Latest news with #Pentecostalism
LeMonde
a day ago
- Politics
- LeMonde
In Brazil, the evangelical wave is losing momentum
Letter from Rio de Janeiro The growth of evangelicals in Brazil had previously been described as unstoppable, exponential and inexorable. And yet, the expansion of evangelical groups in the country has turned out to be much less spectacular than predicted. According to the census conducted in 2022 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), whose results were made public on June 6, evangelicals represent only 26.9% of the population – a level well below what specialists had expected. Evangelicals did gain 5.2 percentage points over 12 years and now number 47.4 million followers, while the Catholic Church brings together just 56.7% of the population (100.2 million people), down from 65.1% in 2010. But these figures are still far from the forecasts made by experts and media, who had predicted that more than a third of Brazilians had already converted to Protestantism. The Amazon region remains the most fertile ground for Pentecostalism. Four out of the five states with the highest proportion of evangelicals are in the Amazon, including Acre, which tops the list and where evangelicals (44.4%) now outnumber adherents of the Roman Catholic Church (38.9%). By contrast, the Northeast remains the stronghold of Catholicism, led by Piaui, where 77.4% of the population identifies as Catholic, compared to 15.6% evangelical.
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
What is a ‘supernatural church?' Five things to know about a growing Christian branch
'Miracles happen here.' That's the slogan of one megachurch in southwest Miami-Dade County at the forefront of the fast-growing Christian 'supernatural' movement. It's an Evangelical offshoot, rooted in Pentecostalism, that leans far more heavily into revelations and prophecy than mainstream Christian churches and wields out-sized powerful political influence. That was evident last week at King Jesus Ministry, a nondenominational megachurch where President Donald Trump's top spiritual advisor, pastor Paula White-Cain, has been a visitor over the years. The church hosted a three-day spiritual conference called the 'Supernatural School of the Spirit,' where White-Cain and other visiting pastors preached and instructed crowds of followers and local faith leaders on how to 'walk in the supernatural.' King Jesus is just one of the largest South Florida churches steeped in the movement. Another Miami megachurch with a prominent Haitian-American congregation, Tabernacle of Glory, has credited its large following with its emphasis on the supernatural. The nondenominational church opened its $60 million campus in northern Miami-Dade County last year. At these churches, it's not uncommon to hear pastors talking about 'dominion' theologies or 'cosmic spiritual warfare.' Sometimes, they may speak in tongues or even perform a 'deliverance' or what most people know as an exorcism, to cast out demonic forces. Religious scholars say the branch springs from a movement called 'Independent charismatic Christianity' that gained momentum in the 1960s. Its followers, estimated to be in the millions in America, hold supernatural beliefs and goals of transforming secular society. They've built increasing influence in American politics, supporting candidacies of conservative leaders like President Donald Trump. 'Independent Charismatic leaders, who 20 years ago would have been mocked by mainstream religious right leaders, are now front-line captains in the American culture wars,' writes religious scholar Matthew Taylor, in his book 'The Violent Take it By Force.' The Miami Herald spoke to Taylor to discuss some of the themes and ideologies that are found in these churches and how they intersect with American political circles. 1. What is a supernatural church? This term is popular in charismatic Christian circles and might refer to a church where supernatural experiences — some not defined by logic or reason — take place. But the charismatic Christian world also is a 'diffuse' space, where many terms are interchangeable or sometimes defined differently from church to church, said Taylor. 'Sometimes charismatics will call themselves charismatic. Sometimes they'll say they're spirit-filled ... sometimes they'll just say they're Christians. Sometimes they'll call themselves Evangelicals,' said Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore who spent 30 years of his life as an Evangelical Christian. 'To be charismatic is to seek after the more supernatural dimensions of Christianity ... and this is why they're constantly emphasizing prophecy, constantly emphasizing speaking in tongues and healings and miracles,' said Taylor. The term 'supernatural' is not new, and has been circulating for decades within the charismatic Christian movement. There's an entire Christian media network, for example, led by charismatic leader Sid Roth called 'It's Supernatural! that has been around for decades, said Taylor. Believers will appear on the network to tell stories about the miracles they've witnessed. READ MORE: Haitian American megachurch, 10 years in the making, opens $60 million campus in Miami 2. What are some of the main elements of a supernatural church? One belief that unifies this Christian subculture is the idea that God speaks through prophecy. Many of the leaders in this movement — like Pastor Guillermo Maldonado of King Jesus and White-Cain — are considered by the faithful to be modern-day Apostles or Prophets who can perform 'healings' or deliver prophecies during sermons. Since the movement often operates without a formal connection to more established denominations, leaders may have varying degrees of theological education but will lean on or cite mentors in the movement. The leaders often have ten or hundreds of thousands of followers, or a background in televangelism, and their success can sometimes depend on who they know in the charismatic world — similar, Taylor writes, to how Hollywood operates. Taylor, who has interviewed many charismatic Christian leaders, describes them as 'idiosyncratic' and 'incredibly compelling' people. 'They're very socially skilled,' he said. 'They're very good at reaching and teaching and providing people with these compelling experiences.' Many apostolic leaders believe the Christian church has languished for centuries, and that God has brought them in to reinvigorate the church through Holy Spirit-backed leadership. Common themes focus on 'End-times,' or the second coming of Jesus, and a the idea of 'dominion,' or Christians needing to conquer various aspects of society. There's also an emphasis, similar to Pentecostal churches, on promoting inner healing through living a more Christian lifestyle. The promise of a better, healthier life can appeal to those who are struggling with addiction problems, health — physical or mental — problems or financial hardship. Prosperity — achieving financial wealth — also is a key theme, one that goes hand-in-hand with financial giving to the church. This idea is common in many churches that ask members to 'tithe,' but this movement stresses that more giving can mean more rewards. 3. Why is this movement growing? Many followers find a sense of empowerment, contentment and community in the movement, Taylor says. 'There have been studies even on how Pentecostal and charismatic ministries around the world have done a great deal of lifting people out of a lower-class existence economically by empowering them and telling them 'Hey, you have agency.'' At the same time, Taylor points out, those experiences are 'being utilized in this broader political project,' to get more Christians on board with conservative political agendas. Another theory of why it's so popular: In a modern, industrialized world where knowledge is at the fingertips of everyone with a Smartphone, charismatic leaders could be 're-enchanting' the world for people who want more of a sense of mystery and wonder, said Taylor, referring to the concept of 'disenchantment' made popular by philosopher, Charles Taylor. 'People want a sense of a sublime and powerful force in the universe that's guiding and moving them around,' he said. According to Taylor, independent charismatics are the fastest-growing religious demographic in the United States and around world. The followers are well into the millions, or hundreds of millions worldwide by some estimates, but the actual number is hard to measure, since the group is not tied to a formal denomination. 'For people who are searching for an anchor in the world or searching for self-confidence or searching for a sense of what their purpose is in life, ... they're scratching where people itch,' Taylor said. 4. How is this different from the Pentecostal denomination? It's similar, but without the bylaws and bureaucratic oversight that comes with a denomination, or network of churches with an established hierarchy. 'They believe that 'We need the Holy Spirit to be unrestrained. We need the fires of revival prayer,' said Taylor. 'But that same lack of restraint makes it very susceptible to political co-optation, because .. there's not a lot of oversight.' Pentecostalism, a movement within Protestant Christianity, is a denomination that can be traced back as early as 1900's and emphasizes manifestations of the Holy Spirit — such as supernatural healing and speaking in tongues. In the early years of Pentecostalism, its followers were largely poor Angelo and African Americans, according to Pew Research, and women have always had a large role. In the late-1940s, various 'healing evangelists' began traveling around the country, filling tents and auditoriums that attracted tens of thousands of people, according to Taylor's book. Some of the preachers, like Oral Roberts, were Pentecostal preachers who found their way on television to bring the movement out of tents and into the mainstream world. In the 1950s, Roberts teamed up with preacher Kenneth Hagin and began teaching about an ideology called the 'Word of Faith' doctrine, which emphasized a form of faith that rewards devout Christians with healings and blessings. The ideas found in the doctrine gave rise to what is known today as the 'prosperity gospel.' 5. Does the movement have a broader mission? Some religious scholars, many who are Christians themselves, point out that the movement is also putting spiritual influence to other uses. Leaders aim to exert more influence over everything from popular culture and education to politics. It's that latter field where the supernatural movement and other Evangelicals have arguably had the most success. Last week at King Jesus Ministry, for instance, White-Cain outlined a vision of a society transformed by Christian ideology, urging believers to play a role in making it a reality. 'You didn't come to fit in, You came to take over. You came to move in your Kingdom calling. That threatens people who don't understand the word of God because their language, their understanding is not like yours. God birthed you to rule, to have dominion,' she said. White-Cain has been one of the most influential voices in charismatic Christianity, and is someone who was able to bring its ideology into the mainstream and now, as the head of the newly established White House Faith Office, into American politics. 'Very soon our Lord and savior Jesus Christ is going to split the sky and come back,' she said during her sermon. 'This is not your home, this is your assignment. And you and I have to reap the harvest.' This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
