选自《The Economist》
ECONOMIST:Latin America is becoming more secular
经济学人：拉丁美洲正变得更加世俗化
Catholicism is in swift decline, although there are growing numbers of evangelicals
尽管福音派教徒越来越多，天主教却在迅速衰落
Alejandra lemonnier joined the convent of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus when she was 20. She came from a religious family, attended a Roman Catholic school and lived in a conservative part of Buenos Aires. Her four younger siblings were all, to varying degrees, Catholic—at least officially. Today Sister Lemonnier, who is now 31, is the only devout member of her family. Her oldest brother became a New Age spiritualist. One of her sisters came out as a lesbian and became an apostate, formally renouncing her Catholic faith. Another sister is indifferent. For the youngest brother, who is 18, religion is just not part of his universe.
阿莱杭德娜·莱蒙尼尔在20岁时加入了耶稣圣心女仆修道院。她来自一个宗教家庭，就读于一所罗马天主教学校，住在布宜诺斯艾利斯的一个保守地区。她的四个弟弟妹妹在不同程度上都是天主教徒——至少官方是这样。如今，31岁的莱蒙尼尔修女是她家族中唯一虔诚的成员。她的哥哥成了新时代的唯灵论者。她的一个姐妹公开了自己是同性恋，并成为了一名叛教者，正式放弃了她的天主教信仰。另一个妹子冷漠。对于18岁的最小的弟弟来说，宗教不属于他的世界。
The diversity of belief in Sister Lemonnier’s family reflects a growing trend. Latin America holds more than a third of the world’s Catholics, but their numbers are shrinking. In 1995 80% of people in the region identified as Catholic. Today just 56% do. Many have become evangelical Christians instead. Since 1995 evangelicals’ share of the regional population rose from 3.5% to 19%, according to Latinobarómetro, a pollster (see chart).
莱蒙尼尔修女家庭的信仰多样性反映了一种日益增长的趋势。拉丁美洲拥有超过三分之一的世界天主教徒，但是他们的数量正在减少。1995年，该地区80%的人认为自己是天主教徒。如今只有56%的人这么做。许多人变成了福音派基督徒。根据民意调查机构Latinobarómetro的数据，自1995年以来，福音派占该地区人口的比例从3.5%上升到了19%(见图表)。
Yet an even more striking trend is the rise of those who do not profess adherence to any religion, known as ningunas (or nones). Their share of Latin America’s population has quadrupled to 16%, and is particularly high among young people. That may help explain the region’s growing liberalism on matters like abortion and same-sex marriage.
然而，一个更引人注目的趋势是，不信奉任何宗教的人越来越多宁古纳斯(或无)。他们占拉丁美洲人口的比例翻了两番，达到16%，在年轻人中尤其高。这可能有助于解释该地区在堕胎和同性婚姻等问题上日益增长的自由主义。
The data on religion is not always consistent. In Latinobarómetro’s survey, only 5% of Mexicans identified as evangelicals, whereas 11% did so in the 2020 census. There is also wide variation across the region. In Uruguay a whopping 40% are nones, while another 10% are agnostic or atheist. In some countries, such as Guatemala and Honduras, there are now as many evangelicals as Catholics. Bolivia, Mexico, Paraguay and Bolivia appear more immune to religious competition, with Catholicism remaining dominant. Yet even here, change is afoot. The share of Mexican nones in the census has almost doubled in a decade, to 10m people in 2020 (or 7% of the population).
关于宗教的数据并不总是一致的。在Latinobarómetro的调查中，只有5%的墨西哥人认为自己是福音派，而在2020年的人口普查中，这一比例为11%。该地区的差异也很大。在乌拉圭，高达40%的人是无信仰者，而另外10%的人是不可知论者或无神论者。在一些国家，如危地马拉和洪都拉斯，现在福音派教徒和天主教徒一样多。玻利维亚、墨西哥、巴拉圭和玻利维亚似乎更不受宗教竞争的影响，天主教仍占主导地位。然而，即使在这里，变化也在发生。在人口普查中，墨西哥无人口的比例在十年间几乎翻了一番，到2020年达到1000万人(或总人口的7%)。
Evangelicalism is particularly widespread among poorer people and prisoners. In Argentina evangelical pastors negotiated with prison authorities in the 1990s and early 2000s to set up separate wards for their adherents, says Verónica Giménez Béliveau, a researcher. Such wards tend to be less violent and cleaner, attracting further converts. Over time, however, evangelicals have joined the mainstream. In 2015 Guatemala elected the region’s first evangelical president.
