Evangelicalism

===Latin America===
{{see also|Political influence of Evangelicalism in Latin America}}
[[File:Culto en El Lugar de Su Presencia, 2019.jpg|thumb|right| Worship at [[El Lugar de Su Presencia]], in [[Bogotá]], in Colombia, 2019.]]
In modern Latin America, the term "Evangelical" is often simply a synonym for "[[Protestant]]".<ref name="LarsenTreier2007">{{Cite book |last1=Larsen |first1=Timothy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vlmXBe0RPxYC&pg=PA261 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology |last2=Treier |first2=Daniel J |date=April 12, 2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-82750-8 |page=261 |access-date=July 14, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/01/us-hispanics-are-becoming-less-catholic/ |title=U.S. Hispanics Are Becoming Less Catholic |date=March 1, 2013 |magazine=Time |access-date=July 14, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/node/12564066 |title=Religion in Latin America: Hola, Luther |date=November 8, 2008 |newspaper=The Economist |access-date=July 14, 2013}}</ref>

====Brazil====
{{main |Protestantism in Brazil}}
[[File:Templo de Salomão - 1.JPG|thumb|[[Templo de Salomão|Temple of Solomon]] replica built by the [[Universal Church of the Kingdom of God]] in São Paulo.]]
Protestantism in Brazil largely originated with [[German Brazilians|German immigrants]] and British and American missionaries in the 19th century, following up on efforts that began in the 1820s.<ref>{{Citation |last=Leonard |first=Émil-G |title=O Protestantismo Brasileiro |year=1963 |trans-title=Brazilian Protestantism |place=São Paulo |publisher=ASTE |language=pt}}.</ref>

In the late nineteenth century, while the vast majority of Brazilians were nominal Catholics, the nation was underserved by priests, and for large numbers their religion was only nominal.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} The Catholic Church in Brazil was de-established in 1890, and responded by increasing the number of dioceses and the efficiency of its clergy. Many Protestants came from a large German immigrant community, but they were seldom engaged in proselytism and grew mostly by natural increase.

Methodists were active along with Presbyterians and Baptists. The Scottish missionary [[Robert Reid Kalley]], with support from the [[Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900)|Free Church of Scotland]], moved to Brazil in 1855, founding the first Evangelical church among the Portuguese-speaking population there in 1856. It was organized according to the Congregational policy as the Igreja Evangélica Fluminense; it became the mother church of Congregationalism in Brazil.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Testa |first=Michael |year=1964 |title=Part 2: Portuguese Protestants in the Americas |journal=Journal of Presbyterian History |series=The Apostle of Madeira |volume=42 |pages=244–71 |number=4}}.</ref> The [[Seventh-day Adventist]]s arrived in 1894, and the YMCA was organized in 1896. The missionaries promoted schools colleges and seminaries, including a liberal arts college in São Paulo, later known as Mackenzie, and an agricultural school in [[Lavras]]. The Presbyterian schools in particular later became the nucleus of the governmental system. In 1887 Protestants in Rio de Janeiro formed a hospital. The missionaries largely reached a working-class audience, as the Brazilian upper-class was wedded either to Catholicism or to secularism. By 1914, Protestant churches founded by American missionaries had 47,000 communicants, served by 282 missionaries. In general, these missionaries were more successful than they had been in Mexico, Argentina or elsewhere in Latin America.<ref>{{Citation |last=Latourette |first=Kenneth Scott |title=A history of the expansion of Christianity |volume=V: The great century in the Americas, Austral-Asia, and Africa: A.D. 1800 – A.D. 1914 |pages=120–3 |year=1943}}.</ref>

There were 700,000 Protestants by 1930, and increasingly they were in charge of their own affairs. In 1930, the Methodist Church of Brazil became independent of the missionary societies and elected its own bishop. Protestants were largely from a working-class, but their religious networks help speed their upward social mobility.<ref>{{Citation |last=Latourette |first=Kenneth Scott |title=A history of the expansion of Christianity |volume=VII: Advance through Storm: A.D. 1914 and after, with concluding generalizations |pages=181–2 |year=1945}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Braga |first1=Erasmo |title=The Republic of Brazil: A survey of the religious situation |year=1932 |last2=Trubb |first2=Kenneth G}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=May 2013}}
[[File:Culto Primeira Igreja Batista do Bairro Sol Nascente.jpg|thumb|Baptist worship service in Brazil]]
Protestants accounted for fewer than 5 percent of the population until the 1960s but grew exponentially by proselytizing and by 2000 made up over 15 percent of Brazilians affiliated with a church. Pentecostals and charismatic groups account for the vast majority of this expansion.

