The Oil Drum

161 comments on DrumBeat: September 22, 2007

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oilmanbob on September 22, 2007 - 10:20am

Not in Latin America. There are 500 million mostly Catholics south of the US with a huge growth rate in population. The issue isn't religeous, but grinding poverty combined with gender repression of women causes unrestrained population growth. Plus sex ! There's no population growth without it.
.Bob Ebersole

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SacredCowTipper on September 22, 2007 - 1:49pm

Evangelicals have made huge strides in Latin America - small family? OK. Enrich yourself? That is OK, too. Sorry, no links, saw it on Tee Vee in an airport or something, but as I recall it was something like 30% of the total population. I found it a bit surprising ...

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oilmanbob on September 22, 2007 - 10:29pm

SacredCowTipper,

Its true about evangelicals, in particular the Pentecostals are getting more prevalent both here and there. Its for a number of reasons, but one of the biggies is divorce.

Catholics excommunicate people who remarry after getting a divorce without church approval (an annulment) but adultery is just a garden variety sin. So when Papa moves out or gets a 20 year old mistress to replace Mama whose face and figure have been ruined by too many kids and a poor diet along with natural wrinkling, Mama's stuck. If she divorces him she can't go to heaven and has no power over Papa with the children grown, so she joins a church where divorce for adultry is possible.
In Latin America thats often the pentecostals, because their preachers are "called", or self-appointed after a few bible courses. Catholics have very few priests for the population, often as low as 1:10,000. Even in the US its 1:3,000. The pentecostals have perhaps 1:200 as a preacher to worshiper ratio. And, Latino society is matriarchal in many ways, where momma goes to church, the family goes to church Bob Ebersole