PROTESTANTISM AMONG ROMA IN SOUTH-EASTERN SERBIA: STATE AND CONSEQUENCES
PROTESTANTISM AMONG ROMA IN SOUTH-EASTERN SERBIA: STATE AND CONSEQUENCES

Summary/Abstract: Mimicking the distribution patterns in European, as well as Balkan countries, Protestant communities in Serbia pay special attention to ethnic and religious minorities, the favourite source of their survival, spreading, and growth. Particularly in its south-eastern regions, Roma represent a religious confessional reservoir of Protestantization, primarily due to the lack of any kind of pastoral activity among them by the traditional churches and religious communities. The conversion of Roma into the Protestant religious corpus transforms every aspect of their everyday life, bringing them dignity and appreciation, care and support, hope and perspective, respect within the majority. Positive effects are felt in the improvement of the quality of life in Roma families: the decrease in petty crime, alcoholism, drug addiction and prostitution, better hygienic, working and education habits. The paper is based on the data collected through observation and participation in religious rituals, as well as through in-deep interviews, based on the structural questionnaire, with members of the Roma Christian Baptist Church, Christian Adventist Church, Evangelical Pentecostal Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses in South-eastern Serbia.

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