Tuesday, October 14, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/14/international/africa/14CHUR.html?ex=1" class="weblogItemTitle">A Growing Faith, Fueled by Pentecostalism
Posted here Tuesday, October 14, 2003 at 8:38:42 AM    

This is today's extention of the article quoted yesterday. the point here is clear, that pentacostal attraction is to those who are politically margialized. Hence, marginalizing people is not a terririfc idea for normal governance and contiuity.

"In countries where everything is very O.K., where they take care of their citizenry, people are very lethargic when it comes to religion and God," said Oluwayemisi Ojuolape, 27, a lawyer in Lagos, who attended this all-night vigil, called Holy Ghost Service. "They are not encouraged to ask for any help. They seem to have all of it."

Not so in the developing world, where Christianity is drawing followers as never before.

That growth is changing the complexion and practice of the Christian faith and other religions in a fervid competition for souls, generating new tremors in places like Nigeria, which are already marbled with ethnic and political fault lines, and causing schisms between the old Christians of the north and the newer ones of the south. It is also beginning to be felt in the political life of these countries.

The new Christian expansion is particularly striking in Pentecostalism, a denomination born only about 100 years ago among blacks, whites and Hispanics in an abandoned church in Los Angeles. Emphasizing a direct line to God, its boisterous, unmediated style of worship employs healings, speaking in tongues and casting out demons.


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