“Loud” Latino Church In Iowa Sparks Culture Clash

In Mason City, Iowa neighbors of a Latino pentecostal church have launched what appears to be a campaign of complaints against the congregants there. Police are called to Sunday services even at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, neighbors say the Latino congregants are loud and messy, even as those who attend the church do their best to address neighbors’ complaints.

What’s at work here seems to be a culture clash. Many of the congregants don’t speak English, the neighbors don’t speak Spanish, and so it becomes easier to call the police than to try to negotiate a changing community. KIMT.com reports:

The Iglesia Pentecostes pastor tells us within the last year, they have not had the best relationship with their neighbors.The church has received many visits from the police regarding noise levels. The pastor says those visits have all turned out to be warnings. Neighbors say the music is too loud and too often…

Pastor Carlos Morales…”If they accuse me, they accuse me for adoring God and we’re not doing anything wrong.”

Pastor Morales said he’s had some neighbors tell him they should put their church elsewhere. He’s also not very happy with police officers showing up during Sunday services, especially since they are at two o’clock in the afternoon.

Pastor Morales said, “We don’t want to bother anyone, we’re trying our best not to bother anyone, we’re people of peace.” In fact, he says in the last couple of months they have put up a new wall to insulate some of the noise. A gesture neighbors say has been working.

I think this story represents situations that are repeating themselves throughout the country. Everyone is trying to adjust to change, to each other, and at least in this case they’re doing they’re best to talk about it and work it through. Language problems are always going to complicate matters, but one of the neighbors the reporters at KIMT talked to said flatly they just needed to be able to address certain issues.

Hopefully, all parties involved here will figure out how to solve these problems, so that at least they can get to know each other as neighbors, instead of troublemakers.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD