Pastor accused of witchcraft wins suit against Methodist Church

Edelberto Behs, SAO PAULO, Brasil, July 19, 2004

Pastor Eliad Dias Dos Santos, age 38 and separated from her position by the bishop, Taxi Heathrow Airport allegedly for having a sticker on her car that said “Witch on board” and for helping prostitutes in Sao Paulo, won a legal suit against the Methodist Church of Brazil.

“This situation is just one more case of machismo, cynicism and racism that, unfortunately, is not the first to take place in the Methodist Church,” said the president of the Missionary Cultural Society Quilombo, Hernani Francisco da Silva, in a letter addressed to the Methodist Episcopal collage.

For the Black Evangelical Movement, added Da Silva “this is a very sad situation because it involves a Black sister who was unfairly sanctioned and a Church that the Evangelical community considers an example of integral mission and which is the only one with a Pastoral Committee to Combat Racism.”

The president of the Methodist College of Bishops, Joao Alves de Oliveira Filho, who is also Black, told ALC that the Pastor is not the object of racial persecution. According to Alves, a regulation approved by the General Council establishes that a Church worker who turns to common justice loses their appointment until the case is judged.

Bishop Alves lamented that the pastor had not exhausted all the possibilities within the Church before going to the court system.

 “What led me to file the complaint against the Church was the lack of respect from the beginning,” Dias dos Santos told ALC. Everything began, she said, “when I began to work with prostitutes in 1988.” The pastor was accused of witchcraft by the then Bishop of the Third Church Region of the Methodist Church that included Sao Paulo, Adolfo Evaristo de Souza.

“My witchcraft was to read poetry to those women, drink tea with them and tell them to look within themselves to find the strength that will liberate them from all the obstacles that life puts in front of us, like misery, oppression and the lack of opportunities,” she said. A complaint from a social worker reached the bishop.

Dias dos Santos was called before the bishop, who did not accept her explanation about the sticker on her car or her arguments. “I was separated for a stupid reason. I was mistreated and the bishop called me a witch and incompetent.” The pastor filed a complaint against Bishop de Souza in the Church, but it was archived.

After seven months, she decided to turn to common justice and ask for moral damages. “I had no work in the Church and all anyone knew was that I was a witch and incompetent.” Bishop Alves lamented that Dios dos Santos did not ask for the process to be reopened in the Church.

The pastor won the suit and the Church appealed. The Church was negotiating a deal when the issue was published in Epoca magazine last July 12. After five or six meetings all that remained was to iron out payment details, said Alves. The pastor said that opposition from Bishop Souza delayed the agreement.

The courts ruled that Dias dos Santos should receive 27,000 reales (close to $9,000) but that rent that the Church paid when the pastor was suspended should be discounted which Alves said was around 13,000 reales.

In a telephone conversation with Bishop Adriel Souza Maia, who replaced Adolfo de Souza in the Third region, the president of the College of Bishops said “the issue is being discussed within an Evangelical spirit, in search of reconciliation.”

Bishop Maia said that Dias dos Santos will always be welcome in the Church and was never expelled. “The Church is pluralist, it has various ministries. The body of Christ is extensive.”

Pastor Eliad asks “if a bishop that ignores history and the regulations was not expelled why should I, who did not do anything, have to leave the Church. The judge who saw the case noted in his ruling that the Church acted in bad faith. Nothing more just, therefore, than recognizing the mistake and reintegrating me in the ministry,” said the pastor.