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Table 5.19 According to your personal experience, your conversion to Christianity has to do with:\u000A   Options\u000AA change of relationship with God and your neighbour. Acquiring values for life\u000AA change of spiritual and material life\u000AAll the aspects mentioned above\u000ADid not answer\u000ATotal\u000ASource: Neo-Pentecostal lay people survey 2003\u000AFrequency Valid Per cent\u000A113 22.1 4 0.8 36 7 345 67.4 14 2.7\u000A512 100\u000A         The discussion on socio-economic development must also be tied with the values of the receptive culture, which interacts with the religious principles. Sexton, who investigated indigenous communities in western Guatemala, affirms that religious values have not made a great impact as a driving force of socio-economic change; on the contrary they operate after the conversion of the believer exposed to certain traits of the ladino culture such as western clothing and housing types (cited in Martin, 1990: 216). These believers are more successful, educated, and live in modern houses, often work in the non- agricultural sector, and are more inclined to sobriety and less fatalist.\u000AIn that sense Martin concludes, \u2018Thus, all main elements of \u2018achievement\u2019 motivation are present and Protestantism cooperates with others elements in a complicated dance of mutual reinforcement helping along with modernization\u2019 (1990: 206). In short, the NPCs provide teachings to their members that help them confront socio-economic challenges at a personal, family, and work level. Their emphasis on prosperity theology is combined with values that draw close in some ways to Weberian ethics. In addition, their economic perspective shows identification with the values of market economics that expose theme to the exacerbated individualism promoted by consumer society. In the same way, the idea of giving in order to receive can distort the true motivation for giving and foster the ambition to accumulate wealth. The challenge presented by Cox for the\u000A319\u000A


































































































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