HispanicTrending

Survey Finds More Hispanic Americans Becoming Protestant

Jul. 06 2009
By Jennifer Riley

The percentage of Hispanic Catholics in America has dropped, while the proportion of born-again Hispanics has increased, a new survey by the Barna Group found.

Over the past 15 years, the proportion of Hispanics in America that is aligned with the Catholic Church has fallen by 25 percent. By comparison, the proportion of born-again Christians for this ethnic group has increased by 17 percent.

“You cannot help but notice the changing relationship between Hispanics and the Catholic Church,” commented George Barna, whose company conducted 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.”

Moreover, many second and third generation Hispanic Americans are leaving the Catholic tradition, he noted.

The latest Barna survey studies the growing Hispanic population in America in terms of their faith and how they compare to the general American population. It finds that in a surprising number of key aspects the Hispanic population mirrors that of the nation’s general population.

Some of the significant similarities between the Hispanic and the general American adult populations include nearly identical profiles on the perceived accuracy of the principles taught in the Bible; a personal sense of responsibility to share their faith with others; belief that the primary purpose of life is to love God fully; the likelihood of having read the Bible in the past week; and having made a personal commitment to Jesus that is important in their life.

“The study points out how significant faith is in the lives of Hispanics,” Barna commented. “Not only do most of them assert that importance, but the fact that so much is changing in their faith perspectives and practices underscores how much energy they devote to their spirituality.”

But the study also found significant differences that exist between Hispanic Americans and the general American adult population.

Hispanics are more likely to believe that a good person can earn his or her way into heaven than the overall American adult population. This growing group is also twice as likely to be aligned with the Catholic Church (44 percent vs. 22 percent).

The ethnic group was also found to be less likely than Americans overall to claim that they are "absolutely committed" to Christianity (46 percent vs. 58 percent).

But when it comes to the born-again segments, Hispanics and the general American adult population showed few differences.

According to the Barna report, a born-again Christian is not based on self-identification, but rather on certain qualifications as defined by the Barna Group.

Survey results are based on telephone interviews conducted by The Barna Group gathered from nine nationwide random samples of adults. In total, 9,232 interviews were conducted between January 2007 and November 2008. Respondents were asked during the interviews if they consider themselves to be Hispanics. Out of the more than 9,000 people interviewed, 1,195 adults fell into the Hispanic category.

Source: The Christian Post

Young Hispanic LDS singles enjoy conference

July 3, 2009
By Chelsea Warren

The young single adult conference for Mormon Hispanics in Salt Lake City Thursday and Friday has provided many with opportunities to reflect on what it means to be a Latino Mormon and how it is they can be a blessing to their communities.

"Here in Utah, it is a blessing to be a member of (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)," said 30-year old Reno Rangel, a conference participant from Ogden. "The church is supporting the Latinos to progress, and this makes me happy to be a Latino and to live in Utah."

Rangel said all of the participants rejoice in having a conference just for Latinos, so that they can get to know other people with similar goals and roots.

"It has been fun to expand our social relationships with people of similar principles," Rangel said.

Rangel stressed the importance of preserving one's own culture but also said Hispanic LDS in the United States should not be closed off to learning from others.

"I was born Guatemalan and I will die Guatemalan," Rangel said "but that doesn't mean that I cannot learn from other people here. We should not shut our doors, but rather we should get to know others."

A great challenge for the Latino community is the perception others maintain of them, said group participant Anai Figueroa, 20, from Logan.

"If they take the time to get to know Latinos, they will know that the two groups would complement each other," Figueroa said. "Together, the two groups could have more opportunities."

Friday morning, the conference featured educational workshops with topics ranging from marriage and scripture study to getting scholarships and creating businesses.

Attendee Diana Lopez, an 18-year-old, also from Logan, said the workshop on scholarships impressed her a great deal.

"It is important for Latinos to know that they can also acquire a good education with the help of scholarships," Lopez said.

Lopez said in her college sociology class she was given statistics that indicated that of all the different groups in United States, Hispanic women make the least amount of money.

"The workshops taught us that we can change this for the better," Lopez said. "I want to change these statistics and be a good influence in my community.

