Suspicion and prejudice: The role of ideology in the study of Christian revival among the Roma

Abstract

The state of affairs of some studies concerning Romani groups’ conversions throughout the world to the global evangelical movement, and the subtext that prevails in such studies, could reveal a persistence of ‘enlightened prejudice’ towards the nature of religions, namely, a kind of suspicion and authoritarianism that continues to tacitly fuel hostility against emerging religious phenomena, and the tendency of analysts to share, consciously or unconsciously, the language of the State, producing a negative vision of the Romani world. The creativity and autonomy exhibited by Romani Evangelism, which stays away from external financing and, generally speaking, policies of minority promotion, contribute to a vast trans-regional network of congregations, that aim towards an unprecedented global pan-Romanism with a strong social base. This is a response to a historic diaspora, and, in turn, a new form of the secular Romani diaspora.