New country, new religion
More Latinos leaving Catholicism as other churches reach out
DÁNICA COTO
dcoto@charlotteobserver.com
A growing number of Latino immigrants in the Charlotte region are abandoning their Catholic roots and seeking new religions.

Their quest to fulfill their spiritual needs isn't lost on a collection of churches eager to recruit them.

With more than 40 million Latinos living in the U.S., and hundreds of thousands arriving every year, it's only natural that churches vie for their attention. The Southern Baptist Convention, for example, wants to recruit 50,000 Hispanics in the next five years, and build 250 new churches each year.

"This denomination is no longer just `Southern,' " said Daniel Sánchez, associate dean at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas and co-chair of the task force that created the goals.

Fueling the religious conversion is the age at which many immigrants arrive in the U.S., local religious leaders said. Most are in their early 20s and start challenging a religion they once accepted as tradition, said Lucía Corral, a Charlotte resident.

Corral grew up Catholic but is now evangelical. She was drawn to Central Church of God when she questioned whether Catholicism fulfilled her. The church organized events, something she said soaked up the loneliness after leaving her parents and six siblings in Mexico at age 18.

This kind of proactive approach makes other churches appealing, said César Carhuachín, who was recently hired as the first Latino Ministry coordinator for Presbytery of Charlotte. Presbytery officials spend about 30 percent of their time organizing activities for members, he said.

"The Presbyterian Church is required to serve those who are neediest, and in these times, Latinos make up this group," he said.

Many immigrants are drawn to offers of English classes or sports events, said Jorge Rudko, minister at Charlotte's Iglesia de Dios.

There's no formal count of how many churches in the Charlotte region seek Latinos, but Rudko estimates there are about 100.

"The majority of Latinos, when they find themselves far from their country, their family and everything that kept them busy, often show a spiritual sensibility," he said. "They want to satisfy that thirst. It all depends on who approaches them."

Fellowship grows

Smaller churches also are making inroads into the Latino community.When Venezuelan native Jesús Gímenez arrived in Charlotte in July 2001, he was surprised at the lack of Latino churches in southern Mecklenburg County.

So on Saturday nights, Gímenez and his family would hold a small service after dinner, and then organize a volleyball or soccer game. Seven relatives and one friend turned into 30 members, which turned into 150 members.

In November 2003, Gímenez established the Iglesia Bautista Hispana Dios Es Amor.

Ebenezer Iglesia de Dios, established in the late 1990s, had a similar growth spurt.

Pastor Julia Castro took over in 2000 when her father died, and the church has grown from 15 to about 45 members. This year's goal is 100.

Both Castro and Gímenez said their new religion affords them freedoms that the Catholic Church doesn't. Castro, as a woman, couldn't be a church leader, and Gímenez couldn't have married as a leader in the Catholic church.

"How could I help married couples if I didn't have the same experience?" he said.

Catholic reaction

The Charlotte Catholic Diocese is feeling the competition from other churches.

A recent diocese report stated that Catholics were leaving partly because of pressure from other religions and because their church wasn't responding to its people.

"I know it's happening," said Sister Andrea Inkrott, with the diocese's Hispanic Ministry.

"A Hispanic told me, when I was expressing my concern about that, he said, `Don't worry. They are going there because they are being offered some financial or material need. They'll come back.' "

Unlike other organizations, the Catholic Church isn't building new churches for Latinos or "making flashy pronouncements or predictions," said David Hains, the diocese spokesman.

"Most of the Hispanic people who come here are Catholic, so (this) is their cradle church," he said.

From 1980 to 1990, a large number of Latino Catholics converted to evangelical and Pentecostal denominations, said Anthony Stevens-Arroyo, professor of Puerto Rican and Latino studies at Brooklyn College and director of the Center for Religion in Society and Culture.

That trend doesn't exist nationwide but could be happening in individual cities, he said.

An American Religious Identification Survey has found a declining percentage of people identifying themselves as Catholic. Part of that decrease is tied to changes such as requiring parents to attend classes if they want their children baptized, Stevens-Arroyo said.

"It's harder to be a Catholic now than it was 10 years ago," he said.

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