{"id":6360,"date":"2014-03-29T14:53:16","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T20:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6360"},"modified":"2014-03-29T14:53:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T20:53:16","slug":"the-pentecostal-drift-and-modern-paganism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6360","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Pentecostal Drift’ and Modern Paganism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Religion blogger Peter Berger, melding articles from\u00a0 The Tablet<\/em> (Roman Catholic) and The Christian Century<\/em> (mainline Protestant) notes “the major demographic shift in world Christianity\u2014the fact that more Christians now live in the Global South: Asia, Africa, Latin America\u2014than in the old Christian homelands of Europe and North America<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

With this shift goes huge growth in Pentecostal Christianity\u2014Protestant churches emphasizing ecstatic worship and the “gifts of the Holy Spirit,” such as speaking in tongues and faith-healing. (The modern Pentecostal movement began in Los Angeles in 1906<\/a>\u2014the same month as the great San Francisco earthquake and fire. Some of them see a connection<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In 1970 Pentecostals were 5% of world Christians; today the figure is 25%! 80% of Christian converts in Asia are Pentecostal! I\u2019m not quite clear how this arithmetic is worked out, but the Christian Century<\/i> story asserts that one of twelve people alive today is Pentecostal! Not surprisingly, the [recent Pentecostal World Conference] in Kuala Lumpur was \u201cyoung, vibrant and confident\u201d. No stepping around quietly so as not to offend Muslim sensitivities!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is, for example, major competition between (often Pentecostal) Christians and Muslims for conversions in sub-Saharan Africa. Sometimes it is bloody\u2014see the recent news from Nigeria and the Central African Republic, for example. Some conflicts that are not religious on the surface become divided on religious lines.<\/p>\n

So what is the Pagan angle? For one, Pentecostal Christians (and many Muslims) see the world as a scene of spiritual warfare. (See, for instance, “Saudi Arabia’s War on Witchcraft<\/a>.”) Both groups battle demons and “demonic” practitioners.\u00a0 Consequently, followers of traditional animist\/polythestic religions as well as new Pagans are going to continue to be targeted.<\/p>\n

If you are reading this, chances are that you live in a culture where the notions of religious freedom and individual religious choice have at least some weight. But from a global perspective, isn’t that a minority view \u2014 no matter how many interfaith congresses and parliaments there are?<\/p>\n

I am all for religious freedom, but much of the world has a very limited idea as to what that means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Religion blogger Peter Berger, melding articles from\u00a0 The Tablet (Roman Catholic) and The Christian Century (mainline Protestant) notes “the major demographic shift in world Christianity\u2014the fact that more Christians now live in the Global South: Asia, Africa, Latin America\u2014than in the old Christian homelands of Europe and North America.” With this shift goes huge growth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,15,95,152],"class_list":["post-6360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christianity","tag-islam","tag-journalism","tag-tribal-religion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1EA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=828","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":0},"title":"The tricky side of charisma","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Over at GetReligion, a blog devoted to the collision of religion and journalism, Terry Mattingly links to a story of a Pentecostal preacher in trouble.The details do not concern me. What caught my eye was this part of the linked posting:Again, in my opinion, this false teaching arose because church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2748,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2748","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":1},"title":"Army Appoints Hindu Chaplain (Sort of)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There about 1,000 identified Hindus in the U.S. Army, and now they have a chaplain, Captain Pratima Dharm. Yes, that is probably fewer than the followers of Pagan paths in uniform. The Buddhists have been recognized too, but a qualified Wiccan officer was rejected. But there might be more to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5289,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5289","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":2},"title":"Is Paganism Doomed?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"No, this is not the judgment of one of the usual (Pagan) suspects. It is a tangent spun off a column by Rod Dreher, who comments frequently on ecclesiastical matters. He was raised a southern Protestant, converted to Roman Catholicism, left that church over the sex-abuse scandals, and is now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13326,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13326","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":3},"title":"Look, the Son is Rising","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It's that magical time of year, when Christianity does seem to resemble a solar cult, much to the satisfaction of all the internet scholars who say that Jesus is really just the same as Osiris, Adonis, Dumuzid, Mithras, Sol Invictus, Baldur, etc. But at the same time, if I had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/jackson-hill-easter-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/jackson-hill-easter-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/jackson-hill-easter-.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/jackson-hill-easter-.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10111,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10111","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":4},"title":"Which “Paganism” Did the New York Times Mean?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When New York Times (mostly) political columnist Ross Douthat wrote a December 12 column titled \"The Return of Paganism: Maybe There Actually is a Genuinely Post-Christian Future for America,\" some Pagans got a little too excited \u2014 look, the NYT is writing about us! Remember, there are at least three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4062,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4062","url_meta":{"origin":6360,"position":5},"title":"What’s Your Religious IQ?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I blogged yesterday, too much reporting on religion is written by people who are religiously illiterate \u2014 and, sometimes, proud of it. Every reporter at least ought to score well on this quiz from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Go ahead, take it. Fifteen questions \u2014\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6360"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6362,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions\/6362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}