Nicaragua Closes 1500 Churches, Non-Profits for Non-Compliance

NICARAGUA CLOSES 1500 CHURCHES. Almost 700 of the 1,500 groups shut down by Managua do belong to the Catholics, Protestants & Pentecostals. That means Nicaragua has expanded its years-long crackdown to include churches once considered compliant.

Roman Catholic churches stood in the forefront of those who spoke against human rights abuses. Dozens of their leaders had to go to jail or into exile. Other churches remained mostly uninvolved politically. They thought they stayed safe by just registering with the government. Now hundreds of them stand accused of lacking the required financial reporting. As a result, they face confiscation of their properties, and possibly jail or exile too.

Nicaragua said the churches failed to prove they weren’t involved in “terrorism and money laundering.” Belize churches have faced similar arduous reporting requirements mandated of Belize by the UN. Yet Belize has never accused any church of terrorism or money laundering. Why then is the UN requiring all Belize churches to comply with such reporting? Why not assume innocence until proof of guilt?

This underlines the possible dangers of government drives to register churches. In the past year, churches in countries like Belize and Rwanda have faced stringent registration. Rwanda shut down 5,600+ churches for lacking permits or leader qualifications. Most of the closed churches were Pentecostal.

The Holy Spirit without measure

Pentecostal churches seek to be led by the same Holy Spirit who first filled believers at Pentecost. God can give the Holy Spirit “without measure” (John 3:34). This means in part that humans cannot measure how much of the Holy Spirit a leader has. As with the wind, “You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going” (John 3:8). But such a leader can attract a congregation who hear their Shepherd’s voice in what he is preaching.

The question is, who can claim authority to take such a shepherd from his voluntary followers? Especially if he is otherwise abiding by the law? The right to religious freedom would seem to protect such a church. And yet we can understand the desire to protect such flocks from wolves in sheep’s clothing. Such issues are too difficult to evaluate in the short time—two weeks—that it took the Rwandan government to inspect and close 5,600+ churches.

Let’s hope and pray that, as in Belize, governments recognize the huge scope of this task. And that it involves Holy Spirit-led biblical churches in evaluating churches who seek the same Spirit. And yet who may have different gifts of the Spirit than the evaluating churches do. For that reason, we should keep the criteria simple. As Jesus said of one evangelist, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you” (Lk. 9:50).

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Image by Sergio Cerrato – Italia from Pixabay