Offering The Hope of Heaven

By Richard N. Ostling

"I'm not going to promise you better times," roared the fiery American preacher as he prowled the stage with Bible held aloft, "but it doesn't matter, because you're going to a better place anyway!" To many of his eager listeners in a San Salvador stadium, the distant hope of heaven may have been at least momentarily alluring, beset as their nation has been by a seven-year guerrilla war and a moribund economy. When the preacher later assured them that "terrible times are coming," the applause of approving believers reached a thunderous peak.

The crowd pleaser onstage was Jimmy Swaggart, 51, the flashy Louisiana Pentecostalist who ranks as one of the top TV evangelists in the U.S. In recent years Swaggart has built a surprisingly large and significant following abroad, especially in Latin America. In January he packed the 80,000-seat National Stadium in Santiago, Chile. Last week he wound up a swing through the Central American nations of El Salvador and Costa Rica, and later this year will visit Brazil, Uruguay, Panama and Honduras.

At his three-day revival meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica, the 25,000-seat ^ National Stadium overflowed with spectators for each of three meetings. In San Salvador, more than 50,000 people jammed Flor Blanca Stadium for each of Swaggart's three rallies. The free-admission programs presented Swaggart at his spellbinding best, even though the words of the non-Spanish-speaking minister had to be filtered through a translator. At the end of each sermon, thousands came forward to be saved. Typewriter Repairman Juan Pablo Campo, celebrating a previous born-again commitment, noted, "I used to smoke, dance, drink and chase women. But since I converted less than a year ago, I have won a good battle with the devil."

As in the U.S., Swaggart's celebrity in Latin America is largely the creation of television. His hour-long weekly show is broadcast by 511 Latin American stations and draws more viewers than the program of any other U.S.-based TV evangelist. Among his devotees in San Jose was Rosario Orozco, 32, who said she often wakes up feeling sad, "but then the Lord tells me to turn on Jimmy Swaggart, and suddenly everything in life is precious." Swaggart is not only an orator whose incendiary style appeals to Latin Americans but a creditable gospel singer with a lively band. His proficient road crew lugs along 82 tons of equipment to record proceedings for future broadcasts.

Befitting his VIP status, Swaggart moves in lofty circles when he is abroad. In El Salvador, he met with President Jose Napoleon Duarte, who has confessed that he too watches the Swaggart TV show. In Chile, he met Dictator Augusto Pinochet and later urged his audience in Santiago to "pray for General Pinochet and his beautiful wife." Swaggart usually avoids overt politicking in his Latin American sermons and disclaims partisanship. But the Rev. Jaime Wright, a U.S. Presbyterian working in Brazil, agreeing with Roman Catholic critics, charges that Swaggart and like-minded Evangelicals are giving "uncritical support" to oppressive right-wing regimes.

The Swaggart phenomenon is part of a wave of Protestant expansion across the traditionally Roman Catholic region. According to Brazil's Ecumenical News Agency, Latin American Protestants have increased in number from 12 million to 30 million since 1978. Most of them have joined Evangelical and Pentecostal groups rather than such older mainline denominations as the Presbyterians and Methodists. In El Salvador, Protestants claim 800,000 worshipers, more than double the number in 1980; in Costa Rica, they have increased by one-fifth, to 330,000, since 1983.

Catholic leaders are understandably concerned about this. Before Swaggart's San Salvador rallies, Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez warned about the advent of an unnamed "Evangelical preacher given to spectacles." Though most Evangelicals have toned down suggestions of anti-Catholicism, Swaggart's language is more adversarial than that of the bishop. The preacher has insisted that Catholicism is a "false cult" and "not a Christian religion." In Central America, however, he made only soothing references to "our Catholic friends."

While Latin American Catholicism struggles with problems like a serious clergy shortage, the Protestants are amply staffed and funded from the U.S. Swaggart says he has funneled $8 million into El Salvador and Costa Rica alone for welfare and church aid. Says Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino, an exponent of liberation theology: "The sects have taken advantage of the weaknesses of the Catholic Church, and the church doesn't know what to do." Asked to explain his impact across Latin America, Swaggart allows, "Problems, persecution, difficulties -- these have always been catalysts that make people seek God. We put hope in people's hearts."

With reporting by Laura Lopez/San Salvador, with other bureaus