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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (63524)	12/30/2002 3:20:17 AM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

At some point, however, these nations will face questions about church-state divides or tolerance for religious minorities. Yes. This when you find out if they understand they need to be modern, or whether they just want the toys of modernity like the rulers of failed states.

To: LindyBill who wrote (63524)	12/30/2002 4:44:09 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 281500

Bill, Brazil is an example of the sort of success Christian missionaries can have in the 'South'. This book chapter is quite revealing. Final paragraphs: Conclusion The struggle for survival is the principal daily concern of the poor person. It affects his life style, values, and the organization of his groups. His religious option cannot escape this concern and is also immersed in this struggle. Pentecostalism is efficient in supporting individuals in situations of extreme privation or family crisis. When the believer who used to confront precarious material conditions joins the church, he overcomes crisis and misery, and experiences an improvement in the material standards of his existence. Pentecostalism For Pentecostals, poverty is not a political question, but a personal or supernatural one. Thus, we find no Pentecostal innovations in political life. Pentecostal innovations are found at a personal level when they motivate the believers to adopt an ascetic lifestyle and dedicate themselves to the family. Besides showing men how to be more concerned for their families, Pentecostalism engenders in women, through its vision of the individual as a victim of evil, a critical but compassionate and tolerant opposition to their irresponsible or aggressive spouses. Pentecostalism smoothes out family conflicts. By perceiving that their spouses are also victims of evil and not responsible for it, women try to convert them without attacking them, which contributes to the preservation of the family. Strengthening the domestic group and asceticism have proven to be instrumental for the survival of the poor. Pentecostalism also helps the poor by offering a mutual support network and the subjective experiences of power and dignity and of belonging to a community --experiences shared by members of traditional religious groups. Unlike these other groups, the Pentecostal churches encourage experiences which tend to modernize behavior. Since the modernizing aspect is Pentecostalism's novelty and what also makes the motivational strategies for confronting poverty of the Pentecostal groups more adequate and useful in modern capitalist societies, it can be concluded that perhaps these elements are the strongest attraction for the poor. religion-online.org The other URLs are interesting but have less explanatory power. christianitytoday.com members.aol.com goethe.de cpjustice.org ** wcc-coe.org