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Belief and Unbelief in Mexico

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Belief and Unbelief in Mexico Belief and Unbelief in Mexico Mario Mendez-Acosta t is not an easy task to discuss the prevalence or the group-related activities. extension of religious belief in a country without a careful On the other hand, in any discussion concerning social I definition of what we understand as such. No matter how problems in countries like Mexico, there is a tendency to lose rationalist or materialist an individual may be, it is difficult to the perspective of the real composition of the country's popula- assert that in any moment of his life, especially if he is under tion. The fact is that Mexico still remains an underdeveloped the influence of fear or sorrow, he will not relapse into some country, with a high proportion of its population unable to kind of prayer or even blasphemy. Deathbed conversions of take advantage of the fruits of progress and modern Western militant atheists are to be attributed more to an irrational fear culture. Because of this, many of the findings of social studies of the passage to the unknown than to internal and pondered that may be valid for urban residents with high or middle reflection. In daily life, belief in some kind of religious idea incomes cannot be applied in any way to the country as a may tinge in many different shades the behavior of any person. whole. That is why we must postulate a definition of religious belief It is in matters of religious belief that the duality of situa- that will allow us to perform some kind of investigation or tions between the underprivileged majority and the affluent make observations about religion's effect on society. What we minority becomes especially apparent. Religious unbelief or will seek is a description of a kind of individual behavior that skepticism, considered as rational choices based on the indi- is the direct outcome or consequence of compliance with a vidual's culture, knowledge, and self-analysis, is practically non- certain religious belief. If we define a significant level of reli- existent among Mexico's poor. When it does occur, it is gious belief in such a way that any individual who professes it basically caused by disenchantment in the face of the deity's will alter his behavior in a noticeable way with respect to other possible lack of response to prayers or supplications or because members of a community, then we will be in a position to of God's failure to lend aid or relief in some painful and make observations and formulate hypotheses concerning the desperate situations. Skepticism adopts the form of rancor effect of such belief on the society. against the forces that be. It is only when individuals reach a The demands a certain religious belief makes upon an indi- certain degree of integration, mainly through the educational vidual may vary from a few daily prayers and occasional at- system, that rational skepticism starts to appear. Among the tendance at religious services to the complete surrendering of strongest influences against traditional beliefs are the individuals his life, activities, and properties to benefit the sect or congre- trained as teachers, educators, social workers, and agrarian gation. Even within one religion, the requisites of its liturgy technicians who return to their underprivileged communities. and worship may vary considerably. Thus, within the Catholic Nevertheless, religious belief is very deeply ingrained among church, the believer may drift away so much from the usual the poor, who make up more than half the country's popula- worshiping practices that the only religious services he attends tion. For about 60 percent of the inhabitants of Mexico, religion are weddings, christenings, and funerals. On the other hand, he is a heavy and even a painful load, especially considering the may abandon himself absolutely to his religion, as do the ad- state of acute poverty in which they find themselves. This reli- herents of the Opus Dei, a rigid Catholic organization in which giosity may act through established religions, such as the the affiliates must give account of their income, must conduct Catholic and the Protestant churches, and especially through their social and family lives in agreement with their religious the residues of pre-Columbian religions in isolated rural areas. perceptor's instructions, and must take part in a series of secret Year after year, some two million peasants undertake leng- thy pilgrimages on foot, heading toward the main sanctuaries Mario Mendez-Acosta is head of the Mexican section of the of the country: the shrine of Guadalupe, San Juan de los Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Lagos, Chalma, el Cubilete, and many others. They leave their Paranormal and a television news commentator in Mexico work and families behind, sometimes for several weeks. During City. the long marches, they suffer uncountable abuses, unsanitary conditions, and even threats to their lives, for it is not uncom- Winter 1986/87 27 mon for heavy buses or trailers to run them down while they religious, this doesn't constitute an absolute impediment to walk at night along the highways. When they reach the shrine, protest or social-reform movements. Such protest has always they camp in the churchyards and can become the object of been the spark that ignites revolution in Mexico. The uprising economic exploitation. A common procedure, at the shrine of of the peasants has been at the root of triumphant social Guadalupe, for example, is the sale of silver milagros, or offer- upheavals throughout Mexico's history. Nevertheless, the ings, in special authorized stores around the temples. These underprivileged population has sometimes actively opposed offerings—small silver images of hearts, arms, and legs—are social reform and has served as cannon fodder for ultra- then pinned on cushioned planks around the most popular conservative movements. holy images inside the temples. When the pilgrimage is over Generally speaking, the Mexican governments have well and the faithful are safely back home, the clergymen remove understood that the road to real development and freedom all the offerings and sell them back to the salesmen, so the must include a very profound effort to improve the lot of the cycle may go on and on, unendingly. Thus the population's large impoverished population, especially through a highly most miserable sector willingly cooperates in the further enrich- humanistic educational system. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm ment of an already wealthy and powerful church, handing over has been somewhat dampened in the past few decades. a very substantial proportion of their pitiably meager incomes. Of course it is within that smaller part of Mexico's popu- For these marginal groups, religiosity also represents, aside lation who have experienced economic and cultural develop- from economic exploitation, a source of pain and pointless ment where more religious skepticism can be found. It is sacrifice. Self-torment—"mortification," as they euphemistically obvious that a rational education is the principal cause of this call it—and painful pennances, like walking on the knees for skepticism. long distances, strapping spiny branches or cacti to the body, About 90 percent of Mexicans are baptized as Catholics, or carrying heavy bundles of skin-abrasive plants, are a com- even though Protestantism has made significant inroads in rural mon experience in these unhappy people's lives. areas, thanks to intensive proselytizing by American mission- In some Indian tribes, non-Christian religious practices also aries thinly disguised as cultural researchers, such as those of represent an undignified and inhuman load. In many instances, the Summer Linguistic Institute. The appearance of Protestant these ceremonies are partly assimilated into the Christian reli- communities sometimes provokes bloody feuds with neighbor- gion; however, they result in veritable bacchanals of vandalism, ing Catholic villages, and it is still dangerous to be a Protestant brutality, and stupefying frenzy. For instance, the huicholes, a in many parts of Mexico. It is rather amusing to hear Catholic tribe of the western Mexican coastal states of Nayarit and bishops' complain about the "infiltration of foreign, unpatriotic Jalisco, celebrate extensive Holy Week rites and festivities. As sects," as if the Rome-based religion hadn't been imposed by long as they last, all the men from several villages get together the sword of the Spanish conquerors back in the sixteenth and plunge themselves into an orgy of beatings and self- century. The problem is further complicated by the fact that denigration. Some see in this a redeemable folkloric tradition, the Protestant missionaries do not belong to the more or less something worth preserving and photographing. But, even in moderate traditional evangelical denominations, but to funda- the best of cases, it is nothing more than a traumatic escape mentalist sects generally funded by the American New Right. from an existence filled with boredom and poverty. The spec- The impressive number of baptized Catholics among tacle of half-naked adult men, covered with paint, like savages, Mexico's population may be a little misleading when con- and chasing an imaginary demon, may be understandable sidering the extent of skepticism in this country. Baptism is a among the aborigines of New Guinea, but not in a country very important tradition, and even declared unbelievers have with a seventy-year-old social revolution. As in many other their children baptized and act as god-parents for their friends' facets of life, it is the poor who pay most dearly for the burden children. In fact, skepticism, agnosticism, and even militant of superstition and ignorance. atheism are quite common among intellectuals and politicians; and, in this respect, Mexico stands out as the exception among ll attempts to reverse this state of affairs have resulted in most Catholic countries.
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