I go to a different evangelical or mega- church most sundays for research (I'm writing a comparative history of unions and churches as social forces in the industrial midwest). Everything I have ever learned firsthand of evangelical religion contradicts Wojtek's opinion. The statement "US evangelicals are religious not because they love god" in particular. In fact, the most dominant common denominator of bible-believing christianity is a personal converstion experience of singular importance in one's life, and a deep love of Jesus. Without a doubt many, many more things are in the mix, of course, including some of the culture clash Woj hyperbolizes.
I believe one of the other factors in the mix is an anxiety (almost Hofstader-ian) that the secular intelligensia that runs the cultural apparatus looks down upon their faith with condescension and disdain. In this, evangelicals are not totally off the mark. To whit, Wojtek's comments. The idea that half of america (or whatever) considers itself born again because they hate smart left-wingers in the cities is an idea I would consider not only wrong and self-centered, but deeply counter-productive to any left strategy for engagement with normal people. I say this with no illusions about the deeply problematic nature of fundamentalist protestantism for libertory politics or critical thought.
> In this context, a religious man in Afghanistan is probably a sage,
> whereas
> a religious man in the US is probably an illiberal philistine.
>
> , religion as a repository of social tradition
> and a forum for socializing and celebration of life events is the dominant
> tenor in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia.
I wonder what Wojtek thinks of the massive upsurge of charismatic, or pentacostal (grouped in the term "renewalist") christianity in all the places mentioned. From Guatamala to Poland to Kenya to Brazil to China, renewalist christianity is the fastest growing mass religion in much of the world, to the extent that a recent global audit found it to be the faith of upwards of a billion people. Quite a growth arc for a celebration of the holy spirit that began in a single poor, multiracial congregation of fifty on azusa street in los angeles this century. In Latin America, the displacement of the catholic church by pentecostals as the predominant religion in many communities has a lot to do with mass shifts to the right in politics; and in the United States, most catholic latinos do not vote Republican--- but an overwhelming majority of protestant latinos do. Guess which faith is growing faster.
Can such a smart, urban intellectual maintain that pentecostal gatherings represent the mindless conformity of hicks and dullards in the United States, but a repository of wise traditional folkways everywhere else? And do we mean just white folks in the United States, or also black and brown (amongst whom pentecostals are a far bigger chunk of overall christians)?
BTW someone mentioned how our union SEIU is studying the megachurch thing to learn about membership growth. This is true, although I fear we're going to learn the wrong lessons from these places. Megachurches, in their multi-tiered cadre structure, follow what's called a 'small groups' organizational model that derives from Alcoholics Annonymous and before that communist cadre cells. I think a lot of why the evangelicals grow like crazy and the left shrinks, shrinks, shrinks, is that they simply prioritze, fund, and engage in organizing more--- altho they call it prosletizing, or sharing their faith. The audit that found renewalist christianity to be so huge and fast growing cited as explanation the fact that renewalists share their faith with strangers up to three times as often per week than other religions do. I wonder how they would compare to the left in that regard.
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