Narco-God
http://blogs.chron.com/talkingtolerance/2010/07/narcogod.html
Americans receive nearly daily reports of jihadist killings, suicide bombings and beheadings in various parts of the world. Most of this religion-inspired violence occurs oceans away from us, although recent events suggest that "home-grown" religious terrorism of the Islamic variety is on the rise in the United States.
Meanwhile, much closer to our borders is another form of religious violence, carried out by so-called Christians, that doesn't get quite as much coverage as that carried out by those who claim to be Muslims.
In the last three and a half years, over 23,000 murders have been carried out by drug cartels in Mexico. The most heinous are perpetrated by La Familia Michoacana, a group fueled by evangelical fervor and America's apparently insatiable appetite for methamphetamine. La Familia's signature move is decapitation. Headless bodies show up routinely in areas where the group is most active, including now not only Michoacana but also Mexico City and Juarez. A few years ago they rolled 5 heads from rival Zeta gang members across a crowded disco floor to make their point.
La Familia was a small-time player until they took advantage of the 2005 U.S. law that restricted sales of pseudoephedrine, from which meth is made, in order to shut down American production of the illicit drug. As American production fizzled, La Familia ramped up their own to re-supply and expand the American market for the drug. Currently, officials estimate that 200 tons of meth flow into America annually, worth about $20 billion on the street (meth sells for $100 a gram). Yes, that's billion.
Meth is the most popular illicit drug in the American midwest and west.
La Familia is led by Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, known as El Mas Loco ("the craziest one") who has achieved near saint status in the Michoacana area and beyond. While a cocaine ferrier to the U.S. in the 90's, he obtained a book entitled Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul, by John Eldredge of Ransomed Heart Ministries in Colorado Springs. Eldredge advocates a "muscular" Christianity for men focused on family values and service to community, and emphasizes that men are warriors who must have a battle to fight. This battle is their mission and it exceeds even family and home.
Moreno Gonzalez appropriated this message, mixed it with other themes from Latino evangelicalism and "Godfather" movies, added water, stirred and came up with his own bible of sorts, called Pensamientos ("Thoughts") in which he preaches a message of family, faith, community, native land and a willingness to fight for them all. La Familia members engage in daily prayer sessions, study of scripture, and are required to be drug-free.
Eldredge, when asked about his book being used by the drug lord, said that people always "shroud and try to cloak or distort their practices by draping it in religious language." He's right. La Familia's narco-god is not too different from the Taliban's opium-funded god of the jihadists. And these two deities are different only in degree from the blood-drunken, revengeful tribal deities of a dozen other religions, both living and dead, who lead their followers into battle against their "enemies" to defend whatever they value - land, power, resources, their version of truth, whatever.
Ecclesiastes is right; there is nothing new under the sun.
_______________________________________________________________
Religion as a tool?
Never thought of drug dealers being driven by christian evangelicalism.
Ah
The cleverness of man over his fellow man.
http://blogs.chron.com/talkingtolerance/2010/07/narcogod.html
Americans receive nearly daily reports of jihadist killings, suicide bombings and beheadings in various parts of the world. Most of this religion-inspired violence occurs oceans away from us, although recent events suggest that "home-grown" religious terrorism of the Islamic variety is on the rise in the United States.
Meanwhile, much closer to our borders is another form of religious violence, carried out by so-called Christians, that doesn't get quite as much coverage as that carried out by those who claim to be Muslims.
In the last three and a half years, over 23,000 murders have been carried out by drug cartels in Mexico. The most heinous are perpetrated by La Familia Michoacana, a group fueled by evangelical fervor and America's apparently insatiable appetite for methamphetamine. La Familia's signature move is decapitation. Headless bodies show up routinely in areas where the group is most active, including now not only Michoacana but also Mexico City and Juarez. A few years ago they rolled 5 heads from rival Zeta gang members across a crowded disco floor to make their point.
La Familia was a small-time player until they took advantage of the 2005 U.S. law that restricted sales of pseudoephedrine, from which meth is made, in order to shut down American production of the illicit drug. As American production fizzled, La Familia ramped up their own to re-supply and expand the American market for the drug. Currently, officials estimate that 200 tons of meth flow into America annually, worth about $20 billion on the street (meth sells for $100 a gram). Yes, that's billion.
Meth is the most popular illicit drug in the American midwest and west.
La Familia is led by Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, known as El Mas Loco ("the craziest one") who has achieved near saint status in the Michoacana area and beyond. While a cocaine ferrier to the U.S. in the 90's, he obtained a book entitled Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul, by John Eldredge of Ransomed Heart Ministries in Colorado Springs. Eldredge advocates a "muscular" Christianity for men focused on family values and service to community, and emphasizes that men are warriors who must have a battle to fight. This battle is their mission and it exceeds even family and home.
Moreno Gonzalez appropriated this message, mixed it with other themes from Latino evangelicalism and "Godfather" movies, added water, stirred and came up with his own bible of sorts, called Pensamientos ("Thoughts") in which he preaches a message of family, faith, community, native land and a willingness to fight for them all. La Familia members engage in daily prayer sessions, study of scripture, and are required to be drug-free.
Eldredge, when asked about his book being used by the drug lord, said that people always "shroud and try to cloak or distort their practices by draping it in religious language." He's right. La Familia's narco-god is not too different from the Taliban's opium-funded god of the jihadists. And these two deities are different only in degree from the blood-drunken, revengeful tribal deities of a dozen other religions, both living and dead, who lead their followers into battle against their "enemies" to defend whatever they value - land, power, resources, their version of truth, whatever.
Ecclesiastes is right; there is nothing new under the sun.
_______________________________________________________________
Religion as a tool?
Never thought of drug dealers being driven by christian evangelicalism.
Ah
The cleverness of man over his fellow man.
