From the giant screen a Brazilian woman tells that she sold all the furniture in her house.As what he obtained was not enough, he collected cans on the street to gather US $ 3 thousand and deliver them in "sacrifice" to God.When the miracle video-stimony ends, the temple lights are lit and the faces of some 400 people will be illuminated to look for their own miracle.
It is November 22 in Santiago, Sunday, the most important day of the celebrations of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD), better known as stop suffering, the name of its famous television program.Outside the temple, in Nataniel Coxnº 59, next to the great Chilean flag of the Plaza de la Ciudadía, on Sunday it takes calm.Inside, the collective euphoria of those who waited a week to listen to the Brazilian bishop Francisco Couto, his methods to reach God and the many miracles he can do for people who are with economic or other problems,.
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God - with its founder, Edir Macedo Bezerra (70 years), a multimillionaire, accused and acquitted of money laundering in Brazil - is in full expansion in Chile, with an investment of more than US $ 6 million inThe construction of its new cathedral and the purchase of more spaces on television and radio.
In a day thing, this discolored facade theater, located on the first floor of an departments building in Nataniel Cox, will be a thing of the past for the universal church of the Kingdom of God.The sticky floor and the wooden seats that grind will be replaced within a couple of months by a modern temple, with capacity for more than two thousand people.They are also looking to give greater mass to their television program to suffer, which is transmitted for now in Telecanal.Recently they tried to buy a segment on national television.They were not successful, because according to Ciper Fuentes of the State Station, the sale of advertising programs does not conform to channel policies.
The machinery to get money works quickly.The so -called "Israel campaign" of December is coming, for which they ask their adherents that in a "voluntary" way they make the "sacrifice of their lives" in exchange for the miracle that will be translated into silver.A sacrifice for which they are encouraged to sell everything they have to deliver the money to the church.Without telling anyone, because it is a treatment "between you and God".
Edir Macedo Bezerra (Source: Blog-Sin-Dios.Blogspot.com)
The formula is in the so -called prosperity theology and consists, as Ciper observed, to offer economic well -being in exchange for sacrifices to God, which are also measured in money.And the formula works so much that the universal church of the Kingdom of God has a presence in 200 countries.Edir Macedo since 2013 appears in the Forbes magazine list as a fortune of US $ 1.100 million and is considered by that publication as one of the richest religious leaders in the world.
Since its foundation in Brazil in 1977, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has built its prosperity in the midst of controversies fed with episodes such as the one we witnessed on Sunday, November 22, in which people who recognized themselves in a situation of extreme precariousnessEconomic or affected by serious personal problems, they were convinced to get rid of all their assets to pay for a miracle.
"A jump in Chile in 2016"
Sunday, November 29, IURD Cathedral in Nataniel Cox.Bishop Francisco Couto is standing, above the stage, from where everyone can see it.He is tall and wears impeccable: blue pants, vest and tie.Your presence and scenic domain are notable.
It hardly takes 10 minutes to have the parishioners muttering prayers with the arms raised and the extended palms, as if they tried to touch something invisible.At 10:15 about 400 people are ready to be "ten's".
15 hostesses - women's dress and men with blue pants and white shirt - are willsolemn and hurried when they have to distribute propaganda or envelopes for donations.They call them "workers" and they are young people who take care of their appearance very well.They are the ones that are formed at the foot of the stage with blue bags to receive the money.The public makes rigs to give them their tithe.
Francisco Couto reminds those who do not have cash, who can tithe through their credit or debit cards in the bank terminal that sustains one of the "workers".Once the donation has been made, the device prints a sales voucher on behalf of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (View Proof).
Now the bishop places one of the blue bags at the foot of a golden trunk, also located above the stage, and is thrown for five minutes in a prayer to God to reward with more money in the future to those who "made a sacrifice".A keyboardist puts background music to the bishop's words and helps him build the heavenly atmosphere that rejoices his beloved "tenmists".
