Latinizing American Christianity: pluralism, Pentecostalism and the future of American Catholicism.

The findings in this essay are based on the Hispanic Churches in American Public Life research project, directed and managed by Virgilio Elizondo of the University of Notre Dame, Jesse Miranda of Vanguard University and Gaston Espinosa of Claremont McKenna College. This four-year study (1999-2003) was funded by a $1.3 million grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. It fielded the HCAPL national survey, one of the largest and most comprehensive bilingual surveys in history on Latino religions and politics. The HCAPL surveyed 2,060 Latinos across the U.S.

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MAJOR DEBATE HAS erupted over Latino religious affiliation in the United States. Sociologist Andrew Greeley of the University of Chicago has argued that the Catholic church is experiencing mass defections of Latino Catholics to Evangelical and mainline Protestantism. The Hispanic Churches in American Public Life (HCAPL) national survey refines and revises this finding and argues that although Roman Catholicism is witnessing mass defections, it is still experiencing unprecedented numerical growth.

Catholic defections are benefiting not only Evangelicals and mainline Protestants, but also Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists and other world religions and metaphysical traditions. In short, the Latino religious marketplace, although predominantly Christian, is increasingly denominationally and religiously pluralistic. The day has long since passed when one could assume that to be Latino was to be Roman Catholic.

THE CRISIS OF LATINO CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS SWITCHING

Andrew Greeley ignited the crisis over mass defections when he wrote in America in 1989 that 60,000 Latinos were defecting every year from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism. Drawing upon the General Social Survey at the University of Chicago, he estimated that r million Latinos had left the Catholic church in the United States between 1972 and 1989. Nine years later he wrote in the same periodical that these defections had grown worse, with as many as 600,000 Latinos leaving the church annually. These defections resulted in the Latino Catholic population declining from 77 percent in 1972-1974 to 70 percent by the mid-1990s, he reported.

Greeley lamented that one out of seven Hispanics had left Catholicism in less than a quarter of a century and that if this "hemorrhaging" continued, half of American Hispanics would not be Catholic in 25 years. Far from being a sporadic episode in the story of American Catholicism, he warned, this would continue. He called these mass defections "an ecclesiastical failure of unprecedented proportions" and the "worst defection in the history of the Catholic church in the United States." He ended his lament by chastising the Catholic hierarchy for its "dereliction of duty" and for its inability or unwillingness to stem the tide of these "cataclysmic" defections. Greeley's trumpet blast did not attract a single public response or outcry from a cardinal, archbishop, bishop, priest or clergyman working with Hispanics, he claimed. He found this remarkable and indicative of the deep-seated problem facing American Catholicism.

The HCAPL survey in the fall of 2000 confirmed and revised some of Greeley's findings. The survey found that 70 percent of all Latino adults self-identified as Roman Catholic--the exact figure that Greeley reported in 1997. However, it would be inaccurate to conclude that the Latino Catholic population has remained relatively stable, because the General Social Survey captured the attitudes of primarily second- and third-generation English-speaking Latinos--those most likely to be Protestant. The actual percentage of Latinos that were Roman Catholic in 1997 was probably around 74 percent--the percentage of immigrants that self-identified as Roman Catholic in the HCAPL survey. Further evidence for mass defections includes the fact that the percentage of Latino Catholics drops from 74 percent among the first generation to 62 percent by the third. At the same time, the percentage of Latino Protestants and other non-Catholic Christians increases from one in six (15%) among the first generation to almost one in three (29%) by the third generation. Furthermore, although 700,000 Latinos indicated that they "recently converted" or returned to Catholicism from a non-Catholic tradition, over 3 million Latinos recently converted away from Catholicism. Thus, for every Latino that returned to Catholicism, four left it. Contrary to the popular perception that vulnerable immigrants were falling prey to proselytizers, the HCAPL survey found that a clear majority of Latino converts were second- or third-generation U.S. citizens (57%).

THE PENTECOSTALIZATION OF LATINO CHRISTIANITY

Who benefited from the mass defections? Evangelical and mainline Protestants, Greeley argued. He went so far as to state that almost half of all Latino Protestants "belong to moderate or even liberal Protestant denominations." The HCAPL survey found this was not the case. The major surprise was that the Pentecostals were benefiting the most from these mass defections. In fact, we are witnessing the Pentecostalization of Latino Christianity. This is borne out in the HCAPL survey, which found that 64 percent of all Latino Protestants self-identified as Pentecostal or Charismatic. The Pentecostal movement has also entered into non-Pentecostal traditions. The HCAPL survey found that 22 percent of Latino Catholics, 21 percent of Latino mainline Protestants and 51 percent of Latino Evangelicals not associated with Pentecostal denominations self-identified as Pentecostal, charismatic, or spirit-filled. The Pentecostal movement teaches that people should be baptized in the Holy Spirit, speak in unknown tongues and practice the spiritual gifts listed in I Corinthians 12 and 14. It is also particularly known for prayer for divine healing, emphasis on enthusiastic worship services and allowing women in the ordained ministry. Charismatics affirm that practice of the spiritual gifts but choose to remain within their non-Pentecostal traditions to bring about spiritual renewal. The growth of the Latino Catholic Charismatic movement was confirmed in Bishop Gerald K. Barnes' Hispanic Ministry at the Turn of the Millennium: A Report of the Bishop's Committee on Hispanic Affairs, which found that the Charismatic movement was active in 36 percent of all Hispanic-serving parishes, thus making it more common than either the Cursillo (31%) or Christian Base Communities (13%).

