Word: guatemala
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Peru the Evangelicals claim a mere 5% of the population, but they were as controversial a factor in last year's elections as they became in Guatemala. The presidential winner, Alberto Fujimori, ran on a ticket with Second Vice President Carlos Garcia, the Baptist president of the National Evangelical Council of Peru. Though Fujimori is a practicing Catholic and his opponent was an agnostic, anti-Catholic tracts prompted Lima Archbishop Augusto Vargas Alzamora to charge that Evangelicals "do not answer to the Christian tradition," and were waging an "insidious campaign." Peru's bishops organized a special pre-election procession...
...Evangelical upwelling? Like Guatemala's Archbishop, secular leftists point to North American money and influence as causes, but Protestant churches are largely independent and self-supporting. The most obvious explanation for the movement's success is its palpable spiritual dynamism. The Protestants do have built-in advantages. Their clergy face neither the celibacy rule nor the lengthy training required of Catholic priests. Members identify strongly with their local congregations and often pick their own pastors...
...Peru, says Protestants make their gains by invading "areas where the people are naturally very religious and the Catholic Church has been chronically short of priests." Protestants, for example, provide the only community leadership in many parts of Peru that have been overrun by Shining Path terrorists. In Guatemala too, Evangelical pastors have saturated rural areas, greatly outnumbering Catholic priests. At the same time, they have been charged with interfering in traditional Indian ways of life...
...that "these people were hungry for more than just food. The Evangelicals met the peoples' emotional and spiritual needs better." Or, as Brazil's top Baptist, the Rev. Nilson Fanini, puts the paradox, "The Catholic Church opted for the poor, but the poor opted for the Evangelicals." As in Guatemala last week, the effects of that choice will continue to be felt...
...Guatemala's new President, who scored a smashing victory last week, personifies the rapid gains being made by his fellow Pentecostalists and other Evangelicals throughout Latin America. The Roman Catholic Church faces "a serious crisis," says one expert, and its hierarchy is jittery...