The music stops and Bishop Couto launches a sound "Thanks to Diooos!".A thunderous applause is heard to the one who continues without interruption an important reminder of the same bishop: the money that almost everyone has just delivered is silver that gave God, not to the universal church of the Kingdom of God.
According to Francisco Couto, who arrived in the country two years ago from Brazil, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God "will jump in Chile in 2016" with the construction of the new cathedral.It is a planned project more than 10 years ago and is days after.
On September 30, 2004, this Church began its expansion when it bought a property at the Alameda, near the Latin American Union Metro station.According to the writings, the seller was the limited chimeramobiliary, which charged UF 62.600.A year later, on October 24, 2005, the Church acquired a surround.313 of the time).
With the two properties under his property, on October 23, 2007, the Legal Representative of the IURD, Pastor José Roberto Aguilera Inostroza, entered the request for a building permit in the Municipality of Santiago.The project included the demolition permit of a building built in the ‘60s.
In the documents submitted to the Municipality of Works, it is estimated that the construction has a cost of $ 1.477 million (UF 76.390 on that date).Among the land and the works, the budgeted investment for the construction of the new cathedral of the religious institution adds UF 172.703, the equivalent today to more than US $ 6.2 million.
The architect Paulina Rica Mery, in charge of the construction of the new cathedral, says that the new facilities will also serve to form "young theologians" who will spread in Chile the doctrine of the couple of suffering.
Facade of the new cathedral of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in the Alameda.
In the construction plans, to which Ciper had access, the magnitude of the "jump" is perceived that the universal church of the Kingdom of God intends to give in Chile: the total construction area is 10.826 square meters (more than two soccer fields);The capacity of the main temple is 2.132 people, including disabled;There are 29 departments for housing and 54 parking lots.Adding the office spaces, dining rooms, departments and the temple, on the same day there could be activity of 2.668 people in the new cathedral.According to the plans, the facilities will have eight floors.
-It's a modern construction that adapts to new times.He has no images or religious motifs that is not the cross.It is a place of active social operation.The color of the facade is Earth -Cobre and means integration into Chilean idiosyncrasy -explains the architect Paulina Rica.
The construction company of the new temple is IDC, from Argentina.In February 2014, the legal representative of the Universal Church, Pastor José Roberto Aguilera Inostroza, founded a society in Chile, also called Construcciones Idc Limitada, with the Argentine engineer Daniel Adolfo Carrera, who contributed 99% of the capital.
Now, Aguilera Inostroza, legal representative to suffer, is part of a construction company in which she contributed a symbolic 1% (according to the Official Gazette), and is in a position to develop in Chile Construction, team rental projects ortools, provide professional architecture services and "the realization of all those commercial or industrial activities that are complementary or attached to the main turn".
In spiteThe Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Chile.They have found- he says- with "closed hearts", which has prevented them for now settled in the country as expected.But then ensures that the effort will not stop.
The new headquarters of the IURD is almost ready and the old continental theater of Nataniel Cox is in rent and available for a new tenant from January, as confirmed to Ciper the real estate Gyg Properties.
The new cathedral is an achievement that the universal church of the Kingdom of God reached with faith, says Bishop Francisco Couto before the faithful: “Because having faith is being sure of what you cannot see.And we don't have money, but we have faith ".Couto is talking to the faithful while preparing them for the time of donations, the most important activity of the year: Israel's campaign in Gideon's faith ".
THE WOMAN OF LAS CANAS
A week earlier, on Saturday, November 14, Ciper witnessed a more intimate session in the same temple of Nataniel Cox.That day that presided over the ceremony was another shepherd, with the slightest hierarchy than Couto, who asked a group of nine elderly women and spent shoes, who approached the stage.They are women who are on foot for life and that day they go to the ceremony of "impossible cases".
Among them there is a lady who arrives for a horny.In her arms she wears several cancies collected on the street that she tries to hurry in a plastic bag, because the pastor's hernga has already begun.This time the pastor- young, black pants and white shirts- is not located above the stage, but stays at the same level of the faithful.Looking at them, he asks the group of women obviously tired: “Do they come badly, they have problems, how are they?In choir they all respond that they are wrong.
