Religion in Latin America

[The following are just excerpts from the first 5 sections of an extensive very revealing multifaceted 2014 Pew Research survey. My focus is mainly on the Protestant and Catholic views. Complete Report PDF]

Latin America is home to more than 425 million Catholics – nearly 40% of the world’s total Catholic population – and the Roman Catholic Church now has a Latin American pope for the first time in its history. Yet identification with Catholicism has declined throughout the region, according to a major new Pew Research Center survey that examines religious affiliations, beliefs and practices in 18 countries and one U.S. territory (Puerto Rico) across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Historical data suggest that for most of the 20th century, from 1900 through the 1960s, at least 90% of Latin America’s population was Catholic (See History of Religious Change). Today, the Pew Research survey shows, 69% of adults across the region identify as Catholic. In nearly every country surveyed, the Catholic Church has experienced net losses from religious switching, as many Latin Americans have joined evangelical Protestant churches or rejected organized religion altogether. For example, roughly one-in-four Nicaraguans, one-in-five Brazilians and one-in-seven Venezuelans are former Catholics....

Overall, 84% of Latin American adults report that they were raised Catholic, 15 percentage points more than currently identify as Catholic. The pattern is reversed among Protestants and people who do not identify with any religion: While the Catholic Church has lost adherents through religious switching, both Protestant churches and the religiously unaffiliated population in the region have gained members. Just one-in-ten Latin Americans (9%) were raised in Protestant churches, but nearly one-in-five (19%) now describe themselves as Protestants. And while only 4% of Latin Americans were raised without a religious affiliation, twice as many (8%) are unaffiliated today....

The new survey finds that Protestants in Latin America tend to be more religiously observant than Catholics.

Protestants also are more likely than Catholics to read scripture outside of religious services, to approach the Bible literally and to believe that Jesus will return during their lifetime. (For more details, see Chapter 2.)

Across all 18 countries and Puerto Rico, a median of nearly two-thirds of Protestants (65%) identify as Pentecostal Christians,

Even though the Catholic Church opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, Catholics in Latin America tend to be less conservative than Protestants on these kinds of social issues. On average, Catholics are less morally opposed to abortion, homosexuality, artificial means of birth control, sex outside of marriage, divorce and drinking alcohol than are Protestants.

The differences between Catholics and Protestants on most of these issues hold true even when accounting for levels of religious observance. For example, Protestants who participate in religious services at least once a week are somewhat more likely to oppose abortion and divorce – and considerably more likely to oppose homosexuality, sex outside of marriage and drinking alcohol – than are Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly.2 These differing views on social issues may help explain why many former Catholics who have become Protestants say they were looking for a church that “places greater importance on living a moral life” (a median of 60%)...

Protestants are more likely than Catholics to point toward bringing the poor to Christ, while Catholics are more inclined to say that performing charity work for the poor is most important.

Yet across the countries surveyed, a considerably higher share of Protestants than Catholics say that they themselves or the church they attend engage in charity work – helping people find jobs, providing food and clothing for those in need or organizing other community initiatives to help the poor. (For more details, see Chapter 6.)..

These are among the key findings of more than 30,000 face-to-face interviews conducted across 18 countries and Puerto Rico by the Pew Research Center between October 2013 and February 2014. The survey encompasses nearly all Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries and territories stretching from Mexico through Central America to the southern tip of South America.

In most of the Latin American countries surveyed, at least one-in-six adults report that they no longer belong to the religion in which they were raised. Roughly one-in-three have changed their faith in Nicaragua, Uruguay and El Salvador. At the other end of the spectrum, much smaller proportions of adults in Mexico (12%), Panama (12%) and Paraguay (10%) say that they no longer belong to the religion in which they were raised.

By way of comparison, nearly a third (32%) of Hispanics in the U.S. report having switched their religious faith...People with no religion also have experienced double-digit gains in a few countries, as more adults report having switched into the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated than report switching out. The unaffiliated have seen significant net gains in Uruguay (plus 15 points), Chile (plus 10 points) and the Dominican Republic (plus 10 points).

At least half of converts in most countries surveyed also say they were seeking a church that placed greater emphasis on morality.

