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Tag: Bekering

South-South connections: Brazilian Pentecostalism in Mozambique and ‘cultural distancing’

By Linda van de Kamp In 2007, Madam Gracelina (45 years old) was going to open a business with her husband in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. She had managed to rent a nice building for their company at a central location in the city centre and had bought all the necessary equipment. There were also some possible future customers Dona Gracelina was in contact with and she was all ready to start. However, after having dealt with the right government department in Maputo for several months, government officials would not hand over the required licence. She suspected that the officials were waiting for her to pay them an additional sum of money to proceed, but she refused. In the Brazilian Pentecostal God is Love Church that she frequented, she handed over the project file with the company plans and copies of all the papers she had to arrange for the licence to a Brazilian pastor. He would take it with him on his travels until he was back in Brazil where the church’s founder was going to pray for her. During the service it was revealed that an evil spirit stood behind Dona Gracelina and this was following her wherever she went. The pastor expelled the spirit and proposed a programme of prayer, offerings and fasting to defeat the demon.

Studies on religious transnationalism have addressed the role of religion for migrants in maintaining the link between the home and host society. A central question is how transnational religion plays a role in preserving a sense of cultural continuity or in encouraging cultural change in contact between migrants and the new society in which migrants are subjected to a forceful public agenda that usually emphasizes integration. In this context, it has been argued that transnational Pentecostalism encourages stability in situations of mobility and provides for cultural continuity by offering migrants a ‘home away from home’.  

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promotie: “The New Way” in Vietnam

Promotie Tam Ngo: 24 mei, 09.45, Aula

The New Way: becoming protestant Hmong in contemporary Vietnam, dat is de titel van de dissertatie die SCA-AIO Tam Ngo gaat verdedigen op 24 mei aanstaande, om 09.45, in de aula van de VU.  De tesis gaat over de Hmong, een etnische minderheid in Vietnam, die zich, mede onder invloed van nauwe connecties met verwanten in de USA, in groten getale tot het protestantse Christendom bekeerde. De verdediging is open voor publiek, iedereen is welkom.

De samenvatting van het betoog van Tam Ngo luidt als volgt: De bekering van ongeveer een derde van de Hmong bevolking in Vietnam tot het Protestantisme gedurende de laatste twee decennia heeft nationaal en internationaal aandacht getrokken. Voor het midden van de jaren tachtig van de vorige eeuw hadden de meeste Hmong (een groep van rond een miljoen mensen) niets met Protestantse bekering te maken gehad. Aan het eind van de tachtiger jaren vingen Hmong in Vietnam bij toeval evangelische uitzendingen van de in de Philippijnen gevestigde Far East Broadcasting Company op. Dit leidde eerst tot millenaristische bewegingen, maar al snel begrepen de Hmong dat zij zich tot het Christendom moesten bekeren. Het Protestantse Christendom wordt in Hmong De Nieuwe Weg genoemd.

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