Topic: Theology
The phrase "born again" has been part of Protestant discourse since at least the time of Jonathan Edwards. In 1741 he warned those who "were never born again, and made new Creatures, and raised from being dead in Sin" of the fate that awaited them when they died. [1]
His contemporary, John Wesley cited John 3:7 [2] before addressing the question, "Why must we be born again?" [3] His usage was expanded in the post-Civil War Holiness Movement mentioned in the post for 7 December 2017.
The Oxford English Dictionary said the phrase began to be used in its modern sense [4] in England around 1962, about the time a Gallup Poll in the United States found 20% of its respondents said they had been born again. [5] By the time Jimmy Carter was elected president as a born-again Baptist in 1976, the percentage in this country had increased to 34%. [6] Today, the number hovers abound 41%. [7]
In Brazil, 73.6% of the population was Roman Catholic in 2006, down from 93.1% in 1960, and 89% in 1980. 10.4% of the population belonged to Pentecostal groups, and the rest were either what we call main-line Protestants, unaffiliated, or members of groups like the Spiritists mentioned in the post for 11 August 2017. [8] The largest Pentecostal group, Assembléia de Deus, had ten to twelve million members. [9]
While Pentecostalism grew in Brazil since the phrase Born Again entered international parlance, the Assembléia de Deus was founded among Baptists in the northeastern part of the country during the Azusa Street Revival. Two Swedish immigrants were converted in Chicago in 1909. When Daniel Berg went to visit Gunnar Vingren at his parish in South Bend, Indiana, they heard a prophetic message directing them to Para. After more prayer, they consulted an atlas and discovered Pará was a state in northern Brazil. [10]
Their activities were sponsored by Lewi Pethrus and Swedish Baptists until poor health remanded Vingren home in 1932. [11] Berg and Vingren had named their church after the Assembly of God, but did not affiliate with that group. [12] However, once Vingren left, the United States body sent missionaries to standardize its theology. Today, the Assembly considers the Assembléia to be a mission, but the Assembléia, in true Baptist fashion, considers itself autonomous. [13] It called itself the heir to Martin Luther, not John Wesley. [14]
Paradoxically, the rise of Pentecostalism in Brazil did not lead to more rigid codes of behavior in the Assembléia. Paul Freston noted, it began shedding some of the strictures of "Nordic pietism." [15] Its leaders realized "the adoption of certain rules by local churches was more a matter of custom than of doctrine, since it did not violate the foundations of the Christian faith" and began to countenance more freedom of action by members. [16]
Their two-hour services were "characterized by prayers, songs (classical and contemporary evangelical hymns), testimonies and preaching, where manifestations of spiritual gifts sometimes occur, such as spiritual (strange) prophecies and languages." They used both hymns from their own Harpa Cristã and gospel songs, and organized choirs of all sorts. [17]
The songbook was introduced by another Swedish missionary, but like every other part of the church’s inheritance, it has been updated several times. The "highest were transposed to more accessible tones of congregational song." [18]
The various conventions hold week-long youth congresses that function much as camp meetings. Mateus Silva described one in the beach town of Camboriú in the southern state of Santa Cataina. He named the main speakers on each of the five days, and described the last day when a singing pastor came with his band and preached for two hours. He added, other local and nationally-known singers were heard and dances were performed. [19]
In 2013, a youth choir naturalized Helmut Lotti’s version of "Kumbaya." Instead of submissively echoing the soloist, the group sang strong, percussive verses that had the power of Grupul Voces in Romania [20] or the Goodman Family. [21] It still used a soundtrack, but added mariachi-style trumpets [22] and a live drummer.
The dynamics of the accompaniment required a strong soloist. He was a dark-skinned man, who wore a long, blue, cotton shirt and slacks. As much as one could tell from the video uploaded to YouTube, all the singers had light-brown complexions. The girls wore sleeveless, long dresses, and the boys wore African-stripped shirts.
The man sang the kumbaya choruses, and the boys sang the verses. They stood still behind their floor mikes, but the soloist moved around the front of the stage with a wireless hand-held mike. He bent his knees deeply when he walked, and sometimes used his right arm to direct.
The result was the best version of Lotti’s arrangement I have found on YouTube, better than Lotti, José Carreras, or the soundtrack used by the Spiritist José Medrado.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: adult man
Vocal Group: adolescent male and female choir
Vocal Director: adult man
Instrumental Accompaniment: soundtrack
Rhythm Accompaniment: kettle-style drum, which the young man played with his hands. All the photographs I found of that style drum in Brazil on the internet were played with sticks.
Credits
None given. The person who uploaded the video implied the director’s belief about the song’s origin when he or she noted it was sung for a service marking the founding of the Organisation de l’Unité Africaine. [23]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English. The recorder was far from the stage and the words sung by the choir were indistinct. However, I could detect some of the English words, especially at the beginnings of phrases in the verses.
Pronunciation: koom by YAH
Verses: Helmet Lotti, with no obvious deviations
Vocabulary
Pronoun: none
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Helmut Lotti
Tempo: upbeat
Basic Structure: alternated between solo and group sections, like a concerto
Singing Style: the unnamed soloist had a powerful deep voice that, if not trained, had been honed by listening to well-trained singers in the European style.
Notes on Performance
The only information Coral Evalo gave on the performance was "IEAD 06." The acronym referred to Igreja Evangélica Assembléia de Deus. I noticed a similar number referred to the session number for youth retreats held by other IEAD conventions.
