Geopolitically, 2024 is set to be an interesting shakeup to the various nations as 26 nations hold national elections. In El Salvador, the world has watched as Nayib Bukele has fought crime and corruption by usurping the “rights” of criminal gangsters. He won reelection in February by a landslide. As America gets poised for the presidential election, the number one issue will be border security and mass immigration.
This past Sunday, Panama held its elections and Jose Rual Mulino won with 34.25% of the vote as the “right wing” candidate who was a late entrant into the race because the former president Ricardo Martinelli was barred from running due to alleged political corruption. In the most banana republic fashion, Martinelli was apparently running a campaign from Nicaragua before endorsing Mulino in his stead.
For Americans, the significance of Mulino is his position on closing the Darien Gap, which is a jungle region between Panama and Colombia that is amongst the most difficult terrains to traverse in the world. This is in part due to it being situated on the continental divide. En route to America, border invaders from all over the world pass through the Darien Gap, which, as expected, created problems in Panama and for the environment.
In its most liberal fashion, Christianity Today counter-signaled Mulino going into the election through an article entitled, “If Panama Closes the Darién Gap, Would Evangelicals Care?” It should be noted that Mulino was the clear favorite going into the election (performing in line with the results) while the initial CT article claimed ambiguity in the polls. But the election was not about the people of Panama. No. It was about the plight of the border invaders and the apostate organizations that service them.
Though evangelicals have largely been on the sidelines, many leaders say they should have done more.
“The church does not see the refugee problem as their own problem,” said Panamanian missionary Robert Bruneau, a regional leader with United World Mission. “They believe it is something the state should do and are not aware of the great opportunity they have to graciously and honorably serve someone who bears the image of God.”
United World Missions is a generic evangelical missions organization that holds to the Lausanne Covenant. Likely, the people of Panama are themselves poor, and incapable of helping a US, UN, and NGO facilitated movement of humanity which numbers to a nation larger than Panama, but they should feel shamed for remaining on “the sidelines” of other people’s depravity.
After describing the hazards of the Darien Gap, the article brings up World Vision.
World Vision is one of a handful of Christian organizations serving migrants passing through the Darién Gap and works with churches to provide food, clothing, security, and legal guidance to those passing through the region.
“[These people] do not migrate by choice,” Mishelle Mitchell, a World Vision spokesperson for Latin America and the Caribbean, told CT. “They flee hunger, war, poverty, and deserve the right to be respected.”
World Vision has been apostate for at least a decade. They also work with the R4V, a UN backed initiative for facilitating the border invasion that Samaritans Purse also contributed to. As is common with UN health initiatives, they are pro-abortion under the guise of “family planning.”
Evangelicals make up 22 percent of the population, compared to 65 percent of Catholics. But more than a dozen Catholic organizations work in the Darién region, led by Cáritas, the international arm of the Vatican for human rights, food security, and sustainable development.
In March, in a letter, Pope Francis addressed a group of migrants who met bishops and local authorities in Lajas Blancas, a city close to the Darién Gap, trying to find common ground with them as a son of Italian immigrants who went to Argentina “in search of a better future.”
“Migrant brothers and sisters, never forget your human dignity,” he wrote. “Do not be afraid to look others in the eye, because you are not a throwaway; you too are part of the human family and of the family of God’s children.”
Christianity Today goes further to use Pope Francis to shame evangelicals into caring about the invaders, touting a newfound evangelical influence in Panamanian politics. They then use a call to fast by the Evangelical Alliance of Panama to further counter-signal Mulino by highlighting the widespread concerns of corruption in Martinelli.
For the hundreds of thousands crossing the jungle on foot, however, there are decisions that are more urgent—and the results from the ballot can make a difference.
The article concludes by advocating a stakeholder mentality to voting, that people should vote with the migrants in mind rather than what is good for their nation.
Christianity Today is attempting to paint the invaders as sympathetic refugees who are struggling for a better life, as people in need of help, when many are just opportunists taking advantage of the Biden regime’s open borders agenda. They are not victims, and the only thing they need is to go back to where they came from. Helping them is not being a “Good Samaritan” but harming one’s neighbor and reinforcing their reckless decisions to traverse the Darien Gap. Too many Christian organizations, including the Southern Baptist Convention, participated in facilitating the invasion, albeit at the US-Mexico border rather than in Central America.
In the leadup to the Panamanian elections, Christianity Today was counter-signaling the now-President-Elect Raul Mulino who has pledged to close the border and repatriate the migrants. Whether Mulino succeeds in shutting down the invasion in his nation remains to be seen, but it is a noble quest. Since this article was geared towards its international readers, it is no surprise that Christianity Today exports its liberalism to the rest of the world.
Christianity Today asks, would evangelicals care: yes, they should care about border security and preventing mass migration.
