The Church(s) in New Mexico, Some Thoughts

CREDIT: "Mexican Catholic Church, Deming, New Mexico." Circa 1910-1919. The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F. A. Pazandak Photograph Collections, American Memory collections, Library of Congress.

This is what New Mexican Catholic Churches used to look like prior to the occupation by the United States in 1846. The picket fence was  probably not there. These came later when the Americans arrived. Click on the image to make it larger. Hope you did not think that the churches then looked like the church in Taos looks like today! because they did not, trust me.

Picture of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Canada.

Most towns of any size are over run by churches, especially in low income or

blighted neighborhoods. There are usually the "mainstream churches" like Catholic, Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches. Then there is the Baptist/Evangelicals Mega Church and then the slew of small even more "Evangelicals". If I draw a circle 50 miles in diameter from where I live there is probably less than 30,000 people. It is a very rural area, there are over 14 communities in the circle. But there are in excess of 90 churches. This is the state of churches in New Mexico today.

Before the invasion of New Mexico by the United States in 1846 there was only the Catholic Church. Everyone was Catholic, even the few folks who came here from the States. Folks like Kit Carson to name one. He converted to the Catholic faith. He converted out of necessity or convenience. He no more believed in the teachings of the Catholic Church than in being a Mexican subject. He did not convert because he liked it, nosiree Bob!

The Catholic Church was very powerful and ingrained in the political, social and religious life of New Mexicans. There was really no need to ask what church you attended, it was all the same. The Catholic Church, there was no other in the land.

Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Hurricane, WV, click on the image to make it larger.

The Presbyterian Church was probably the first church to arrive in New Mexico after the occupation by the Unites States. That plus the ever present Catholic Church, and a very few others, were the norm from 1846 to about 1880 or so. 

After that, the United States had passified the Indians and folks from all over the south, particularly Texas, flooded the state as ranchers and homesteaders. Thousands upon thousands of them. The Eastern border of the state was crawling with these immigrants. 

The Presbyterian church set out to convert Catholic New Mexicans. Their success was somewhat limited because if you converted, what would happen to your family? Would they go with you? What would those that did not convert do? There were many considerations.

But the big consideration was education, a very big selling point. There were no public schools, not a one. Education for all Presbyterian New Mexicans was available.  The Catholic Church still opposed education for all New Mexicans at this point. Any way, education was a big draw that would add a second component to converting...... Money. People with an education made more money and more folks converted when they saw this. 

Some of the teachers that the Presbyterian's had assigned to New Mexico despised the New Mexicans they were teaching. The New Mexico Historical Review has some excellent articles on this.

This church could be anywhere in any town in New Mexico or any other place.

They  are literally all over the landscape today. Anywhere there is an empty building in a blighted neighborhood. Some "pastor" this or that sets up shop and starts collecting souls and money. These seem to appeal to the less educated amongst us, and not just in New Mexico. These are the "holy Rollers" of old.

The interior of a "mega church".

Usually located in an old shopping center where they took over one of the bigger stores and converted it to a church. If built from scratch they are even more impressive. I have seen a humble looking mega church structure and when you went inside there were 2 stories underground 2-3 times the size of the above ground structure. Sortta like the Pit at UNM. Below the humble above ground structure there were classrooms, auditoriums, nurseries, libraries, kitchens, dining rooms and what seemed like motel rooms. These mega churches seem to have something for everyone, and if one mega church does not have what you want, there is another one around the corner that just might.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1204/religion-changes-affiliations-survey