Paula Fernandes and
religious intolerance

 
Once admitted, in an interview broadcast by Show Business program, being adept at spiritual doctrine, the well-known singer and songwriter Paula Fernandes was the victim, in social networks, a succession of aggressive and disrespectful messages, mainly from adherents of the religion known as Jehovah's Witnesses, which certainly think that being spirit is to be part of Satan, a former peeve toward Spiritism which is not only the result of prejudice, but mainly from ignorance of what is happening in the camp of Christianity.

Paula Fernandes' interview can be seen by clicking this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5HfyMKLPqI

Curious thing! The messages of religious intolerance have come from followers of a religion that publishes the title of the presentation on its official website – http://www.jw.org/pt/ - the following words:

"Even coming from hundreds of ethnic groups and speaking hundreds of languages​​ we are united by the same goals. Above all, we want to honor Jehovah, the God of the Bible and the Creator of all things. We do our best to imitate Jesus Christ and we are proud to be called Christians. We all dedicate time to the work of teaching people about the Bible and God's Kingdom. Since we testify, or talk, about God Jehovah and his kingdom, we are known as Jehovah's Witnesses."

We read in the Gospel of Mark:

"And John answered him, saying: Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, which not follow us: and we forbad him, because he does not follow us. But Jesus said: Do not forbid him because there is none that do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. For whosoever you give to drink a glass of water in my name because you are Christ's disciples; verily I say unto you not lose your reward." (Mark 9:37-41.) (The italics are ours.)

All the fuss that has formed among the summit of the Christian religions - Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical - and spiritual doctrine comes from the known ban signed by Moses on the consultation of the dead.

It seems therefore that Christians while holding to the words of the head chief of the Hebrews; they give more value to the Old Testament than the New, which embodies the acts and teachings of Jesus, as well as lessons and examples left by his apostles.

Well, the passage of the Christ on earth reveals, at every step, his constant interchange with the Higher Plan, in talks with the envoys of high strain, addressing the afflicted disembodied, in helping the obstacles in the way, also to team mates, who were presented in person after death. And the disciples themselves lived with psychic phenomenon, especially since the extraordinary events recorded on the day of Pentecost immediately celebrated after the Easter resurrection.

In Brazil, Friar Bonaventure Kloppenburg, the staunchest opponents of Spiritism in our country, in Italy, Father Gino Concetti, commentator Osservatore Romano, the official site of Vatican, in France, Father François Brune, author of "The Dead talk to us "- they all admit the psychic facts and relations between us and the dead. We emphasize: between us and the dead, not between us and the demons, because they fortunately do not exist.

In an interview with Globo Television Network and before agency Ansa, Gino Concetti made public the new position of the Church regarding mediumship and relations between us and the dead.

Then said the priest Concetti that the Church not only admits communication with the dead, and recognizes that having a contact with the souls of loved ones who have departed to the afterlife can relieve that have perhaps been disturbed by this trance. "According to the modern catechism - said the theologian - God allows our dear departed living in Outer Dimension send messages to guide us at certain moments in life. Following the new findings in the field of psychology on the paranormal, the Church has decided not to ban the experiences of dialogue with the deceased, under the condition that they must be taken with a serious purpose, religious and scientific."

In the face of such clear evidence about the relationship between us and the departed, it is not surprising what Friar Bonaventure Kloppenburg wrote in his book "Spiritism and Faith," in which he states that Catholics, as the Spiritists admit:

a) the deceased have not broken their ties with those still living on earth;

b) they can therefore rescue and help us;

c) disembodied spirits can manifest or communicate with us perceptibly;
d) that such manifestations can be of two types: spontaneous and induced. The spontaneous are those that have their origin or initiative from beyond, as the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-38). The caused ones are the ones that have caused their initiative in the physical world, as, for example, the case of King Saul, who evoked Samuel by Pythia of Endor (Samuel 28:3-25).

As to Father François Brune, Catholic ITC researcher, who is dedicated to the exchange between us and the Spirits by electronic means, here's what he wrote in the book we refer to:

"Ask about the origins in Western thought, this recent ideology from nothing, it is not my purpose. The most shocking is the silence, disdain; even censorship exercised by Science and the Church, about the most extraordinary undisputed discovery of our time: the afterlife exists and we can communicate with those we call dead.

I wrote this book to try to take down this thick wall of silence, of incomprehension, ostracism, erected by most Western intellectual circles. For them, speak about eternity is tolerable; say that you can live it becomes more debatable, to say that one can enter into communication with it is considered intolerable. The priest and theologian which I am, wanted, as they say, to be sure of the truth completely. Why all these testimonies should be considered a priori suspect? When the content of the messages and communications recorded get together, as I demonstrate, the greatest mystical texts of various traditions, it is more than a coincidence. I followed therefore and studied passionately the results of the latest research in this field. The conclusions of this work exceeded my expectations: not only the scientific credibility of the experiences of communicating with the dead is confirmed and can no longer be doubted, but the prodigious wealth of this literature revived in me beyond what centuries of theological intellectualism had extinguished." (The Dead Speak on, Edicel, 1991, p. 15.)

We could not finish these comments without remembering the testimony of a pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Nehemias Marien, admired and respected for his ideas and for his work throughout life.

Our colleague Fatima Farias asked him: How do you face the successive attacks of pastors to Spiritism?

Pastor Nehemiah Marien said:

"Well, as I say, our beloved brethren are allies. We are all in the same boat, but they are part of the artillery. The gunner is the soldier who comes from the back. The infantry are us, Spiritism, those who go there to front. The artillery, the open space in front, drop bombs, but are very bad at math, the calculations are wrong and end up decimating own allies. This is the case, criticizing Spiritism, which is on the same spiritual dimension. I call them, shall we say, spiritual bonsai, that little plant that does not grow. There in Tokyo I saw a whole garden only of bonsai, it was cute, but not developed spiritually. Those who attack our spiritists’ brothers and other traditions, with which they disagree, are a kind of pit bulls ". (The full interview of Pastor Marien can be viewed by clicking on this link: http://www.espirito.org.br/portal/artigos/ffarias/nehemias-marien.html.)