Jesus and the Gang: Youth Violence and Christianity in Urban Honduras

5. Finding Sanctuary: Youth Violence and Pentecostalism

5 Finding Sanctuary Youth Violence and Pentecostalism The Mark of a Dedicated Christian It was unbearably muggy that Sunday, even for a June evening. I was thankful that the God Is Love Pentecostal Church had moved from its tiny storefront, badly ventilated and with broken fans, to the new, more spacious building. “Building” might be an exaggeration. The steel beams and supports had been raised and the corrugated tin roof placed, but the church still lacked the ubiquitous cinder-block walls. The church was being built entirely of volunteer labor, mostly young men, and although they raised the roof in less than three months, there were indications that progress would slow. Many of the young men felt they should be paid something for their work, that they had given enough already, and if the church wanted construction to continue, they would have to hire someone. Rows of white plastic lawn chairs sat on the dirt floor. The floor, to spatially mark the inside of the church, was spread with reddish-brown wood chips. A number of young men milled around at the back. They knew that there were never enough seats for everyone. They enthusiastically would participate with loud hoots, blasts on plastic trumpets, and an occasional “¡Dios es podoroso!” (God is powerful) and “Gloria a Dios!” (Glory to God) (fig. 7). Sitting in the rows facing the front of the church were families, young mothers, older women and men, and groups of young women dressed in their best outfits and high-heeled shoes. The pastor did not take the stage until the service was almost over. The sermon is nearly the last part of the program, the climax of the evening. The wood pulpit had been moved from the old church building to the new site and set on the makeshift stage. Originally from Tela on the coast, the pastor, in his late thirties, has a powerful voice and a slight limp in his step from childhood polio. He commands attention from his audience. It is not just that he speaks into a microphone hooked up to two oversized, cranked-up speakers that blast his voice across the neighborhood and Finding Sanctuary 103 into the night, calling out to the congregation and beyond. His words— his intonation, the modulation in volume—are like violent waves crashing against a rocky shore. He is a force to be reckoned with as he moves from low pitch to shouts that roll in his throat, raspy. I have rarely heard him use a “normal” speaking voice, even in one-on-one conversations. His is a voice that directs, that calls, and that is not afraid to denounce. He began his sermon, introduced as “The Mark of a Consecrated (consagrado ) Christian,” with his characteristic verve: “Consagrado means a person who loves the Lord, to be with him, to be called by him exclusively. The Lord calls the person to be exclusively with him. . . . Also, consagrado means someone who is purified, who is in the presence of the Lord, someone who is holy, who has been sanctified. . . . We can’t consecrate ourselves, it must be through God, through being purified by him.” He let his voice trail off, pausing dramatically, and then called out, “This is the resource that families need, that a marriage needs, that all is brought to the house of the Lord. . . . God doesn’t want your joven or Figure 7. Calling members to a Pentecostal evening church service. Photograph by author. 104 Jesus and the Gang jovencito [young man] to find himself in the street with a chimba on his chest or an AK [47] on the collarbone. You might be big in society, but this grandeur means nothing before the grandeur of God.” The pastor worked his voice into a low shriek, screaming into the microphone, “No one will resist! No one will resist because God sent his only Son to save us!” The reverberation of the speakers quieted before he began again. “Years ago, at the time of the election of the Reina government, it was said that Honduras was going to change. But I want to say that no one can change his or her life without God! If you find yourself in the street, in the disco, with a chimba in your hands, return to God so that you may adore the Lord.” He lifted his Bible to the crowd and...