021).
40. ibid.
41. ibid.
42. "Colombia: Perfiles de oración" (Perfil Nº07).
43. ibid.
Other Sources
January 19, 1995: Pedro Moreno interviewed Mr Orlando Solano Barcenas, Deputy General Attorney, Colombia.
Source: Handbook on Religious Liberty Around the World, Pedro C. Moreno, Editor. Charlottesville, VA: The Rutherford Institute. This report is reprinted here by special arrangement with the Rutherford Institute and may not be reproduced or mirrored on another webside without written permission of the Rutherford Institute.
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