The consequences of teaching that the bible is literal and inerrant. Exported to that country from this country by our coffee clatch of evangelical kindergarten religionists

Inside the Religious Death Cult That Massacred Seven in Panama

EVANGELICAL EXTREMISM

During the 1970s, the region was targeted by a wave of zealous evangelical missionaries who came Bible-thumping down from the States, according to Sánchez. They proselytized a dogmatic brand of Christianity that allowed little room for native people’s ancestral beliefs and cultural traditions. Already isolated by language and rugged terrain, the Uga Chere proved particularly vulnerable to such foreign influence.

“The missionaries pushed them to forget their own history. They confused the people, and destroyed their cultural memory,” Sánchez said.

In place of an age-old belief system, the Uga Chere began to practice a “fundamentalist, highly conservative religion” based on a literal interpretation of the Bible “that radicalized the people.”