Being a minority as Mormons in the Latino community, Rengel said they have a great opportunity to show their faith to others.

"We can show our neighbors who we are and what we believe," Rengel said. "We can attend service activities — not so that we can be seen, but so we can say to the community, 'here we are working together.' "

Source: Deseret News

Most Latino Evangelicals Pray Every Day

June 11, 2009
Source: The Pew Forum

On June 17-19, hundreds of Hispanic evangelical church leaders will participate in the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that Hispanic evangelicals, like other evangelicals, are more likely to pray every day than the population overall. Hispanic evangelicals are also more likely to pray daily than Hispanics who belong to other major religious groups.


Source: Pew Forum U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 and released in 2008. Results for other religious groups are not reported due to small Hispanic sample sizes.

"All" results are based on 35,556 respondents, including 9,472 evangelical Protestants, 7,470 mainline Protestants, 8,054 Catholics and 5,048 unaffiliated respondents.

"Hispanic" results are based on 3,151 Hispanic respondents, including 509 evangelical Protestants, 185 mainline Protestants, 1,748 Catholics and 446 unaffiliated respondents.

Pentecostal church draws Latinos

Apr. 25, 2009
By Jennifer Garza

In a plain building behind the Taco Bell off Watt Avenue, well-dressed worshippers sing and sway and shout to the Holy Spirit. They praise God in two languages.

On this Sunday afternoon, the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez preaches in English. His wife, Eva, echoes his words in Spanish. Together, they work the crowd at Christian Worship Center into a bilingual fervor.

"It is not about being at the right place!" Rodriguez shouts into the microphone. "It's about being at the right place at the right time!"

Rodriguez knows something about timing. The Sacramento minister, who leads the congregation of about 200 with his wife, is at the forefront of a growing movement that is drawing Latinos – many raised Catholic – into the Pentecostal church, the fastest-growing denomination in Christianity.

The Assemblies of God pastor is also president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, an advocacy group that serves 18 million evangelical Latinos.

At 38, Rodriguez, who has been preaching since he was a teenager, is an influential religious leader who was courted by both Republican and Democratic candidates during the presidential election.

"He is considered to be rising star – not just among Latinos but among evangelicals in general," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington, D.C. "A lot of people are definitely keeping their eyes on him. He represents a very important constituency."

Rodriguez described his group as having the conservative theology of Billy Graham with Martin Luther King Jr.'s commitment to social justice issues.

"Put those two into a blender and that's us," he said. "With a little bit of salsa."

Many members new to faith

While her husband frequently travels, Eva Rodriguez oversees the day-to-day duties of the church the couple started a few years ago. She is senior pastor. The two, who have been together since they met as teenagers in Pennsylvania, have been married 20 years. They live in Elk Grove with their three children.

Both pastors are of Puerto Rican descent and were raised in the Assemblies of God Church.

Many members of their Latino congregation, however, are new to the faith. Most have been Pentecostals for less than two years, according to Eva Rodriguez. From the music to the language, the Latino culture is a big part of the church's appeal.

"I love the music, the emotional sermons and the emphasis on the Holy Spirit," said Desiree Martinez, who has been attending Rodriguez's church for two years.

Martinez is often so moved during the worship service that she cries. "I didn't get those feelings in the Catholic Church," she said.

Pentecostalism, which emphasizes a personal relationship with God and a strong presence of the Holy Spirit, has more followers than any denomination except Catholicism, according to a 2008 Pew Study, "Changing Faiths: Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion."

An estimated 1.3 million Latino Catholics have joined Pentecostal congregations since immigrating to the United States. The report says that the longer Latino Catholics stay in this country, the more likely they are to leave the church.

Catholic Church leaders have noticed the shift and say the Catholic Church can learn from Protestants.

"By and large, they have been better preachers and that's something we can learn from them," said the Rev. James Murphy of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, who adds that there are also many Catholics with similar religious practices, known as charismatic Catholics.

Murphy said the Catholic Church also can do a better job in teaching people how to pray. He praised Pentecostals' spontaneous prayer but added caution. "Public prayer can become a show if there isn't a strong private prayer life at home as well," Murphy said.

