God's gift of life

Every morning we open the preschool with the national anthem, the Lord’s Prayer, a Bible verse and a song based on Romans 8:38-39. Once a week, the children hear a longer Bible story, followed by some sort of crafts project. The birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:57-80) was our Bible story for the week of June 24, because that is the date to remember John the Baptist’s birth on the historic church calendar (it’s six months before December 24, since Elizabeth already was six months pregnant when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive a child by the power of the Holy Spirit in Luke 1:26-38). 

The entire first chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke is an argument for the biblical teaching that every child in his mother's womb is a gift from God and his life has value and purpose in the eyes of the heavenly Father. 

1. God chose a name for John the Baptist and his mother Elizabeth conceived and gave birth to her in her old age. 
2. God chose a name for Jesus before his birth and by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary conceived and gave birth. 
3. When Mary visited Elizabeth, Elizabeth's son jumped into her mother's womb to greet the Child Jesus in Mary's womb.

In my meditation this week on the story of John the Baptist's birth, I had in mind the pending U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs vs. Women’s Health Organization, but did not suppose it would be announced on that Friday. With the LCMS Life Ministry, we may “rejoice that the truth of God’s desire for His creation was reflected in the court’s consideration and decision issued in Dobbs v. Jackson.” However, as the Rev. Matthew Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, reminds us, “Even though Roe v. Wade has fallen, states can still allow the killing of unborn children. Today we pray that more unborn will leap for joy in the womb, as St. John did. Today, even as we rejoice, we weep that U.S. policy continues to promote abortion globally.”

It is true that the U.S. federal government funds international aid groups that promote abortion on demand in other countries. But that may not be the entire reason for the current, unfortunate trend in Latin America. In February 2022, Colombia became the third Latin American country to loosen abortion laws in the past three years, following Argentina and Mexico. In December 2020, Argentina decriminalized and legalized abortion until the 14th week of gestation. In 2021, Mexico declared the criminalization of abortion unconstitutional, although access to abortion still varies depending on the state. Colombia made abortion legal during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Most Latin American countries still maintain strict regulation of abortion. Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, only allows abortion if the woman's life is at risk or when the pregnancy is the result of rape. El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname ban abortions in nearly all circumstances. In Costa Rica and Guatemala, abortions are only permitted if it's to preserve the woman's health or help save her life. In Panama, the procedure is only allowed to preserve the mother's health or life in the case of rape, or fetal malformation.

Abortion in Venezuela is illegal in almost all circumstances. A 1926 law banning the procedure was modified to allow an abortion if the woman’s life is in danger. A bill seeking to decriminalize abortion in some or all cases is pending in the national assembly.

Of course, nearly all of these countries are Roman Catholic-majority nations, although not by as large a margin in the past. More than 425 million Latin American identify as Catholics – nearly 40 percent of the world’s total Catholic population. Yet identification with Catholicism has declined throughout the region, according to a Pew Research Center survey that examined religious affiliations, beliefs and practices in 18 countries and one U.S. territory (Puerto Rico) across Latin America and the Caribbean. For most of the 20th century, from 1900 through the 1960s, at least 90 percent of Latin America’s population identified as Roman Catholic. Today, the Pew Research survey shows, 69 percent of adults across the region identify as Roman Catholic. In nearly every country surveyed, the Catholic Church has experienced net losses as many Latin Americans have joined evangelical Protestant churches or rejected organized religion altogether.

John came neither eating or drinking

Even in the old days, few Venezuelans were devout, practicing Catholics. It is estimated that only 10 percent attended Mass even once a month. Popular religiosity was, and for many Venezuelans remains, a mixture of veneration of the saints and Mary as approved by Roman Catholic church; “folk Catholicism” or festivals and shrines not officially approved, but not forbidden by the church; and invocation of non-Christian deities. Nothing illustrates this more what ostensibly are celebrations of the John the Baptist’s birth that occupy a prominent place in Venezuelan folklore. The dances, processions and other festivities associated with June 24 are full of color and rhythm. During the time of slavery in Venezuela, African slaves were allowed time off from June 23 to 25, so the customs are particularly rich among the Afro-Venezuelans of Miranda and Yaracuy states.

However, people often do not know the true story of John the Baptist and its meaning, and the parties are occasions for idolatry (tribal gods in the guise of Roman church saints) and alcohol abuse.

John the Baptist led an austere life, neither eating or drinking to excess, according to Matthew 11:18 and Luke 7:33. In the context of these passages, the Pharisees had accused Jesus unfairly of being a drunkard and a glutton. Our Lord pointed out that although loved to make a great show of piety, but they were not comfortable with the earnestness of John, nor the graciousness of Jesus. They did not want to admit that they were sinners in need of a Savior, so they were not willing to accept the love and mercy of that Savior. Despite their differences in outward behavior, John and Jesus were not enemies. John said of Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, and Jesus said of John, “Among those born of women, there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).

What it means to be a father

On Thursday, June 16, we celebrated Father’s Day with our preschool children. Sadly, many of the “fathers” present were really grandfathers or stepfathers. The lack of involvement of biological fathers in the home is a significant social problem in Venezuela. One reason for this is the economic crisis that has spurred many able-bodied men to seek higher-paying jobs outside the country. But even before the current crisis, many children in our community were caught in a generational cycle of poverty, due to lack of education or even motivation for education; out-of-wedlock births; and lack of either family or job stability.

Nevertheless, our Scripture reading for that day was Ephesians 5:21-30, where St. Paul says that the husband is the head of his partner, as Christ is the head of the church. That does not mean the man can rule over his family like a tyrant, for Genesis 3:16 says this distortion of the relationship between men and women resulted from the disobedience of Adam and Eve. On the contrary, as Christ is the source of life and salvation for the church, the father must be the source of provision and protection, material and spiritual, for his family. This passage from Ephesians has more instructions for men than it does for women. The Apostle cites the worlds of Genesis 2:24, especially for men, “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”.

In the Old Testament lesson for the following Sunday, Deuteronomy 6:4-13, the Lord says through Moses, “Hear, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one: And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart. , and with all your soul, and with all your strength." Yet also, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart: And you shall repeat them to your children, and shall speak of them when you sit at home, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down. And when you get up." The weight of this responsibility falls on the man of the house, although in the absence of a male parent, the mother may take it up. Therefore each section of the Small Catechism is subtitled, “As the head of the household may teach it in a simple way to his children”.

So, on that Sunday, Father’s Day, we prayed for our earthly fathers, that God might give them the courage to follow the will of the Lord and the wisdom to guide their families in the regular use of His holy Word and the sacraments. Also to bless their daily work and give them health of mind, body and soul to provide for the material needs of their families. Amen.

LeadaChild alumna graduates from high school

LeadaChild, a Kansas-based mission society, has supported our education program since 2006. During that time, many of the children who received scholarships from LeadaChild to pay for school expenses completed high school rather then drop out after sixth grade as is all too common here. Yaneth Torres is the latest to receive her diploma. On June 6, we met via Zoom conference with Nury de Milian, LeadaChild director for Latin America, and other coordinators of education projects in Venezuela, to discuss distribution of LeadaChild funds for the next school year.

All because of an iguana

Power outages continue, especially as torrential rains and thunderstorms cause power lines to fall. But on the evening of June 20, we experienced not only an outage, but a tremendous spike that destroyed three security cameras, the digital video recorder (DVR) to which the cameras were connected, and two lightbulbs. The cost of replacing the damaged equipment was US $400. It was not because of a lightning strike, but apparently due to an iguana that jumped on the line. I passed on the opportunity to find out if fried iguana really tasts just like chicken.