Originally Published on the Igneous Quill Xanga blog.
Two years ago Odilon Calixto da Cunha moved from the Brazilian countryside to a favela in Rio de Janeiro called "Vigário Geral." He's a pastor a denomination called the God is Love Pentecostal Church and was moving there with his family (wife and six children) at the invitation of another pastor to work with the local church. What he didn't know was that his pastor friend was in the hip pocket of the local drug trafickers, even running errands for them that involved infractions of the law.
According to Odilon, he never went along with the requests and demands of the drug dealers. He tried to live his life quietly serving God and the community, but since he wasn't cooperating with the local criminals they accused him of being on the side of the police.
Things came to a head this past Sunday (November 15, 2009) when armed "bandits" came to his door and ordered the family out. Not allowed to take anything with them or even, as he put it, eat the meal that was waiting for them on the stove, they spent a chilly night beneath a supermarket awning. The next day they notified the police, who assisted them in recovering what they could from their invaded home. Unfortunately Odilon is only less than halfway through payments on the $12,000 debt he created in buying their home. One wonders what on earth they'll do now.
If this fellow is as upright as he sounds, good for him. It also makes me wonder, though, how other religious workers get along in the favelas. Are these chaplains to drug lords no better than the thugs to whom they say they are ministering?
H/T Notícias Cristãs
