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Southern
Religion
tial southern
religion.
festations in the Twentieth
Century
in downtown Los
Angeles,
it found
sippi, Georgia,
Cleveland
Georgia;
Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma;
101
with
a Latin
Accent
by
such southern sites as
Missouri; Atlanta,
results. The
preponderance Dallas/Fort
Orleans, Louisiana; southern United
In North America, the Pentecostal Movement is viewed as quintessen-
Its
linkage
to the
Wesleyan-Holiness
strand of southern Methodism has been demonstrated
repeatedly.
Its earliest mani-
lie in
Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Arkansas.
Following
its
explosion
at the Azusa Street Mission in 1906
fertile soil in places like the Caroli- nas, Virginia,
West
Virginia,
Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Missis-
and Florida. Even now a listing of Pentecostal denomi- national
headquarter
cities is dominated
and
Memphis,
Tennessee; Dunn, North Carolina;
St.
Louis, Joplin
and at the
edge
of the Ozarks,
Springfield,
and Washington, D. C.
A
quick
and
dirty survey
of Pentecostal
televangelists yields
similar
of
programs originating
in cities such as
Worth, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma;
Baton
Rouge
and New
Atlanta, Georgia;
and elsewhere
States is overwhelming. One
might
conclude from this that a real Pentecostal is one who refers to his or her sisters and brothers sans the first “t.”
They
are Penecostals
c6s-tals].
ing
refer to themselves
throughout
the
[pronounced
slowly, Pen-ny-
who are
giv-
In
spite
of all this, there is another
group
of Pentecostals
new form and
meaning
to the term “southern
religion.” They
do not
as Penecostals, for
they
do not
speak
with a south- ern,
North
American, English
accent.
They
refer to themselves in the Latin accents of the
deep
South.
They
are Pentecostdles
the countries south
stacatto
fashion, Pen-te-cos-tá-les]. of the Rio Grande with
headquarters
of
languages indigenous
Pentecostalism
sionary activity.
[pronounced They
are
filling
in cities such as
Santiago, Chile;
export
to the Latin
and mis-
Mexico
City, Mexico; Lima, Peru;
San Jose, Costa Rica; San Salvador, El Salvador, Buenos
Aires, Argentina;
Rio de Janiero, Brazil; and Mara- caibo, Venezuela.
They speak Spanish, Portuguese,
Italian,
and a range
to the
peoples
of Central and South America and the islands of the Caribbean.
was
initially
a North American
American context. It arrived there with the aid of personal correspon- dence, early
Pentecostal
publications, personal
testimonies,
It
quickly
found fertile
ground
where it took root and grew
to become the incredible force it is
today. According
America
Turning
Protestant?
(Berkeley: University
Press, 1990)
8-9
(See
the review on
pp. 189-190),
share of the Latin American
population, especially
the
growth
of the Pentecostals has been
nothing
less than
1960 and 1985 it doubled in size in Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, Panama,
and Haiti. It tripled its size in Argentina,
Stoll,
Is Latin
California
growth
of the
Evangelical
breath-taking.
Between
to David
of
the
and
1
102
Nicaragua,
and the Dominican
strate
It
quadrupled
in Brazil and
Republic.
Puerto
Rico,
quintupled
in El
Salvador, Costa Rica, Peru, and Bolivia, and
sextupled
in
Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador,
and Columbia. Donald
Dayton
has noted that there are
now,
in many
places through- out Latin
America, more
practicing
Pentecostal believers than there are practicing
Roman Catholics. Just one illustration is sufficient to demon-
the
impact
of the
growth
of Pentecostals
Roman Catholic Church lists
126,000,000
Of these, about 12.6 million are
regular churchgoers. By comparison,
to the statistics available from the Assemblies of
God, by December 31, 1990 Brazilian Assemblies of God “members and adher-
according
ents” outnumbered the
2,181,502
adherents” worldwide.
in Latin America. The on its
parish
rolls in Brazil.
“members and adherents” in the
United States
by
a margin of
nearly
seven to one with 14,400,000.
