The Editor of the Christian Research Newsletter is Ron Rhodes. To the newcomer arriving after sunset, the beach has a nightmarish quality.
Christians immediately sense the spiritual oppression of the place.
The filthy sand is strewn with idols and candles. The ghastly scene stretches as far as the eye can see, and towering above the haze is a 15-foot statue of the sea goddess Iemanja , mounted on a large cement pedestal smeared with wax and blackened by the flames of countless candles. In Africa, Iemanja had earlier been portrayed as rotund, black, and adorned with fish. This Brazilian rendition of the goddess, however, is slender, Caucasian, her gaze cold and empty, dressed in a flowing blue dress, pearls falling from her outstretched palms. In centuries past, Iemanja was pleased to receive not only trinkets, but squealing children as well.