Mexico: Religious liberty festival highlights importance of promoting freedom of belief

John Graz, (right), director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department, holds a torch on stage during a Festival of Religious Freedom at the Olympic Wireless Complex in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, on Saturday, March 22. Presenters challenged attendees to continue working for religious freedom in Southeastern Mexico. At left is Roberto Herrera, PARL director for the Adventist Church’s Inter-American Division, who organized the festival. Image by José Luis Méndez Zetina.

April 10, 2014 – Merida, Yucatan, Mexico…IAD Staff

A religious freedom festival attracted hundreds of Seventh-day Adventists in the Southeast Mexico region last month to celebrate the existing religious liberty in the nation, promote the rights of expression of belief and highlight the importance of defending religious freedom for all.

Hosted by the church’s Southeast Mexican Union and sponsored by the International Religious Liberty Association, the event gathered some 2,500 supporters from the region’s Campeche, Quintana Roo and Tabasco to the Olympic Wireless Complex in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Dr. John Graz, director of the world church’s Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department, encouraged the audience to unite their voices to tell God and Mexico and its authorities: “Thank you for religious liberty, we love it and want to keep it,” said Dr. Graz.

Graz encouraged everyone to remember those around the world who suffer persecutions and discrimination because of religious beliefs. “No human being should suffer because he or she has a religion that follows his or her conscious, or has to change religion or profess their religious publicly or privately.

Yucatan’s Religious Affairs Director Enrique Sosa Mendoza and Merida’s Public Works Director Salvador Vitelli Macias greeted the audience and applauded the church’s efforts in promoting religious liberty and vowed to continue fostering an environment of religious freedom throughout the state.

Pastor Isaias Espinoza, president of the church in Southeast Mexico, expressed his joy at seeing the first religious freedom festival organized in the church region and vowed along with his administration and department directors to continue promoting religious liberty.

“Mexico is a country that offers religious liberty to all of its inhabitants,” said Pastor Roberto Herrera, public affairs and religious liberty director for the church in Inter-America. “It was fitting that a religious freedom festival could help supporters and church members to understand the role of religious liberty and importance of defending it.”

Pastor Herrera said that prior to the festival, ministers met to encourage and challenge them to pursue and nurture good relations with government authorities, religious communities and the community in general.

“When you hold your evangelistic activities, make sure these are sensible and positive ones, ensuring that they are bridges of friendship within the community and within the other church,” explained Herrera. “We are a positive church and we want to be perceived as positive leaders and members so that the doors can remain open and we can fulfill our mission and be accepted by others.”

For more on the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Southeast Mexico, click HERE