They accounted for
nearly
61 % of all Assemblies of God “members and
More
importantly,
added to the
remaining
Protestant
population
in Brazil,
they
constitute a
significant spiritual
force on the rise.
majority status,
however,
when
they
are
the Roman
religious “oppressors”?
places, forcing
their
“oppressors” “oppression”?
In the
eyes
of
many
in Latin America and
throughout
Catholic
Church, Pentecostals are linked to the
“problem
of the sects.” In some
areas,
as Pentecostals have
gained ascendancy
from
minority
to
those who were the
majority
have become alarmed. Pentecostal
growth
in Latin America has led recently to public comments by Archbishop
Edward
Cassidy
of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian
Unity,l
and on his recent visit to
Brazil, by
Pope
John Paul n.2 It is not
growth
alone which elicits such
comments,
but frustration with the
present
and fear about the future. What is really at the heart of Roman Catholic defections to Pentecostal calls? How will Pentecostals live when
they
outnumber those who
they
have often
portrayed
as their
Will
they
be
gracious,
or will
they merely
trade
within the limits of a new
to live
a
majority
On the
whole,
North American Pentecostals tend not to think about such
things. They
are
not,
after
all,
in
any
real
danger
of
becoming
force. But Latin American Pentecostals must think about the
hearty growth?
dangers
of such
rapid growth
and
apparent
success. Is it
healthy
and
Do
they
run the risk of
entering
into
triumphalism?
Is Pentecostal
growth
linked with the
economic, political
and
personal
to lift the
poor
from their
poverty
or to attack the status
quo?
goals
1991),
1 “Clash of Religions Tears at Latin America,” Pasadena Star News (June 1,
B-5.
2William R. Long,
“Pope
Assails Brazil’s
Evangelical
‘Sects’,” Los Times
Angeles
(October 14, 1991) A4. The speech given by the Pope has been published in English as “A Pressing Hunger for Bread and Justice,” Origins 21:21 (October 31,
329, 331-333. Section 3 (p. 331) includes his comments on the “sects and new religious groups” among whom Pentecostals are considered to be.
1991).
2
103
These are difficult
questions.
But North Americans have
questions
to answer which are
equally difficult,
in part, because
they
tend to assume that all other Pentecostals worldwide are just like
they
are.
They
have a common
experience. They
share a common set of doctrines.
They
hold to the same values and
operate
with the same mores. This is
simply
not the case.
Different histories, different cultures, different
languages,
different internal
developments
and different contexts mean that there are also dif- ferences in other areas. The often
very
close links between Pentecostals in the United States and American civil
religion
sometimes contributes to major misunderstandings
as Pentecostals in the United States view Pen- tecostals in Latin America. United States Pentecostals
generally
have a difficult time
imagining
that there are Pentecostals in Latin America who value
major
elements of Liberation
Theology,
who
supported
the San- dinista
government
in Nicaragua, who aided the Socialist President Sal- vador Allende to rise to power in Chile, or who hold and value member- ship
in the
World
Council of Churches. United States Pentecostals would find it surprising and
troubling
to talk with Latin American Pente- costals who resent their
Anglo culture,
their “conservative”
politics,
their rigid
mores, even some of their doctrinal distinctives,
or who
might charge
them with
having wrongly
defined who Pentecostals are or what Pentecostalism is.
To be
sure,
there are similarities between Pentecostals in North Amer- ica and Pentecostals in South America. Both of them have been well ac- quainted
with
poverty.
In the United
States,
white Pentecostals have risen to middle-class status on the
whole,
while
many
African-American and Hispanic-American Pentecostals are still forced to live in the
ghetto. In Latin
America,
Pentecostalism is still
very
much a religion of the poor.
To the extent that North American Pentecostals are in touch with their Pentecostal
roots, largely rural,
often
Black, usually poor,
and clearly
on the
margins
of
society,
there continues to be a
sharing
of social location and
of hope. Unfortunately
the
hope
of many early Pen- tecostals for an early return of our Lord has become all too often a threat to the
aspirations
of
younger, upwardly
mobile Pentecostals. But those in the
ghetto regardless
of
geography
realize that their
hope
lies not
only in their
eschatology,
but in their abilities to rely on God’s
power
alone to change
their circumstances.
