Latest news with #Pentecostal
Wall Street Journal
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Congregation' Review: Devotion and Delirium on Viaplay
The members of 'The Congregation' maintain a state of general religious delirium, but none are more ferociously devoted to Jesus than Eva Skoog (Aliette Opheim), spiritual leader of the Swedish Pentecostal community of Knutby and a woman who puts the rapt in rapture. It's a mad, Miltonian performance by Ms. Opheim, one that will keep a viewer glued to the series. Who knows what might happen? Well, some viewers, at least in the broadest terms: The real-life Knutby, circa 2004, was the subject of the 2021 HBO documentary 'Pray, Obey, Kill'; in Sweden, 'Knutby' has become shorthand for the kind of situation not quite spelled out by another current TV title ('FUBAR') as well as a willful blindness in the face of the obvious. But foreknowledge of the story won't have much effect on the viewing experience: It's a crime thriller, a social commentary, and a parable of dark and light. Will it be the glamorous, charismatic, raven-haired Eva vs. the pretty, blond, wan and utterly guileless believer Anna Andersson (Alba August)? An apocalyptic battle between good and evil? No, nothing so simple.
India Today
7 days ago
- India Today
Ontario town in shock after teen charged in attack on 8-year-old girl
A rural community in Canada's southern Ontario is in shock after police revealed that the brutal assault of an eight-year-old girl, originally thought to be an animal attack, was allegedly carried out by a 17-year-old boy now charged with attempted murder and sexual assault with a incident took place in Quadeville, a small town of just a few hundred people. The girl was reported missing on June 23 after last being seen around 6 pm near a local grocery store. She was discovered with severe injuries in a wooded area around 12:30 am the following morning and was rushed to a children's hospital in Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) told the community to keep their children indoors, warning of a potential animal threat. However, on June 25, authorities said they believed the injuries were from an animal attack but needed further investigation. Last week, that narrative shifted dramatically. Police arrested a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act, and charged him with attempted murder and sexual assault with a spokesperson Bill Dickson said the nature of the injuries initially led officers to suspect an animal, but investigators had also been exploring other possibilities from the start. 'You can't go into an investigation like this with tunnel vision,' he said, declining to provide specifics due to the ongoing court suspect and the victim's families are known to each other, further unsettling the close-knit community. Residents have raised concerns about the police response, including why the search for the missing girl didn't begin until 9 pm the day she disappeared. During a town hall on 12 July, acting OPP Chief Superintendent Derek Needham said specialized resources took time to arrive, but one parent responded: 'That's not good enough.'The local Pentecostal church has launched a fundraiser to support the victim's family. Pastor Joseph Fiorentino said the young girl is showing signs of recovery, though her healing journey will be long.- EndsMust Watch
Mint
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Emigration from Africa will change the world
After John Uwagboe moved to Scotland in 2008 he did not see another black man for several weeks. When at last he did, on the other side of a street in Edinburgh, he crossed over to meet him. Soon the strangers were hugging like long-lost friends. They went for lunch. 'The guy wasn't even another Nigerian," recalls Mr Uwagboe. 'He was from Ghana!" In 2001 there were just 5,000 Africans in Scotland, or 0.1% of the overwhelmingly pasty-faced population. By the time of the most recent census, in 2022, that population had increased more than 11-fold, and will very probably have grown faster since. Mr Uwagboe, who came to study, then worked his way up the ranks of a bank and later became a restaurateur, says there are more than 3,000 members of a WhatsApp group for Nigerians in Edinburgh. There are ten branches of his Pentecostal church. 'One thing for sure is that Africans will keep coming," he says. That may seem improbable when Donald Trump is booting out migrants, European politicians are embracing nativism and media coverage of migration from Africa focuses on the illegal sort, in leaking dinghies. But the vast majority of Africans leave the continent in prosaic, legal ways. This form of migration has continued to increase despite the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment. It will in all likelihood continue to grow in the coming decades, expanding African diasporas around the world. The trend will have profound effects in recipient countries and in Africa itself. The growth stems from the extraordinary demographic divergence between Africa, the world's youngest continent with the fastest-growing population, and everywhere else. Labour is becoming more abundant in Africa and scarcer in many other places. As a result, argue Kathryn Foster and Matthew Hall, demographers at Cornell University, 'The future of migration will be African in origin." Earlier this year McKinsey, a consultancy, published a report on the 'new demographic reality". It notes that a 'first wave" of countries including America, China, Japan, South Korea and all of Europe will see their working-age population (15- to 64-year-olds) shrink by about 340m by 2050. Longer lives and, especially, falling fertility rates, mean the 'support ratio" of working-age people to those over 65 in these places has dropped from 7:1 in 1997 to 4:1 today. By 2050 it will be just 2:1. Jobs but few workers A shift is also under way in emerging economies. By 2060, according to UN forecasts, the support ratio will fall from 6.2:1 to 2.3:1 in Brazil and from 7.5:1 to 2.4:1 in Vietnam, notes Michael Clemens of George Mason University. 