Malice in Wonderland

Back again after a while of heavy traveling and incredible hectiness...

Colombia is in the forefront again. A recent international study concludes that Colombia is the most violent country in the region, followed closely by Venezuela and Haiti. I just visited Guatemala a few weeks ago and several Guatemalans told me then that they think their country should be considered among the most dangerous places to live in, for their levels of violent crime (as people in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro had already told me a few months before). At any rate, looks like our region is far from becoming a more livable place for most people. Now think of this: Guatemala and Brazil are considered the most heavily evangelised countries in the whole of Latin America, to the extent that it is based on what has been happening in those two countries that some ill-informed academics as well as missionaries and national church leaders --probably with obscure intentions-- started talking some years ago of a great "Latin American Revival".


Some people affirm that in Guatemala, for example, a good 70% of the population are Christians, and in Brazil, one single denomination claims to have almost 50 million members (of a total of around 180 million inhabitants in the whole country). If these statistics would be crossed with the numbers of people involved in corruption, drug dealing, or membership of the many infamous gangs that infest both countries and even rule in vast extensions of their territories, there would not be enough "non-Christians" to make up for the difference. Therefore, either those statistics are wrong, or many drug dealers, gang members, assassins and other representatives of the criminal fauna are regular church-goers. Where is the truth? Honestly, I don´t know where the truth regarding this particular issue is, but I will venture a possible explanation for this baffling paradox.

On the one hand, statistics in this part of the world are normally as trustworthy as your daily horoscope, tailored for you by a drunk, half schizophrenic substitute, amateur astrologist (the real professor Kandrix attending unexpected, unforeseen circumstances in his life). In Colombia the die-hard optimists say all non-Catholic Christians put together comprise around 10% ...and apart from the fact that you would never be able to put them together in any real sense, a more real appraisal would put regular attendance to Protestant/Evangelical churches at about 3 to 5% of the total population at best. So yes, numbers are growing, but not at the phenomenal rate that some people report.

Secondly, I would stress that it is very different to speak of a percentage of a country´s population being Christians, and another very different one is to talk about church attendance. Why do I say this? it´s simple: because more and more I meet people who regularly go to church, who religiously bring in their financial contributions, who know all the songs, who speak the language but who --as a whole-- fail to impress me as disciples and followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the risen Saviour, the one who lives and is to come. Of course I can´t claim I know that for a fact (and my Lord has told me not to even try to separate the wheat from the weed... that´s none of my business)... all I´m saying is that if we are to know who people are by the fruit evident in their lives and by their expressions of belief (i.e. by their expressions of faith and conduct, if you like), there´s very little there that the average born-again Bible-believing Christian could recognise as part of his or her own understanding of what being that (a Christian) means. Salvation by deeds, liturgy over obedience, experience over truth, religion over discipleship, the mixing of New Age rubbish with evangelical ideas, sect-like attitudes and a mind- boggling lack of knowledge of even the very basics of the Bible´s content and message are the staple diet in most of the so-called Christian churches you can come across around here (the logical result of running around all kinds of signs and wonders, and of preferring "prophecy" over exploring and expounding the Scriptures).

Cash Luna, a very popular "preacher" and televangelist, a very influential guru of Theology of Prosperity, and an idol for thousands upon thousands of non-discerning Christians in the Spanish-speaking world.














Thirdly, although numbers are growing --and that is true even in real, sane churches-- this is a far cry from any real revival in history I can think of. Revivals changed dramatically the deepest structures of the communities where they happened, albeit in some cases the results did not last more than a generation, as sometimes one generation was deeply changed and the next returned to its old ways, but in this case, not even the generation currently coming to a real saving faith is generating any visible change in its culture, its community, its country. So there is growth, there is impact, but not any real revival as far as can be seen so far.

The seed keeps on being sown, the truth keeps on being preached and taught. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of not perfect but faithful believers preach with their lives and touch other lives with the message of the Gospel, many men and women sacrificially devote their lives to reach others in situations of need both spiritual and material in the name of Jesus Christ... all that is good reason to praise the Lord, good reason to keep on praying for these countries, good reason to keep on sending our sons and daughters in mission, good reason for joy and hope and work and believe, although the statistics, and the visible realities that surround us may seem horrible enough to make us cry and lure us into the temptation to despair... may God help us not to!