Brazilian Pentecostals: Church Growth Endangered by Socialist Embrace
By Julio
Severo
The Associated
Press published a curious report on Brazil this week. The report said,
Pentecostalism was once seen as a major threat to
Brazil’s Catholic Church. Pentecostal churches, many of them founded by U.S.
evangelicals, saw their membership double to more than 12 percent of the
country's population over the 1990s, with about half of the congregants
estimated to be former Catholics.
During the 1990s, Brazil’s economy suffered from
hyperinflation and other woes, and Pentecostal churches aggressively recruited
in the slums and poor outskirts of Brazil’s cities by offering nuts-and-bolts
self-improvement advice as well as Christian ministry.
Since 2003, however, Pentecostal churches have seen
growth slow. The percentage of Brazilians calling themselves Pentecostals edged
up from 12.5 percent of the population to 13.3 percent.
Fascinatingly,
2003 is the date when former President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva began his
pro-abortion and pro-sodomy administration.
In the past,
Lula and his socialism were seen as “demonic” by Pentecostals. In their turn,
Pentecostals were seen as “radicals” by Protestants.
Yet, by the
efforts of a former Presbyterian superstar minister, who worked to make Lula
and his ideology pleasant to evangelicals, Pentecostals began to do what some
major Protestant (Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, etc.) leaders had been
doing for decades: to march at the Marxist tune.
Protestant
churches in this march are basically stagnant, numerically and spiritually.
Unsurprisingly, Pentecostal churches began to suffer a slow grow after deciding
to march with Protestants.
The former
Presbyterian superstar? Since his progressive work in the 1990s to lead
Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals to follow Theology of Integral Mission (the
Protestant variant of the Marxist Liberation Theology), he has been leading a
disgraced life. His former glory collapsed after the financial and sexual
scandals destroyed his marriage and ministry in the late 1990s.
Yet, his moral
collapse happened too late to save at least Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal
churches from his progressive ideas embraced by Protestants. Pentecostals were
mesmerized by his persuasive, progressive intellectual arguments, which brought
ideological growth, but no spiritual growth. They forgot Apostle Paul’s words,
“My speech
and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of
the Spirit and of power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4 ESV)
Enticed by the
arguments of the Presbyterian superstar, many Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals
stopped seeing Lula, his party and socialism as “demonic”.
The consequences
were just appalling. The socialist ideology and policies that Lula and his
comrades injected in the Brazilian State have experienced extraordinary growth,
while Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals have seen slow growth.
 |
| Socialism: dead end for the church |
The AP report
was unable to recognize it, but 2003 is an unforgettable date in the Brazilian
history. It was the year that Lula began to rule with his radical
politically-correct agenda of homosexuality and abortion. It was the year that
began the slow growth of Pentecostals.
Socialism is a
religion. It requires you, your family, your pocket, your health, your
children, their health, their education, your view, your dreams, etc.
Anytime any
Christian group adheres to it, it gets weaker and socialism gets stronger.
Brazilian
Pentecostals had plenty of opportunities to learn it from the tragic liberal
experience of progressive Catholics and many of their Protestant brothers, especially
the former Presbyterian superstar, but they did not want.
Now, they have
no choice: they will learn it from their own sins.
Portuguese
version of this article: Pentecostais do Brasil: Crescimento
da igreja em risco por causa do socialismo
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