The survey asked former Catholics whether each of eight factors was or was not an important reason they are no longer Catholic. Across the region, former Catholics who are now Protestant most frequently say they “wanted a more personal experience with God.” Clear majorities of Catholic-to-Protestant converts in each of the countries polled say this was an important reason for switching faiths, including roughly nine-in-ten in El Salvador (93%), Guatemala (91%) and Nicaragua (90%). Majorities in nearly every country also say that they were attracted to the style of worship at their new church. At least half of converts in most countries surveyed also say they were seeking a church that placed greater emphasis on morality...

Relatively few former Catholics say that crises or life circumstances – such as personal problems, marriage to a non-Catholic or financial issues – were important reasons for leaving the Catholic Church in favor of Protestant Christianity.

Majorities in most countries surveyed say that religion is very important in their lives. The exceptions are Mexico (44%), Argentina (43%), Chile (41%) and Uruguay (28%)

In general, Protestants are much more likely than Catholics to say that religion is very important in their lives. This is especially true in Chile, where 73% of Protestants say that religion is very important to them, compared with 40% of Catholics. On this question, large gaps also exist between Protestants and Catholics in Uruguay (29 percentage points), Argentina (25 points) and Peru (20 points).

This pattern holds true among Hispanics in the U.S. as well. Three-quarters of Hispanic Protestants (78%) say that religion is very important to them, compared with 65% of Hispanic Catholics.

In each of the countries surveyed, Protestants are considerably more likely than Catholics to attend religious services weekly. In Venezuela, for example, Protestants are about four times as likely as Catholics to attend church at least once a week (67% vs. 17%)...

In nearly every Latin American country surveyed, Protestants are significantly more likely than Catholics to say they pray at least once a day...

In every Latin American country surveyed, Protestants are more likely than Catholics to exhibit high levels of religious commitment, as discussed in the Overview of this report...

Fasting is generally more common among Protestants than among Catholics, although in a few countries, including Mexico, Panama and Argentina, Catholics and Protestants are about equally likely to fast.

...the survey finds significant differences between Catholics, Protestants and the unaffiliated when it comes to some religious beliefs...

Overall, Protestants in Latin America are more likely than Catholics to view the Bible as the literal word of God.

On balance, larger shares of Catholics than Protestants report medium to high levels of engagement with indigenous beliefs and practices....

In most countries surveyed, majorities of both Catholics and Protestants recognize each other as belonging to the Christian faith. However, Catholics tend to be more accepting of Protestants as fellow Christians than vice versa...

On balance, Catholics also are more likely than Protestants to say that Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians.

in Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Argentina, Honduras, Ecuador and Chile, roughly two-thirds or more of Protestants are Pentecostal by denomination, personal identification or both. In the United States, by comparison, 18% of all Protestants, including 45% of Hispanic Protestants, are Pentecostal by one definition or another.

Across the region, Protestants are more likely than Catholics to say that abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances and that same-sex couples should not be allowed to legally wed. Protestants also are consistently more likely than Catholics to view drinking alcohol, divorce, sex outside of marriage and using artificial means of birth control as immoral. And Protestants are more inclined than Catholics to say that wives should always obey their husbands.

Catholics who attend Mass weekly generally express lower levels of support for allowing same-sex marriage than do Catholics who attend Mass less often.

Nevertheless, Protestants tend to be more socially conservative than Catholics even when levels of religious observance are taken into account.

(For more details, see below [http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/chapter-5-social-attitudes/#catholics-and-protestants-religious-commitment-and-moral-views].)

Across the countries and territories surveyed in Latin America, Protestants oppose same-sex marriage by greater margins than do Catholics. In Puerto Rico, for example, 72% of Protestants reject gay marriage, compared with 45% of Catholics. Similar gaps of 20 percentage points or more are seen in Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile and Mexico.

Most Latin Americans believe that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

In 15 countries plus Puerto Rico, majorities say homosexuality is immoral, ranging from 57% in Mexico to 91% in Guatemala. Only in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay do fewer than half of adults consider homosexual behavior morally wrong.

in several countries, the percentages of Protestants who say homosexual behavior is morally wrong exceed the comparable percentages of Catholics by at least 20 points.

Protestants tend to object to alcohol consumption more strongly than do Catholics. In most countries, clear majorities of Protestants say that drinking alcohol is morally wrong. Among Catholics, opinion is more divided.

