The Oil Drum

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