Recently more than 100,000 Peruvians flocked to hear Argentinean evangelist Alberto Motessi preach a way to eternal salvation. The huge turnout for the week-long Pentecostal crusade highlighted an unprecedented religious shift in this traditionally Catholic nation.
The most recent Peruvian census shows the evangelical Pentecostal movement has grown from two percent of the population a generation ago to ten percent today. If the current annual growth rate of 17 percent continues, one-fourth of Peru could be evangelical Protestant by 2003. What is happening here parallels what is occurring in other Latin American countries like Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Guatemala.
The revival fires are catching on mainly among Peru's dark-skinned poor. Not since Incan times has religion empowered the Andean people as the Pentecostal movement is doing today. Its belief in daily supernatural works of God such as physical healings, the toppling of evil doers, and the prospering of family finances, is sprouting countless congregations in Peru's shanty towns.
A similar Protestant movement with more westernized trappings and influences - - called charismatic - - is growing among Peru's mestizo and white middle class who are as eager to tap into a higher power to realize their thwarted ambitions as are the poor.
One street vendor who recently converted from Catholicism to Pentecostalism told a priest who teaches at Catholic University in Lima, how God saved her and her children from starving. She told of how a dream inspired her to change the goods at her vegetable stand from tomatoes and potatoes to Chinese vegetables and spices. Her floundering business prospered and with the earnings her daughter and son-in-law were able to build a modest home. "My Dad (God) showed me my products," she said. "We are a poor people, now I have the blessing of the Lord. The Lord is good, you give your heart and you have everything you need" http:www.loritapia.com/andrestapia.htm
Teaching that God has the same power today to perform Biblical miracles like parting the seas, resurrecting the dead, feeding multitudes from Heaven, the movement has triggered a cultural transformation among its adherents. Gone is the long-suffering fatalism for which Peruvians have long been known. In its place is a new confidence inspired by faith that there is a higher authority acting in their behalf that is larger than the state, Shining Path, the bureaucrats, even the military.
A religion that says that the poor is dangerous in a country where 75 percent of the population is poor and has traditionally felt powerless to change their condition," says Peruvian sociologist Oscar Amat who is also an evangelical.
It is precisely during the terror years of the Shining Path - - the 1980s and early 90s - - that Pentecostalism began its explosive growth. "It was the flip side of the same coin," says Samuel Escobar, a Peruvian theologian at Eastern Seminary in Philadelphia. "Those flocking to Shining Path and the Pentecostals were both seeking a powerful break with injustice, only the means differed. One hung their enemies from lamp posts, the other prayed for them instead" http://www.loritapia.com/andrestapia.htm With Shining Path's decline, Pentecostalism has emerged as the winner for the souls of poor Peruvians.
The power of the gospel is an experiential rather than an intellectual one for those converting to Pentecostalism. God is seen as answering immediate needs: A husband stops drinking and is more loving toward his family, a wayward mother comes back to her home, children begin to do well in school.
As the Pentecostal movement attracts more and more Catholics, the Church has been forced to reevaluate itself. A popular Sunday morning charismatic Catholic mass now broadcasts on TV every Sunday morning, with healings and "words from the Lord." At parishes Catholics are finding more charismatic priests who allow contemporary worship and encourage lay participation - - features once only offered by the upstart Pentecostals and charismatics.
But Pentecostals and charismatics believe that God is using those who have been marginalized by the religious establishment to bring about a renewal of calcified religious institutions and society in generals. "There's going to be a great revival in Peru - - it's uncontainable," says Humberto Lay, pastor of the 3,000 member charismatic Iglessia Emmanueld, the fastest growing church in Peru. Down the hall from Lay's church office, posted signs call "prayer warriors" to a prayer meeting quoting the Old Testament's Zechariah 4:6: "Not with an army or force but by my Spirit, says the Lord" http://www/loritapia.com/andrestapia/html