Interview with Samuel Escobar

by John L. Allen, Jr., in the National Catholic Reporter

I was in Peru two summers ago and read a study of the bishops’ conference on the growth of evangelical Protestantism, which asserted that one factor was a conscious policy on the part of the American government and American Protestants to undercut Latin American Catholicism. What do you think?

That’s what we call a conspiracy theory. In fact, those groups that have grown the most dramatically are not related to Protestant bodies in the United States. Those with the most expansive power are national bodies, with little or no contact with North American Protestantism. There are some American denominations that have made considerable missionary efforts, but the bulk of Latin American Protestantism is not an American product. The pastors and leaders are almost entirely native, which disperses the conspiracy theory.

Which would be worse: That the U.S. Government knows more about evangelization than the Latin American bishops? Or that it doesn't but the bishops are willing to say it does to excuse themselves?

(via Open Book)