Evangelicals gain following among Chile's poor

SANTIAGO, Jan 15 (Reuters Life!) - With a growing gap in Chile between the rich and poor, the needy have been increasingly turning to evangelical churches for spiritual and material aid, starting a shift in the nation's religious landscape.

A group of evangelical pastors say church membership has jumped nearly 50 percent since the country's last census in 2002 which they attribute to their focus on the neediest sectors.

"I think we've worked to bring about changes in the individual and the family, and doing so has allowed the poor to excel and achieve a better standard of living," said Bishop Emiliano Soto, president of the Metropolitan Pastoral Council, which groups some 1,200 evangelical churches.

In 2002, 70 percent of Chileans identified themselves as Catholics and 15 percent as evangelicals, a Protestant movement that stresses a believer's personal conversion to a Biblically-oriented faith.

A generation ago, evangelicals accounted for a only sliver of the population in this South American nation.

Soto, 47, said evangelical churches, known for their rousing Sunday services, focus on helping the poor deal with concrete problems, such as alcoholism, domestic violence and unemployment and teach them the values to overcome these troubles.

"Employers know that the evangelical employee will show up for work on Monday morning and can be trusted," Soto told Reuters at his spartan office in downtown Santiago.

Chile's Catholic Church says it does not feel threatened by the advance of the evangelicals, even though it is estimated only about 12 to 13 percent of Chileans go to mass regularly.

Father Roberto Mosher, director of the Catholic Church's National Ecumenical Committee, said the number of evangelical Christians has not surged but grown steadily by seven to eight percent a year since the 1930s.

Soto, however, believes the pace has picked up since 2002, when the census identified 1.7 million Chileans aged 15 and up as evangelical.

"We think the current number may be some 3 million above the age of 14, which would put the percentage of evangelicals (in the population) at about 20 percent." Soto said.

One change that could spark even greater growth among evangelicals is the fact that the movement has gained acceptance among Chile's middle class.

"It used to be looked down upon for a middle or upper class person to say they were evangelical," said Francisco Ruiz, a 60-year-old former Catholic priest.

"It's no longer embarrassing and business people are starting to take notice and hire evangelicals because of their reliability."

Ruiz, who is still a practicing Catholic, said he didn't think the more traditional Catholic Church was prepared for how this could reshape the religious landscape in Chile.

"I think they don't even realize. They haven't done a real analysis of the situation," Ruiz said.