Conversion in Latin America

In 1916, there were 123,000 Protestants in Latin America, and in 1937, 1,300,000. Now there are more than 10 million--and Chile may have more Protestants (11%) than it has practicing Catholics.

Last week in Rio de Janeiro, at the general conference of the Methodist Church of Brazil, and in Lima, at the Fourth Latin American Lutheran Conference, two major Protestant groups met to ponder their rapid growth rate (nearly 10% a year) and its portents for the future. As even Roman Catholic churchmen admit, the potential of Protestant expansion is unlimited. There is a strong tendency among the masses of the poor, the educated middle class, and the young to look upon Roman Catholicism as an elderly and often irrelevant institution. Still spiritually hungry, however, many find satisfaction in a simple, Bible-centered Christianity, free from the ornate rites of Hispanic Catholicism.

10% for TV. Latin America's Protestants range from century-old "mainstream" Reformation churches founded by European emigrants (such as the Lutherans) to zealous new Pentecostal sects, which now account for at least one-third of the continent's Protestant population. Typical of these younger churchlets is Argentina's fundamentalist Union of the Assemblies of God, which has grown from 400 to 6,500 since 1948, now has 142 preaching centers scattered throughout the country. Its members are baptized by immersion, thrive on strongly Biblical sermons, give 10% of their substance to help pay for preaching on radio and television while their ministers support themselves with secular jobs.

In Chile and Brazil, the Protestants include a surprisingly high proportion of educators, businessmen and government officials. Most often, however, Protestants find their converts among urban workers who may have been baptized as Catholics but never have practiced their faith. Last year, for example, Methodist Pastor Gesse Texeira de Carvalho started a mission in Petropolis, a mountaintop city 27 miles from Rio. He now has 45 converts and 90 people taking instruction. "Baroque statues and gilded altars were all right for their grandfathers," says De Carvalho, "but the Brazilian of today must find a better way to reaffirm his faith."

Today Protestant leaders are concerned about their fissiparous tendencies. Latin America already has more than 200 religious organizations, and the Brazilian Methodists are facing the threat of a schism. In Argentina and Ecuador, however, a number of Protestant churches have begun to explore the possibility of merger. Some Protestants fear also that their churches may be concentrating too exclusively on the minutiae of personal conduct; Brazilian Baptists, for example, had 10,000 converts last year but threw out 4,000 members for such sins as smoking and drinking. Protestantism thus may be missing the social implications in the message of Christ, who came, says Thomas J. Liggett, head of the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, "to radically change the circumstances of men." In the revolutionary climate of Latin America, warns Rafael Cepeda, a Presbyterian minister from Cuba, "the churches are dancing the minuet while the world is dancing to jazz."

Better than Pagan. In part, the confidence of Latin American Protestantism stems from the new ecumenical climate that has developed in Catholicism since Pope John. In many countries Protestant churchmen have begun interfaith dialogues with their Catholic counterparts, and Lima's Juan Cardinal Landazuri Ricketts met with leaders of the Lutheran Conference. Many Catholic leaders are now willing to admit that since the church cannot reach all the millions it baptizes, it is much better for them to become practicing Protestants than pagans or Communists.

Gradually shedding the aura of a European or U.S. export, Latin America's Protestant churches are rapidly gaining autonomy, replacing missionaries with native leaders. At the 1961 assembly in New Delhi, two Pentecostal groups from Chile were admitted to full membership in the World Council of Churches. Brazil's Methodists soon hope to send their first missionaries abroad, to Angola and Mozambique in Africa.

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