Women have role in church

Many of these Pentecostal congregations are simple storefront or warehouse churches like Christian Worship Center. There is no ornate artwork or incense or pews. Worshippers sit on folding chairs.

When Rodriguez preaches, he moves from one side of the church to the other, working up a sweat. Halfway through, he looked away from his notes and stopped. "Are you getting this?" he asked.

The audience stood up and cheered.

Rodriguez loves to preach but admits that most of his time is spent running the advocacy group. As president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Rodriguez speaks out on topics important to Latinos, such as immigration.

His group is against illegal immigration but believes the issue should be dealt with more compassionately and that churches should play a bigger role. "Every single successful civil rights issue in this country has been led by the church," said Rodriguez.

A motivational speaker, the pastor recently published his second book, "Path of Miracles," which says following Christian principles will lead to more fulfilling life. Now there is a book tour.

"My wife, she's the one who really runs things," said Rodriguez. "She's incredible."

Eva Rodriguez said women play a big role in their church. Many of the band members are women and a female minister helps with the bilingual sermons when her husband is traveling.

"Of course there are always going to be the machismo men who believe women shouldn't play such big roles in the church," said Rodriguez. "But that's not my husband. We're a team."

Near the end of the sermon, Samuel Rodriguez tells worshippers that Christian Worship Center has outgrown its current building. Church leaders hope to be in a new facility by summer, one that will accommodate more growth.

"If you believe this," Rodriguez said,"say amen."

Without missing a beat, churchgoers answer:

"Amen."

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Scholar to discuss Latino theology

April 16, 2009
Source: University of St. Thomas Bulletin Today

"Latino Theology and Its Critique of a Multicultural Church" is the title of a lecture at the University of St. Thomas next week by DePaul University Catholic studies professor Dr. Peter Casarella.

Casarella's lecture, free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, in O'Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium on the university's campus in St. Paul.

Casarella , who also directs DePaul's Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, was recognized for his outstanding service to the Hispanic Theological Initiative in 2007 and is active in the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the U.S. He has a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University, where he also earned his master's and bachelor's degrees.

"It has often been assumed that the idea of a multicultural [Catholic] Church would be particularly inviting to Latinos and to Latino scholars … of religion and theology," Casarella commented. "A new generation of Latino scholars, however, is challenging older models of thinking about diversity … to promote a pastoral theology that recognizes the authentic witness of U.S. Latino Catholics as an intrinsic good in the church and addresses [their] daily needs more adequately." Casarella will examine these debates and discuss some of the assumptions that have guided these discussions.

Casarella's lecture is the inaugural Latino Leadership lecture sponsored by St. Thomas' Center for Catholic Studies.

Mormons court Latinos, but illegal status brings conflicts

April 5, 2009
By Daniel Gonzalez
 
The Mormon church is one of the fastest-growing denominations in the country, and much of that
growth is coming from an unlikely source: Latino immigrants.

Latinos overwhelmingly are raised Catholic, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is aggressively reaching out to them by touting the religion's heavy focus on family and community, pillars of the Mormon faith that are also at the center of Hispanic culture.

As a result, Latinos are joining the Mormon church at a greater rate than members of any ethnic group, even Anglos, church leaders say.

But the outreach has created some unusual conflicts, because the majority of the Latino converts are undocumented immigrants, which goes against a major tenet of the Mormon church: obeying the law.

At the same time, some Mormons who say the church teaches compassion are upset that fellow members, including Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, have spearheaded a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

"What has happened among a good number of LDS members is that they have been shaped by the Republican Party of the last 40 years. They gravitate to the Republican Party, and the party has become very anti-immigrant, culture-wars-oriented," said Brigham Young University history professor Ignacio Garcia.

One recent afternoon, Daniel Oakey and Daniel Maxwell knocked on the door of an apartment in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in west Mesa. They wore the uniform indicative of Mormon missionaries: short-cropped hair, white shirts, plain ties, dark trousers and backpacks.

Miguel Chavez, an 18-year-old Mesa Community College student, was expecting the two for his weekly Mormon lesson.

Chavez, a native of Colima state in Mexico, came to the U.S. five years ago. Raised Catholic, he attended Mass weekly until two missionaries arrived at his door one day.

