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For Life Above All
[Ed. note: The following letter is in a report on a public hearing in Brazil regarding the rights of indigenous children. Innocent children are dying in the tribes when they could have been helped (and the have the legal right to receive help), all in the name of "preserving culture," even if the cultural practice is to kill children born with deformities. For the benefit of the indigenous tribes of Brazil, especially the children, please join us in praying for justice and righteousness to prevail.]
"For Life Above All" and "No to sacrificing inigenous children." These were the sayings stamped on the t-shirts in the public hearing on the 14th of December, in the House of Representatives in Brazil. They [those who wore the t-shirts] were indians of different tribes, missionaries of various missions and people from the most diverse backgrounds--people who love, understand and embrace the cause of the indigenous. The sayings on the shirts, though simple, are explosive. They declare the society's awakening to a secular problem of our nation. A shocking, shameful truth has been locked under seven keys, hidden in the deepest conscience of each of us. This nation assassinates children for cultural reasons. And not just a few children, but dozens, hundreds of defenseless children. Infanticide is qualified homicide, it doesn't matter if the reasons are cultural.
"My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city." Lamentations 2.11
We believe that the public hearing played a prophetic role, breaking taboos and bringing this open wound for the first time to the House of Representatives. Representatives, aids, the heads of FUNAI and FUNASA, and representatives of the Ministry of the Public could view reports and photos of children who had been sacrificed, of fathers and mothers who suffered the pain of having to kill their babies, of indians relating the procedure of sacrificing children in detail. The hearing positioned itself clearly in favor of life, and this is a great victory. Articles on the subject raised in the hearing can be found on the site www.camara.gov.br.
The right to life of indigenous children destined for infanticide is guaranteed by law, according to the decree of 19 April 2004 (Day of the Indian), which became effective with number 5.051 and promotes Convention number 169 of the OIT on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. Article 8, number 2 says the following:
"These people should have the right to conserve their customs and their own institutions, as long as they are not incompatible with the fundamental human rights defined by the national judicial system, nor with internationally recognized human rights. Whenever necessary, procedures should be established to solve conflicts which may arise in the application of this principle."
The focus of this battle is not us, missions, missionaries or Evangelicals--it is the right of indigenous children to life.
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