Читать книгу Liturgies from Below - UK Edition - Carvalhaes Claudio - Страница 15

Many Christians have created a faith that avoids the poor. In the United States, for instance, Protestantism is often a church full of middle- and upper-class people anxiously wrestling with secularism and the decline of their church. Only a few of these churches can boast large memberships or bountiful resources. Instead, most Protestant churches are growing smaller and weaker. Just like the neoliberal economy of the world.

In other parts of the world, however, there is a Christian renewal thriving amidst the poor at the fringes of Empire. This Christian renewal is taking place fundamentally through the ritual of Christian worship and prayers. Christian neo-Pentecostalism is exploding everywhere,⁷ offering a new grammar of faith that gives strength, mission, and purpose to those who are exposed to social threats, chaos, and loss. These churches are embracing the poor and speaking from places where abandoned people live. Many of these churches are giving people tools to survive in the midst of violence, social and personal trauma, illness, anxiety and depression, deep economic hardships, and death. While many of these churches do exploit people, they also offer sanctuary and hope to those who are suffering and impoverished by creating new songs and prayers, new ways to pray and listen to the word of God. While we must be radically opposed to their exploitive theologies, theirs is a faith grammar grounded in the hearts of those who are unwanted around the world but who are wanted by God.