MEXICO— José Alfredo is a lawyer in Mexico who helps Christians like Guadalupe, who was threatened with expulsion by his indigenous community, to understand their legal rights and settle disputes so that they can continue to worship God freely and without fear.

Gaudalupe – Mexico:

Since we follow Christ who saved us, they harass us, they scold us because they don’t like us to stray from the customs of our ancestors who lived in our community.

In summer 2023, Guadalupe and his wife Leticia began following Christ in their indigenous community in Chiapas, Mexico. Threatened with expulsion if they did not renounce their new faith, they asked a pastor they knew for help. He put them in touch with Open Doors and with a lawyer named José Alfredo, who can advise and mediate in situations like this.

José Alfredo – Mexico:

As a lawyer, I provide support to the organisation Open Doors, giving legal representation to people who suffer some kind of harassment, some kind of intolerance or cases of religious persecution. In general, our constitution has 136 articles. They are all aimed at human rights. And specifically, article 24 of our constitution establishes that we are all free to profess any religion that we like.

But in the rural indigenous communities, people often live according to their own customs and traditional rules.

José:

In these regulations, it’s precisely stipulated that people can’t change their faith, but have to follow what’s already imposed as the ancestral traditional religion. And when someone, a Christian, needs that change of faith, at that moment the majority become discontented and those members begin their harassment and repression. And this is when a problem is triggered that ends the banishment, the exile of the Christian members.

José Alfredo uses his legal expertise to educate both Christian believers and their community leaders about the law. So in several cases, exiled believers have been able to return to their homes and to worship in relative freedom.

José:

We seek to ensure that the people who are in conflict are happy in such a way that the faith continues to be professed. This has been done and has been achieved in many places where we as Open Doors have been.

Gaudalupe:

We thank the organisation Open Doors. The lawyer José Alfredo helped us so that the community would let us be free and would no longer expel us.

Guadalupe is now free to pray in private. He’s also received biblical training to help him to stand strong in his faith.

Gaudalupe:

What I need is prayer, that the brothers pray for me so that I remain firm in the word of God.

About Open Doors UK

For over 60 years, Open Doors UK has worked in the world’s most oppressive countries, empowering Christians who are persecuted for their beliefs. Open Doors equips persecuted Christians in more than 60 countries through programs like Bible & Gospel Development, Women & Children Advancement, and Christian Community Restoration.

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