wfn.org | ALC Noticias Nov 13 2005 Argentina Puerto Rico Brazil Mexico

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ALC NEWS SERVICE
E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org

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CONTENT

BRAZIL: Sociologist emphasizes decline in Catholic faithful and followers
of Afro religions
MEXICO: Evangelicals mobilize against religious intolerance in Ixmiquilpan
BRAZIL: Pele's Statement is pretentious, said Lutheran Leader
PUERTO RICO: Explosion of new independent Churches on the Island
ARGENTINA: Latin American is eroding hegemonic capital model after failure
of FTAA

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BRAZIL
Sociologist emphasizes decline in Catholic faithful and followers of Afro
religions

Sao Leopoldo, Nov 11 (ALC).  The Umbanda, an indigenous religion that
emerged in 1920 is suffering because of the impact of Pentecostal
Evangelical Churches and tending toward disappearance, said sociologist and
professor from the University of Sao Paulo (USP) Antonio Flavio Pierucci.

"The disappearance will not be total, because it is not possible to put end
to cultural forms like a biological species," said Pierucci, when he
commented on "Religious Density al la Brazilian," in an event promoted by
the Humanitas Institute, of the Vale do Rio dos Sinos University (UNISINOS).

Pierucci, graduate in philosophy, master in Social Sciences and doctor in
Sociology compared data from the 1980, 1991 and 2000 census and concluded
that Afro religions are a "species in extinction."

The data shows two descending curves: Catholicism and Afro religions. Of
169.7 million Brazilians in 2000 barely 0.34 percent or 571,300 said they
followed an Afro religion (in 1980 that number was 0.6 percent). Of that
total, 139,300 said they followed Candomble, and 432,000 Umbanda.

Regarding Brazilian Catholicism, Pierucci said that in 1980 nearly 90
percent of the population said they were Catholic and in 2000 that number
had fallen to 73.8 percent.

In the past 30 years the Churches that have grown the most are Evangelical
Pentecostal Churches that have practically doubled the number of faithful
each decade. In the 2000 census the Evangelicals, including the "historic"
and Pentecostal numbered 26 million, which represented 15.4 percent of the
population.

This census data, however, warned Pierucci is based on "self-fraudulent"
numbers that both Evangelical and Muslims and followers of other religious
currents tend to register in Brazil. "To date, Spiritualists and followers
of Candomble do not accept the 2000 census data," he said.

Among other reasons, the different religions have more followers registered
than those mentioned in the study by the Brazilian Geographic and
Statistical Institute (IBGE).

The 2000 census demonstrated that Brazil is a Christian country as the
combination of those who declare themselves to be Catholic and Evangelical
in Brazil adds up to nearly 90 percent. "If yesterday, we said that Brazil
was a Catholic country, today we must say it is a Christian country," said
the USP professor.

If that 90 percent is added to the 7.3 who declared themselves to have no
religion in 2000 then less than 3 percent of the Brazilian population of
169.7 millions are spiritualists, Afro, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and
other religious expressions. This percentage is very low for a nation
considered multifaceted in the religious aspect.

If there are religious families that grow in Brazil is it because their
followers come from other currents. "The religious world is a competitive
world," said the sociologist. He recognized that the census did not capture
the religious diversity that could be present as the questionnaire only
contained one definition for the "religion" section.

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MEXICO
Evangelicals mobilize against religious intolerance in Ixmiquilpan

Pachuca, Nov. 10 (ALC). Several hundred Evangelicals from more than 300
Churches in the state of Hidalgo and the Federal District mobilized
Wednesday in the Plaza Juarez of this capital to demand that the government
intervene in San Nicolas in Ixmiquilpan, where more than 30 families may be
driven out of their community for religious reasons.

The protest was peaceful and took place in front of the government house in
a day of prayer convened several days earlier by different Christian
denominations.

Evangelical leader Pedro Olvera called on the undersecretary of Government,
Francisco Gonzáles Vargas, to put an end to acts of religious intolerance
like those that took place in San Nicolas, where Catholics have even
stopped Protestants from buying their dead according to the magazine Proceso.

The Evangelicals sustain that even when the federal government made some
attempts at conciliation, there is little interest in the case on the part
of the state authority.

In early October a community assembly in the majority Catholic San Nicolas
agreed to throw 36 families out of the community for religious reasons,
arguing that their presence is a danger for the population. The decision
took place after the Evangelicals announced they would build a church in
the area.

Olvera recalled that there have been acts of intolerance in San Nicolas
previously, such as cutting off potable water and electricity to
Evangelical families and stopping children from attending school, and death
and eviction threats.

The mobilization coincided with the deadline that the Catholics gave the
Evangelicals to leave town.

According to Proceso there are similar conflicts in at least 12 Mexican
municipalities including Huejutla, Tlaxcoapan, Atotonilco de Tula,
Tetepango and Tlahuelipan.

