An evangelical pastor is the center of an interreligious controversy, after having viralized a video of him destroying a statue of Gauchito Gil, the pagan saint who counts faithful in the millions throughout the country. Ezekiel, the pastor who was at the center of the anger, spoke of "biblical" justifications for vandalizing the image.
"We are here for the glory of God, we come to tear down an altar, look how big it is," he says at the beginning of the video, while one of his associates begins to hit a statue installed on the side of the road, in a place that was not specified.
"They have eyes but they do not see, they have mouths but do not speak, they have ears but do not hear, we are going to tear down in the name of Jesus," he continues, while in the background they begin to tear down the altar erected to protect the image. They tore off a cross and also destroyed the offerings that Gil's devotees leave to the patron to ask or thank favors.
The video was shared on Twitter by user @bamelnegro and very quickly went viral: it already has more than 5.6 million views in just over a day. Users comment on it repudiating the attack. Others joke about the anger that the popular saint could unleash on the two evangelists or, more specifically, the legion of followers of Antonio Gil.
"Look, I don't believe in anyone, but I was angry about this. Zero respect," said one user.
Ezequiel wore a sweater of the Argentine National Team and his partner another of Lionel Messi, so many users joked about imagining Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia himself (great devotee of the Gauchito) going to look for the pastor.
"As someone with Correntine family, I know that all the Correntinos devotees of the gauchito have shotguns and ESPADAS, that madman chose his battles wrong," remarked another user.
"I Have Biblical Foundations"
After the controversy, the preacher Ezequiel spoke with TN and explained what led him to attack the figure. "I have several videos doing that, I preach the word of God and I have biblical foundations that talk about idolatry and what it causes," he said.
"Many young people are tied to that curse and cannot go out and we believe that in the spiritual environment it is a curse that leads youth to commit crimes and make offerings to pagan gods," he said.
In addition, he pointed out that the figure of Gauchito Gil, "is an abomination in the eyes of God." "If we break an altar we are cutting in the spiritual environment, with accidents, work, death, offerings and sacrifice made to the devil," justified the pastor, who also said that he began preaching just four years ago after an "important transformation" that gave way to a new facet as a religious.
On his Facebook account he has other videos and posts with similar vandalizations. "We take this as a trophy," he said in a video where he holds in his hands a statue of Gauchito Gil and another of San La Muerte.
But it is not a fight only against pagan saints, since he also shared images destroying saints of the Catholic religion.
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