'Nothing like this shockingly rapid disappearance of workers has happened in world history," he says. The exception is sub-Saharan Africa. Though fertility rates are falling there as well, they are doing so more slowly, from a higher starting-point. The region is decades behind in its 'demographic transition". Its working-age population will rise by around 700m by 2050, roughly doubling. By 2030 roughly half of new workers entering the global labour force will be from sub-Saharan Africa (see chart 1). They will struggle to find work at home. Sub-Saharan Africa sees around 15m people enter the labour market every year but just 3m formal jobs created. A survey last year by Afrobarometer, a pollster, found that 47% of Africans in 24 countries had considered migrating and 27% had given it 'a lot of thought"—increases of nine and ten percentage points respectively since the previous round of surveys in 2016-18. 'Better work opportunities" was by far the most cited reason. The tendency to migrate from a given country follows a pattern that, when drawn on a chart against GDP per person (adjusted for the cost of living), forms a bell curve. Emigration rises as countries approach around $5,000 in income per person, peaks at around $10,000 and declines thereafter. In poor countries people lack the resources to leave. In rich ones they lack the need. In middling places they have both the will and the wherewithal. Countries long associated with emigration, such as Mexico and the Philippines, are now rich enough to have passed their migratory peak. Meanwhile 94% of sub-Saharan Africans—1.1bn people—live in countries with a GDP per person of less than $10,000. African migration is 'an unstoppable force", says Mr Clemens. A need but little enthusiasm The politics of recipient countries, however, may seem an immovable object. Mr Trump has suspended America's 'diversity visa", which is popular among African migrants. The European Union is spending billions of euros trying to reduce illegal migration, much of it from Africa. The previous British government appeared keener to deport migrants to Rwanda than to admit migrants from Rwanda. Nativism may lead to more curbs on African migration. But restricting it will have political costs. In Britain it would make it harder to find nurses and doctors for its National Health Service. Everywhere it would mean resorting to unpopular alternatives to fill labour shortages and fund welfare states, such as cutting benefits or raising retirement ages. Before Giorgia Meloni became Italy's prime minister, she pledged to cut immigration. Since she has been in government the number of non-EU work visas issued by Italy has increased. Net migration also surged in post-Brexit Britain. So long as rich countries need labour from abroad, it makes sense to assume Africans will supply more of it. Indeed, they are already doing so. In 2024 there were more than 45m African migrants living outside their country of origin, according to the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which released its latest estimates of international migration in January. Africans comprised 15% of the world's émigrés, up from 13% in 1990. Back then, 35% of migrants from Africa lived outside the continent, rather than in another African country. Today the share is 45%. That amounts to 20.7m people, triple the figure in 1990 and more than the number of Indians living outside India (18.5m) or of Chinese outside China (11.7m). Between 1990 and 2024, according to the UN, Africans living in Europe increased from 4m to 10.6m—about half of all African migrants living outside the continent. Over 4m live in France and 1m in Britain. The latest arrivals have swollen diasporas that date to the post-colonial period or earlier. Prior generations of migrants, often from professional elites, have seen their descendants thrive. Children of African migrants perform above the average in exams in England. British-Nigerians, in particular, are increasingly prominent in public life, whether in sport (Maro Itoje, England's rugby captain, has Nigerian parents), business or politics (Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, grew up in Lagos). Though migrants from Africa continue to come to Britain to be doctors or members of other professions, they are increasingly joined by Africans seeking more menial jobs previously dominated by migrants from Asia or eastern Europe. Nigerians were the most common foreign nationals working in British care homes in 2023. Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans and Ghanaians have also been recruited for such positions. In the past decade America has overtaken France as the country with the largest population of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Africans' share of immigration to America has risen from less than 1% in 1960 to 11% in 2020. Net migration from the Caribbean and Africa in the 2010s was twice as high as from Latin America. Four times more Africans arrived in America between 1990 and 2020 than during the slave trade, estimates Neeraj Kaushal of Columbia University. In a forthcoming book she argues that 'the future of the United States is in Black Africa", since it will be the fastest-growing source of migrants. She notes that the Nigerian, Ethiopian, Ghanaian and Kenyan diasporas are roughly the size the Indian diaspora was in 1980. Since then the Indian-born population has risen 13-fold. A similar increase among those four African diasporas would equate to 10m more migrants by around 2060. Ms Kaushal accepts that some of the Trump administration's policies, such as the suspension of the diversity visa, will limit African migration. But over the long term, she believes, 'if America is to remain a nation of immigrants, then Africa will be the primary source of immigration." At a recent Africa Diaspora Day in Atlanta, Congolese, Ethiopians, Rwandans, Nigerians and others mingled at Georgia's state capitol. Ethiopian Airlines, the African carrier with the most extensive network, sent representatives to advertise direct flights to Addis Ababa. 'Africa has long been associated with the export of natural resources," noted Carl Kananda of the Atlanta Congo Coalition, 'but one of our most valuable exports today is intellectual capital, the resources of the mind." Yvonne Horsley McCowin, Ghana's consul-general in Atlanta, says that hers is one of four Ghanaian consulates opened in America last year. Moving to America can be a difficult adjustment for affluent Ghanaians, she says. 'We had folks who took care of us, we had a cook and all that. So imagine growing up and then moving over here to the US, and all of a sudden … it's like, well, where's the driver?" Ms Kaushal thinks that Africans will replace Asians as America's 'new model minority". Some 42% of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa (and 64% of Nigerian-Americans) aged 25 or above have a degree, versus 33% of the rest of the population. Africans have a higher labour-force participation rate than the American average. A big majority of Nigerian-Americans say they believe in the American dream and think that America is 'a land of opportunity and freedom". African migrants are so successful that some black scholars on Ivy League campuses have questioned whether their children should have been allowed to benefit from affirmative action. The newcomers are changing what it means to be 'African-American". Mr Kananda says, 'I'm African. I had to learn that I was black when I came to the US." It is wrong to assume, as some scholars have, that 'race would overwhelm ethnicity" in shaping migrants' identity, argues Onoso Imoagene of NYU Abu Dhabi. Ms McCowin says, 'Most African-Americans will probably think the African thinks they're better, and the Africans would think the African-American, with all the opportunities afforded to them, are not taking advantage". It is not just the West that is home to more Africans. In 2024 there were almost 4.7m migrants from Africa in the countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) according to DESA, more than tripling since 1990. Saudi Arabia is the second-largest source of remittances to Kenya, after America, but ahead of Britain and the EU. Many Africans in the Gulf are abused. Fully 99% of Kenyans working there claim to have been mistreated by their bosses, according to one survey. Marie Mwiza, a Ugandan activist, says that women from her country who work as maids in the Middle East have no protection. 'Employers treat them like commodities," she says. 'Like bags of tomatoes." She has organised the return of coffins to Uganda after women died in suspicious circumstances. Yet Ethiopians, Kenyans and Ugandans still pour into the Gulf, with some knowledge of what may await. 'This is all about unemployment," says Ms Mwiza. 'People here just don't have jobs." Steven Nuwuguba was in his early 20s when he went to Qatar. He toiled seven days a week at the main airport and was hectored by racist bosses. He does not want his children to go there. But he made twice as much in a month as Uganda's GDP per person. That enabled him to start a business when he came back. '$2,000 in our country, it's a lot of money," he says. Maids make much less but can return with enough to start a business or begin building a house. In China there are more Nigerians than there are Indonesians and almost as many South Africans as there are Thais. Cities such as Yiwu, Zhongshan and Guangzhou are home to thousands of Africans who buy goods to send home. Peter Sosthenes, who moved from Tanzania in 2023, observes: 'Chinese people work so hard. It is not like in my country." He wants to use Chinese e-commerce software in Tanzania to help farmers find markets. If Africans are not trading they are probably studying. In 2018, the last year for which there are