At first, Chavez thought "they were crazy."

But the missionaries kept coming back, and Chavez began to like what he heard.

"My father died a few years ago in a job accident in Colima," Chavez said. "They told me that families can be together forever, and we can see each other after this life. I really want to see my dad again."

Since Joseph Smith Jr. founded the Mormon church in 1830 in upstate New York, proselytizing has been a cornerstone of the Mormon faith.

The church sends missionaries all over the world.

In recent years, the church has been teaching missionaries Spanish, not only to proselytize in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, but also to tap into the surging Latino population in the United States, including the 1.8 million Latinos in Arizona

The Mormons are not alone. Many denominations, from Baptists to Methodists, are vigorously trying to reach Latinos. But perhaps none has done so as methodically as the Mormon church.
Missionaries don't ask about immigration status and don't care if an immigrant reveals he is in the country illegally, said Pablo Felix, president of the LiahonaZ Second Branch, a Spanish-speaking congregation in Mesa.

"Our job is to bring souls under Christ," Felix said. "The Lord doesn't look at documentation. He just looks at our faith as members."

Source: Arizona Republic

Play brings Latinos' Jewish ties out of hiding

Mar. 8, 2009
by Kerry Lengel

Born in the U.S. of Spanish and Portuguese descent, Joseph Garcia's cultural heritage is diverse - even more diverse than he knew while growing up in Panama.

He was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy, but when the priests couldn't answer his questions about the tenets of the faith, he walked away from his religion at age 13.

He still believed in God, though, and, as an adult, he began studying Hebrew so he could better understand the Bible. At a family wedding, he told his great-uncle that the language was coming easily to him, almost as if he were a Jew.

"And he said, 'Well, we are Jews,' " Garcia recalls. "I had no idea. You could have knocked me over with a feather."

His family was descended from conversos, Spanish Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition five centuries ago. Many such families preserved their Sephardic Jewish traditions in secret, passing them on to some, but not all, of their children. Known as crypto-Jews - hidden Jews - they can be found both in Spain and Latin America, as well as here in the Southwest, especially New Mexico.

Crypto-Jews are the subject of a new play, "Parted Waters," commissioned by the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company for a world-premiere production this month.

The story is about three generations of New Mexico Latinos. The grandfather finds spiritual sustenance in his secret religion, while his son refuses to acknowledge it. The youngest of the three has no idea of his hidden heritage until a conflict in the family brings it out.

Playwright Robert Benjamin, who lives in Los Alamos, N.M., did extensive research on crypto-Judaism in his state.

"What surprised me was how much of a spectrum there is of experiences," he says. "There are people who embrace it, there are people for whom it is a curiosity, and other people for whom it is a life-changing experience" to discover something so unexpected about their family history.

The central theme is identity, Benjamin says.

"The point I try to make is that people need to think about their cultural identity and make choices," he says. "It's not necessarily a given."

Daniel Schay, who is directing the production, says he likes the fact that the setup of the plot is unusual but that it has a broader resonance.

"They have a unique problem," he says. "It's not often you find everyday characters dealing with a hidden cultural heritage."

At the same time, the double identity of being Jewish and Latino is just a more complicated variation of the story of a nation of immigrants.

"The real question is, 'What does it mean to be an American?' How do you preserve your spice in the melting pot, and that's true whether you're Jewish or Hispanic or whatever."

Arizona Jewish Theatre's artistic director, Janet Arnold, commissioned the play because she found the topic personally fascinating and because it was an opportunity to reach out to Latinos, an audience that doesn't often see itself represented on Valley stages. In crypto-Judaism, Arnold says, she sees an opportunity to build bridges between communities.

It's a bridge embodied by Garcia, who is rabbi of Avdey Torah Hayah, a synagogue for Spanish-speaking Jews in Chandler. Taking a cue from his mother, he has changed the pronunciation of his name, going by Yosef Garcia.

"When I hear a name like that," Arnolds says, "it just warms the cockles of my heart."