Entrance to the current cathedral "stop suffering".
The pastor stands in front of the woman who arrived with the cans of drinks and tells her about the life of parishioners: "It's like water and not like wine," he says in a voice that denotes the effort he makes for his empathic.
-What does water know?-He asks.
"Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing," women reply in chorus.
-Do you see? This is your lives.
Then, the pastor is still talking to them to convince them that the only thing that is needed to convert water into wine, that the only condition for their lives to cease to be tasteless is to "obey God" and, above all, "sacrifice themselves byHe".It is striking that from there the young shepherd continues his harangue imitating the way of talking about the Brazilian shepherds: the "s" changes for the "sh" and Spanish for Portuñol.
By then the group of women is already delivered: they all obey each of the steps that the pastor tells them: they close their eyes and then lift their fists, they throw small blows in the air and shy their bodies timidly while the pastor draws wind millsWith his arms, invoking the presence of Jesus Christ, God or the Lord.
-I don't accept misery, pain, disease ...!-Stor the shepherd.
Women also high repeat their words.
"I DO NOT ACCEPT"
A researcher who included the universal church of the Kingdom of God in his doctoral studies - and who asked Ciper not to reveal his name - describes the methods he uses in his church the bishop Edir Macedo as “pragmatic and modern”, because they avoid,For example, tire of parishioners with the readings of the Bible that need to be reasoned and interpreted.
Already in 1991 the folk newspaper of Sao PaulHe was born with a leporino lip.I suffered, groan.She was not a joy, it was a sadness, an agony.I decided that I would announce to the God that it was revealed to me ».
And that Saturday, November 14 in Chile, you can see a shepherd will develop the temple of Nataniel Coxlas Teachings of Macedo in front of the group of women on foot and with the worked shoes.The shepherd takes a Bible and tells the faithful: "Here- and hit the book cover- there are more than eight thousand promises, but you wonder why these promises are not fulfilled in your lives".
The pastor continues his message by reviewing the biblical passage of Gideon, who obeyed God and shook the fear that gave him Israel from the attacks of the Medianitas and defeated armies of "hundreds, thousands or millions" with a group of only 300soldiers.And it ends straight to the grain: to obey God inside this temple that was previously a wooden seats, means delivering the tithe.
“If you want a million, donas a thousand;If you earn a thousand, donas hundred;If you earn a hundred, donut 10 ”, says the pastor.Then, the man takes a blue bag and asks women to approach to deposit their coins there.They do all, including the woman who wins the livelihood collecting and selling garbage.
Faith in Gideon and the Worship Law
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God transmits to his parishioners that Gideon was able to listen to God and take the initiative to form an army, regardless of the "unbelievers" not suitable for the "battle", to face the oppressors.Gideon represents "not accepting" misery, misfortune and other calamities that shepherds and bishops usually mention in their conviction preaching.
There in the temple of Nataniel Cox it is recurring.And that sacrifice is to sell all its properties, gather money, place it in an envelope and offer it to God through the earthly hands of the personnel of the universal church of the Kingdom of God.
According to the Criminological Manual to investigate sects of the Investigation Police (PDI), the delivery of the goods of the faithful to a group is one of the characteristics of the sects.Another feature are charismatic leaders.They also spread ideas of cunning, boldness and sense of the heroic.Rupture and distrust relationship with society, and clear and upcoming compensation are other sectarian characteristics that identifies the PDI manual.The text was written by the evangelical chaplain of the PDI, David Muñoz Condell, and edited by the institution to read its detectives.
Propaganda of the campaign "in the faith of Gideon".
The descriptions of the PDI manual are quite similar to the practices that Ciper could observe for more than a month in the temples of the universal church of the Kingdom of God.Although this group has been seen suspicious by certain traditional evangelical churches and also by some authorities, so far they have not had problems because they have formally adjusted to the minimum demands imposed by Chilean law.
