Religion
Urban life in Mexico presents a religious picture of Roman Catholicism with its large cathedrals as being the center about which life revolves. This dates back to the coming of the Spanish priests with the first colonizers.
Every town and village has its Roman Catholic Church. With the rapid growth of the cities some of the traditional power of the Catholic Church has been lost in these urban situations.
In many of the smaller towns and rural villages the traditional ways of life and religious beliefs have a very strong influence in the lives of the people. In many such areas the predominant religion would be a form of folk Catholicism, where traditional beliefs including witchcraft would be mixed with Roman Catholic beliefs in the mind of the people.
Evangelical Christianity was introduced into Mexico in the 19th century by Colporteurs who went from village to village selling Bibles. Having a very slow start, it has since grown significantly during this century, and particularly since the 1970's.
Praise the Lord for the steady growth of the gospel! The number of evangelicals in 1960 was 2.1% (800,000), but by the year 2000 it was over 7% (7 million).