The Pentecostal movement has contributed to the growth of Latino Evangelicalism across denominations. Latino Evangelicals emphasize having a personal, born-again relationship with Jesus Christ. The HCAPL survey found that 88 percent of Latino Protestants, 43 percent of Latino mainline Protestants and 26 percent of Latino Catholics self-identified as born-again Christian. The growth of Protestantism was noted in Barnes' report, which found that the percentage of diocesan directors who said that Protestant groups were affecting Hispanics to a "great extent" had increased by over 400 percent from 12 percent in 1990 to 52 percent in 1998. The report also noted that Protestants were most effective with both the newest and poorest immigrants and middle-class Hispanics. All of these findings refine and revise Greeley's claim that half of all Latino Protestants "belong to moderate or even liberal Protestant denominations." In fact, the HCAPL survey found that Latino mainline Protestants made up 14.8 percent of all Latino Protestants. This figure includes those who are also born-again (43%) and Pentecostal, charismatic, or spirit-filled (21%). Combined across all religious traditions, 37 percent of Latinos reported being born-again Christian and 28 percent reported being Pentecostal, charismatic or spirit-filled.

EXPLAINING LATINO CATHOLIC SWITCHING

How do we explain Latino Catholic defections? Four factors contribute. First, there are simply not enough parishes to minister effectively to the nation's 30 million Latino Catholics. Mary Gautier at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate indicated in 2003 that only 22 percent (4,224) of the nation's 47,511 Catholic parishes had identified ministries to Latinos. This means that 78 percent of all Catholic parishes did not have such ministries, despite the fact that Latinos now constitute almost 40 percent of the Catholic church in the U.S.

Second, there are not enough Latino and Spanish-speaking priests. According to Gautier, Latinos make up 4 percent of all Catholic women religious, 5 percent of all priests, and 9 percent of all bishops, even though Latinos make up almost 40 percent of the U.S. church. Of the 47,511 priests in the United States in 2003, only 2,175 were Latino, and of the 85,000 women religious, only 3,400 were Latina. There is only one Latino Catholic priest for every 11,500 Latinos (a rate that is actually higher than in Latin America, where Brian H. Smith has noted the ratio is one priest for every 10,000 Catholics). The shortage of priests is further complicated by the fact that more than two-thirds of all Latino priests were born and raised outside of the United States--in Latin America or Spain, for example. Many of them come from different cultural, class, and socioeconomic backgrounds than their U.S. parishioners. This has contributed to an often unspoken chasm between some foreign-born priests and their working-class U.S.-born parishioners. These factors have made it particularly difficult for Latin American-born priests to work with second- and third-generation inner-city Latino youth. The clergy shortages and difficulties are not likely to go away any time soon, as there were only 511 Latinos nationwide seeking vocations and attending Catholic seminaries. These factors, along with reports that non-Hispanic priests are not prepared to work effectively with Hispanics and that continuing clergy education in Hispanic ministry for non-Hispanic priests and sisters is actually declining, make the low number of U.S.-born Latino clergy all the more acute.

Third, there has been a steady decline in the number of faith-based sociopolitical movements like liberation theology and Christian Base Communities, despite interest in Catholic seminaries and universities. Barnes found that only 13 percent of U.S. Catholic Hispanic-serving parishes sponsor Christian Base Communities and that their numbers appeared to be declining. This is an important development, because the Christian Base Communities have been some of the most vocal groups pressing the church for more native clergy and Hispanic ministries.

The fourth and most important external reason for the mass defections and religious switching is proselytism. As already noted, more than 3 million Latinos had recently left the Catholic church at the time of the HCAPL survey. At the parish level, Barnes' report found that the percentage of diocesan directors who said that Protestant groups were affecting Hispanics to a "great extent" had increased from 12 percent in 1990 to 52 percent in 1998.

LATINO ALTERNATIVE CHRISTIAN, WORLD RELIGION AND METAPHYSICAL TRADITIONS

Contrary to the findings of Andrew Greeley and others, the HCAPL survey found that alternative Christians made up 3 percent of all Latinos (44 million), 10 percent of all non-Catholics, and 13 percent of all non-Catholic Christians. The Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons ranked as the largest and eighth-largest Christian traditions in the Latino community. There were more than 1 million Latino Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons in the U.S. The Jehovah's Witness are the largest single self-identified non-Catholic Christian tradition in the United States, followed by three Pentecostal traditions--the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Church of God and the Assembly of Christian Churches.

