The growing influence of Pentecostalism in Brazil
Yahoo! has a Reuters story on the rising tide of Pentecostalism that is replacing Catholicism in Brazil. On the one hand, it is good that these people are evangelizing Brazil, but what exactly are they evangelizing them to?
Pentecostalism is especially strong in poor urban areas, where the precariousness of daily life -- blackouts, violent crime, high unemployment -- can make people seek divine intervention. Many converts are also attracted to the pop-style music and dynamic liturgies, which resonate with contemporary tastes more than the traditional Catholic Mass.
At the Universal Church in Carapicuiba, the weekly Saturday night service at times looks more like a dance hall than a religious temple, with worshippers flailing their arms in the air and singing in unison. Some, like the former alcoholic da Silva, frequently break into tears as they look to the sky and thank God for their good fortune.
"The language of evangelicals is simple, direct, with minimal theology, making it easily understood by the masses," said Silvia Fernandes, a sociologist at the Center of Religious Statistics and Social Research in Rio de Janeiro.
No theology and a focus on the here and now. If these poor people are being told that the Gospel is all about helping them overcome this life, they are being fed a false gospel.
The reaction of the Catholic church in Brazil is interesting...
The Catholic Church, which is also losing followers to secularism, has responded to the Pentecostal boom by borrowing some evangelical thunder. In a movement that has come to be known as the Charismatic Renewal, some Catholic churches in Brazil have adopted animated worship styles and Pentecostal practices like speaking in tongues and divine healing.
The best-known proponent of renewalist Catholicism is Padre Marcelo Rossi, a former aerobics instructor turned pop-star preacher from Sao Paulo who sells millions of CD's and even starred in a movie in which he played the Archangel Gabriel.
A former aerobics instructor, pop-star preacher. I am guessing that is not making the problem go away!
One leader has an interesting statement...
"I'm not going to say that it pleases us when believers leave the church," Odilo Scherer, Sao Paulo's new archbishop, said in a recent interview with the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo. "Maybe our methods are inadequate."
It isn't the method that is inadequate, it is the message. A works based philosophy is not one that is going to change lives. Neither the message of Rome or the message of Pentecostalism is adequate for what the people of Brazil and the developing nations need. They need to hear the truth of God, of man's sin and God's holiness, and of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep.
What is really troubling is that the reason that these style of churches, along with cults like the mormons and JWs, are so successful is that we have a vacuum in these lands because Gospel believing churches are doing an inadequate job of sending and supporting missionaries to the world. I pray that God changes the hearts of His people, that we would shed our self-centeredness and focus on the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Brazil and other areas where He is not proclaimed.
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