Word: ruesga
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...spiritual leader of Mexico's million-odd Evangelistas, Bishop David Ruesga of the Protestant Church of God is in a tough spot. In Roman Catholic Mexico the members of his sect, who are most numerous in rural areas, are generally treated as outcasts. Their revivalistic meetings are sometimes stoned. Small boys ring Evangelista doorbells, then run, or paint Viva Cristo Rey (Long Live Christ the King) on Evangelista walls. Since President Manuel Avila Camacho announced in 1940 that he was a "believer," and thus took the government heat off the Roman Catholic church, anti-Protestant persecution of the proselyting...
...killing at Esperanza followed an incident at Zacatelco in nearby Tlaxcala state. There, Bishop Ruesga told newsmen, the Catholic mayor had told local citizens to quit baiting Evangelistas. On the street a priest upbraided the mayor and got a rough answer. Someone in the gathering crowd pulled a gun, shot the mayor. By the time pistols were empty the mayor was dead, four Catholics and three Evangelistas had been wounded...
Elsewhere in Mexico, persecution of Evangelistas took other forms. In Mexico City, hooligans in an automobile shot the glass out of the electric cross on the roof of Bishop Ruesga's own Iglesia de Dios. In coffee-growing Chiapas, Evangelistas who protested the killing of one of their members were jailed while mobs sacked and burned their homes...
...Catholics. They regard Mexico City's Archbishop Luis Maria Martinez as a peaceful man with respect for the rights of minorities. But Archbishop José Garibi Rivera of Guadalajara makes no secret of his militant anti-Protestantism, and many a parish priest follows his lead. Said Evangelista Ruesga last week: "It has always taken courage to be an Evangelista in Mexico; right now, for the first time, I am scared...
...Protestants the Bible is a primer in educational work. Said one missionary: "We prefer to teach [the Indians], to let them become aware of the world outside and of the Book of God without forcing it upon them." But Catholics, men like Bishop Ruesga argue, oppose not only the placing of the Bible in Indian hands, but education itself, fearing that knowledge will lead the Indians away from, the Church of Rome...