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McNair Scholars Journal Volume 11 | Issue 1 Article 8 2007 Religion in the Trenches: Liberation Theology and Evangelical Protestantism as Tools of Social Control in the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996) Bryan Manewal Grand Valley State University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair Recommended Citation Manewal, Bryan (2007) "Religion in the Trenches: Liberation Theology and Evangelical Protestantism as Tools of Social Control in the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996)," McNair Scholars Journal: Vol. 11: Iss. 1, Article 8. Available at: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair/vol11/iss1/8 Copyright © 2007 by the authors. McNair Scholars Journal is reproduced electronically by ScholarWorks@GVSU. http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/ mcnair?utm_source=scholarworks.gvsu.edu%2Fmcnair%2Fvol11%2Fiss1%2F8&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages Religion in the Trenches: Liberation Theology and Evangelical Protestantism as Tools of Social Control in the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996) Abstract Appearing gaunt and with hollow, During the early years of Guatemala’s distant eyes, Father Luis Eduardo Pellecer civil war (1960-1996), which pitted stepped to the bevy of microphones at a the right-wing military regime against podium surrounded by army officers. In leftist revolutionaries, liberation theol- a vapid, monotone voice, the Jesuit priest ogy became popular among some in the regaled the Guatemalan television audi- Latin American clergy. Fearing that this ence with a remarkable story that reached new ideology would inspire indigenous deep into the soul of the nation. Original- populations to join the rebels, the dicta- ly believed to have been murdered, the torship looked to suppress the movement Jesuit Priest instead reemerged from 113 inside Guatemala. This research looks days of captivity on 30 September 1981. at liberation theology, its prominence in Explaining his mysterious and violent the context of the Guatemalan civil war, disappearance at the hands of unidenti- and the military dictatorship’s use of fied men as a “self-imposed kidnapping,” the opposing tenants of Fundamentalist the now repentant Pellecer provided a Protestantism to counter liberation theol- vivid account of the struggle for control ogy’s mass appeal, particularly the ideas of the hearts and minds of the Guatema- Bryan Manewal of institutionalized sin and the necessity lan people interwoven into the civil war. McNair Scholar of popular action to exact change. As if reading from a prepared script, the seemingly brainwashed priest described how Catholic organizations had utilized religious mobilization in conspiring with armed guerilla groups to build a political base with which to spread their revolu- tionary ideals. Key to the development of that following was the progressive Catholic ideology of Liberation Theol- ogy, which up until his abduction, Father Pellecer had embraced and actively dis- seminated from the pulpit. Following his “self-imposed kidnapping,” the priest felt the need to expose this scheme and stop this disgraceful use of the Word of God.1 Father Pellecer’s frightening ordeal is indicative of the role religion played in Guatemala throughout its history and, more specifically, its 36-year civil war. Religion was a dangerous yet promi- David Stark, Ph.D. nent aspect of life in this small Central Faculty Mentor American country that, during those brutal decades, seemed forsaken by God. This conspiracy, conceived in an army prison and reiterated from the mouth of a tortured and troubled priest, exempli- fied how the military government saw progressive Catholic activism, specifi- cally Liberation Theology, as a threat in the same vein as armed resistance movements. The military regimes’ and death squads’ attempts to suppress both subversive activity and armed rebellion resulted in the death or disappearance GVSU McNair Scholars Journal VOLUME 11, 2007 49 of an estimated 200,000 Guatemalans.2 controlled by the conservative oligarchy tantism, into Guatemala. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, ended the Liberal government’s modern- The presence of such a high concentra- during the most violent years of the ization policies.6 As a precursor of what tion of Indians in Guatemala is important conflict, local and international changes was to occur in the future, the use of for understanding the decision by the in religious doctrine and practices violence ensured the country remained Liberal regime to allow, and actively pro- exacerbated this brutality. These fac- the colonial-style fiefdom desired by the mote, Protestantism in the country. The tors gave the concepts of religiosity and landed elite. government believed that allowing the faith a unique significance in Guatemala. Religion became a key component in free exercise of religion would encourage Throughout the Guatemalan civil war, this ideological battle between Con- European immigration to Guatemala.12 In the government’s fear of the socially and servatives and Liberals over the fate an age when social Darwinism prevailed, politically progressive Catholic ideology of Guatemala. Conservative Party rule notions of racial superiority fostered of Liberation Theology, coupled with over the next thirty years saw a return the government’s belief that significant their own long-held vision of modern- of the Catholic Church to its former structural change and westernization izing the indigenous populations by prominence as an institution. While could only come from the top down.13 transforming their social structure, led to practically everyone in the country was Therefore, any attempt to modernize a brutal program of forced conversion to nominally Catholic, religious practices Guatemala had to begin with a pro- Fundamentalist Protestant ideologies that varied greatly along regional and social gram of public education carried out by focused on the individuality of salvation lines, ranging from strict adherence to Protestant missionaries.14 Implementa- and believer’s submission to authority. Catholicism to syncretism of Mayan and tion of the plan would further restrict the The relationship between the Catholic Catholic beliefs.7 The inhabitants of the traditional role of the Catholic Church, Church and the institutional state has western highlands were largely of indige- while potentially providing a means with always been precarious in Guatemala. nous descent – approximately 70 percent which to indoctrinate indigenous popula- During the colonial period, the interests of the entire country was either Maya or tions with a pro-Western and submissive of these two prominent institutions fre- of Mayan ancestry. This segment of the ideology in the future.15 Eventually, the quently overlapped and conflicted. Once population remained largely autonomous government envisioned that the complete the small Central American province of the central government, basing their overhaul of Guatemalan society would broke from the Spanish empire in 1824 social organization almost entirely upon occur, forcing the indigenous popula- amidst the wave of independence move- the cofradía – a self-governing social, tions to change in the process. In 1882, ments sweeping across Latin America, political, and economic network made up President Barrios personally went to the the role of the Church within the state of individual ethnicities aligned loosely Presbyterian Board of Foreign Ministers became a key issue in the direction of around the local Catholic Church.8 These in New York City to request missionar- the new country. While members of the independent Indian social structures ies be sent from the United States, and Conservative Party wanted to maintain allowed the people to remain free of gov- in the following year the first Protestant the legacy of Spanish imperialism, Lib- ernment influence and practice their own Church was established in Guatemala; eral Party members wanted to modern- “Mayanized folk Catholicism.”9 The cof- its mission was converting the wealthy ize the country.3 Limiting the power of radía’s autonomy from both the Catholic of the capital city.16 While the program the Church was one potential method of hierarchy and the central government was largely unsuccessful, it opened the accomplishing this goal, since Liber- provided indigenous groups with a means way for other Protestant sects to gain a als saw the Church as an impediment to of collective resistance against Liberal foothold in Guatemala and perform their modernization and a visage of the old modernization schemes.10 A violent up- missionary work.17 Because the cofradías colonial system.4 From the onset of the rising led by the Liberals in 1871 brought coalesced loosely around local Catholic short-lived United Provinces of Central about a change in political leadership, parishes, breaking the religious monop- America in the 1820s, successive Liberal and with it a renewed attack on the role oly of the institutional Church was the governments in Guatemala were effec- of the Catholic Church in Guatemalan logical method to combat their power. In tive in curbing the Church’s power and society. Two years later, “Supreme Com- its attempt to promote the modernization influence in the country. The government mander of the Guatemalan Republic” of the small Central American country, put limitations on the Church’s ability to Justo Rufino Barrios (r. 1873-1885) again the Liberal regime openly challenged the own land, exact a compulsory tithe, regu- declared religious freedom in Guate- supremacy of the Catholic Church by late marriage,

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