The iurd arrived in Chile in the early 90s.In September 1995, the Ministry of Justice denied him the request for legal personality, but surprisingly, two months later, when the Comptroller had already taken reason, but the decree was not yet published in the Official Gazette, he decided to leave the official document withouteffect and granting legal personality.
The reason wielded for the change of opinion was the support of the two main organizations that represent the evangelical world, which assured that it was not a sect.This is recorded by the decree granted by the legal personality: “numerous evangelical religious organizations of our country, such as the Council of Evangelical Pastors of Chile and the Committee of Evangelical Organizations, have supported the request for concession of legal personality for the Universal Churchof the kingdom of God, expressing their support and trust in the aforementioned entity, pointing out that this is not a sect, but an evangelical church whose objectives are not contrary to morals, public order and good customs ”.
The Ministry of Justice was approved by the IURD in 2002, after the cultured law allowed the evangelical churches, which until then had legal personality of private law, had legal personality of public law, a privilege until thenonly reserved for the Catholic Church.The Chilean State does not demand accounts of the IURD, nor does it with the other 2.680 Existing Public Law Entities, according to information from the National Office of Religious Affairs (ORAR), under the Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency.
As the cult of cult does not establish any kind of financial control towards the churches and does not force them to deliver information about those who direct them, the Ministry of Justice does not exercise any inspection of the IURD.A control that by law must do about other nonprofit organizations: "This ministry does not have legal powers to exercise supervigilance and inspection with respect to the Church or confessions of public law," reads the website of that portfolio.If the name of the IURD legal representative in Chile is known, it is because it must have given it for some municipal procedures, not because a public entity has an official registry.
One of the money collection instruments.The parishioners must deposit a real ticket in each flap.
The law is in the process of being modified and the National Office of Religious Affairs (NARA) works on it together with other actors.Ciper had access to the advances in the draft law that President Michelle Bachelet will present to Congress.
In article 15 the draft contemplates that religious entities "must inform the Ministry of Justice the appointments of their ministers of cult in order to keep the registration updated".Article16 establishes that changes in the statutes must also be informed, while in article 17 it is indicated that “the omissions, inconsistencies or inaccuracies, the result of breach of the obligation to inform, will be taxable to the Ministry of Justice”.
However, the ways of obtaining money, such as those occupied by the universal church of the Kingdom of God, have not been questioned at the moment.Nor does it establish control mechanisms for your finances for now.The draft of the bill does not give repair to activities such as the Gideon campaign, which is underway in Chile at the moment, and that promises miracles of great draft if the faithful make economic sacrifices for the benefit of the Church: invalid people who returnto walk, patients with cancer or HIV/AIDS healing completely and dead children returning to life, according to the discourse to suffer.
The mechanics in the Nataniel Cox temple is that only those who are really convinced take an envelope printed coffee with a biblical passage.Inside you will find a role with space to write "my order" to God.A petition that should correspond "to the size of your capacity for sacrifice" - the amount of money they are willing to put in the envelope - and of which no one should find out, because "it is a deal between God and you".
The "workers" place the envelopes in a small mount of stones arranged on the stage - which represents Mount Carmelo - so that the parishioners rise and take them with their own hands.A row is formed that only flows when someone remains hesitative to the envelopes, such as thinking about whether or not to make the sacrifice.
The "battles" of the adepts to suffer will last until December 13.They have had days to prepare their sacrifice and avoid “the devil and the unbelievers” that will try to prevent their acts of faith, according to Francisco Couto, who seeks the approval of the public asking, Amen?, And Amen!They answer him.
–They have until December 13 to save.No one else should hold that envelope.They should not tell anyone about their sacrifice.It is a dialogue between you and God.Do not pay attention to the mockery of the unbelievers.You will have a battle like Gideon until December 13, Satan will try to doubt their sacrifice, try to make them back - the Brazilian bishop calls from the stage from the stage.
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has been questioned and has been involved in judicial proceedings in Brazil - its country of origin - against its founder, Edir Macedo.Even so, the leading controversial does not hide that his company offers salvation and miracles in exchange for money.In November 2012 he said it in his blog:
"God is fair and will not leave those who sacrifice without a fair reward.If you have waited for some of God that has not yet arrived, there are only two reasons: your sacrifice was not true or your sacrifice was true but God is preparing it to manage the great things that are still going to arrive ”.
