Young Hispanic Catholics Continue to Shift to Evangelical Churches

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Perhaps hungry to assimilate into American culture, more second and third generation Hispanics raised as Catholics are finding the worship style of evangelical churches in the U.S. more to their liking and leaving the centuries old religion.

Although the trend has been reported in the past, a recent National Public Radio (NPR) article points to the shift led by young Latinos as the major reason for the increasing numbers of U.S. Hispanics leaving the Catholic church.

Even more specifically, a movement toward Pentecostal churches may be where the influx of Hispanics from the Catholic faith is seen most, according to NPR.

Reverend Wilfredo de Jesus of New Life Covenant Church in Chicago believes the Christian Church in the U.S. is hugely impacted by the country's Hispanics.

"No doubt, every denomination would have decreased in membership if it had not been for Hispanic growth, including our fellowship, the Assemblies of God,” De Jesus said as reported by NPR.

In a 2009 study reported on by The Christian Post, the trend was already quite visible and not only toward Pentecostal.

“You cannot help but notice the changing relationship between Hispanics and the Catholic Church,” said George Barna, whose Barna Group published the research. “While many Hispanic immigrants come to the United States with ties to Catholicism, the research shows that many of them eventually connect with a Protestant church.”

Isabel Monje, founder of the Christian outreach ministry called Transformacion Mundial, told CP on Friday that she has seen a revival among Hispanics who were formerly Catholic worldwide during the last three decades.

“This revival (of U.S. Catholics) started in South America,” she said.

Monje said a big reason young Hispanics gravitate to evangelical and Pentecostal churches is because of the Latinos’ love for music.

The shift amongst Hispanics began in the 1980s’ with Marcos Witt, she said. Witt is the son of a missionary couple who lived in Mexico. He is a four-time Latin Grammy Award-winning Christian singer and pastor who has sold more than 10 million records in México, Latin America, and the United States.

“Marcos Witt started in Mexico and then he came to the U.S. and he helped start a revival,” Monje said. “Because of him so many other worship leaders started copying him and followed in his footsteps.

“As Latinos, we are into music. It’s in our blood. Those (in the Catholic community) were not exposed to churches doing concerts. The second generation wants to be more Americanized and they know that American Christians do concerts and seminars,” she explained.

However, Monje said she believes it is something more that worship music that is stirring the Hispanic community.

“Christians are evangelizing more aggressively in the streets, as well as through concerts and such,” she said. “Also, it’s more about the word of God, as we can see, as they say in the last days that the Holy Spirit will be pouring through everybody.

"Christians are [currently more] into missions and into helping the community so all the [Catholics] see that Christians working in the community make a difference. They want to know more about why Christians are doing what they are doing,” she said.

Contact: alex.murashko@christianpost.com

Alex Murashko
Christian Post Reporter

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Evangelicals Left Off National Cathedral 9/11 Program

A weekend of religious-themed observances at Washington National Cathedral marking the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks will include a Buddhist nun and an Imam, but not an evangelical Christian, leading the head of the Southern Baptist Convention to ask President Obama to reconsider attending the event.

“A Call to Compassion” will include an interfaith prayer vigil on Sept. 11. It will feature the dean of the Cathedral, the Bishop of Washington, a rabbi, Buddhist nun and incarnate lama, a Hindu priest, the president of the Islamic Society of North America and a Muslim musician. However, Southern Baptists, representing the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, were not invited to participate – and neither were leaders from any evangelical Christian organization.

“It’s not surprising,” said Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. “There is a tragic intolerance toward Protestants and particularly toward evangelicals and I wish the president would refuse to speak unless it was more representative.”

Richard Weinberg, the Cathedral’s director of communications, confirmed that Southern Baptists were not extended an invitation to participate.

“The goal was to have interfaith representation,” he told Fox News Radio. “The Cathedral itself is an Episcopal church and it stands to reason that our own clergy serve as Christian representatives.”

He said the Washington National Cathedral serves as the “spiritual home for the nation” and as such, he said that “diversity was first and foremost” a factor in the planning.

“We certainly aim to appeal to as many in the country as possible and feel that our events are not any one slice that could ever represent the entire country -- but that we are doing our best commemorate the events as it fits with our mission,” Weinberg said.

On Sunday night the Cathedral will host President Obama as he delivers remarks in a program called, “A Concert of Hope.” At least five faith leaders will deliver prayers but those individuals have not been identified.

Weinberg said the president’s event will be a “secular service,” but said given the setting it will include an interfaith benediction.

Page said President Obama should cancel his appearance at the Cathedral.

“I think it would send a very strong and very positive signal to the left wing extremists in our country that the president ought not show up,” Page said, calling their exclusion “purposeful.”
The White House referred questions about the services to the Cathedral.

“First and foremost, the breadth of the programming aims to honor those who were most affected by the tragedy of 9/11,” Weinberg said. “We also recognize as a Cathedral that this country has been engaged in two wars abroad and many, many service members, nearly six thousand, and of course that would count much more if we counted civilian lives lost.”

“They are also a group that we want to keep in mind and lift up,” he said.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Fox News Radio the lineup was better suited for the United Nations than the United States.

“Three quarters of the American people identify as Christian and nearly a third of them are evangelical Christian,” Perkins said. “And yet, there is not a single evangelical on the program.”

“There’s no doubt that this is clearly politically correct,” Perkins told Fox News Radio. “It is historically inaccurate that in times of need or mourning that Americans pray to the Hindu or Buddhist Gods or the God of Islam. America is overtly a Christian nation that prays to the Judeo-Christian God – and specifically to Jesus Christ.”

Page called political correctness the “elephant in the room.”

“It is very clear that it is that it is not politically correct to include evangelical Christians,” he said.

“Obviously, tolerance is at work here. In a nation whose current God is tolerance, it is absolutely hypocritical that the major group to be excluded and be intolerant of – is evangelical Christians.”

(Source)

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