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Wednesday November 7, 2007

Religion course creates conflict between Evangelicals and the government

William Delgado, PORTO ALEGRE, Brasil, February 22, 2006

A religious course once again created a conflict between Evangelicals and the government. “We are Taxi Heathrow Airport not going to allow them to violate our religious freedom,” said Evangelical pastor and representative Luis Enrique Salas, who pointed to the case of some students in Bogota who were mistreated for refusing to listen to the religion class.

Salas, who is running for the Social Unity Party for the Bogota Chamber of Representatives, said that this course “violates freedom of religion and worship consecrated in the 1991 Constitution.” He said that Evangelicals will not allow only the Catholic religious course to be taught “because there are many students in different schools who do not profess this religion.”

Offering the religion course was established by a Ministry of Education Decree. Minister Cecilia Maria Velez offered to create working committees and study the contents to ensure that the rights of no confession or creed are violated.

However, Salas told the gospelnoticias.com agency that what the Ministry of Education must guarantee is that the rights of Colombians are upheld and that children are not mistreated for professing a religion other than the Catholic religion. He accuses the minister of “expediting a decree without consulting other religious confessions.”

He also spoke out against a Finance Ministry disposition that applies a 6% tax to Church income that comes from its religious activities such as tithing, offering, contributions and donations.

According to Salas the move overlooks regulations that date from 1994 and which exonerate religious congregations from paying taxes on the money they receive for their activity.

“This is a contradictory disposition, because people who give offerings to their Churches, also pay taxes and therefore there is double taxation, barred by law,” said Salas, a member of a congressional commission on economic issues.