Is the rise of global Pentecostalism beneficial to America’s interest? Walter Russel Mead thinks it may be:
Christianity is not only the world’s largest and fastest-growing faith. Christianity is also the world’s most pro-American faith. Not all Christians like American values and American ideas; from Pope Pius IX to Dietrich Bonhoeffer modern European religious history is filled with Christian thinkers and writers who have been almost as horrified and appalled by American-style capitalism and society as Sayyid Qutb. Yet during the Cold War and again today in the struggle against the Force That Must Not Be Named overwhelming numbers of Christians worldwide, and especially in the developing countries, instinctively sided with the United States and saw us as the good guys.
And the fastest growing force within global Christianity is the most pro-American group within it: the global Pentecostal movement has grown from zero to something like half a billion members in the last 100 years. This is the fastest growth in percentage terms for any religious movement in world history, and in Africa, Asia and Latin America the growth continues today.
[ . . . ]
Christianity does not make people pro-American, but Christian faith gives people a perspective on life that is often congruent with American beliefs and ideals (if not always concrete American actions). For Pentecostals in many developing countries, America and its friends are seen as good guys upholding freedom of religion (including the freedom to share your religion with your neighbors) and promoting economic development. The radical terrorists and their various nasty allies are seen as murdering thugs who persecute Christian believers and fight the spread of God’s truth.
May 30th, 2010 | 9:01 am
I know the author added some qualifiers at the end, but, as a pentecostal, I find his analysis to be outright blasphemous. On the surface, he seems to be fool enough to cast his lot with the power of Caesar rather than the kingdom of God; he should not simply assume that pentecostals lack the discernment to do otherwise. In these last days, God is pouring out his Spirit on the poor, and the reasons for and effects of this outpouring have little to do with the geopolitical manipulations of the proud, who will only be undermined if they seek to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Despite the necessity for some analysis of the political impact of the movement, why does the author never care to mention that pentecostals believe in Jesus as Savior, Spirit-Baptizer, Healer, and Coming King? Maybe that’s less politically useful than his ephemeral speculations.
And why are African Americans who are not pentecostal somehow especially prone to jihadism? I hesitate to use the word ‘racism’, but I have trouble otherwise parsing such an absurd insinuation.
May 30th, 2010 | 11:04 am
Nice piece, Mr. Carter. The 1970′s oil crisis and boom enriched mostly traditional Islamic countries which have used this windfall of wealth to aggressively promote Islam all over the developing world, and even in Europe and the US. Back at that time, Christianity looked like it was going to fade, largely because people saw Europe as the model for all the world, as nations became modernized and prosperous. Hence, the view many commentators took was that Islam was in the ascendency and would eventually triumph. The Islamic Revolution in Iran was seen as the first vindication of this prediction.
In fact, the 1970′s turned out to be the highwater mark for Islam. It’s been all downhill since then, including in Iran where most youth no longer are faithful Muslims. David Goldman has written about the implications of the growth of Christianity in Africa and China particularly, and the importance this will have for Israel in its regional conflicts.
The most interesting thing to note here is how wrong most of our elite commentators and policy makers have been. It is not democracy and liberalism that are engaging the minds and hearts of people in the developing world. That’s just not how things have worked out. It’s religious life, especially American-style Evangelical Christianity that most appeals to people in the key parts of the developing world. Not everyone is enamored of western-type democracy, and even fewer are enamored of liberalism. But almost all people want hope and inspiration in their life and they will flock to those who offer it. The secular left today has nothing to offer except despair and world-weariness. Hence, the outcome that this article nicely summarizes.
May 30th, 2010 | 3:42 pm
Thanks Joe for posting this piece. As a pentecostal too, I find that there is much that Mead leaves out. For example, his argument works only if you taken the Word of Faith aspect of pentecostalism. However, this is only one part of the movement.
One of the reasons why pentecostalism is growing in Africa is that its view of sin, with the focus on sin and death as “powers” to be overcome, resonates with an African worldview. The emphasis is less on guilt than on deliverance.
Mead also does not seem to be aware of pentecostal theologians like Frank Chicane, who was imprisoned in South Africa and became part of the new govt after Apartheid. Or, Juan Selpulveda and Dario Lopez in South America, both of whom espouse a form of liberation theology. This is because the pentecostal notion of deliverance is closely connected to liberation in Spanish with liberacion being used in reference to liberation from the demonic, from sin, and from oppressive political powers. This is not so “American” as Mead suggests.
Also, it’s pentecostals in the global south who are joining the WCC and pushing American pentecostals to do so; and pentecostalism on the whole has always had women ministers (long before the modern debates) even if it has been inconsistent in its theology.
What holds these camps together is an understanding of salvation as deliverance from sin in all of its permutations.
May 30th, 2010 | 6:02 pm
To translate Mead’s essay: Pentecostalist’s God is good because He is a friend to our Caesar.
May 31st, 2010 | 9:18 am
The case of Guatemala can be instructive when one Christian faith is replaced by another, more politically correct to the oligarchy.
June 1st, 2010 | 10:50 pm
I’ll be looking forward to what Amos Yong has to say about all of this in his upcoming *In the Days of Caesar: Pentecostalism and Political Theology* (Eerdmans, August 2010).
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