Monday, July 10, 2006

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God and AMLO, part 2

I received an e-mail this morning... something given the post below, makes it worth sharing:

The Anglican Bishop who is the presiding bishop of the Anglican Church in Mexico gave a quick plug for AMLO on Sunday here at St. Pauls. Since the offering (unless designated as a church pledge) went directly to him and it was 8000 pesos. I think I am the only one who even caught it.

Whether it's legal or not for a church to contribute to a political campaign, or if this would be considered a violation of Mexico's severe restrictions on clerical interference in political matters, I don't know. I presume the funds will be given to some organization not tied to either the Church or the "Alianza por el bien de todos". Protestants in Mexico generally support the left (or, rather, they feel threatened by the militant Catholic wing of PAN and find radical separation of church and state prevents persecution or hardship), but the Anglicans, who are only 0.1% of the Mexicans, aren't like the Baptists or Seventh Day Adventists -- mostly poor and rural, likely to be discriminated against by their overwhelmingly Catholic neighbors, and who find radical separation of Church and State their best defence -- and who fear what might happen (and in some cases, has happened) when the "pious wing" of PAN runs the local administration. The Anglicans are generally well-to-do people, and their churches tend to be in the snazzier parts of town, or in the "gringo ghettos" as they are often the church of choice for English-speaking foreign residents. I'm frankly surprised... first the Auxillary Bishop of Mexico City, now the Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Communion. Whether this indicates a recognition of the justice of AMLO's quest, or a larger grassroots campaign to change the system (coming even from the elite) I can't tell yet.

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