In Venezuela, Protestants are far more likely to object to alcohol consumption (81%) than are Catholics (44%).

Although the Catholic Church teaches that marriage is an “indissoluble union” between a man and a woman, Protestants across Latin America are more solidly opposed to divorce than Catholics are.

The gap between the views of Protestants and Catholics is especially wide in Venezuela, where half of Protestants (52%) say divorce is morally wrong, compared with 22% of Catholics.

Protestants also are far more likely than Catholics to say that divorce is immoral in Peru (67% vs. 39%) and Ecuador (64% vs. 37%).

Latin Americans are divided on the morality of sex outside marriage. In eight of the countries surveyed, majorities of adults say that sex between people who are not married to one another is morally wrong. But in other countries, roughly half or fewer object to sex outside marriage. Moral objections to sex outside marriage are highest in Guatemala (80%) and El Salvador (73%) and lowest in Uruguay (19%), Chile (23%) and Argentina (23%).

Generally, Protestants are more likely to oppose sex outside marriage than are Catholics. In 15 countries plus Puerto Rico, majorities of Protestants say that sex between people who are not married to each other is morally wrong. Among Catholics, half or fewer share this view in most countries surveyed.

As on other topics related to morality, differences between Protestants and Catholics are especially pronounced in Venezuela, where 77% of Protestants and 36% of Catholics say that sex outside marriage is morally wrong. Gaps of 30 percentage points or more between Protestants and Catholics also are seen in Colombia, Chile, Brazil and Panama.

In most countries, fewer than a third of adults – including just 10% of Argentinians, 8% of Chileans and 5% of Uruguayans – say that using contraceptives is morally wron

Objections to artificial means of birth control are highest in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Panama,

In many countries surveyed, significantly higher shares of Protestants than Catholics say that using contraceptives is morally wrong.

In Chile, for example, roughly a quarter of Protestants (23%) say using contraceptives is morally wrong, compared with just 5% of Catholics. And in Peru, about four-in-ten Protestants (39%) object to artificial means of birth control, compared with 23% of Catholics.

majorities in roughly half of the countries surveyed either completely or mostly agree with the statement that “a wife must always obey her husband.” Only in Argentina (31%), Chile (24%) and Uruguay (23%) do fewer than four-in-ten adults share this view.

Protestants are especially likely to say that wives must obey their husbands; four-in-ten or more in every country surveyed completely or mostly agree with this statement. This opinion is especially widespread among Protestants in Guatemala (87%) and the Dominican Republic (87%).

The decadence of Catholicism in Latin America is a direct byproduct of the radicalization and marxistsitation of the Catholic cleric and their involvement with the communist guerrillas trained and directed by Cuba. The followers of liberation theology portrayed the Cuban regime as a model to follow by Latin America regardless that historically have been proven that the Marxists, once in power, didn’t free the people from poverty but rather they become harvesters of sorrow, oppression, and misery.

As H.H. Poe Leo XIII said in his Encyclical on Socialism: is “the fatal plague which insinuates itself into the very marrow of the human society only to bring about its ruin” “Quo Apostolici numeris” 1878

GustavoGutierrez, father of liberation theology, employed Karl Marx’s critiques of ideology, class, and capitalism as part of his theological analysis of how to use Christianity to make people’s lives better here and now rather than simply offer them hope of rewards in heaven.

Gutierrez explained: “What we mean here regarding liberation theology is the involvement of the revolutionary political process”. (10) Gutiérrez also explains the sense of this involvement: “Only by going beyond a society divided into classes. (…) Only eliminating private property of the wealth created by human work, will we be able to lay down the bases for a more just society. It is for this that the efforts to project a new society in Latin America are tending more and more towards socialism”.

Fidel Castro told to liberationists leaders, Leonardo Boff and Frei Beto in the presence of the Marxist Spanish Bishop in Brazil, Pedro Casáldiga. “Your theology (Liberation Theology) helps the transformation of Latin America more than millions of books on Marxism”

As Pope John Paul II said during his visit in South America that the poor people know as by instinct when the truth is being preached. The radical Catholic clergy, with the approval of the media, betrayed the Magisterium and the teachings of the Church. The poor found in the Evangelic movement the need to put the faith in Christ, not in Marx.

