Salon.com > Dan Ramirez http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Christianity's Race-Mixers http://www.salon.com/1997/05/19/news_372/ http://www.salon.com/1997/05/19/news_372/#comments Mon, 19 May 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/05/19/news LOS ANGELES -- "Whites and blacks mix in a religious frenzy," was how local newspapers derided the Pentecostal movement's first meeting. The gathering of black and white worshippers in a "barn-like negro church" on Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906 left the Times surprised that "any respectable white persons ... cast in their lot with the negro ranters."

Many "respectable whites" must have turned a deaf ear. On Sunday, some 400 million Pentecostals, charismatics and other "tongues-speaking" progeny of that original Los Angeles revival gathered to celebrate the feast of the Pentecost -- that moment when the Holy Spirit appeared before the Apostles, occasioning uninhibited celebration among believers.

They have much to celebrate. Some two-thirds of all Latin American Evangelicals are Pentecostals, and several traditionally Catholic countries, energized by the revivalist enthusiasm, are projected to transform into majority-Protestant status within the next 50 years. The movement has grown so dramatically in 100 years that some theologians call it "Christianity's Third Force."

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