New York Post
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
The wild story of America's pioneering ‘mega'-preacher
She was a blend of P.T. Barnum, the colorful showman credited with declaring, 'There's a sucker born every minute,' and the infamous flamboyant televangelist couple Tammy Faye and Jim Baker who built a scandal-riddled evangelical empire — all rolled into one. Back in the early years of the Roaring Twenties it was a charismatic lady evangelist by the name of Aimee Semple McPherson who ruled a circus-like path to heaven that enthralled audiences and worshippers alike. 8 Early 20th Century-preacher Aimee Semple McPherson during a worship service featuring her exuberant, ecclesiastic-meets-entertainment style. Getty Images Operating out of what was America's very first megachurch — the Angelus Temple, in Los Angeles, with more than 7,000 daily visitors — McPherson, by age 33, was a star who found her calling by dazzling followers with flamboyant sermons that described a rapturous state of love with God. A faith healer, too, McPherson's dramatic sermons included adult baptisms by immersion in water — with stage scenery borrowed from nearby Hollywood studios, and all of it backed by her brass band or 14-piece orchestra and a hundred-voice choir outfitted in heavenly white. And it all guaranteed that the collection plates would be spilling over at the conclusion of her services. To the devout, Aimee Semple McPherson was a modern-day saint, more recognizable than the pope. 8 McPherson's wild ways were compared to P.T. Barnum, the iconic showman of the same era. Getty Images 'Aimee sold herself as 'the just right option' — more comfortable than the thumpers who yelled about sin and hell, but also someone who embraced the pure fundamentals of Christian faith. She was 'Everybody's Sister,' ' writes journalist Claire Hoffman in her wild ride of a biography, 'Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). As Hoffman details, McPherson's 'critics called her the P.T. Barnum of Christianity. She used live camels, tigers, lambs and stately palm trees — whatever it took to bring the ancient world alive on her stage.' She was 'the Goldilocks alternative — not too hot, not too cold. The just-right message on Jesus,' Hoffman writes, as well as a queen of her realm, decked out in a white nurse's uniform topped with a blue cape emblazoned with a cross — appearing virtuous and godly. 8 The Angelus Temple, which could hold thousands and was a precursor to the massive 'mega'- temples seen across the nation today. Corbis via Getty Images Thousands gathered for the greatest show in town, proclaims the author, who observes that McPherson had repackaged Pentecostalism for a mainstream, white audience that depicted a loving personal relation with God. But the dark side of fame was about to beset McPherson. Writes the author, 'As her congregation and fortunes had grown, so too had ominous incidents: obsessed fans showing up in the middle of the night, a madwoman arrested for trying to murder her, and even a botched kidnapping plot.' On the sunny afternoon of May 18, 1926, 35-year-old Aimee decided to work on her sermons at the Ocean View Hotel, in the beach town of Venice. She changed into an emerald green bathing suit and headed down to the shore 'to take a little dip.' She began to swim further out and then disappeared in the waves of the blue Pacific. 8 The crowded Venice Beach location of McPherson's 'mega-congregation.' Corbis via Getty Images 'A squadron of police and U.S. Coast Guard searched the water from Venice to Topanga Canyon,' writes Hoffman, but the evangelist had vanished. That is until a month later when — miracle of miracles, and all hope lost — she suddenly resurfaced, not in the ocean, but walking 22 miles out of the desert in Mexico, claiming she had been kidnapped, drugged, tortured and threatened with sexual slavery. But Asa Keyes, then-the anti-corruption district attorney of Los Angeles, had a different account. He asserted that the famed evangelist had, in reality, stepped out of a car and walked a short distance over the Texas border. How she disappeared from the ocean was never known. Meanwhile, an eyewitness came forward claiming the godly McPherson had been shacked up with her lover, the married Kenneth Ormiston, the radio operator from her church, who quit his job shortly before she disappeared. 'Aimee defended every aspect of her life. She had battled for the world to believe her, selling herself as virtue made flesh,' writes Hoffman. 'She had to cast herself as a victim, blinking and wide-eyed, held hostage and at the mercy of dark forces.' 8 McPherson in the hospital accompanied by her husband, David. McPherpson underwent a bllod tranfusion amid an illness, but still remained committed to performing her services. Bettmann Archive The once fawning press called her 'a weaver of fantastic tales,' the 'Houdini of the Pulpit,' and described her followers as 'ill-educated bumpkins, the morons of LA.' As the author observed, 'Aimee was a wolf in sanctimonious sheep's clothing, adept at duping the masses with an artful smile and a great show.' She was investigated for criminal conspiracy to pervert, or obstruct justice. The investigation was later dropped, but the famed evangelist couldn't escape the continued harsh criticism by the press. One night after an appearance in Oakland, she returned to her hotel and overdosed on hypnotic sedatives. 