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PENTECOSTALISM AND related "Spirit-filled movements" are rightly seen as a hard-driving engine fueling the global spread of Christianity, but their adherents are often wrongly seen as apolitical, otherworldly enthusiasts bent on "speaking in tongues," according to two separate studies on the century-old phenomena.
A groundbreaking survey of such believers in 10 countries, including the United States, where they account for 23 percent of Americans, was released this month by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Pentecostal and charismatic Christians still hold conservative views on the Bible, end-times prophecies, faith healing and traditional morality. But in six countries at least four of every 10 Pentecostals surveyed say they never speak or pray in tongues-the utterances unintelligible to the believer that were commonly ridiculed in the past by Christian and non-Christian critics.
And researchers said "they were taken aback" by discovering a range of views among Pentecostals on sociopolitical issues-views sometimes similar to outlooks more characteristic of progressive churches.
When U.S. adults in the survey were asked if they agree that Christians have a responsibility "to work for justice for the poor"-a phrase often identified with liberal Christianity-90 percent of Pentecostals and 85 percent of charismatic believers agreed. Between 93 and 72 percent agreed in Brazil, Chile and Guatemala; in Kenya, 97 percent agreed.
"I find that extremely interesting," said sociologist Donald E. Miller, executive director of the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture. Miller and colleague Ted Yamamori have completed research on what they are calling "progressive Pentecostalism" for a book to be published next year.
Miller pointed also to the Pew finding in which most Latin American respondents disagreed with the statement that "AIDS is God's punishment for immoral sexual behavior." In South Africa 53 percent of Pentecostals and 44 percent of charismatics disagreed.
"The point is," said Miller in an interview, "that you get split opinions, and that tends to...