I found one for Juventude 6 in 2013 that had the same interior: a concrete floor with concrete steps to the stage. The flats surrounding the stage were reddish-colored wood panels. That particular video showed a group rehearsing a dance. [24] Another video uploaded by the same person showed people doing the steps outdoors with the note it was the "Official Dance of the 2013 Retreat." He added the dance was "Son of God" and the sponsor was "Ass de Deus Min de Madureira." [25]
This suggested the performance was part of a 2013 youth congress sponsored by a conference located in a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. [26] The dance was a complete routine done by individuals in a group.
Notes on Audience
Applause at the end. The performers did not bow, and the soloist simply walked off stage.
Notes on Performers
Coro Evalo provided no information about itself in any of its videos. It might not even be the name of the group. Evalo literally meant "I evaluate," and might have referred to one person’s act of witnessing or testifying.
Several YouTube videos uploaded by the same person showed a youth choir being directed by a dark-skinned man. He probably was not the soloist, but the man who walked on stage, when the soloist left at the end. [27] He also was not the light-complected man dressed in the same kind of shirt as the boys in the choir who directed the start of the soundtrack and choir, then stepped back to the edge of the stage.
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Coral Evalo on 20 May 2013.
End Notes
1. Jonathan Edwards. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Enfield, Connecticut, 8 July 1741. Edited by Reiner Smolinski for University of Nebraska website.
2. "Ye must be born again." Wesley used the King James version. The Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims had "you.
3. John Wesley. "The New Birth." Sermon 45. In The Works of John Wesley. Ed. Thomas Jackson. London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1872 reprint of 1831 edition. Version posted on UMC Global Ministries website edited by Michael Anderson with corrections by George Lyons.
4. The Oxford English Dictionary. "Born-Again." Edited by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989 edition. 2:415. It defined born again as a "spiritual renewal; of a Christian: placing special emphasis on this experience as a basis for all one’s actions, evangelical." This was the period when Pentecostals, evangelicals and fundamentalists became merged into a single entity by outsiders because of the political actions of their various groups.
5. OED.
6. A Gallup Poll taken a month before the election. Cited by D. Paul Graunke. "The Rebirth of the ‘Born Again’ Movement." Plain Truth, April 1977. This was the same poll alluded to by the OED.
7. "Religion." Gallup News website. The number for 2016 was 41%, for 2015 it was 38%, and for 2014 it was 44%. It has stayed in that range since 2003.
8. "Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals." Pew Research Center. October 2006. 75-76.
9. Andrew Chesnut. Interviewed by David Masci. "Why Has Pentecostalism Grown So Dramatically in Latin America?" 14 November 2014. Pew Research Center website.
10. "100 Anos de Assembleias de Deus 1911 - 2011." Assembléia de Deus, Cascavel, Paraná, website.
11. Wikipedia. "Gunnar Vingren" and "Lewi Pethrus."
12. Portuguese Wikipedia. "Assembleia de Deus (Brasil)." The Assembly of God was mentioned in the post for 7 December 2017.
13. Walter Hollenweger. The Pentecostals. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1977 edition. Cited by Wikipedia. "Assembleias de Deus." It quoted him as saying "In the mission statistics of the North American Assemblies of God, the Assembleia de Deus figure as their mission church. In contrast, the Brazilian Pentecostals regard themselves as an independent church." 82.
14. Assembléia de Deus, Cascavel.
15. Paul Freston. "Breve História do pentecostalismo brasileiro." In Nem anjos nem demônios interpretações sociológicas do pentecostalismo. Edited by A. Antoniazzi. Petrópolis, Brazil: Vozes, 1994. Cited by Portuguese Wikipedia, Assembléia.
16. Portuguese Wikipedia, Assembléia.
17. Portuguese Wikipedia, Assembléia.
18. Portuguese Wikipedia. "Harpa Cristã." Quotation translated by Google Translate.
19. Mateus Silva. "Somente do campo de Camboriú, foram 718 jovens participantes." Assembléia de Deus, Camboriú, website. He described it as "a equipe de coreografia da Assembleia de Deus da cidade de Pouso Redondo" (the choreography team of the Assembly of God of the city of Pouso Redondo according to Google Translate).
20. Grupul Voces backed Wintley Phipps. See post for 5 December 2017.
21. The Goodmans were discussed in the post for 21 December 2017.
22. Mariachi trumpets were discussed in the post for 9 September 2017.
23. It is now the African Union. (Wikipedia. "African Union.")
24. "Assembléia de Deus - Edgard Romero - Juventude 2013." Uploaded to YouTube by Vagner Jose on 9 February 2014.
25. "Dança Oficial do Retiro 2013, Juventude Shemá." Uploaded to YouTube by Vagner Jose on 3 March 2013. Quotations translated by Google Translate.
26. Wikipedia. "Madureira, Rio de Janeiro."
27. "Coral Evalo - Jesus meu guia é (Raíz Coral)." Uploaded to YouTube by Coral Evalo on 11 October 2011.
"Coral Evalo - Quão grande é o meu Deus e Tu és bom." Uploaded to YouTube by Coral Evalo on 11 October 2011. It said they were "singing with the Ministry of Praise!" ("Coral Evalo cantando com o Ministério de Louvor!")
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