Narrative
theology
and
orality
of culture is a second area that Latin American and North American Pentecostals hold in common. It has been an important mark of Pentecostal
experience consisting
of such
things
as the personal testimony, Spirit inspired spontaneous
utterance,
even exis- tential Bible
exposition.
Pentecostals in North America have not
yet
felt at home with
rigorous academics, scholarly papers,
elaborate
footnotes, and advanced
degrees.
For a while, it seemed,
everyone preached against education while
secretly wishing
for it. Then there was the over-reactive quest
in the 1970s and 80s to find the short cut to a doctoral
degree
from
3
104
non-accredited
programs.
Now,
it seems, that
every
church is
attempt- ing
to establish its own school. It
may
be that the rise of
ministry training
schools and the re-invention of a multiplicity of low-level Bible institutes which are now
being developed by
local
congregations
are actually
a renewed manifestation of American Pentecostal
rejection
of modernity,
a backing
away
from
support
for the schools
they
built and fought
so hard to upgrade to 4 years and full accreditation, or a Pente- costal retreat from further real contact with the world. On the whole, it is the affluent
Anglo-Pentecostal
churches in the United States which are founding
their own schools. Is this
simply
because
they
are able to afford it? Or is it, in
part,
an
attempt
to isolate themselves from the cities,
from the
poor,
and from their roots? To what extent does fear play a
role in this
developing
movement? Or a false
perception
that
they simply
cannot
compete
in an increasingly secular environment?
It
may
be because of their social location, but Latin Americans are much less at home with these fine
points
than North Americans.
Still, wisdom is
not
their
problem. Understanding
is not their
problem. Communication is not their
problem
either as
you
will note in reading this issue of Pneuma.
If there are similarities between Pentecostals of North America and of Latin America, there are differences as well. In the earlier
days
of Pente- costalism,
the ridiculed
minority
status of “Holy Rollers” contributed to cohesion and
solidarity
in the
group.
It was “us”
against
the world. As North American Pentecostals have become more acculturated
they
have risen to the middle class, become
socially acceptable,
and
adopted
the individualist values of American cultural
expectations.
Latin American Pentecostals, too,
are
socially mobile,
but most are still at the
point where the
group
is more
important
than the individual.
Indeed, they value their
solidarity
in
ways
which North American Pentecostals have largely forgotten.
Some of them are
very
critical of the mutilation of community
and the limitation on
personal testimony
which
emerges from
experiments
in televangelism and radio
broadcasting.
In
spite
of this and other differences, Latin American Pentecostals have much to offer North American Pentecostals.
They
are
growing rapidly among
the
poor-both
urban and rural.
They
demonstrate enor- mous
hope
in a less than
hopeful
world. Their
music,
their sense of identity
and
community,
their commitment to tell their
story orally
as part
of the human
story
are all
gifts
which other Pentecostals
might receive. Even the tensions between North and South can be creative. Latin American interest in Liberation
Theology themes,
and their con- cern with North American
political
commitments is a fruitful area of exploration.
Their attitudes toward ecumenical
cooperation
with the World Council of Churches are
something
to be probed. A third area in which the whole of the Pentecostal Movement should
actively participate together
is in the discussion on Pentecostal
identity.
No
single
area of the Pentecostal world should be saddled with the task of defining for the
4
105
rest of the Pentecostal world who
they
should be and how
they
should appear.
To do so is to be open to charges of religious
imperialism among our sisters and brothers.
This issue of Pneuma is deeply indebted to the work of Dr. Manuel J. Gaxiola-Gaxiola. When I approached him with the dream
that
we
might build a volume in which Latin American writers and scholars could have a forum
among
North American
Pentecostals,
he readily
agreed
to help. It is he who solicited the various
pieces
which
go together
to form this issue. All but one of these articles were then
carefully
translated and received an initial editorial review at his hand. Theirs is still
largely
a narrative culture. With the
exception
of Manuel
Gaxiola-Gaxiola,
each contributor to this issue has been
encouraged
to express his or her ideas in a way which is consistent with Latin American
Pentecostality. They contain few or no footnotes at all. This is in
keeping
with their oral tradition.
