{"id":22997,"date":"2013-05-11T09:09:26","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T13:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=22997"},"modified":"2016-09-30T16:51:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T20:51:41","slug":"more-latinos-leaving-catholic-church-for-evangelical-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/05\/more-latinos-leaving-catholic-church-for-evangelical-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"More Latinos leaving Catholic Church for Evangelical churches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An explanation:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alfredo De Jesus is a fire-and-brimstone preacher who represents a global groundswell of Hispanics who\u2019ve left the Catholic Church to become Protestant Evangelical Christians.<\/p>\n

De Jesus pastors the New Life Church in Chicago, helping to expand it from 120 members in 2000 to over 17,000 today on multiple campuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Evangelical church, we find freedom to worship, and with Hispanics, it\u2019s in us to be able to love people. Naturally, we just love people. We are hugging people,\u201d De Jesus said.<\/p>\n

Latinos make up the largest ethnic minority in the United States \u2014 52 million, according to latest Census stats. The majority \u2014 two-thirds \u2014 are still traditionally Roman Catholic. But there\u2019s been a palpable shift from one generation to the next, with the newer ones being \u201cborn again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evangelicals now number about 20 percent of the Latino population, according to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.<\/p>\n

The change poses the greatest concern for the Catholic Church \u2014 though many are leaving for evangelical churches, the volume of Catholics had remained steady primarily through immigration from Mexico and Central American countries.<\/p>\n

The irony is that many evangelical converts tend to more closely mirror Catholic teaching on issues like abortion and gay marriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an odd mixture where the Roman Catholic church is losing members but in so far as those members going to Pentecostal<\/a> Evangelicals, they are in fact becoming more closely identified and more supportive of the Roman Catholic Church on these social issues,\u201d said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the difference?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the relationship between worshiper and God that each denomination affords its respective followers, according to De Jesus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I have seen, at least in my own experience, is this encounter with God that we didn\u2019t experience in the Catholic Church,\u201d he said. \u201cA system that was so rigid and God seemed so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the election of Pope Francis, the first pope from Latin America, the Catholic Church is hoping to halt the exodus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read it all.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An explanation:\u00a0 Alfredo De Jesus is a fire-and-brimstone preacher who represents a global groundswell of Hispanics who\u2019ve left the Catholic Church to become Protestant Evangelical Christians. De Jesus pastors the New Life Church in Chicago, helping to expand it from 120 members in 2000 to over 17,000 today on multiple campuses. \u201cIn the Evangelical church, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1022,45,48],"tags":[11212],"class_list":["post-22997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hispanics","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-the-people-in-the-pews","tag-hispanics"],"yoast_head":"\nMore Latinos leaving Catholic Church for Evangelical churches<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An explanation:\u00a0 Alfredo De Jesus is a fire-and-brimstone preacher who represents a global groundswell of Hispanics who've left the Catholic Church to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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