Stigmatisation and Ritual: An Analysis of the Stigmatisation of Pentecostalism in Chile

Abstract

Pentecostalism has been one of the most successful religious movements in Chile due to both its historical growth and its ascendancy in different spheres of society. Nevertheless, from its origins to the present day, it has also been the most stigmatised religious movement in the country. Studies have explained this phenomenon by referring to variables of social class or religious rivalry. However, they have forgotten a factor that is key to this problem and to Pentecostalism: its ritual dimension. The aim of this article is to analyse the relationship between the stigmatisation of the movement and its unusual ritual life. It is concluded from the analysis of documentary sources that the principal contexts in which Pentecostalism is stigmatised are those that feature the staging of ritual, and that the stigmatisation mainly attacks and disparages the most distinctive ritual practices of the movement.

Pushing Pentecostalism toward the respectable: on the mainstreaming of a countercultural religious movement in Chile

“…Pentecostalism was from the very beginning the poor man´s religion, a fact that can take us some way in understanding its lack of respectability in Chilean society. However, important historical research has suggested that the stigmatization of Pentecostalism was mainly related to its noisy and emotional forms of worship and the spiritual manifestations such as glossolalia, all of which outsiders saw as evidence of irrational and sectarian fanaticism (Mansilla 2007;Munoz and Fernández-Mostaza 2018). Methodist authorities in Chile discredited the spiritual manifestations of Pentecostalism, and early press coverage of the Pentecostal revival was anything but sympathetic, with one newspaper article describing the revival as the work of a madman (Munoz and Fernández-Mostaza 2018, 7-8).…”

“…Despite their emphasis on the need to be separated from the 'world,' Pentecostals also insist on confronting and reaching out for it by preaching, usually in small groups, on streets and in public squares. In the early stages of the Pentecostal movement, many viewed this type of evangelism as a provocation and an attack on public order (Munoz and Fernández-Mostaza 2018). Nowadays, non-Pentecostal Chileans are accustomed to Pentecostal street preachers as a standard and hardly significant part of public life.…”

“…At the same time there have been ongoing attempts to turn Pentecostalism on the ground into a more respectable or legitimate religion by redefining religious practices and behavioral standards in ways that make them more compatible with middle-class sensibilities and less prone to stigmatization. The stigmatization of Pentecostalism as a second rank and unrespectable religion is related to a variety of factors such as the anti-intellectualism that is often associated with the movement, the rigid behavioral restrictions that churches place on their members, the theological concern with spiritual warfare and eschatology, the insular, sectarian stances toward the surrounding society and, not least, to Pentecostal forms of worship (see Mansilla 2007;Munoz and Fernández-Mostaza 2018). Breaking away from this stigma implies loosening behavioral restrictions, toning down the dualist church/'world' rhetoric, adopting a more intellectual, argumentative and Bible-centered approach to Pentecostal religion and, importantly, revisiting ritual, evangelistic and narrative practices.…”

Neoliberalism and Religion in Latin America

“…(iii) The Emotivity of the Expression of the Neoliberal Religiosities An additional element that, according to Latin American sociologists of religion, makes Pentecostal communities different, especially compared to both traditional strands of Catholic doctrine (including Liberation Theology) and historical Protestantism, is the offering of a deeply emotive religious experience accessible to all believers, which is manifested in a whole series of rituals that constitute "the hallmark of Pentecostalism" (Robbins 2009). These rituals, moreover, are often the main target of mockery and stigmatization by outside observers and members of other religions (Muñoz and Fernández-Mostaza 2018).…”

“…For my arguments I will rely, in particular, on the following texts: Marzal (2002), Chestnut (2003), Espinosa (2004), Algranti (2007), Bergunder (2009), Parker (2013), Beltrán (2013), Lindhardt (2016), Freston (2016), Morello et al (2017), Somma et al (2017), Baptista andOspina (2017), pp. 11-106 in Guadalupe andGrundberger (2018), Moreira (2018), Muñoz and Fernández-Mostaza (2018), Semán (2019), andFrigerio (2019), as well as in the study conducted by the Pew Research Center (2014). Among all these, I will highlight the study by Beltrán (2013) for its systematicity, its deep empirical component, and the detailed description of its sources and objects of study.…”