Cultuando a Criminales: los Santos Malandros de Venezuela

Last updated on: August 12, 2021 at 5:40 am By Andrew Chesnut

Por el columnista invitado Lic. Marvin J. Mijares* Desde que tengo uso de razón, he visto y escuchado muchos temas relacionados a las creencias religiosas de los venezolanos, en muchos casos llegando a los extremos, desde un relato de una aparición hasta una posesión demoniaca, cada uno de estos relatos se basan en creencias antiguas, algunas más fuertes y preponderantes que otras. Sin embargo, las creencias religiosas son parte de nuestros ancestros y el culto a la Reina María Lionza... Read more

Sebastian and Santa Muerte – Simpatico Saints of Holy Death and LGBTQ

Last updated on: August 12, 2021 at 4:56 am By Andrew Chesnut

Having contemplated hundreds of Catholic saints over the past decade for my research both on Santa Muerte and Catholic death culture, I am intrigued by one in particular whom I have seen in countless churches across Europe and Latin America. Saint Sebastian was a third-century Roman martyr who during the the intense Diocletianic Persecution of Christians was ordered to face a firing squad of archers for his monotheistic faith. Though shot full of arrows, Sebastian, a Roman solider, miraculously survived,... Read more

Mexican Catholics Turn to the Holy Child Doctor for Healing in Times of Covid-19

Last updated on: May 13, 2021 at 3:23 pm By Andrew Chesnut

By Guest Contributor Dr. Kate Kingsbury* Across Mexico people are turning to miraculous holy healers for protection and healing from Coronavirus, while Santa Muerte as we have detailed is being prayed to for sacred sanation so is a rather more juvenile character who despite wearing extra small size clothing is said locally to be incredibly powerful. Holy Child Doctor of the Sick known as el Niño Doctor is one of the multiple manifestations of the Christ Child in Mexico and... Read more

Sacking the Saints – Pentecostal Persecution of Religious Rivals in Brazil

Last updated on: May 11, 2021 at 8:45 am By Andrew Chesnut

Co-authored by Dr. Ana Keila Mosca Pinezi* and Dr. Andrew Chesnut One of the lamentable new trends on the dynamic religious landscape of Brazil is Pentecostal intolerance and even persecution of its religious rivals. Over the past five decades Pentecostalism has mushroomed in the South American giant to the point that now Brazil is not only home to the largest Catholic population on the planet but also the biggest Pentecostal one. Before the Pentecostal boom, which Chesnut has studied throughout... Read more

Mushroom Mysticism and the Paschal Mystery

Last updated on: March 20, 2021 at 1:45 pm By Andrew Chesnut

By guest contributor Dr. Robert Chesnut* I was working on my divinity degree at Harvard in the early 1960s when stories began to circulate about LSD experiments being conducted in the university’s psychology department. Under the direction of professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, some of my fellow theological students and a group of prison inmates were rumored to be among the experiments’ subjects. Transcendental spiritual experiences and the rehabilitation of hardened criminals were said to be among the early... Read more

2020 Census Reveals Catholic Decline and Protestant Growth in Mexico Under Pope Francis

Last updated on: February 10, 2021 at 11:09 am By Andrew Chesnut

By guest contributor Dr. Alejandro Díaz-Domínguez* This analysis originally appeared in the Nexos online blog “Data Workshop” (Taller de Datos) as “¿Qué nos dice el Censo 2020 sobre religión en México?” available in Spanish here (https://datos.nexos.com.mx/?p=1914). Special thanks to the Nexos editors for kindly accepting the reproduction of this essay, and Professor Andrew Chesnut for publishing this translation. On January 25, the results of Mexico’s 2020 Population and Housing Census were released. The first figures that attracted the most attention... Read more

Mexico’s Dames and Days of Death – Santa Muerte, Catrina Calavera and Dia de los Muertos

Last updated on: October 21, 2020 at 3:32 pm By Andrew Chesnut

Jointly authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury*, David B. Metcalfe**, and Dr. Andrew Chesnut The season of death is upon us. October is here impending Halloween with its cavalcade of crones, ghosts and goblins together with the Catholic holy days of All Saints and All Souls, known in Latin America as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 1st and 2nd. Included in these fall festivals are two familiar faces whose skeletal visages afford them special attention during... Read more

Evangelical Churches Seize Power in Latin America: ‘The Catholic Church Has Been Lax’

Last updated on: October 4, 2020 at 4:38 pm By Andrew Chesnut

“The Bible returns to the presidential palace.” That’s what the Bolivian interim President Jeanine Áñez stated at her inauguration last November. Her turbulent administration is met with a lot of resistance from the ‘left’, but enjoys plenty of support from the Evangelical churches which are rapidly gaining ground throughout Latin America. The presidents of Mexico and Brazil were elected with explicit support from Evangelical churches. The political and religious landscapes of Latin America are shifting rapidly. A proud Catholic church stands on the... Read more

Colonizing Death -American Evangelist Crusades Against Santa Muerte at Landmark Shrine in Tepito

Last updated on: August 29, 2020 at 2:51 pm By Andrew Chesnut

By Dr. Kate Kingsbury and Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut Since what is now the fastest growing new religious movement which centers on the Mexican folk saint of death went public in 2001 it has faced a formidable foe in the Catholic Church. However the latest crusade against Santa Muerte, dubbed by Mexican clergy “a macabre symbol of the drug trade” and a “satanic cult”, comes from Evangelical Protestants. They have also been inveighing against Santa Muerte for many years... Read more

‘God’s Battle Axe and Weapon of War’ – The African Pentecostalism of Trump’s COVID Doctor, Pastor Stella Immanuel

Last updated on: July 30, 2020 at 4:56 pm By Andrew Chesnut

Co-authored by Dr. Andrew Chesnut and Dr. Kate Kingsbury* Glaringly absent from most of the news stories on the notorious Houston-based physician and pastor Dr. Stella Immanuel, who has gone viral for her recent endorsement by President Trump, is her religious affiliation.Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a video in which Dr. Immanuel as part of the insidious cabal of physicians “America’s Frontline Doctors” promoted hydroxychloroquine as an efficacious treatment for COVID-19 and questioned the effectiveness of masks... Read more