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this present world. The Neo-Pentecostals\u2019 opinions and testimonies reveal that their conversion produced spiritual change, as well as economic improvement which eventually led them to a certain amount of social mobility. According to Haralambos & Holborn social mobility can be in an upwards or downwards movement. They say that the major types of social mobility are intra-generational mobility which occurs in a simple generation, measured by the occupational status of an individual and the inter-generational mobility refers to social mobility between generations (1995: 101). The former one was applied here.\u000AHave the NPL experimented social mobility? The testimonies which are presented in Chapter five do reveal that when they convert and begin to work hard some changes in social and economic status occur. Protestant and Pentecostal analysts note that these factors were in some way the vehicle to improve the members\u2019 social and economic status.\u000AIn his analysis of Guatemalan Protestantism Luj\u00E1n affirms that \u2018the emphasis of the Evangelicals of bible reading, and therefore on literacy, as well as family unity, sobriety and saving, has contributed to the social improvement of many converts\u2019 (1998: 383). Along the same lines as Lujan Mu\u00F1oz the sociologist Claudia Dary affirms that the believers within the historic churches \u2018little by little started to climb out of poverty as a logical consequence of the total change of religious ideology which governed their lives, helping them to abandon the economic responsibilities linked to Catholic brotherhoods, among other expenses\u2019 (1993: 83). De Angulo states that Bolivian Neo-Pentecostals testify to the fact that they experiment improvement in the social and living conditions as a consequence of reorganization and hard and sacrificial work (1995: 49).\u000ACleary affirms that in Latin America although the majority of the Pentecostals belong to the lower classes, there are among them craftsmen, small entrepreneurs and teachers among whom some reach the higher middle classes , representing a creative strata, whose aspirations provide leadership. Later he states that \u2018Through the passage of time, by saving money, and working hard, children of those converts have entered into the middle\u000A207\u000A


































































































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