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Humanitarian Ad-Hocracy, Transnational New Apostolic Missions, and Evangelical Anti-dependency in a Haitian Refugee Camp

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Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities

Part of the book series: Contemporary Anthropology of Religion ((CAR))

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Abstract

The morning the earthquake hit, God told Pastor Yvette that something terrible was about to happen.1 He commanded her to go home and stand in her closet and repent. Pastor Yvette led a church in downtown Port-au-Prince near the Cite Soleil slum, and on January 12, 2010 the congregation was thriving with over two thousand members. The congregation had converted Catholics, Freemasons, and Vodou practitioners, and even had saved gang members from the nearby slum. The church was part of a network of congregations throughout Haiti and beyond of like-minded charismatics, who believed that “spiritual” causes were at the root of human and material problems. The answer to any problem, including the entrenched poverty and political chaos in Haiti, was obedience to God. To dedicate one’s life to Jesus as a servant, to fight as a soldier of Christ against the devil, and to bring the gospel to others and spread revival as a missionary were not only part of the soteriology, but also a means of salvation from human problems.

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Authors

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Alexander Horstmann Jin-Heon Jung

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© 2015 Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung

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McAlister, E. (2015). Humanitarian Ad-Hocracy, Transnational New Apostolic Missions, and Evangelical Anti-dependency in a Haitian Refugee Camp. In: Horstmann, A., Jung, JH. (eds) Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities. Contemporary Anthropology of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137496300_8

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