8 McPherson celebrating her 25th year as an evangelist with a pageant called 'Cavalcade of Christianity,' in which 1,000 players participated. Bettmann Archive She was pronounced dead the following morning on Sept. 27, 1944 at age 53 and buried in Forest Lawn cemetery. Born in 1890, McPherson was first exposed to preaching and prayer when her mother joined the Salvation Army and took her young daughter to Salvationist meetings. Aimee loved playing church, sermonizing and singing hymns to her dolls. A Holy Ghost revival drew her into the Holy Rollers circle, shouting hallelujah while swaying in adoration of the Holy Spirit. She quit high school after falling in love with Robert James Semple, a department store clerk who left his job to preach and pray at revival meetings, and in 1908, the two married. Blissfully, they headed off to Europe and then Hong Kong to spread God's word, with Aimee pregnant. But malaria caught up with both, killing Robert and sending Aimee back to the US where she joined her mother ringing a bell up and down Broadway in New York for the Salvation Army. Down at the heels, Aimee agreed to marry Harold McPherson, an accountant who was hoping she'd be a happy homemaker. At age 23 in 1913, Aimee suffered multiple nervous breakdowns and a hysterectomy leaving her near death. It was then she would claim that she heard a voice telling her, 'Go! Do the work of an evangelist. Preach the Word.' She believed God was calling her and with her two children, Rolf and Roberta, she caught the midnight train for Canada where she began standing on a chair on the sidewalk with her hands raised toward Heaven calling for passersby to hear her preach. Now calling herself 'Sister' and wearing virginal white nursing uniforms, she began touring the East Coast preaching in revival tents and arenas. Aimee's mother, Minnie Kennedy, promoted her daughter's ministry with advertising and megaphones announcing her appearances, even dropping leaflets from aircraft — bringing in thousands into arenas that became littered with castoff canes, crutches and wheelchairs of those thought to have been healed by the laying on of Aimee's hands — and overflowing the collection plates. 8 Author Claire Hoffman. Davis Guggenheim According to the author, a vision had beckoned McPherson to Los Angeles in 1918 — and within five years, she had built her 'Million Dollar Temple' built with 'love offerings' received during years of itinerant tent revivals. So, what really happened to McPherson when she supposedly vanished into the ocean and was thought to have drowned but later turned up alive and well in a desert in Mexico? That mystery was never solved when she was alive and remains unsolved a century later today.
Times
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Times
Catholic church has new appeal for the young
The late Pope Francis was a controversial pontiff. Although many hailed his compassion and desire for peace in the world, traditionalists thought that his outspoken and left-wing political interventions, such as his hostility to capitalism and support for mass migration, drowned out the spiritual message that the church should be imparting. Nevertheless, millions seem to have assimilated precisely such a spiritual message. In recent years, there has been a striking movement towards both Catholicism and Pentecostalism. According to The Quiet Revival, a survey commissioned by the Bible Society and conducted by YouGov, upwards of two million more people are attending church in England and Wales than six years ago, a rise of 50 per cent. • Who will be the next Pope? The candidates
Wall Street Journal
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Sister, Sinner' Review: The Gospel of Aimee Semple McPherson
Our culture supports so many types of celebrity—online influencers, YouTube stars, Hollywood actors, reality-TV contestants—that it is easy to forget how recent this market saturation is. In the early 20th century, genuine celebrity was rare, which is what makes Claire Hoffman's telling of the story of Aimee Semple McPherson so compelling. In 'Sister, Sinner,' Ms. Hoffman describes the Canadian-born evangelist, whose modest beginnings belied her immodest ambitions, as both an important figure in the history of Christianity in the United States and an early and astute student—and later, victim—of fame. Born in 1890, 'Sister Aimee,' as she came to be known, preached a brand of Pentecostalism—one that emphasized 'gifts of the spirit' such as speaking in tongues (a form of glossolalia) and faith healing—that grew slowly but steadily throughout the 20th century. By the 21st century, Ms. Hoffman notes, it would become 'the fastest-growing sect of Christianity with an estimated 650 million practitioners around the globe.' Such reach likely would not have surprised young Aimee Kennedy, whose teenage conversion to Pentecostalism was profound and quickly followed by her marriage, at age 17, to Robert Semple, a charismatic evangelist. Aimee wanted to save souls, and her husband encouraged her to preach as they traveled together throughout Europe and to Hong Kong. There, they both fell ill with malaria. Aimee, eight months pregnant, survived and gave birth to their daughter, but Robert perished, leaving Aimee a young, sickly widow. This was an unlikely beginning for a future celebrity preacher, but Ms. Hoffman shines in describing the fierce determination and extraordinary work ethic that eventually catapulted her subject to national recognition and a lucrative ministry. In New York, Aimee met and married her second husband, Harold McPherson. 'Aimee told him that she would marry him only with the understanding that God would always come first,' Ms. Hoffman notes, a warning Harold should have heeded. After giving birth to their son and briefly trying to play the role of traditional housewife, Aimee ended up hospitalized with two nervous breakdowns. She left Harold, took the children, and went back to her mother in Canada, where she rediscovered her love of preaching.