Pentecostal missionaries arrived early in the 20th century. Pentecostal conversions surged during the 1950s and 1960s, when native Brazilians began founding autonomous churches. The most influential included [[Brazil for Christ Pentecostal Church|Brasil Para o Cristo]] (Brazil for Christ), founded in 1955 by Manoel de Mello. With an emphasis on personal salvation, on God's healing power, and on strict moral codes these groups have developed broad appeal, particularly among the booming urban migrant communities. In Brazil, since the mid-1990s, groups committed to uniting black identity, antiracism, and Evangelical theology have rapidly proliferated.<ref>{{Citation |last=Burdick |first=John |title=Why is the Black Evangelical Movement Growing in Brazil? |journal=Journal of Latin American Studies |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=311–32 |year=2005 |doi=10.1017/s0022216x05009028}}.</ref> Pentecostalism arrived in Brazil with Swedish and American missionaries in 1911. it grew rapidly but endured numerous schisms and splits. In some areas the Evangelical [[Assembleias de Deus|Assemblies of God]] churches have taken a leadership role in politics since the 1960s. They claimed major credit for the election of [[Fernando Collor de Mello]] as president of Brazil in 1990.<ref>{{Citation |last=Chesnut |first=R. Andrew |title=The Salvation Army or the Army's Salvation?: Pentecostal Politics in Amazonian Brazil, 1962–1992 |work=Luso-Brazilian Review |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=33–49 |year=1999}}.</ref>
[[File:Galeria arquitetônica.jpg|thumb|Pentecostal worship service in [[Araras]], Brazil]]
According to the 2000 census, 15.4 percent of the Brazilian population was Protestant. Recent research conducted by the [[Grupo Folha|Datafolha institute]] shows that 25 percent of Brazilians are Protestants, of which 19 percent are followers of Pentecostal denominations. The 2010 census found out that 22.2 percent were Protestant at that date. Protestant denominations saw a rapid growth in their number of followers since the last decades of the 20th century.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Birman |first1=Patrícia |title=Whatever Happened to What Used to Be the Largest Catholic Country in the World? |journal=Daedalus |volume=129 |issue=2 |pages=271–90 |year=2000 |jstor=20027637 |last2=Leite |first2=Márcia Pereira}}.</ref> They are politically and socially conservative, and emphasize that God's favor translates into business success.<ref>{{Citation |last=Londono |first=Diana |title=Evangelicals in Brazil |date=December 5, 2012 |url=http://www.coha.org/evangelicals-in-brazil/ |work=Hemispheric Affairs |publisher=Coha}}.</ref> The rich and the poor remained traditional Catholics, while most Evangelical Protestants were in the new lower-middle class – known as the "C class" (in a A–E classification system).<ref>{{Citation |last=Antunes |first=Anderson |title=The Richest Pastors in Brazil |date=January 17, 2013 |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2013/01/17/the-richest-pastors-in-brazil/ |work=Forbes}}.</ref>

Chesnut argues that Pentecostalism has become "one of the principal organizations of the poor", for these churches provide the sort of social network that teach members the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly developing meritocratic society.{{sfn|Chesnut|1997|p=104}}

One large Evangelical church that originated from Brazil is the [[Universal Church of the Kingdom of God]] (IURD), a neo‐Pentecostal denomination begun in 1977. It now has a presence in many countries, and claims millions of members worldwide.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Jacob |first1=CR |title=Atlas da Filiação Religiosa e Indicadores Sociais no Brasil |year=2003 |trans-title=Brazilian Religious Affiliation & Social Indicators Atlas |place=São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro |publisher=PUC-Rio, Edições Loyola |language=pt |isbn=85-15-02719-4 |last2=Hees |first2=DR |last3=Waniez |first3=P |last4=Brustlein |first4=V}}.</ref>

====Guatemala====
{{Main|Religion in Guatemala}}
Protestants remained a small portion of the population until the late-twentieth century, when various Protestant groups experienced a demographic boom that coincided with the increasing violence of the Guatemalan Civil War. Two former Guatemalan heads of state, General [[Efraín Ríos Montt]] and [[Jorge Serrano Elías]] have been practicing Evangelical Protestants, as is Guatemala's former President, [[Jimmy Morales]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Garrard-Burnett |title=Protestantism in Guatemala |pages=138–61}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Garrard-Burnett |first=Virginia |title=Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala under General Efrain Rios Montt 1982–1983 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |location=New York}}</ref> General Montt, an Evangelical from the Pentecostal tradition, came to power through a coup. He escalated the war against leftist guerrilla insurgents as a holy war against atheistic "forces of evil".{{sfn|Chesnut|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/bornagaininbrazi0000ches/page/145 145]}}