Manuel Gaxiola-Gaxiola sets the tone of this issue with a survey of the history
of Protestantism in Latin
America, complete
with a typology of churches and Christian
agencies
in the region. He moves on to provide a similar
typology
of the varieties of Latin American Pentecostal
groups before
assessing
three
important
issues in Pentecostal
life-politics, relationship
to the Roman Catholic
Church,
and the ecumenical chal- lenges
which face them.
Each successive author delves a bit more
deeply
into
specific segments of Latin American Pentecostal life. Dennis Smith
probes
the Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal movements in Guatemala for the
challenges they pose
to the
larger
church. He also lifts
up
the
challenges posed
to Pente- costals, not only
in Latin
America, but elsewhere.
What
place,
for instance,
is given to ethical life in Pentecostal circles?
Among
Latin America’s
younger
Pentecostal thinkers are Ramon Flores and Adoniram Ibarra. Each of them is concerned with
genuine prophetic activity
in an
increasingly
secularized world. For
Flores,
the ancient Desert Fathers and monastic life hold a clue to effective
prophetic activity.
The
mystique
of Jesus, the hermit-life as a form of protest, the personal testimony,
and the
new-community
all contribute to the
prophetic
life.
Ibarra,
on the other hand has found music to be a power- ful tool not
only
of social
protest,
but also of
prophetic prompting. Arguing
that music is
intrinsically incarnational,
he moves to demon- strate how the Incarnation
may
be
expressed through
this
prophetic medium. We are
graced
not
only
to read his
exposition
of this
idea,
but to enjoy an application of it in his
song
titled
“Magdalene.”
Graciela
Esparza,
a gifted pastor and founder of the
Iglesia
Mexicana del
Evanglio
de Cristo
(Mexican
Church of the
Gospel
of
Christ), pro- vides a very brief
essay
on women in ministry. It is apologetic in nature, but one which raises
important
issues in a machista
society
as is frequently
found
throughout
Latin America. Brazilian Manuel Silva, on the other hand addresses himself to a
specific
manifestation of Latin
5
106
American
missionary activity
in the United States. He writes about the origins
and
development
of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus
(Uni- versal Church of the
Kingdom
of
God)
and its arrival in New York. This
group
has
recently
received attention in two
places.
The first is in an article
by Jacques
Gutwirth in Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions (see bibliography p. 194, below),
while the second is in the recent
reports
of the
Papal
visit to Brazil. While John Paul II commented on the sects and new
religious groups,
the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus was
busy holding
mass
meetings
in the same
city
with
200,000 and more in attendance. As a result it became the
primary
illustration of the
papal
concerns as
they
were
reported by the press.
Adoniram Gaxiola
provides
us with a valuable assessment of the ecclesial base communities used
very effectively
within certain areas of Roman Catholic structures, and Latin American Pentecostals.
Poverty, he
argues, provides
a formidable
challenge
to each.
Roger Cabezas,
on the other hand,
brings
us
up
to date with the
cooperative
efforts
being undertaken
by
a
variety
of Latin American church
leaders, especially those associated with certain autochthonous churches. His
personal involvement in the recent encuentros
(encounters)
which are
working
on the critical
issues facing
Pentecostal leaders and scholars in Latin Amer- ica
gives
him
particular insight
into some of the
important
issues of the region.
Finally, following
the book review section I have
compiled
a bibliog- raphy
of some of the more
significant
titles which
study
the Latin American Pentecostal scene. I hope that it will be a useful tool which encourages
further
study
on the
subject.
As Pentecostalism in the west- ern
hemisphere
continues to develop, it cannot afford to
split-becom- ing
a Pentecostalism dominated
by
a southern
English
or even a Latin accent. That it will continue to develop as quintessential “southern” reli- gion goes
almost without
saying
as dominance of membership continues to move south of the Rio Grande. The
unity
of the Church constrains us to be in continual
dialogue
with one another.
Cecil M.
Robeck,
Jr. Editor
6
