CV NEWS FEED // American Latinos are increasingly beginning to convert to Pentecostal evangelicalism, according to a recent book and statistics from Pew Research.
The Free Press published an excerpt from LatinoLand, a new book by Peruvian-American author Marie Arana that takes a look at American Latinos’ political and religious affiliations.
Arana wrote that Pentecostal megachurches are attracting more Latinos because of the religion’s charisms, claiming that Pentecostalism encourages Latinos to “speak, shout, share the faith, hug a stranger, join the family.”
She also wrote that roughly two-thirds of America Latinos were raised Catholic but almost a quarter of them have left the Church, adding that one out of three fallen-away Latino Catholics has become a Pentecostal.
“In fact, some researchers project that by 2030, half of the entire population of American Latinos will identify as Protestant evangelicals,” she continued. “Compare that growth with white evangelical Protestants, whose numbers have declined from 23 percent of the American population in 2006 to 14 percent in 2020.”
“With the Hispanic population’s projected growth, in less than a decade, we may see forty million Latinos—a congregation the size of California—heading to American evangelical churches every Sunday,” she added.
She also pointed out that Pentecostals tend to hold conservative values, which is one explanation for why traditionally Democratic Latinos are turning Republican.
According to Arana, Pentecostalism has seen the rise of megachurches, which provide an enormous community for Christians. In addition to places of worship, the megachurches can also provide educational services such as music and English classes, speed-dating events, financial advising, counseling, and more.
“For those who need assistance reading a legal document in English, or applying for a green card, or even finding the right childcare, the church becomes a one-stop destination,” she wrote.
She continued:
This network of support is a powerful magnet for a working-class cohort attracted to the lure of economic advancement—the promise that, once they ascend the money ladder, they can redraw themselves as not poor, not inferior, not objects of prejudice, but as inheritors of the beautiful “reset” that is implicit in the American Dream.
