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P. 300

On the other hand, lay people underline the need to make attitude changes at a personal level. They said that \u2018as Christians we must assume personal responsibility as well as corporate responsibility as the church in the society\u2019, \u2018we need to clear the ego and begin to give\u2019, \u2018we need to change personally to change the country\u2019. It is urgent \u2018to change our mentality as Guatemalans\u2019. We will not go forward unless \u2018each one does their part beginning to make changes where we are. In this way we can develop and attack corruption\u2019. Every Christian \u2018should be a moral support where he lives providing effective ideas in the economic field\u2019, and \u2018give good testimony at work, open to change and be a good leader\u2019. The demand of personal responsibility is a key element in the Neo- Pentecostal and Protestantism contexts. Although this is required especially in the religious field, it can be transferred afterwards to the secular world.\u000AGifford emphasizes that this element is key in the Protestant world. In his study of the Pentecostalism in Africa, he found that \u2018The emphasis on personal decision certainly serves to develop the notion of individualism\u2019 among the people (1998: 347). He emphasizes that without this notion the emergence of a middle-class among them is impossible. Personal initiative is a characteristic of the NPL both within the church context and outside it. It is, of course, important to note that emphasis on the individual can degenerate and turn into individualism which damages the sense of brotherhood and solidarity.\u000ASome studies of communities of the interior show how religious conversion provided them with new values that replaced habits and customs that did not help them in their personal and family life. For example, the studies of Annis (1987), and Paul (1987) Garrard-Burnett (2007) among others, show this positive effect of conversion of the believers in Guatemalan indigenous communities. Protestant indigenous leaders say that they suffered lack of respect, imposition and lack of being understood personally, culturally and in their communities. Cant\u00F3n says that the NPCs and other Evangelical churches attack and seek to destroy idolatry because they think that it is the main source of\u000A287\u000A


































































































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