It was an historic conference. One participant referred to it as the Woodstock of Pentecostalism. Gathered for two days at the University of Southern California—about three miles from where it all began on Azusa Street a hundred years ago—were scholars and believers. In fact, a few were believing scholars.

The focus was on an objective analysis of the phenomenal growth of Pentecostalism during the last century—a movement that conservatively is estimated to include 350 million people and perhaps as many as half a billion.

A centerpiece of the conference was a new 10-nation poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life with significant funding from the John Templeton Foundation. Combining Pentecostals from historic denominations, such as the Assemblies of God, with Catholic and Protestant charismatics, the Pew Forum found that 60% of Guatemalans fit their umbrella category of “Renewalists,” followed by 56% in Kenya, 49% in Brazil, 44% in the Philippines, 34% in South Africa and 23% in the United States—with India having the lowest percent of the countries surveyed, followed by South Korea at 11%.

In addition to the substantial numbers of Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, there were other surprises. While speaking in tongues is a normative experience in most churches, in six of the 10 countries surveyed approximately four-in-ten respondents said that they never speak or pray in tongues—although a strong majority say they have personally experienced or witnessed divine healing as well as deliverance from demons.

Another surprising finding was the degree of involvement in politics, with at least half of the respondents in nine of the 10 countries saying that religious groups should express their views on day-to-day social and political issues. Even though the survey found Pentecostals to be conservative on issues such as homosexuality, alcohol and divorce, they nearly mirrored the rest of the population on a scale related to how liberal or conservative they are politically. Also, the survey found that Pentecostals and charismatics cannot easily be pigeon-holed on their commitment to social issues—around 90% in most countries thought the church should work for justice for the poor—and there was split opinion among Pentecostals as to whether AIDS is a punishment from God and whether they support the US-led war on terrorism.

The conference, however, was not all facts and statistics. Filmmaker Jim Ault showed clips from his nearly finished documentary on religion in Ghana and Zimbabwe. The audience took a virtual walking tour of historic Pentecostal sites in Los Angeles, conducted by Anthea Butler and also watched scenes of Pentecostal social engagement in South Africa, India, and Egypt. And Margaret Poloma illustrated her discussion of Pentecostal healing with videotape of “holy laughter” in Toronto at the Airport Vineyard Church.

The conference began with two historically oriented papers, one by Cecil “Mel” Robeck, Jr. and the other by Allan Anderson, on the Azusa Street revival and the spread of the movement around the world. In the second day of the conference, activist and pastor Eugene Rivers questioned whether the Black origins of the movement had been suppressed in the narrative that had been posed. Ogbu Kalu argued that too much credit is sometimes given to Colonial missionaries; he said that Pentecostalism fits hand-in-glove with African culture, which is one reason that so many independent Pentecostal churches have been birthed. Afe Adogame argued that we are seeing the early signs of a reverse missionary movement, with Christians from Africa bringing the gospel to “heathens” in Europe and North America.

A major question circulating through the conference was the social and political role of Pentecostalism. Paul Freston noted that an increasing number of Pentecostals are holding elected office in Brazil, but their reputation was recently tarnished by a scandal involving monetary kick-backs. Tim Shah, drawing on Pew Forum data, argued that Pentecostals are disproportionately pro-Zionist and pondered why this is so. Other research indicates that in 20 different countries in the global south Pentecostal churches are increasingly involved in community development projects related to education, healthcare—including addressing the AIDS pandemic—and economic self-sufficiency, though Pentecostal churches tend to create alternative institutions rather than attempt to reform what they often view as corrupt government run programs.

One of the highlights of the conference was a panel the first evening at the historic downtown Millennium Biltmore Hotel in which three LA-based Pentecostal churches showcased their social ministries. The 23,000 member West Angeles Church of God in Christ, which includes such luminaries as Magic Johnson and Denzel Washington, is heavily involved in social programs related to low income housing, teaching mediation skills in schools, and senior care. The Dream Center, started by Assembly of God pastor Tommy Barnett and his son Matthew, purchased Queen of Angeles Hospital and now is running extensive programs dealing with drug abuse, food and clothing distribution, and health care. For worship services they meet three times each weekend in the historic Angeles Temple which was built in the 1920s by Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare Pentecostal denomination.

If there was a tension in the conference, it was between analysts, such as Andrew Chesnut, who attributed the growth of Pentecostalism to superb marketing skills, and theologians such as Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Frank Macchia, and Doug Petersen who clearly believe that the Spirit is at work in supernatural ways. Framing this tension from a scientific perspective was Jeff Schloss, a biologist who holds out a distinct role for the realm of the Spirit within the evolutionary process. And arguing that “culture matters,” but still believing in the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, was Harold Caballeros, the founder of El Shaddai Church in Guatemala.

Links of Interest
For details of the Global Pentecostal Survey, go to:: www.pewforum.org/surveys/pentecostal.

Donald E. Miller is professor of religion at the USC and executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture. He is the co-author of Global Pentecostalism: The new face of Christian social engagement (University of California Press, 2007).

Asking The Big Questions

The John Templeton Foundation supports the development of surveys that provide essential data for scientific discovery on what scientists and philosophers call the “Big Questions.”

How do images of the divine affect social and economic behavior? Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion has launched a groundbreaking national survey to assess American trends and establish national benchmarks on key dimensions of religious behavior and values. Preliminary results are available in a report entitled, “American Piety in the 21st Century: New Insights to the Depths and Complexity of Religion in the U.S.”
www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/33304.pdf
How do we understand the global dynamics of religious competition and the future of religions? In an effort to provide public access to new data to address such a question, The International Religion Data Initiative, lead by Roger Finke at Penn State University, will generate, assemble and disseminate new international survey data through an expanded version of the online Association of Religion Data Archives.
www.TheARDA.com

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