At least Edir Macedo the formula has reported great rewards.In 2013, it bought 49% of the Ranner Bank of Brazil.Macedo has no technical license to operate in the financial market of Brazil, but still carried out that stock market operation that, according to Forbes, began in 2009.
Forbes magazine also classifies it, as a media producer, since he owns Rádio and Televisão Record.He lives in Atlanta and owns a television subsidiary Telemundo, the W67CI.
In 2014, a replica of the Church of King Solomon opened in Rio de Janeiro, with an approximate cost of US $ 200 million.The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is also associated with a political party, the PRB, which in the last legislative elections of Brazil won 21 federal and 32 regional deputations.
It is the route that has followed in Brazil and in other countries where the church led by Edir Macedo has already made the “jump” that they now seek in Chile, according to the academic that investigates the IURD.
The invisible slopes to suffer
In 2005, Chilean lawyer Eduardo Villarroel received testimonies from people who had participated in the Gideon campaign delivering all their heritage to the universal church of the Kingdom of God and felt cheated.Villarroel, who represented the then deputy Iván Moreira (UDI), filed a complaint that ended archived.The accusers did not want to sign as complainants and the legal appeal did not prosper.
-The complaint came out, it was published at that time, but the subject was not followed, the judges ... there they remained.The Universal Church did not respond at all at all.It gave me the impression that there was something hidden that began to bury this.We did not have all the background, because the complainants were very frightened.If they had finally signed, the story would have been different, ”said lawyer Villarroel to Ciper.
Getting to the crux of suffering and following the steps is difficult.It is a non -profit organization capable of spending more than US $ 6.2 million in a huge temple without raising suspicions or objections.In fact, in the PDI they informed Ciper that they do not have any research on the universal church of the Kingdom of God at this time.And the most serious thing that Ciper detected, is that those who could deliver some information about who control this Church, do not do it for fear.
Petition that travels with Pastor Couto to Israel.
If its founders are sought in the different official records in Chile, none of them appears with a heritage that accounts for the millions it receives and uses.The prosperity they profess is not registered in their name.The IURD has only a legal domicile in Chile, that of Nataniel Coxnº59, the old property that is about to leave.There you have registered religious organizational activities and retail sales in specialized stores.
Its legal representative, the "Pastor Roberto", has two homes in the records of Dicom, one in San Miguel and another in Peñalolén, but there are no properties in his name in the conservative of real estate of Santiago.The previous representative, José Luis Godoy Flores, exhibits a similar profile.
Jaime Mallea Ilze, the first architect of the new cathedral, told Ciper that he stopped being responsible, but declined to explain why.In the work there is a poster where the name of the architect Ricardo Alegría Barba appears, but this professional also replied that he did not take over the building and declined to give explanations.
A source of the government that was among the detractors of the universal church of the Kingdom of God when it landed in Chile, remembers that at that time there was a debate about the origin of the money to suffer: some said it was not important, others spokeof "physical and spiritual wash of money".This point was mentioned by two sources who requested their identity reserve, emphasizing that, given the lack of control, there is a risk that certain religious organizations that move large amounts of money, resort to bad practices since no one investigates the originof their funds or the destiny that give it.And they remembered what happened for decades in Chile with Colonia Dignidad, the sect that Paul Schäfer founded and used its tax exception to do all kinds of illicit businesses, including arms trafficking.
The questions to the methods of the universal church of the Kingdom of God date from 25 years ago, when they landed in Chile: “There were theological criticisms that remain in force, such as the use and delivery of fucking money, the game with feelings and hysteriacollective that create and then make money requests.Ceremonies attending ceremonies become innerme.There is enough background to initiate a judicial investigation, but the penalties of hell slow down the complaints of deceived parishioners, ”warns an expert in religious organizations that knows well the operation of the IURD.