福音主义在穷人和囚犯中尤为普遍。研究员Verónica Giménez Béliveau说，在阿根廷，福音派牧师在20世纪90年代和21世纪初与监狱当局协商，为他们的信徒设立单独的病房。这样的病房倾向于不那么暴力和干净，吸引更多的皈依者。然而，随着时间的推移，福音派加入了主流。2015年，危地马拉选出了该地区第一位福音派总统。
A secret chord
秘密和弦
Those with no religious affiliation are more homogenous, in that they tend to be more educated. Having a university degree appears to reduce religiosity. Nowhere is this more evident than in Chile, which has experienced one of the biggest increases in its share of nones. Access to higher education has quintupled since 1990, and gdp per capita has grown sixfold. At the same time, the share of nones has tripled, to around a third of the population.
那些没有宗教信仰的人更加同质，因为他们往往受教育程度更高。拥有大学学位似乎能减少宗教狂热。这一点在智利表现得最为明显，该国经历了无人口比例的最大增长。自1990年以来，接受高等教育的人数增加了五倍国内生产总值人均增长了六倍。与此同时，无价值者的比例增加了两倍，达到总人口的三分之一左右。
The secular trend is far from absolute. Many nones continue to have spiritual beliefs. In Chile almost 70% of people continue to believe in life after death, including more than half of those with no religious affiliation. In Colombia 80% of people believe in miracles, including 14% of agnostics and a whopping 65% of the unaffiliated. There are also new beliefs. In Argentina 72% of the unaffiliated, whose ranks have almost doubled in the past decade, say they believe in spiritual energy and a third believe in astrology. And despite the increase in nones, very few people describe themselves as atheists.
长期趋势远非绝对。许多非我继续拥有精神信仰。在智利，几乎70%的人仍然相信死后有来生，包括一半以上没有宗教信仰的人。在哥伦比亚，80%的人相信奇迹，包括14%的不可知论者和高达65%的无党派人士。也有新的信仰。在阿根廷，72%的无党派人士称他们相信精神能量,三分之一的人相信占星术。尽管无的人越来越多，但很少有人自称为无神论者。
This reflects the strength of cultural Catholicism, says Andrés Casas of Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá, Colombia. He notes that even members of former communist guerrilla groups in Colombia say things like, Thanks be to God. When a Swedish satanist heavy-metal band tried to host a concert in Bogotá in 2018, officials quickly had the venue shut down. Dr Giménez Béliveau notes that there are crucifixes in police stations and courts in Argentina. Religion is inscribed culturally, she says.
哥伦比亚波哥大哈维里亚那宗座大学的安德烈斯·卡萨斯说，这反映了文化天主教的力量。他指出，甚至哥伦比亚前共产主义游击队成员也会说感谢上帝之类的话。2018年，当一个瑞典撒旦重金属乐队试图在波哥大举办一场音乐会时，官员们很快关闭了场地。Giménez Béliveau博士指出，在阿根廷的警察局和法院都有十字架。宗教是有文化烙印的，她说。
But religious identities are becoming more fluid. A Brazilian Catholic may attend an evangelical service every now and again because they like the style of worship. They might also dabble in candomblé, a belief system with African roots first imported to the country by slaves, says Arlene Sánchez-Walsh of Azusa Pacific University in California. Charismatic Catholicism, which mimics some aspects of evangelicalism, has grown, too.
