Posted on 09/24/2012 7:53:54 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
ITABORAI, Brazil – The latest fashion trend hitting the streets of Rio de Janeiro is the polar opposite of the famous Brazilian bikini.
Instead of second-skin dresses in shocking pink spandex or strapless tops with strategically placed peek-a-boo paneling, the newest fashion craze is overt modesty.
Found in stores like Silca Evangelical Fashion, these coveted pieces include demure, long-sleeved frocks with how-low-can-you-go hemlines and the polyester putty-colored potato sack dresses.
In the birthplace of the "fio dental" or dental floss string bikini, so-called evangelical fashion has emerged as a growing segment of the country's $52 billion-a-year textile industry, catering to the conservative sartorial needs of Brazil's burgeoning numbers of born-again Pentecostals.
[SNIP]
In 1980, evangelicals represented just over 6 percent of the population, according to the country's IBGE statistics agency. In the 2010 census, more than 42 million people, or 22 percent of the country's 190 million, identified themselves as evangelicals. Some statisticians predict that if current trends hold, evangelical Christians could become the majority here by 2030.
With the spiraling numbers have come increased visibility and political and economic strength. Three senators and 63 congressional representatives belong to evangelical churches, and a candidate with links to the Universal Church has a considerable lead in polls ahead of next month's mayoral race in Sao Paulo, South America's biggest city. The Universal Church also owns one of Brazil's main television networks, TV Record.
Still, Brazil's evangelicals are far from a unified block. Today hosts of homegrown Pentecostal denominations have their own dress codes, which range from draconian to permissive. Evangelical men are also expected to dress modestly, in long-sleeved shirts and slacks that are more readily available in regular stores.
(Excerpt) Read more at latino.foxnews.com ...
....In 1980, evangelicals represented just over 6 percent of the population, according to the country's IBGE statistics agency. In the 2010 census, more than 42 million people, or 22 percent of the country's 190 million, identified themselves as evangelicals. Some statisticians predict that if current trends hold, evangelical Christians could become the majority here by 2030.
All those clothes in Rio?
These people are nuts.
TTWP/TTUP
A Brazilian friend of mine told me that Evangelical churches are spreading like wildfire down there.
The playing field has basically been vacated by the Vatican, which has chosen to adopt both the language and the methodology of the 13th. Century. Does not fly in a country where half the population is under 30 and seeking spiritual answers.
It also does not help that the Roman Catholic Church officially supports socialism and reliance on the government, while Evangelicals worldwide are less interested in the secular systems of the world and more reliant on each other and on self-reliance; not strange when the church and the ineffective government are seen as so close, politically.
If the Vatican were stuck in the 13th century, that would still put it 12 centuries ahead of all the evangelicals who won’t pay any attention to anything past Acts of the Apostles.
Don’t you think that the Evangelical vote is the least backwards vote in America?
www.Catholic.com
Study up, and get back to us.
I got nothing against the Evangelical vote. My problem is with the modernist assumption that this century is better than another merely because it is later.
“Chronological snobbery” C.S. Lewis called it.
There are better centuries though, for instance when America was created, it was a century superior to any European century.
Even now America is spreading throughout the world to some degree, even though primitive voting is pushing us away from our roots, still, more people are more free since America was created, than before.
the current Pope, in support of his Church’s “social justice” imperatives calls himself, politically, a “democratic socialist”; and, though not a Catholic myself, I am told he speaks with the highest authority on the views of his Church
The American legacy of economic freedom is wonderful of course. We live in a time of great spiritual darkness though—secularism and official hostility to Christianity. In the 13th century at least the West had a sense of itself united in the Christian faith—enough to send armies to the Holy Land. In the 13th century the Universities were great centers of Christian learning—now they are leftist indoctrination camps.
We moderns have much to learn from the Middle Ages. We ignore those lessons at our peril.
Do you have a source for that? From what I know of Benedict, that doesn’t sound like something he’d say at all...particularly since he is very familiar with DeTocqueville and American thought—perhaps more so than any other Pope.
I realize that too many higher-ups in the Church have been muddle-headed on this point—and believe me I’m as ticked off about that as any—but socialism is not compatible with the Catholic religion. Leo’s condemnation of it has never been retracted or abrogated.
Catholic social teaching begins with the concept of subsidiarity (federalism, basically) which says that matters should be handled by the smallest, lowest, and least centralized authority whenever possible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity_%28Catholicism%29
America’s spiritualism, religious freedom and individual freedom and it’s creation of a new nation, free of the oppression native to Europe, is what made America great, and the hope of the world.
Our modern deterioration is that we are becoming more like the Europe that we escaped.
Ouch! Good one!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.