A RELIGIOUS TOWN. THEOCRACIES IN PRESENT TIMES?

A religious town- Theocracies in present times?  

A RELIGIOUS TOWN. THEOCRACIES IN PRESENT TIMES?

A religious town- Theocracies in present times? 

Today,  I would like to reflect upon an experience I had throughout two months,  in connection to the healing process of my son Tomas.  I am referring to the existence of “Villa General San Martin”, or “Puigari”.

This is a town where everything is religious. In this place, all people share the same religion. Moreover, all of them are fully committed to their organization, and supposedly they do everything because of their religion. (They are Adventists).

Their beliefs pervade every aspect of their lives, every minute of their time. They are quite warm and affectionate when they talk to you; extremely warm and affectionate, I should say.  A stranger coming from the outside and without any further background would say that in fact… they sound too artificially kind.

They never say for-letter words. They never complain. They are for you all the time. They work a lot, and they stick to their promises. Sometimes I have wondered:  Are they real?  Is this perfection real?

So I did some subtle research around the topic:  I bought a book about their origins. This book narrated the epic arriving of people from Germany and North America, with their souls full of energy and love for God,  completely determined to sell their books –in English and German!- in our pampas  and with the idea to have the word of God –in their version- fully spread all around.

Additionally, I made some enquiries on friends living near the town.  It turned  out that, even though these people are so “warm and affectionate”, and so active and perfect in their work,  they are humans after all. Therefore,  they fight, divorce,  swear,  and react in different negative ways to facts of life, just like we do.  The detail resides on this: a) they perform all of that in private. b) And:   they bring all the complaints and issues to the Pastors who have the reins of the town, in order to be solved by them.

In conclusion: “La Villa” (as it is called, for short)  constitutes a theocratic town. In my mind, it resembles the town of “The Scarlet Letter”. It is the same as in “The Scarlet Letter”: There, we find people living together as if they were a big family, seeking for a “life in God”, participating in a tight religious net which has its positive and negative consequences. Pastors intervene in everything (health, marriage, family, jobs) and you have to stick to the net, or otherwise leave. 

For them, the system works:  in La Villa, at first sight, we encounter a clean, hard-working town that never ceases to grow and flourish. Everybody is busy there, whereas studying (at their big, famous university, where people from all around the world attend) or doing something useful for the group.

In my case, I had some ambivalent feelings towards the Villa. On one hand, their kind-hearted way managed to save my kid, since they made him stand up on his feet in a month. On the other hand, I never would be able to live there: their way of life is too publicly exposed, and I prefer to live in peace with all my sins and humanity.

Nevertheless, I remember all the new friends I got to know there: Dra. Bottaro,  Oscar and Irina (the physiotherapists), and many other good people who made my son walk. They are simply great, and I will remember them forever.