Thus a "miracle" is made
Sunday, November 22, in the morning.Inside the temple in Nataniel Cox, Bishop Francisco Couto tells the faithful that the founder of the iurd, the bishop Macedo, from Brazil, informed him of a woman who was beaten "to bleed" and threatened with deathby her husband.That's why, ”she said," she sold all her furniture and made an offering in the iurd.In return, Bishop Couto continued his story - God granted her that her husband repented to hit her.And the bishop celebrated that this lady recovered the love of the man who beat her and threatened death.The Couto story arrived that Sunday.Because the complete testimony of what had happened to that woman in Brazil, was reserved for Sunday 29.
Because on Sunday, November 22 there were no videos, but an episode that seems taken from a Caribbean reality.When Bishop Couto finished recounting what Macedo had entrusted to him the day before, he asked to take the stage to a woman under 30, who had a baby in his arms, accompanied by a man of similar age: her husband.And asked them to share their "sacrifice" with all the faithful.
She began to tell her story.He said that he had wanted to commit suicide, that his life was so empty, that he had no other way.Until he made a great offering to God: he put a lot of money in an envelope that he delivered to the universal church of the Kingdom of God to bring their prayers to the sacred bonfire of Israel.And the "request" that made God was to take away those bad thoughts and, incidentally, got a husband.
-Then, you are a product of that offering!- Exclaimed almost shouting the bishop Couto, pointing to his index to the woman's husband.
There the woman's husband took the floor.And he said that after they got married, they decided to make the same offering that the Brazilian woman hit by her husband: they sold all her furniture and the product of that sale were delivered to the IURD.
The man said they slept on the floor and from there they drew the house of their dreams and the cars they wanted to buy.Somehow they never specified, God granted them those and others miracles, including eight properties, a 2016 car and a daughter (they had undergone several fertility treatments without results).
Two sacrifices for the Santa Bonfire in exchange for many miracles.The teaching was stressed again and again: for this, marriage had to give everything they had, because the universal church of the Kingdom of God says that when one makes a direct deal with God, it is a "all or nothing".
Sunday, November 29.In the temple of Nataniel Cox there are about 400 people.In the last row, the lady who previously saw with the cans collected on the street is sitting.But this Sunday she does not come from collecting garbage, her job.His clothing looks impeccable: the pink bar of his hat combines with the lipstick that was applied for the occasion.
Bishop Francisco Couto enters.Everyone stands.This time there is no harangue at the beginning.The lights go out and from the giant screen deployed on stage, the video begins with the testimony of the Brazilian woman to whom her husband hit.His sayings are bent to Spanish.On the screen she and her husband appear plus a bishop of the iurd who interviews them.
She details the beams received and he nods when the bishop asks if she was demonized.He also says "yes" when he asks if everything in his life changed after his wife sold all his furniture to gather the necessary money for his "sacrifice".The Brazilian woman takes up her story.And he says that at one point he decided that his "sacrifice" should be bigger.And that for this he gathered hundreds of cans on the street for one day to get US $ 300 more.
The video has come to an end.The temple lights light while Bishop Francisco Couto shouts "Thank God!"and the faithful make the place with their applause.Lady of the cans also applaud.
At that time, Bishop Couto makes an announcement.Changing his usual tone for another that calls for intimacy, he tells the faithful that "the Holy Spirit" chose the universal church of the Kingdom of God of Chile- among all the others in Latin America- to represent the continent in the bonfireSanta, in Israel.And that he will be the one who will make that important trip to take the "orders" of the faithful who made their "sacrifice" to the same place where Gideon made his feat.It will be tiring, he explains, will take 24 hours "between trips and waiting in airports, but it doesn't matter".
If the plans of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God of Chile leave as traced, Francisco Couto will travel on Sunday, December 13 on an plane to Israel.As he said, he will carry with him the "orders" of all his faithful.Among them, the Lady of Las Canas will go.She will leave the temple and return to her house, or to what is left of her.The money of the "sacrifices" nobody knows where they will be deposited.
