Is it possible to discuss soccer, politics and religion?
 

There’s a common sense, at least in Brazil, that Politics, Soccer and Religion aren’t subjects to be discussed.  We obviously agree with such thinking, although with exceptions.

Of course that, Brazilians and Argentines would never agree who’s the best soccer player of the world, because nationalism interferes this kind of discussion, preventing an Argentine man to admit that someone superior to Maradona has ever existed on Earth, which is something possible for a person without misconceptions regarding the theme, whether he is born in Argentina or not.

In Politics the same happens. Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, former Brazilian president, would never be recognized as a notable leader by his opponents, followers of the UDN party, although there are people who were once affiliated to the UDN party and see him as a great leader as long as they’re devoid of any partisanship, seeing virtues in their colleagues and defects in their opponents.

The same occurs in Religion. Several Evangelical pastors have a special pleasure in tackling Spiritism and disseminating ideas in their temples that cause fear of anything referring to the Doctrine codified by Kardec.

However, there are pastors who have become active Spiritists, like the confrere Izaias Claro, from Osvaldo Cruz (state of Sao Paulo), and the ones who have affection for Spiritist ideas although prophesying their beliefs, as the Presbyterian pastor Nehemias Marien, from a Calvinist background, who not only accepts reincarnation but also the mediumistic phenomena to the point of saying that “Spiritism is the most abundant creek of Christianism” in an interview conceded to Fátima Farias. And more: “I consider the Bible as being the oldest book of psychography and mediumship. I think that Jesus was the perfect medium and all of us have the Kardecist mentality”.

It’s possible to discuss politics, soccer and religion with sober people, devoid of dummy misconceptions but, unfortunately, such thing isn’t possible with people like the ones who has sent several messages identical to the one published in the session Cartas (Letters) of the edition 146 of this magazine, on February 12th, using inexistent names, as transcribed below:

From: Luciene Silva Costa (Salvador, BA)
Friday, February 12th 2010 at 10:33:15pm
The deads that Spiritists see are Satan and his angels personified in the deads, having the same “physical appearance” of the person who was once alive as well as the same voice and way of speaking. But the deads neither see nor listen to. They’re resting, waiting for resurrection.
Luciene.

Messages strictly identical to this one have been sent from the same computer – IP: 187.89.230.178 – on the same date and hour, with a difference of seconds between one message and the other, on behalf of many senders and living and different cities and states.

The author of the messages ignores first that the computer IP address is registered and second, the fact shows that he or she doesn’t have any knowledge about the researches already published in many places around the world regarding the communications between us and the so-called deads, subject that, interestingly, was focused in the special report of the edition 145, published two days later, that is, on February 14th, which can be read by accessing the following link:
http://www.oconsolador.com.br/ano3/145/especial.html

We don’t know the sender’s belief. If he or she is Catholic, it’d be a good idea to see what the Fathers Gino Concetti and François Brune have already said about the subject. The latter is the author of the book Deads speak to us by the way, which was published in 1991 in Brazil by Edicel.

And if the person follows any Protestant or Evangelical Church, it’d be great if he or she read the interview that pastor Nehemias Marien conceded to the journalist Fátima Farias, which can be read accessing: http://novaconsciencia.multiply.com/journal/item/75.

Acting this way, the person might learn that we should respect the religion of others. Religious belief is free and is one of the rights warranted by the Constitution of the country. Moreover, it doesn’t hurt to remind that we need to know deeply before criticizing anything.