The impact of alternative Christian traditions is not only evident in the growth of Latino Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, but also in other alternative Christian traditions such as the Seventh-day Adventists and the Oneness Pentecostals--the latter of which reject the doctrine of the Trinity and insist that true Christians must be baptized in Jesus' name only for salvation. Regardless of the orthodoxy of their theology, together, Adventists and Oneness Pentecostals number approximately half a million people. These alternative traditions not only are four of the 10 largest non-Catholic religious traditions in the U.S., but also can claim greater numbers than all Latino Mainline Protestants combined. They make up 15 percent of all non-Catholics and 20 percent of all non-Catholic Christians.

An equally surprising finding was the high number of Latinos that identified with world religions, metaphysical and occult traditions and non-denominational Protestantism. The HCAPL survey found that only 1 percent of all Latinos were affiliated exclusively with a world religion or non-Christian tradition. In fact, 93 percent of Latinos self-identify as Christian. Many have suggested that the lack of attraction to Judaism and Islam is due to a historic anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish apologetic birthed during Ferdinand and Isabella's reconquista of Spain in the 16th century and brought to Latin America by the Spanish conquistadors and Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian and Jesuit missionaries. The HCAPL survey found, though, that some Latinos are embracing Islam, Judaism and eastern religions. The most popular world religion among Latinos is Buddhism. The HCAPL survey found that almost 95,000 Latinos self-identified as Buddhist. There are almost three times more Latino Buddhists than Latino Muslims or Jews. This may be largely due to the meditative and contemplative nature of Buddhism.

Although Latino interest in Islam was catapulted into the national spotlight with the arrest of alleged jihadist terrorist Jose Padilla, Latino Muslims represent a comparatively small tradition. The HCAPL survey found that 32,000 Latinos self-identified as Muslim and another 21,000 self-identified as Jewish. While too few in number of make statistical generalizations, Latinos also mentioned practicing Hinduism, Taoism, paganism, Satanism, spiritualism, deism, mixed traditions and Native American spiritual traditions. Despite their relatively small numbers, there are almost more Latino practitioners of world religions than all Latino Methodists, Presbyterians, and Disciples of Christ combined.

These numbers may not appear significant, but they represent real if modest movement toward religious pluralism in the Latino community. As significant as they are, they do not fully capture the growing diversity and pluralism. The HCAPL survey also found that a significant percentage of Latinos believe in the practice of metaphysical traditions like spiritism, witchcraft and combinative popular Catholic healing traditions like curanderismo. The survey found that 17.1 percent of all Latinos believe in the practice of spiritism, curanderismo, witchcraft, or all of the above. When broken down individually, 2.5 percent of all Latinos said they believe in the practice of spiritism, 1.7 percent believed in the practice of witchcraft, 1.3 percent believed in the practice of curanderismo, and 11.7 percent believed in the practice of all of the above. To put these numbers in comparative perspective, there are more Latinos who believe in the practice of spiritism than Jehovah's Witnesses or Assemblies of God practitioners, and more people who believe in the practice of witchcraft than Latino Southern Baptists. All combined, 15.9 percent of the Latino population indicated that they believe in the practice of one or more of these meta physical traditions (excluding curanderismo), thus making them more numerous than all Latino Pentecostals and Evangelicals (excluding Protestant and Catholic charismatics) at 15.4 percent. Whether or not this is simply an acknowledgement that these traditions exist, or is in fact an actual affirmation that they practice these traditions, in uncertain.

The growth of Protestantism, non-Christian traditions and pluralism is contributing to an increasing number of Latinos choosing to self-identify as nondenominational, other, something else or as having no religious preference. For example, our survey found that almost 20 percent of Latino non-Catholics said they were non-denominational, had no particular religious preference, chose not to specify their religious tradition or were atheist or agnostic (0.37%). This may indicate a growing dissatisfaction with organized religion, diminishing status differences between denominations, high rates of religious mobility, increasingly porous denominational boundaries or, more than likely, some combination of factors. It may also reveal the rise of non-denominationalism, because most people in this category also self-identified as born-again Christian.

All of these demographic shifts are contributing to growing denominational and religious pluralism in the United States. Although the number of Catholics is at an all-time high, the Catholic market share of the Latino religious community would be declining, were it not for high Catholic birthrates and massive Catholic immigration from Latin America. If the border remains as porous as it is today, it is possible that the percentage of Catholics among Latinos could remain around 70 percent while the raw number of Latino Catholics that defect to other religious traditions continues to grow. Regardless of the dynamics within the Latino community, there is little reason to doubt that the percentage of Latinos in the Catholic church will continue to grow because of high birth and immigration rates. The day is not far off when Latinos will make up a majority of American Catholics. While this will be a transformative moment for the U.S. church, just imagine what American Catholicism would look like if majorities of priests, bishops, and archbishops were Latino--that would be a revolutionary moment indeed. If the trends taking place today hold steady, then we are going to see not only the Latinization of the Roman Catholic church in the 21st century, but also the Latinization of American Christianity and society.

GASTON ESPINOSA is assistant professor of religious studies in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Deportment at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. He is author and editor of several books, including Latino Religions and Civic Activism in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2005), Rethinking Latino/a Religion and Identity (Pilgrim Press, 2006), Religion and the American Presidency (Columbia University Press, forthcoming) and Mexican American Religions (Duke University Press, forthcoming).