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BRAZIL
Pele's Statement is pretentious, said Lutheran Leader

Porto Alegre, Nov 10 (ALC). A statement made by former football player
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele, that he is better known than Jesus is
"pretentious and has no scientific basis," said the Vice president of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (IELB) Pastor Paulo Jung.

In statements to ANSA news agency last week, the former idol of Santos and
the Brazilian national team said he was Catholic and aware of the values
that Jesus brought to the world. He recognized, however, there are people
who "believe in other things" and he cited the case of millions of
Buddhists on the Asian continent. "They may not know who Christ is, but
they have heard of Pele," he affirmed.

According to Jung, the name Pele became famous when he became a reference
for world football, while the name of Jesus Christ has been cited for more
than 2,000 years. "Pele does not know the impact of the name of Jesus in
non Catholic Church and is unaware of the fact that there are Christians
present practically throughout the world," said the Lutheran pastor.

Bishop Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares, of the Anglican Episcopal Church
of Brazil (IEAB) in the city of Pelotas said that Pele's affirmation refers
to his fame but fails to take into consideration how the name of Jesus has
influenced the course of history.

In the West, said Bishop Pelotas Jesus Christ is the most important
historical and cultural reference. "I wouldn't give weight to Pele's
comparison which is a little ridiculous," he said.

The executive secretary of the Lutheran Diakonia Foundation Silvio
Schneider, a football fanatic, said that in terms of popularity, Pele could
be better know than Jesús in "a good part of Africa and Asia as native and
Islamic religious predominate in these regions."

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PUERTO RICO
Explosion of new independent Churches on the Island

San Juan, Nov. 8 (ALC).  Independent Christian Churches or ministries have
populated all the corners of the island. Their temples are full of faithful
who seek simple answers to their questions and uncertainties, while
historic Catholic and Protestant Churches seem distant to people's realities.

"The programs of the Catholic and Protestant Churches no longer respond to
people's needs, in particular in the countryside and poor barrios in the
towns and cities, said Historian and religious sociologist Samuel Silva Gotay.

The growth of these religious movements is linked to times of social and
economic crisis, but also responds to the search for existential responses,
that come from human nature itself, Silva told the daily El Nuevo Dia.

Silva Gotay, who investigated the issue with Theology Professors Luis
Rivera Pagan and Irma Hernandez Torres affirmed that "people come to these
Churches looking for a response to existential questions and alleviation
for the anxiety that has caused this uncertainty."

When a institution emerges that tells you it has the answers, that you are
not a leaf that falls in autumn but that you can be immortal and live
eternal life, people respond, said Rivera Pagan, of the Theological
Seminary from Princeton University.

But the attraction also lies in the type of discourse: Simple,
understandable and accessible. "Missionary preachers are accustomed to
visiting homes, while Catholic priests proclaim their message from the
pulpit," said Silva Gotay, author of various books
including  Protestantismo y Política en Puerto Rico 1898-1930 and El
pensamiento cristiano revolucionario en América Latina y el Caribe.

Many of these new Churches have also gotten involved in mass communication
media like radio, television and Internet to disseminate their message.
Even if they begin in humble tents, in a few years they become empires. The
secret? According to Silva Gotay is that they occupy the spaces that
traditional Christian Churches have neglected.

Moreover, unlike historic Churches, these independent Churches preach the
so-called theology of prosperity that proclaims economic wealth as a sign
of blessings.

These groups generally share a conservative theological vision that leads
them to affiliate themselves with the current government ideologies.
"Historic Churches meanwhile, tend to be critical and distant from the
State," he said.

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ARGENTINA
Latin American is eroding hegemonic capital model after failure of FTAA

Buenos Aires, Nov. 7 (ALC). Latin America is witnessing the erosion of the
hegemonic capital model after the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas
(FTAA) ground to a halt and given the "rough and critical" road that the US
impelled Free Trade Agreements are having, said Angel Luis Rivera, of the
Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI).

Rivera, coordinator of CLAI's Faith, Economics and Solidarity Program
referred to the failure of the FTAA Project in the IV Summit of the
Americas in Mar del Plata and said that the FTA with Central America and
with the Andean nations has also not had an easy route.

The first passed with a narrow margin in the US Congress and a significant
list of objections and safeguards presented by US Congressmen while the
second is traveling a rocky road, above all in the area of patents, food
security, health and subsidiaries.

He said that social movements in the region are moving from resistance and
denouncement to making proposals. "I think that proposals like the
Bolivariana Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) and the consolidation of
people's accords, with the inclusion of unions, women, peasants and other
excluded sectors, herald news times," he said.

The CLAI representative formed part of a delegation of religious leaders
who participated in the II Summit of the Americas. At this meeting the CLAI
Rio de la Plata Region and the FES accompanied the Ecumenical Human Rights
Movement (MEDH) in drafting a document that formed part of the Final
Declaration of the summit.

"Two years ago Evangelical Churches raised their voices and said "enough"
to the neoliberal model. We continue to raise our voice in favor of
abundant life on the Latin American and the Caribbean continent," said Rivera.
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