Kind of gives lie to the claim that Catholics are morally superior to Prots by claiming that the reason people leave the Catholic church is because of moral issues, as we see being made here on FR continually.

Across the board, throughout history, *Prots* have shown a higher moral standard of living than RC's.

And disclaimer for the interpretation impaired. That does not mean each and every individual, but in the groups as a whole, just as your stats have been showing for years.

Metmon is disinterring the image of the ugly American from the trash bin of history trying to demean Catholicism and the Hispanic legacy to the world.

Communism is well, alive, here and at the highest spheres of the U.S. government since FDR to our days when we have now Communists embraced to Islam at the very White House.

The real roots of the Marxist Liberation theology were not found among Catholic Latin American theologians but in the works of European Protestant theologians, specially the German Jurgen Moltmann, main idol of the liberationists who encouraged the dialog of Christians with the Marxists.

The Catholic Church built the Western civilization. As historian Thomas E. Woods Jr. wrote: “From the role of the monks (they did much more than just copy manuscripts) to art and architecture, from the university to Western law, from science to charitable work, from international law to economics, the book delves into just how indebted we are as a civilization to the Catholic Church, whether we realize it or not.”

In the Spanish scholastics of the University of Salamanca, Spain, of the 16th and 16th centuries are the roots of the Austrian School of Economics (economic theories that later flourished in the Chicago School of Economy) which contributed to the most rapid surge of prosperity in the 20th century. Was also at the University of Salamanca was born the modern International Law by the Dominican father, Francisco de Vitoria.

Spain established public education in America 300 years before the English did it in its territories. The first school for girls in the New World was founded in 1548 by the first archbishop of Mexico City, Juan de Zumárraga

In contrast, it is necessary to point out that not until 1789 was the first system of public education in United States founded in Boston, and not until 1825 were girls permitted to attend and only up to elementary school level (277 years after Mexico).

Spain founded 23 universities and institutions of higher learning in colonial America, something without parallel in History

The University of San Marcos in Lima was founded in 1551. In 1553, thirty-two years after the conquest, the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico was founded, along with the University of Santo Domingo (one hundred years before Harvard.) The language of the natives had an honored place in its curriculum and Indian professors went on to teach in European universities.

Before the middle of the 16th century, bishop Zumárraga brought the first printing press to Mexico, almost at the same time that printing was introduced in Madrid (100 years prior to Boston.) In 1539 they published the “Breve y más Compendiosa Doctrina Cristiana en Lengua Mexicana y Castellana”, the first book edited in America, a catechism in two languages, Nahuatl and Castilian. By 1575 they were publishing books in 12 different native dialects, grammar books and dictionaries of several Indian languages were also published in the Universities of Mexico and Lima, whereas in United States’ colonial times, John Eliot’s Indian Bible stands alone. (29)

In regard to the importance given to science by the Crown of Spain we must take notice of the fact that “a medical school was opened at the University of Mexico 204 years before Harvard, and began the study of anatomy and surgery, with dissection, eighty six years before William Hunter opened the first school of dissection in England.” (30)

According to historian Kelley at the end of the Spanish rule “Mexico was so full of schools and colleges for boys and girls, for handicrafts, trades, and arts of all kinds, as to justify a sweeping statement: Up to that day there never had been a country on the face of the earth that in so short a time had done so much in an educational way. When the circumstances of time and conditions surrounding the effort and the obstacles to be overcome, are considered, history presents no finer record of educational achievement and success.” (31) (*)

Liberal minded Protestant humanist, Alexander Humboldt, was also witness to the scientific progress of Hispanic America praising the great accomplishments in the study of Natural Sciences that had being defrayed by the Crown. After visiting Mexico in 1803, Humboldt maintained: “No city of the New Continent, not even excepting those of the United States, can display such great and solid scientific establishments as the capital of Mexico. The capital and several other cities have scientific establishments, which will bear a comparison with those of Europe... Instruction is communicated gratis at the Academy of Fine Arts and hundreds of young students without consideration of rank, color, and race, were confounded; we see the Indian and the Mestizo sitting beside the white, and the son of a poor artisan in emulation with the children of the great lords of the country... No European government has sacrificed greater sums to advance the knowledge of the vegetal kingdom than the Spanish government...All these researches have not only enriched science with more than four thousand of new species of plants, but have also contributed to diffuse a taste for natural history among the inhabitants of the country.” Spain founded 23 universities in colonial America, something without parallel in History.

