Those Worthy Pagan Souls

Henry M. Bowles III, writing for The Daily Northwestern writes a love letter to the current pope. In it he asks some sincere questions.

“I am disappointed that you are shutting down limbo. But maybe I am biased. My mother tells me that our great-great grandfather is in limbo because he was a pagan but still worthy. Will he be shuffled into Purgatory? Most people in my generation think the two are the same! This important issue could serve as a future encyclical topic.”

He also tries to give the Pope some advice.

“I also want to advise you against sending the Jesuits down to Latin America to restore the status of the saints and the Virgin, as they will probably try to make nice with Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, who pray to the Incan gods and sacrifice men to utopian projects like socialism.”

But if Henry had read the news he would see that it is too late, and that indigenous faith, syncretic Christianity, and socialism is thriving in South America (or at least Bolivia).

“Christian and Andean religions in Bolivian politics are woven together in a tight weave with some indigenous church leaders seeing the results of the recent election as the fulfillment of Andean lore and prophesy. For the Methodist Church of Bolivia, which elected its first Aymara bishop in 1978, the election of indigenous coca leader Evo Morales as president of Bolivia is a prophetic completion. “I was very excited and I cried,” said Bishop Carlos Poma describing what he felt when the first Bolivian indigenous president was sworn in….Poma said that the faithful are “very happy and thankful to God and the Andean deities for the return of the great Pachakuti,” fulfilling the prophesy of the majority election of an Aymara indigenous president.”

In fact the recent left-ward shift in South American politics seems very much driven by (or at least beholding to) the indigenous populations of those countries than by renegade liberation theologians. How that affects the religious make-up of South American in the longer term remains to be seen.

Tags: Neopaganism