Reformado?

We live in an area heavily populated by first and second-generation Hispanic immigrants. I've noticed that if they go to church at all, it's to a Catholic church, Pentecostal church or (sadly) the Jehovah's Witness Hall. Our own church (which is at least nominally Reformed) rarely has a single Hispanic individual or family in Sunday worship. Granted, we're a fairly traditional "white bread" church, but still we have a good number of African-American families. Why no Hispanics? Part of it is that we don't do any Spanish-language outreach to this growing community, but there's also a huge cultural barrier. In the January/February Modern Reformation OPC church planter C.A. Sandoval provides some historical context and shares a possible point of contact with our Hispanic neighbors.

Historically, the Roman Catholic Church (by way of the Spanish Inquisition) did an amazing job of preventing the Reformation from making any significant or lasting impact upon Spanish subjects in Spain or the New World. As such, a virtually impenetrable fortress was erected around Spain and its colonies, and to this day the Reformation and its return to biblical Christianity form no real part of the Hispanic culture or religious background. More recently, after more than 450 years of Roman Catholic dominance and very little Protestant influence, the charismatic movement has swept through Latin America with its supernatural gifts. The movement claims to provide hundreds of thousands of Hispanics with a closer, more immediate, and more intimate relationship with God, which is missing in Roman Catholicism. Charismaticism, however, ultimately fails to ground itself in all of God's Word, and ignores not only the Reformation but most of the last 2,000 years of Christianity as well. Lastly, although pockets of historic Protestantism do exist in Latin America, many Protestant Hispanic churches and denominations have increasingly absorbed charismatic practices and doctrines.

While the history of Hispanic Christianity in Latin America is of course much more complicated, the majority of first- and second-generation Hispanics in the U.S. who call themselves Christian tend to be either Roman Catholic or charismatic in one way or another. Explaining what Reformed Christians and churches are, therefore, requires something other than a crash course in European or Protestant history. It requires an explanation that is both relevant to the Hispanic context and fundamental to our Reformed doctrines. And that explanation is simply this: that a Reformed Christian is one who takes all of God's Word seriously, and that a Reformed church is one that preaches, teaches, and does everything according to only the Bible.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the Roman Catholic and charismatic influences upon Hispanic Christianity and the Hispanic culture in general, many Hispanics still have some form of respect for the Bible. In the minds of many Hispanics, the Bible may not be the final and only authority on religious and spiritual matters, but it remains authoritative nonetheless and is still viewed as containing some level of supernatural or mystical power. Of course, respect for the Bible doesn't always translate into obedience to it; but in most of my interactions with Hispanics, I don't have to spend much time (if any) convincing them that the Bible is the Word of God. They may not have any clue what the Bible contains (again, due in part to the Roman Catholic and charismatic influences), but Hispanics still revere it on some level, either for religious convictions and traditions or superstitious motivations. And this remnant of reverence and respect for the Bible is precisely the point of contact and context that I make most use of when explaining what it means to be Reformed.

C.A. Sandoval, The Hispanic Challenge: Explaining What It Means To Be Reformed