data, there were 80,000 African students in China, more than in America or any other country save France. How will emigration from Africa affect Africa? One perennial concern is 'brain drain", as educated Africans leave in disproportionate numbers. But the truth is more nuanced, argues Narcisse Cha'Ngom, a Cameroonian economist. His research weighs the pros and cons of outward migration on the sending countries. On one side of the ledger is the immediate loss of human capital, spending power in local shops and to the country's tax base. More positive effects include remittances, which last year exceeded both foreign direct investment in Africa and overseas aid (see chart 2). The prospect of emigration can also actually increase levels of education at home, by creating an incentive for locals to get more qualifications, which they may or may not end up using abroad. A paper from 2023 co-written by Mr Cha'Ngom that looked at emigration from 174 countries concluded that, in most cases, including for most African countries, the benefits outweigh the costs, as measured by the overall impact on GDP per person in source countries. Beneficial but under-exploited Yet he is at pains to add: 'The potential to maximise benefits and to minimise costs depends on policy." African countries could learn from the Philippines, which linked the emigration of its nurses to funding for health-care training back home, or from India, which encourages emigrants to return with skills and capital. Several African governments, including Ethiopia's and Nigeria's, have issued 'diaspora bonds" to raise money from émigrés for infrastructure projects. Last year Kenya struck a tentative migration deal with Germany, under which Kenyans would fill job shortages, with Germany paying for vocational courses and language training. Kenya has a dedicated cabinet ministry for diaspora affairs which holds jobs fairs across the country. William Ruto, Kenya's president, has argued: 'Kenya's workforce is our greatest resource." His government wants to export 1m Kenyans a year for the next three years, which is roughly equivalent to the number of new entrants to the Kenyan workforce. Other countries are mulling similar initiatives to promote 'emigration as an export". Earlier this year Ethiopia wrote to Norway and other European countries offering to export nurses. Tanzania is planning migration deals with eight countries, including the United Arab Emirates, according to Reuters. Many Africans are sceptical that states that have squandered their natural resources can do better with their human ones. Some young Kenyans see Mr Ruto's deal with Germany as a distraction from his failure to create enough jobs at home. Kenyans and Ugandans know that members of the political elite own some of the employment firms that send them to the Gulf. But that does not stop them seeking their fortunes abroad. Africans need jobs; the rest of the world needs workers. That confluence of interests is a massive opportunity, if only both sides have the good sense to seize it.
Time of India
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Apocalypse in the Tropics OTT release: When and where to watch the Netflix documentary on evangelism's impact in Brazil
Apocalypse in the Tropics OTT release: Apocalypse in the Tropics is a new Netflix documentary exploring the growing sway of evangelical groups over Brazil's political landscape. The film takes a closer look at how religious movements have helped shape policy and daily life in the country. Set to stream soon on Netflix, it offers viewers a timely perspective on the intersection of faith and power. Apocalypse in the Tropics OTT release Apocalypse in the Tropics will be released on 12th July on Netflix. What is Apocalypse in the Tropics about? Through conversations with politicians, faith leaders, and everyday Brazilians, the documentary explores how Evangelical power quickly gained ground in Brazil's political sphere, ultimately leading to the 2018 election of former president Jair Bolsonaro. It focuses in particular on the political clout of Pentecostal pastor and televangelist Silas Malafaia, showing how these forces have put pressure on Brazil's democratic institutions. Blending historical background with firsthand accounts, the film illustrates how Brazil's shift toward religious influence mirrors broader global trends of democracy under strain. Meet the crew Costa collaborated on the screenplay with David Barker, Alessandra Orofino, Nels Bangerter, and Tina Baz. The documentary is produced by Orofino for Peri Productions and Costa for Busca Vida Filmes, alongside partners including Impact Partners, Play/Action Pictures, Luminate, and Plan B/KM Films. Executive producers include Jenny Raskin, Jim and Susan Swartz, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and Meadow Fund representing Impact Partners; Jeffrey Lurie and Marie Therese Guirgis for Play/Action Pictures; Felipe Estefan and Rafael Georges Zein for Luminate; as well as Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner for Plan B Films. Additional executive producers are Katy Drake Bettner, Kate Hurwitz, InMaat Foundation, Frida Polli, James Costa, and Trevor Burgess.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jimmy Swaggart was a hypocrite. But that's not the worst part.
