The rising power of Pentecostal preachers in the world is a warning alert for those who fear a neo-Theocratic rise in the 21st. century

 

This Picture shows the biggest Church-complex in Central America which belongs to a Pentecostal Church (Fraternidad Cristiana de Guatemala) in Guatemala City with enough space to have a gathering of 15,000 people at a time.

(More pics of the construction here)

Let me remind you that Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in the region and in the world.

Can you imagine what it is to have $20 million dollars in cash to pay for a building like this and that that money came mostly from poor parishioners…

A couple months ago I was going through the statistics of the World Christian Database and decided to write an article about the data.

On January 8, 2007 The Economist had a great article titled “Christianity reborn” and it portraits very well what my article tried to show to Catholic readers.

Statistics gathered by The Economist show:

“Renewalists now make up about a quarter of the world’s Christian population compared with just 6% 30 years ago. The evidence of this can be seen everywhere in America and the developing world: in churches the size of football stadiums in Latin America, in 12,000-acre “redemption camps” in Nigeria, in stonefront churches in the slums of Rio and Los Angeles. LA’s most successful export is not Hollywood but Pentecostalism.”

The Economist. (December 23rd, 2006) “Christianity Reborn“.

That is completely true and my own experience in Guatemala shows that. Also, The Economist’s article has a special section dedicated to Pentecostalism in Guatemala and you would imagine the incredible size of those Pentecostal churches and followers. They are just a huge mass of people that gathers each Sunday for hours and hours of pray and healing. Even more important, and maybe even more dangerous, is the millions of dollars those churches have appropriated with the monthly tithe imposed on the parishioners no matter how poor they are.

But take a sit and now really worry about problems that are just coming turning the corner. Those millionaire preachers that have “earned” their money with the tithe of thousands of parishioners have bought cars, houses, chalets, helicopters, planes and maybe even a couple islands. But, that is not enough for them and now… THEY ARE GOING INTO POLITICS!

Wow! The idea of separation of church and state was something well established during the Imperium of Roman Catholicism. However, it was never well applied to Protestant Christianity and of course not to Fundamentalist or Extremist New Born religions of Pentecostalism and Evangelical Protestantism.

I think we will start hearing of Protestant Christians holding the titles of Presidents and healers of entire countries in the developing countries quickly than listening that the War on Terror had been won by the West.

What do you think?