today i was talking with a costa rican about catholicism in costa rica. it is a catholic country. religion is a class taught as frequently as math, science or social studies. it is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation. people go to church, wear crufixes and they cross themselves. and i was told that children are hit if they read the bible. i have talked to friends here who are catholics. they go to church faithfully every week. but they never read the bible. they say they believe in God but they don-t have a relationship with Him. they don-t talk or pray to Him.
i brought the Jesus video for children and have shown it in a few schools. it was so cool to watch some of the kids faces as they stared so intently at the tv. they may have had several years of religious teaching but it was like their eyes were seeing Him for the first time.
i heard a missionary say that italy has some insanely low number of christians. like 3% of the country were christians. when i repeated this to someone they asked how could that be - the vatican is there. they are all catholics, they go to church.
but if the children here are being hit if they read the bible are they being raised to believe like the pharisees, being religious and nothing more?
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