Source: The Arizona Republic

Hoping for a Latino Archbishop, Eventually

March 3, 2009
By PAUL VITELLO

Latinos account for at least half of the Roman Catholics in New York. Their neighborhood churches are often filled to capacity. Parishes originally named for Irish saints have been renamed for Hispanic ones. Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral honoring the feast days of their patron saints draw crowds so large and fervent that worshipers sometimes spill out onto Fifth Avenue to pray on their knees on the sidewalk.

And when the Vatican announced last week that the next leader of the Archdiocese of New York would be Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee — the 10th in an unbroken line of Irish-American archbishops to hold that job since 1842 — Latino Catholics in New York reacted as they would to news of another sunrise over the East River.

The muted response did not reflect indifference to the new archbishop, whom many people seemed to like, or to the notion that appointing a prelate with a Hispanic name instead of a Celtic one might be smart: Latinos are not only ascendant in New York, but also likely to be the majority of Catholics in the United States within a decade. The archbishop of New York, with his pulpit in the media nexus of the world, has been called the pope of America.

As Latino leaders described their reaction, it was more like accepting the limits of one’s options in the family business.

“It’s not called St. Patrick’s Cathedral for nothing,” said Richard Espinal, executive director of Centro Altagracia for Faith and Justice, a Jesuit-sponsored Latino advocacy group in Harlem. “The old guard of Irish-American priests — that’s still the church’s power base in New York. I have no problem with it. I’m just happy to read in the paper that the new archbishop can say Mass in Spanish.”

By historians’ account, Irish immigrants and their offspring essentially built the Catholic Church in America. Between 1840 and 1880, Irish immigration accounted for most of the sixfold increase in the country’s Catholic population, to 6 million. The influx fueled a boom in church and school construction, much of it with Irish labor, that culminated with the completion of St. Patrick’s in 1878.

But Latinos in New York today are almost the statistical twins of Irish New Yorkers of the late 19th century: They account for 30 percent of the city’s population and, by the archdiocese’s estimate, 40 to 50 percent of its 2.5 million Catholics — an estimate that community advocates say probably misses large numbers of undocumented immigrants.

And while the archdiocese has welcomed Latinos — rededicating churches and underwriting tuition for Hispanic students in its parochial schools — they have not inherited the vast stake in the institution that their Irish-American forbears have.

There are still far more Irish-American priests than Latino ones in New York, as in most of the country. The board of directors of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, which sponsors the New York Archdiocese’s biggest fund-raiser of the year, a white-tie dinner that attracts the city’s political and business elite, still reflects the white Catholic population that arrived in New York a century and more ago, and is mostly Irish-American.

Appointing a Latino archbishop in New York would not change the fundamental equation, but it would send a message, some community leaders said.

“This was a lost opportunity,” said the Rev. Ray Rivera, founder of the Latino Pastoral Action Center in the Bronx, a network of evangelical ministries that promotes economic development and operates a charter school.

Mr. Rivera is a former Catholic, like many evangelical Protestants, and evangelicals have given the Catholic Church stiff competition in courting Latinos. But he knows the landscape of Hispanic faith in New York.

“The Catholic Church’s renewal in New York is due to the Latino community,” he said. “Naming an archbishop who reflects the fastest-growing constituency it has would have sent a message that this church is not in a world apart.”

More typical, though, was the sentiment of Joel Magallan, who was a Jesuit brother when he was recruited by Cardinal John J. O’Connor in the 1990s to organize the first observance of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. For many Latinos, the Dec. 12 observance of the feast, a Mexican rite signifying the apparition of the Virgin Mary near Mexico City in 1531, is the most important holy day after Christmas.

“When they realized that Mexicans were coming to the city for work, they opened the doors to bring our celebration into the cathedral,” said Mr. Magallan, who is no longer in the order. “When so many people showed up, they couldn’t fit inside. I asked O’Connor why we don’t go to Yankee Stadium. He said: ‘Because St. Patrick’s is the symbol of the Catholic Church in New York, Joel. You have to bring the people here.’

“To me, the Irish are the masters of immigration. They understand what it means better than anybody.”

Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, a scholar of Latino Catholicism and a professor emeritus at Brooklyn College, said half-jokingly of himself and everyone who grew up Catholic in America in the last century under the tutelage of Irish-American priests, “We’re all Irish Catholics.”

