Acosta notes that, although the church there appears to be Pentecostal in many respects, it does not share the historical lineage of or even many of the core doctrines of Pentecostalism. Instead, the most prolific sector of Latin Christianity combines the hierarchical and authoritarian structure of Catholicism (with self-proclaimed apostles and prophets), indigenous shamanism (with "blowing" and "whistling" at evil spirits [a la Benny Hinn]) and traditional Pentecostalism (with speaking in tongues and prophecy).
In spite of all this religious activity, the clear gospel is not being preached, resulting in a complete lack of knowledge of the basic doctrines of the Reformation, such as sola gratia, sola scriptura or sola fide [grace alone, scripture alone, faith alone].
As you may imagine, the reason for this phenomenon may be traced to the prevalence of Enlace, the Spanish version of TBN, which ...
"has become 'a true magisterium' beyond denominational beliefs and practices. It is available in most Latin American countries. Most evangelicals turn it on several times a week. No matter what topic Enlace is dealing with, the message boils down to making "pacts" with God, wherein a person must demonstrate the seriousness of his prayer request by sending money along with it. Pastors with little or no training imitate Enlace preachers, and the effect intensifies.
"Many Enlace-style churches have reduced the message of the gospel to economic prosperity. Based on belief in evil spirits' hidden conspiracies that can only be averted by economic pacts—a contemporary version of indulgences—some of these churches end up in clear continuity with the surrounding culture of amulets, or magical ways of quickly obtaining wealth and happiness. The celebrities who represent this kind of overnight wealth are Mafia members and druglords. The final product, says Piedra, is religious consumerism."
>>For an example of the type of "Christian" shamanism TBN is exporting to Lati American and beyond, check this out.<<
3 comments:
Wow. That's sad. People have complained for a long time about the mentality of prosperity gospel and TBN and all of that crap ruining America... Now to see if go beyond America--where hardly anyone believes in "spirits", let alone spirituality-- to a place where spiritualism isn't a polite euphemism for Christianity, but a way of life worshiping/fearing spirits good and bad... it's just a shame.
But, we've seen this sort of thing happen in history before, when Protestantism was born. The "church" grew more and more accustomed to being in power over the people. Feeding people lies for dinner and charging them for their deception dessert. Salvation was something to be bought and worked for, instead of lived.
It's only a matter of time (in the U.S. and wherever else) that people are going to crave more than just prosperity. Hopefully that time will be sooner rather than later...
And there I was thinking you were going to write an article about how you were neither Protestant nor Catholic. Oh well. :)
Neither Protestant nor Catholic. And apparently not Christian either.
Melvin
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