Table Of ContentPower, Politics, and Pentecostals
in Latin America
Power, Politics,
and Pentecostals
in Latin America
edited by
Edward L. Cleary
and Hannah W Stewart-Gambino
~~ ~~o~!~~~i~G~oup
New York London
First published 1997 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Contents
Acknowledgments Vll
1 Introduction: Pentecostals, Prominence, and Politics,
Edward L. Cleary 1
2 Pentecostals, Politics, and Public Space in Latin America,
Michael Dodson 25
3 Pentecostalism and Women in Brazil, Cecilia Loreto Mariz
and Maria das Dores Campos Machado 41
4 Private Power or Public Power: Pentecostalism, Base
Communities, and Gender, Carol Ann Drogus 55
5 Interchurch Relations: Exclusion, Ecumenism, and
the Poor, Guillermo Cook 77
6 Chilean Pentecostalism: Coming of Age, Edward L. Cleary
and Juan Sepulveda 97
7 Pentecostalism, Conversions, and Politics in Brazil,
Rowan Ireland 123
8 Guatemalan Pentecostals: Something of Their Own,
Everett Wilson 139
9 Bricando el Charco/Jumping the Puddle: A Case Study of
Pentecostalism's Journey from Puerto Rico to New York
to Allentown, Pennsylvania, Anna Adams 163
10 The Sound of Tambourines: The Politics of Pentecostal
Growth in El Salvador, Philip ]. Williams 179
11 Pentecostals and Evangelicals in Venezuela: Consolidating
Gains, Moving in New Directions, Bryan Froehle 201
v
Contents
Vl
12 Latin American Pentecostals: Old Stereotypes
and New Challenges, Hannah W. Stewart-Gambino
and Everett Wilson 227
About the Book 247
About the Editors and Contributors 249
Index 251
Acknowledgments
'Five years of preparation have engendered a number of debts for editors and
contributors. Barbara Ellington has been unfailing in her support and useful ad-
vice as senior editor of Westview Press. Dorothy Windish of Lehigh University
solved many problems in the course of producing a uniform manuscript.
Leading scholars in the Pentecostal and charismatic communities assisted in
shaping new research and in assessing past efforts. These include Peter Hocken,
secretary of the Society for Pentecostal Studies; Ken Gill, associate director of the
Billy Graham Center Library; Gary B. McGee, Assemblies of God Theological
Seminary; Cecil M. Roebeck and Killian O'Donnell, O.S.B., cochairs, Inter-
national Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue; Donald Gelpi, S.J., Jesuit School
of Theology at the Graduate Theological Union; and Cornelia Butler Flora, Iowa
State University. Jeffrey Gros, F.S.C., U.S. Catholic Conference; David Barrett, ed-
itor of the World Christian Encyclopedia; and Samuel Escobar, Eastern Baptist
Seminary, added insights into global trends.
Lehigh University, Providence College, and the Yale University Center for
International and Area Studies furnished essential support at several stages of re-
search, travel, and writing. The Overseas Missions Study Center and its director,
Dr. Gerald Anderson, Calvin College's Center for Christian Scholarship, Eugene
TeSalle and Vanderbilt University, and Thomas Skidmore and Brown University
hosted small conferences on Latin American religion that greatly aided an inter-
change of ideas that was useful in the shaping of this book.
At the core of the editors' and contributors' lives are our communities and fam-
ilies, which have sustained us and made this volume possible.
Edward L. Cleary
Hannah W Stewart-Gambino
vii
1
Introduction: Pentecostals,
Prominence, and Politics
EDWARD L. CLEARY
1..n 1986 Newsweek noted that Protestants, especially Pentecostal ones, were en-
tering party politics in Latin America.1 From then on many newspapers recorded
the surprise of Catholics and the chagrin of leftists as Pentecostals became active
in the public arena in Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil.
Political activity brought Pentecostals a notoriety that they had until then es-
caped. Largely ignored on the margins of society, they had grown to impressive
numbers. Now journalists, the general public, and other churches found them-
selves faced with mysterious groups with sufficient numbers to have strong na-
tional influence.
Pentecostalism has quietly become the largest Christian movement of the
twentieth century.2 Some 400-500 million followers are spread over most of the
world.3 Their number is almost half that of the largest Christian denomination,
Roman Catholicism. Pentecostalism's otherworldly style and growth by conver-
sion and by inherited status are astonishing, given the predictions that modern
times would be increasingly secular. Harvey Cox's Fire from Heaven4 opened to
general readers in 1995 what was barely known even in theological schools.5
Pentecostalism is especially prominent in Latin America, where it challenges
Catholic, historical Protestant, and Mormon churches, vodoun, macumba, and
indigenous religions.
This book is an attempt to provide a unique view of Latin American
Pentecostalism. Its contributors are seasoned Latin Americanists dealing with
themes and contexts with which they have long familiarity. They examine history,
looking at the roots of Pentecostalism rather than concentrating on the recent in-
vasion of the religious right from the United States. They employ social science,
especially sociology and political science, rather than polemics or speculation.
They represent a mix of Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal, Latin American and
