Media in Mexico

It may seem incomprehensible to someone in Canada or the USA how there could be so many cities and towns in Mexico that are still virtually untouched by the Gospel.  I just read an interesting article summarizing some of the history of Mexico City.  The article was by Paul Pretiz, the assistant to the president of Latin America Mission (LAM).  He was serving in Mexico where he was involved in some studies of the evangelical churches in the world’s largest city.

One of the interesting points that he made was about the use of media in Mexico.  For those that don’t know, for many years Mexico was a strongly “secular” state.  

Missionaries were not officially allowed in the country, and members of the clergy could not even vote.  Along with this, the church didn’t have access to the media.  If you’re like me, your first thought may be that this is a blessing and a curse – Mexico was largely sheltered from a lot of the heretical teachings that have spread under the Christian banner (if you’ve watched much so-called Christian TV, you know what I mean).  At the same time, it meant that the small church didn’t have the same kind of impact in such a large, populous country as it could have if it had been able to broadcast.

This one little aspect of life in Mexico does make things a little clearer for those of us that are so used to widely available Christian broadcasting in our language.  Good broadcasts have had an incredible impact in the world, maybe they can have a growing influence on the many languages of Mexico.  But it will still take time.