Jimmy Swaggart, the prolific evangelist who died Tuesday at age 90, will be remembered in part for his tearful, snotty apology to his congregation in 1988 after he was linked to a prostitute. But Swaggart will be remembered not just for being an American evangelical leader who suffered a spectacular fall from grace. He will also be remembered for his fire and brimstone condemnations of LGBTQ people and people of other faith traditions that, in the 1970s and '80s, helped give rise to the religious right. A prototype for the hard-line religious leaders that influence today's Republican Party spouting hatred in the guise of Christian piety, Swaggart was one of the pastors that President Ronald Reagan aligned himself with. That offended many of the people Swaggart had defamed, including Catholics. He didn't consider Catholicism to be Christianity and in 1986 he wrote a book saying as much. His supporters might consider Swaggart's legacy to include his Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the worldwide television, print ministry and Bible college he created. But in my opinion, his most significant, and most troublesome, legacy includes end times conspiracies and the disdain he expressed in his Pentecostal fundamentalist preaching for Catholics, Jews and LGBTQ people. Consider the album he released, called 'What shall the end be: Is there really a curse on the Kennedy family?' Swaggart's mix of old-time gospel, his interpretations of biblical prophecy and his evangelistic crusades spread a particular kind of fundamentalist Pentecostalism that endures today. Born in 1934 and ordained in 1961 by the Assemblies of God, Swaggart became a prolific preacher and evangelist with a bombastic preaching persona, amassing a worldwide following through his television ministry and his evangelistic appearances. He was a catalyst for the growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America as well as Africa. At its peak, his ministry amassed over $100 million per year. It would all crumble, in part because of Swaggart's hypocrisy. After Swaggart publicly called out other evangelical leaders he accused of grievous sin, a pastor who said Swaggart falsely accused him provided photographic evidence of Swaggart with a prostitute. 'I have sinned against you,' Swaggart said in a tearful apology as he confessed to his congregation. 'I beg you to forgive me.' That scandal was the beginning of a diminished ministry for Swaggart. The Assemblies of God ordered him to refrain from preaching for a year and to spend two years in rehabilitation. Swaggart, fearful of losing his ministry, came back to the pulpit sooner, and his denomination defrocked him. Also, he had to pay to settle with the pastor who said Swaggart falsely accused him. On top of that, in 1991, police in California pulled him over for traffic violations, and the woman in the car with him later identified herself as a prostitute he had picked up for sex . Though Swaggart managed to hold onto his church, ministry and Bible school, by turning them over to his son Donnie Swaggart, he would never again reach the heights he did prior to his fall from prominence. Even though his own ministry deteriorated, it helped lay the foundation for the rise of prosperity gospel, megachurch ministries and the proliferation of religious broadcasting. His bombastic language and condemnation of others would diminish in influence as other ministries captured the spotlight in televangelism, but he will be remembered for that moment in time, when his face filled the television asking his congregation and God for forgiveness. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Swaggart was 'our longest serving televangelist.' He may also have been the longest serving hypocrite, who seemed to have no problem trying to destroy other ministers' lives as he was apparently living a double life himself. While the memory of his scandal may have faded, his preaching and evangelical crusades had a primary role in helping shape the sharp divisive religious environment that exists in America today. This article was originally published on
