Brazilians funneled as "slaves" by US church, ex-members say

[Judi Lynn]

Brazilians funneled as "slaves" by US church, ex-members say
Mitch Weiss, Holbrook Mohr and Peter Prengaman, Associated Press

Updated 12:33 am, Monday, July 24, 2017



SPINDALE, N.C. (AP) — When Andre Oliveira answered the call to leave his Word of Faith Fellowship congregation in Brazil to move to the mother church in North Carolina at the age of 18, his passport and money were confiscated by church leaders — for safekeeping, he said he was told.

Trapped in a foreign land, he said he was forced to work 15 hours a day, usually for no pay, first cleaning warehouses for the secretive evangelical church and later toiling at businesses owned by senior ministers. Any deviation from the rules risked the wrath of church leaders, he said, ranging from beatings to shaming from the pulpit.

"They trafficked us up here. They knew what they were doing. They needed labor and we were cheap labor — hell, free labor," Oliveira said.

An Associated Press investigation has found that Word of Faith Fellowship used its two church branches in Latin America's largest nation to siphon a steady flow of young laborers who came on tourist and student visas to its 35-acre compound in rural Spindale.

More:

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Brazilians-funneled-as-slaves-by-US-church-11328368.php

LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141827777




Jane Whaley, church founder, blond hair.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[secondwind]

2. Damn! K&R

[get the red out]

3. Nothing will be done for them

Freedom of religion is used to keep all kinds of abuses going.

[GatoGordo]

4. The establishment of a state religion

or the free exercise thereof, (First Amendment) does not protect any religious sect from liability when another right is violated. The courts have ruled on this many times, and the current debacle in the Catholic Church is proof of this.

If found guilty, these people will rightfully pay a price.

[get the red out]

5. I hope you are correct

I hope they WILL be found guilty.