Throughout the world, there are many different beliefs and religions that make up the spiritual base for many people. Religion offers something for people to believe in when they need it the most. These beliefs and rituals in which are participate in vary from town to town, city-to-city and country-to-country. There are many people who participate in religious activities in many places around the world. For this paper, the Pentecostal church will be examined in light of three different places around the world, in order to provide an interesting contrast of the similarities and differences in Pentecostalism around the world. Besides the ethnographic evidence that will be presented, material that has been previously discussed such as Jesus Camp,…show more content… This article, written by anthropologist William Clement, titled Ritual Expectation in Pentecostal Healing Experience, looks at the experiences that people within the Pentecostal Church have, and the reasons as to why they have these type of reactions. Many of the people observed within this ethnography were observed singing, dancing and moving in ways that were seen to be “unusual” from an outsiders perspective, as well as crying and expressing themselves hysterically in many unique ways. Clement also describes the way in which these people from Arkansas believe that these beliefs in ritual can cause some of the believers to replaces their expectations for reality when ritual fails. Essentially, this means that people replace their own thoughts regarding their own, practical lives and replace it with those of religion, and Christianity, and the Holy Spirit. This can sometimes create a distorted worldview for these people, but for some of them it is the only way in which they know. Arkansas is a host to many people who believe and practice this strand of Christianity, and due to this reason is quite a hot spot for Pentecostal churches, and gathering spaces that host Pentecostal events. Clement describes his views of his participant-observation research, and discusses one main event in specific. This instance comes out of a service that was being held within a church that was being broadcasted for the radio. Throughout this service, as stated above, the churchgoers were seen singing, acting out of character than what Clement would have expected, as well as they were conducting many rituals accustomed with the Pentecostal church. This specific story that Clement discusses, which can be found starting on page 142 of Clement’s article
