Yet, Mexican American and overall Hispanic populations are intrinsic features of American society that will continue to grow and shape our future. Between 2000 and 2010, birthrates in the United States accounted for 63 percent of the increase in the population of Mexican Americans, larger than immigration during that period. So, while the rate of Asian American immigration has recently surpassed that of Hispanics, the Latino population of the United States will continue to increase substantially from the present 50 million.
About 70 percent of the Hispanic population in the United States is Catholic. And about 35 percent of the U.S. Catholic community is now Hispanic. That figure will continue to rise. Hispanics are dramatically reshaping the nature and texture of Catholicism in the United States, particularly in cities and regions with high Hispanic populations. In Los Angeles, for example, an estimated 70 percent of Catholics are Hispanic.
It’s critical to realize that Hispanic Catholics have their own contextualized practices of their faith. Not only is that reflected in images of the Virgin of Guadalupe throughout Mexican neighborhoods in U.S. cities. Their forms of Catholic piety reflect the inculturation of Christianity in Latin America. Moreover, it is estimated that 54 percent of Latino Catholics identify themselves as charismatic, and thus incorporate the practices of spiritual healing, speaking in tongues, and gifts of the Holy Spirit common in Pentecostal circles.
About 23 percent of Latinos, however, are Protestant, accounting for a sizable 9.5 million Christians in the United States. There are more Latino Protestants in the United States than Episcopalians. The great majority of these are Pentecostal or evangelical—about 85 percent, according to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. Many can be found in the thousands of storefront churches and chapels that dot Hispanic neighborhoods in large U.S. urban areas. Some affiliate with existing U.S denominations, at times wishing to preserve their Pentecostal style of worship and practice, but seeking forms of association, theology and church polity that guard against the extreme independence and excesses of charismatic pastoral leaders.
While stressing intense personal spiritual experiences and the direct divine intervention of God’s power in human affairs, along with traditionally conservative views of theology and morality, Hispanic Christians—both Catholic and Protestant—bring expressions of faith that are formed and shaped by their original culture. These don’t disappear, but rather become part of how they shape their identity within their new land. Further, forms of social solidarity and action, especially around the issues of immigration and justice, often find strong expression within the Hispanic Christian community.
Across most of the spectrum of Christianity in the United States, Hispanic believers are having deep effects on worship, practice and witness. Over 4,000 Catholic parishes now have a Hispanic ministry, and Hispanics have constituted 71 percent of the growth of U.S. Catholics since 1960. But the Protestant world as well is experiencing the rising influence of Latinos, with their frequent combination of evangelical theology, Pentecostal style, and social justice commitments. Emerging groups like the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, led by Rev. Gabriel Salguero, and National Hispanic Christian Leadership have gained recognition and influence in the U.S. political landscape. As the Hispanic community is projected to grow to 106 million by 2050, their presence will become one of the defining features of American Christianity.
A Non-Western Missionary Movement
Global trends will ensure that migration, particularly from the South to the North as well as from the East to the West, will be a growing part of the world’s future. In this world the richest 1 percent receive income equal to that of the poorest 57 percent. Economic conditions as well as social conflicts will continue to produce pressure for people to migrate, as possible, from relatively impoverished to more affluent countries. Some have no choice but to be on the move, fleeing persecution or war. Others seek temporary sojourns for educational or employment opportunities. Many more make permanent new homes.
Within the more economically disadvantaged societies of the global South, the vast proportion of the world’s population growth will take place—half in Asia, and a third in Africa. Eighty percent of the world’s population is found in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Meanwhile, population growth in the developed world has stagnated, and demands for labor in those societies increase. Thus, the global movement of people from South to North, and East to West, will be an increasing trend in the world.
Further, the majority of those on the move will continue to be Christian. And if, in fact, every Christian migrant is a potential missionary, we are witnessing a major, non-Western missionary movement in the world. Think of it this way. As the West becomes post-Christian, non-Western Christianity is coming to the West.
Jehu Hanciles puts it this way: “First, attentiveness to the nature and composition of human migration is crucial for understanding the possibilities and the potential of Christian missionary endeavor; second … in much the same way that the Western missionary movement proved decisive for the current shape of global Christianity the future of global Christianity is now intricately bound up with the emerging non-Western missionary.”
How existing congregations in societies shaped and molded by Western Christianity, and now becoming increasingly secularized, respond to Christian immigrants now living in their midst will be decisive for the future shape of Christian witness. Even more, this is where the major divisions of world Christianity, which now tear the members of the global body of Christ asunder, and keep them in isolation from one another, can find a hope of healing, and a rediscovery of the unity given as God’s gift. As in the past, when the modern ecumenical movement has its beginning, a fresh and discerning understanding of how God’s mission is working in the world today can be the portal for grasping anew the radical, demanding, but life-giving call to Christian unity.
Taken from From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson. Copyright © 2013. Used by permission of Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved.
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