A Latino will be appointed archbishop of New York in due course, he said, as the Vatican grooms Hispanic priests for prestigious “pipeline” posts as heads of important seminaries and dioceses.

In the past decade, the Vatican has appointed Hispanic bishops to lead 12 dioceses in the United States, or about 6 percent of the 195 dioceses nationwide. With one exception, all are in the West and Southwest, including the dioceses of San Antonio; El Paso and Laredo, Tex.; Yakima, Wash.; and Sacramento, where Latino populations are flourishing. The exception was the archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico, led by Archbishop Roberto González Nieves, who was reported to be under consideration to succeed the New York archbishop, Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who will retire in April.

In New York, church officials have struggled with changing demographics since at least the 1960s, when Cardinal Terence J. Cooke began sending priests to Puerto Rico to learn Spanish in response to the first wave of newcomers from that island territory, said Bishop Dennis Sullivan, the diocese’s vicar general, or first deputy to Cardinal Egan.

“Our main problem is we need more priests,” Bishop Sullivan said. “Spanish-speaking and otherwise.”

The shortage of priests, especially those who speak Spanish or understand Latino culture, has coincided with the growing defection of Latino Catholics to evangelical Christian denominations with Hispanic ministers, like the Pentecostals.

But Bishop Sullivan said communication between a priest and his flock is about more than language. “What is most important is that the bishop be able to communicate,” he said, “and I think Archbishop Dolan’s eloquence was evident to Catholics in the pictures of him. His smile is its own language.”

Archbishop Dolan said last week that while he had studied Spanish and could say Mass in the language, he was not fluent.

William J. Flynn, a longtime fund-raiser for the church and a past grand marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, said the archdiocese had reached out as best as it could to Latinos, given “the difficulties, the language problems and so forth.”

He said he was “happy to see the Irish have found a home in the leadership of this diocese — but the day of the Irish is coming to a close.”

Mr. Flynn, 82, a retired insurance executive and the son of an Irish immigrant, said he saw the history of Latino immigration in America as no different from that of the Irish, “and that includes our illegal residents.”

“Their sons and daughters are going to be running our country and fighting our wars,” he said. “So I fully expect that we will have a man of Spanish heritage as archbishop of New York.”

Source: New York Times

Evangelical worship attracts Hispanic Catholics

Jan. 26, 2009
By Marti Maguire

Behind its bland, warehouse-like exterior, Comunidad Cristiana Hosanna on Sunday morning is a feast for the senses.

Little girls in white robes and sequined headbands twirl as guitar, keyboard and timbales pound out salsa, merengue and American pop rhythms at rock-concert decibels. The crowd sings along with the robed chorus: "Levanto mis manos" -- "I raise my hands."

The trappings of the religion that dominates the Latin American culture in which these worshippers were raised -- the Roman Catholic rosaries and golden chalices -- give way to shouts and tambourines at this Pentecostal church in Southeast Raleigh. Congregants shake their hips and throw their heads back in praise for more than two hours.

The 14-year-old church is one of the first of its kind in the Triangle -- an evangelical Protestant place of worship made up entirely of Spanish-speakers, mostly immigrants from communities united in their Catholic faith. Since the opening of Comunidad Cristiana Hosanna, dozens of similar churches have popped up in storefronts and rented rooms across the region.

These churches are part of what researchers say is a worldwide shift toward evangelical faiths among Hispanics. Their popularity in the United States also underscores another cultural shift -- that of immigrants taking on that all-American penchant to choose one's own faith.

"Part of this is immigrants coming into a society in which you're not just assigned a religious affiliation for life, and the whole society reinforces that," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which conducted a study on the religious patterns of U.S. Hispanics.

"You come here, and it's a veritable cereal aisle of choices," he said.

Lugo's study found that this vibrant religious scene reflects a desire among many Hispanics to forge a closer relationship with God and to practice a lively style of worship that is preferred by even Catholic Hispanics -- but emphasized more in Pentecostal and other evangelical churches.

The music and pageantry at Comunidad Cristiana Hosanna fulfills those needs, said Rafael Carattini, who leads the church with his wife and co-pastor, Maria.

"It offers the people a release," Carattini said. "They can get their burdens lifted from them and feel free for a moment."