但是宗教身份变得越来越不稳定。一个巴西天主教徒可能会时不时参加福音仪式，因为他们喜欢这种崇拜方式。他们也可能涉足坎东布鲁教加利福尼亚州阿苏萨太平洋大学的Arlene Sánchez-Walsh说，这是一种起源于非洲的信仰体系，最初是由奴隶带入美国的。模仿福音主义某些方面的魅力天主教也有所发展。
The political implications of these changes are already being felt. The evangelical lobby in Brazil’s Congress includes 195 of 513 federal deputies. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s right-wing president, courted the evangelical vote. Although he is a Catholic, he was re-baptised in the River Jordan shortly before his election in 2018 by an evangelical pastor.
人们已经感受到了这些变化的政治含义。巴西国会中的福音派游说团体包括513名联邦代表中的195名。巴西右翼总统雅伊尔·博索纳罗赢得了福音派的选票。虽然他是天主教徒，但在2018年当选前不久，他在约旦河接受了福音派牧师的重新洗礼。
Evangelicals are a political force elsewhere, too. In Costa Rica an evangelical singer reached the presidential run-off in 2018 after the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, which is based in the country, ruled that same-sex marriage should be legal. Mexico’s president won office partly because of evangelical support. Con mis hijos no te metas (Don’t mess with my kids), an educational pressure group founded by the son of a Pentecostal pastor, successfully agitated for the dismissal of an education minister in Peru. In Colombia an alliance of religious groups caused an openly gay education minister to resign after her ministry tried to reduce discrimination against lgbt youths in schools.
福音派在其他地方也是一股政治力量。在哥斯达黎加，一名福音派歌手在总部位于该国的美洲人权法院裁定同性婚姻应该合法后，于2018年进入了总统决选。墨西哥总统当选部分是因为福音派的支持。Con mis hijos no te metas(不要惹我的孩子)，一个由一位五旬节派牧师的儿子创建的教育压力团体，成功地鼓动了秘鲁教育部长的解职。在哥伦比亚，一个宗教团体联盟导致一名公开同性恋身份的教育部长辞职，因为她的部门试图减少对同性恋的歧视同性恋、双性恋及变性者的在校青少年。
As Latin Americans’ spiritual choices become more varied, their politics could become more polarised. Although the trends are not uniform across the region, believers tend to vote for right-wing parties, whereas nones lean far more to the left. In Chile’s recent presidential election, José Antonio Kast, a hard-right Catholic candidate with nine children, courted religious voters. Gabriel Boric, the leftist who won, was supported by young graduates.
随着拉丁美洲人的精神选择变得更加多样化，他们的政治可能会变得更加两极分化。尽管该地区的趋势并不一致，但信仰者倾向于投票给右翼政党，而非信仰者则更倾向于左翼。在智利最近的总统选举中，José Antonio Kast，一个有九个孩子的极右天主教候选人，向宗教选民示好。赢得选举的左翼人士加布里埃尔·博尔克得到了年轻毕业生的支持。
Father Fabián Báez, a Catholic priest in Argentina, hopes that the church can win back adherents. He loosely quotes Pope Francis, an Argentinian and the first Latin American pontiff, when he insists, The priest and the church need to be where the people are, on social media, in the villages, in the barrios. But even if the priests do go to those places, it is unclear that people will follow them again.
阿根廷的天主教神父Fabián Báez希望教会能够赢回信徒。他粗略地引用了阿根廷人、第一位拉丁美洲教皇方济各的话，他坚持说，牧师和教会需要在人们所在的地方，在社交媒体上，在村庄里，在街区里。但即使牧师们真的去了那些地方，人们是否会再次追随他们还不清楚。
本文章英文原文来自经济学人，本人仅提供给大家一个观察国外文章的平台，文章内容不代表公众号立场
英文文章及图片来源：
https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2022/04/16/latin-america-is-becoming-more-secular
往期回顾：
【每日英语文章】斯里兰卡摆烂
【每日英语文章】护照的第三种性别
【每日英语文章】独角兽的扩散
【每日英语文章】马克龙的弥合
长按二维码，关注微信公众号
猜你喜欢:
10 :中考优秀作文欣赏：开端