Vandalism In Venezuela

In Venezuela there is a large percentage of followers of the religion christianity, about 98 percent! Of that 98 percent, 90 percent is roman catholic and 8 percent is protestant. The remaining 2 percent are other religions or followers of atheism. This is not surprising due to the fact that it is due to the spatial diffusion of Christianity from the hearth of Jerusalem. Examples of the other religions that make up the 2 percent are mostly followers of islam and judaism, There is a small community of Muslim people across 23 states and a Jewish community in the capital of Caracas’s. Throughout the years there has been conflict of religion views, one time was in 2005 with Chavez, the Venezuelan president. He decided to expel an American missionary …show more content…
Furthermore, there has been other conflict though due to religion, in addition in 2011, the country was placed on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s watch list for the third time. Venezuela is supposed to have freedom of religion and choice of what the citizen’s can believe in. Although, recently the country has faced vandalism to religious buildings, like churches, mosques, synagogues and holy places of worship. The Venezuelan government has done nothing about this, and hasn’t prosecuted anyone, which in effect made them get put on the watch list. By doing nothing after the vandalism, it in a way was a sign that the government saying that people couldn’t have free religion. There is discrimination and the government isn’t supporting their claim to support the freedom of …show more content…
On Sundays, most followers go to church, or a cathedral. The place of worship for the religion is a church, and this has to do with the landscape. Often churches have an altar where mass is performed by a priest and there is a consecration of the body of christ that the people eat. Major symbols that represent this religion are the fish that represents Jesus because when he came down from heaven, his profession was a fisherman. Also the other symbol is a cross, the type of cross can variate depending on the branches of Christianity. The 90 percent of the population is roman catholic, which some of the main points of the religion are a bit different depending on the branch. For the branch of roman catholic as an example, because it is the largest branch with the most followers, the symbol and beliefs are different. For the cross for this sect, the people keep Jesus on the cross so it shows him crucified, the protestants for an example don’t have crosses with Jesus on it. Also the roman catholics believe that Mary, Jesus’s mother was a virgin and is very important, whereas the protestants don’t believe that Mary was a virgin and had a immaculate conception, so they don’t teach and talk about her as