{"id":1152,"date":"2014-10-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/10-10-2014-rroma-pentecostals-churches-and-ambivalent-morals\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T13:57:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:57:13","slug":"10-10-2014-rroma-pentecostals-churches-and-ambivalent-morals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/10-10-2014-rroma-pentecostals-churches-and-ambivalent-morals\/","title":{"rendered":"10.10.2014 Rroma, Pentecostals churches and ambivalent morals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quambry (2014) reports on \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe increasing popularity of Pentecostal churches among Rroma communities in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe UK and in continental Europe. With the example of the Appleby horse fair in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCumbria, in the north of Britain, she explains the effect of the Christian \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmovement on the community: the \u201cLife and Light Gypsy Church\u201d recruits actively \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnew members there, strengthens the social cohesion of the community and tries \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto overcome the discrimination against the minority: \u201cThere have been religious services at Appleby from the 1930s till the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1970s, according to local historian and town mayor, Andy Connell, but they were \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tled by local Methodist or \u201cAssemblies of God\u201d ministers, rather than Gypsy \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpastors. Life and Light, by contrast, is a church for the Gypsy people, led by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthem. It is changing everything that we think we know about the communities, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treinventing and redrawing the image of the Roma, Gypsy and Traveller people \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthroughout Europe. They are presenting a new face to the outside world \u2013 one of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tforceful moral and political authority, as they seek to free their people from \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprejudice and poverty. This is a story of emancipation, similar to that of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBaptist church in the American Deep South, led by civil rights and religious \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tleader, Martin Luther King. The movement has spread from Brittany throughout \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrance, into Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, South America, Scandinavia, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBritain and Eastern Europe. Around one third of all French Gypsies are now \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthought to be Pentecostal Christians \u2013 with about the same proportion in Spain \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand Portugal. Further east, in the former communist bloc, many Roma are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPentecostals [\u2026].\u201d <\/em>The self-empowerment of Rroma through the Pentecostal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchurch can indeed be seen as something positive, if one focuses on the aspect \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the strengthening of civil rights. However, one should be cautious when the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPentecostal morality is said to be superior to other social values. Many \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPentecostal churches forbid contraception for their members, to abort and diabolise \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thomosexuals as being possessed by demons. Such a morality is not based on an \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tenlightened understanding of the world and independent critical thinking, but on \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChristian traditions, which in case of contradictions, put themselves above the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttraditions of the Rroma. An uncritical subjection to conservative role models \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand values should be questioned. They can also severely hinder a real \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tself-determination. <\/p>\n