Carattini's mother converted from Catholicism when he was still a child growing up in Puerto Rico, and he decided after college to train as a preacher. He led churches in his native country and other states before a colleague suggested he try North Carolina -- an invitation Carattini saw as heaven-sent.

But after weeks of scouring flea markets for Spanish-speakers eager to try his style of worship, he wondered: "I said, 'Lord, you brought me here to preach to Hispanics, but where are they?' "

His church grew along with the Hispanic population in Raleigh -- from fewer than a dozen to nearly 500 members. But it has also suffered from competition as other Hispanic churches began to flourish -- several members, including his two son-in-laws, have left to found their own churches.

Still, Carattini sees room for growth -- the building he built five years ago seats 2,000 people.

The movement to evangelical faiths is particularly strong among Central Americans, whose home countries have also seen a surge in Pentecostal churches.

Carolina Julian was drawn to these new churches as a youth in Honduras. But she didn't join one until she arrived in North Carolina with her 6-month-old child. A neighbor invited her to a prayer group at Comunidad Cristiana Hosanna, and the church surrounded her like family. Now the 30-year-old mother of two from Johnston County is a leader in the church.

"You feel so warm here," she said after a service Sunday. "Your relationship to God is closer."

The spiritual leanings of Hispanics have also brought some changes to the Catholic church, whose numbers have swelled dramatically as Hispanics immigrated to the state. By some estimates, Hispanics outnumber non-Hispanics 2-to-1 among North Carolina Catholics. In the Raleigh diocese, a charismatic movement focusing on a more spirit-filled type of worship that began decades ago but foundered has been renewed by immigrants.

"I think the difference can be explained by a deeper kind of gut-level faith that the Hispanics have," said Father Paul Brant. "It's not so much study and memorization. It's a more felt religion."

Brant was a circuit-riding Catholic priest who once logged 70,000 miles a year roving Eastern North Carolina ministering to Latino immigrants. Now that those areas have their own priests, he helps train laypeople to provide outreach to Hispanics.

Brant hopes these efforts will keep more Hispanics in the Catholic flock. By most accounts, though, the church is not losing its most devoted members. Many converts are what Brant calls "cultural Catholics," who were raised in the faith but not active in their churches back home.

Some, like Jaime Orbina, who has attended a Pentecostal church in Selma for five years, join a new church as they battle addiction to alcohol or drugs.

"When I was Catholic I danced, I drank, I smoked," said Orbina, 52. "Now I feel good."

Pressed further, Orbina admits that he rarely attended Mass in his native Honduras.

His pastor, Juana Pena, has made ministering to the needs of immigrants and the poor central to the mission of her church, Iglesia Pentecostal Milagros y Maravillas, which she founded in 1999.

"There were many people here who needed food and nourishment but also spiritual support," said Pena, who said her church now has about 70 members.

Like many pastors of these upstart Hispanic churches, Pena hopes to help God find a way into the lives of people who are already in the midst of the massive changes of a new country.

In fact, the very act of moving seems to push people toward conversion, said Lugo, the Pew researcher. Even immigrants within Latin America -- particularly those moving from rural to urban areas -- are more likely to change religions than those staying put.

But some of these conversions may not last forever. Veronica Alvarado, director of the Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Raleigh, said she has seen many Hispanic Protestants return to the church of their youth to receive the sacrament of anointing the sick, given to Catholics who are dying.

"At least in the last moments, they come back," she said.

Source: The News & Observer

Spanish praise music compilations released from Maranatha Music

January 14, 2009
Via BeliefNet

On January 27, Maranatha! Music will release Quiero Alabarte 1 and Quiero Alabarte 2. Each compilation features vocal and instrumental versions of the best of Maranatha! Praise recorded in the Spanish language.

The Quiero Alabarte series has touched thousands of people worldwide with encouragement and hope. Newly re-mastered, the best of this series can now be experienced again in a brand new way. The release also allows fans of the series to upgrade to new digital masters for superior quality listening experience.

I wonder how much praise music there is out there in Spanish. If you're a Spanish-speaking Christian, maybe you can share a little bit about how the Christian music industry does or doesn't reach out to you in your own language.