Catholic should be proud of their legacy to Humanity.

Some quotes taken from Myth and Reality, Legacy of Spain in America

]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/808686/posts

And another pope mandated the extermination of those Rome deemed to be heretics, though she herself is heretical .

But in modern teaching such heretics" are affirmed as being children of God thru whom the Spirit works, and being brethren, if separated.

And Muslims are affirmed as worshiping with Caths the same God, and under which Marxist liberation theology has been fostered.

But the problem with religion in which the one duty of the laity is to submit to pastors as docile sheep, and in which church law is supreme, not unchanging Scripture, which papal teaching states, is that when the leaders go South, so do their followers.

GustavoGutierrez O.P., (born June 8, 1928 in Lima) is a Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest who is regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology. And TMK he has not been silenced by Rome for his theology.

Which Liberation Theology esp American style, began with the devil. Meaning if you do not have benefit others gained under the principle of laws of work/merit, then you are a victim of their oppression, which the Liberal/Communist leaders want to save you from.

Which means after inciting those in 2nd class to expel those in 1st class, all end up in the cargo hold except for the liberal elite saviors, who alone sit in business class, controlling all aspects of survival, so that all must do homage to them. As the devil seeks this via his proxy servants.

Sad to see a church being used to help him.

Ansll2 made quite a preposterous affirmation denoting as much ignorance as bigotry.

Racism exists in greater or lesser amount in every race, ethnic or national group, but Spanish Catholics are probably least racist in the world.

Spanish created a new race, the “mestizo” inter-marrying Indians, Blacks, Philippines, Chinese and every other human being regardless of race or national origin. White Protestants are, in the other hand, the most racist human being. Not inter-race marriage was allowed until very recently.

Protestants didn’t allow even to pray White and Blacks together. Blacks were segregated to pray in Blacks only protestant churches.

In Catholic churches you see praying together at mass and in church events, brother in the faith of every race, ethnic or national church living in the same parish or in any Catholic church around the world.

In 1597 the first hospital opened in what is now the United States in Florida, which at the time was part of the Spanish dominions. In it both Indians and Blacks were treated alike with the Spaniards.

“When the nineteenth century opened, there were only three medical schools in the United States, and only two general hospitals. There were at that time at least eight hospitals in the city of Mexico alone. Two of them, the San Andrés and the Hospital Real of Indians, were large. The San Andrés had 400 beds, all endowed, while the Indian Hospital cared for 350 to 400 patients. In a severe epidemic it cared for over 8,000. Humboldt, a Protestant humanist that visit almost the whole hemisphere, gave the number of beds available as 1,100 in 1803.”

Humboldt was also witness to the scientific progress of Hispanic America praising the great accomplishments in the study of Natural Sciences that had being defrayed by the Crown. After visiting Mexico in 1803, Humboldt maintained: “No city of the New Continent, not even excepting those of the United States, can display such great and solid scientific establishments as the capital of Mexico. The capital and several other cities have scientific establishments, which will bear a comparison with those of Europe... Instruction is communicated gratis at the Academy of Fine Arts and hundreds of young students without consideration of rank, color, and race, were confounded; we see the Indian and the Mestizo sitting beside the white, and the son of a poor artisan in emulation with the children of the great lords of the country... No European government has sacrificed greater sums to advance the knowledge of the vegetal kingdom than the Spanish government... All these researches have not only enriched science with more than four thousand of new species of plants, but have also contributed to diffuse a taste for natural history among the inhabitants of the country.” (32) (*)

Spain vaccinates the natives of America and of Philippines against the smallpox. As American History professor, Dr. Philip W Powell points out, as soon as it was available, “an enlightened Spanish government sponsored very early use of vaccination against smallpox, precisely because the disease was so dangerous to the Indian population.” Along with the gospel, the Spaniards brought the western medical knowledge to America. There was never any attempt of genocide of the Indians on behalf of the Crown, to the contrary. As historian Salvador de Madariaga indicates, “the Spanish Crown constantly reiterated its paramount interest in the natives, this has been a constant feature of the regime, even in its worst days and in the worst governed parts.”

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