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American Evangelical Missionaries in Cold War Central America

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American Evangelical Missionaries in Cold War Central America 1 Driven Agents in the Grassroots Revolution: American Evangelical Missionaries in Cold War Central America An Undergraduate Thesis by Zachary Meyer ​ 2 For years, the seven small republics that made up Central America rarely made international headlines, and were considered part of the larger Latin American legacy of Spanish Imperialism. This changed with the advent of the Cold War, where the ideals of socialism, the fear of Communism, U.S. intervention and national revolutions suddenly rocked the region. For a 50-year period the region gained international headlines; usually for all the wrong reasons, as the violence continued to spread. In this frame arose developments along social, populist, military, and religious lines. Evangelical Protestantism was something few considered applicable with Central America. As part of Latin America, the region was long considered the domain of Catholicism. Under the rule of the Spanish Empire, the church helped define the structures of life for Central Americans. Liberal leaders tried to change this distinction, especially president Barrios of 1 2 Guatemala, but most considered Catholicism a crucial part of Latin American identity. The result of this mentality was a series of failed attempts to develop Protestantism in the region, 3 with countries like El Salvador highlighting a ministry that simply did not connect to the people. All this would change however, in the Post-World War II period. A new type of Protestantism was developing; this new form, called evangelical Protestantism, connected with locals in a way Catholicism no longer was. As the structures which used to define previous lives collapsed, namely the Catholic Church and the loss of rural communities to urbanization converts turned to this seemingly once foreign faith, which suddenly became the rock of their salvation. 1 Wilton Nelson, Protestantism in Central America (W.B. Erdmens Publishing, 1984), 30. ​ ​ 2 Ibid., 11. 3 Everett A. Wilson, “Sanguine Saints: Pentecostalism in El Salvador” Church History 52, 2, (1983), 188, Wilson, ​ ​ Everett A. “Sanguine Saints: Pentecostalism in El Salvador” Church History 52, no. 2 (June 1983): 186-198, accessed May 10, 2017, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3166951.pdf. 3 While this force developed gradually over the course of the Cold War, it was not recognized by a majority of researchers until the 1990s. Sociologist David Martin and anthropologist David Stoll each composed large studies observing the faith from different angles; 4 Martin’s looked more exclusively as the dynamics of Latin American Pentecostalism while 5 Stoll’s focused on missionary developments and the dangers of the Religious Right. Both came to the conclusion that Protestantism had the power to generate large scale social change. Peter Berger, in his forward to Martin’s book, even argued that that faith could produce “the emergence of a solid bourgeoisie, with virtues conductive to the development of a democratic 6 capitalism.” These studies opened the door for a flood of research to poor in, exploring this 7 sudden new development. Some argued it empowered women in patriarchal systems; others 8 thought it redefined indigenous orality lost in the modern age. Researchers were astounded at 9 how it reoriented communities when governments failed, while others showed how it gave a 10 voice to the oppressed masses. This evangelicalism, they thought, held the secret answer the problems of Central America, even as the region recovered from various wars and mass violence. 4 David Martin, Tongues on Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America (Wiley-Blackwell, 1993). ​ ​ 5David Stoll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant? The Politics of Evangelic Growth (University of California Press, ​ ​ 1991). 6 Peter Berger, Forward in David Martin, Tongues on Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America ​ (Wiley-Blackwell, 1993), ix. 7 David A Smilde, “Gender Relations and Social Change in Latin American Evangelicalism,” in Daniel R Miller, Coming of Age: Protestantism in Contemporary Latin America (Lanham: University Press of America, 1994) 39-53. ​ 8Quentin J. Schutlze, “Orality and Power in Latin American Pentecostalism,” in Daniel R Miller, Coming of Age: ​ Protestantism in Contemporary Latin America (Lanham: University Press of America, 1994), 76-78. ​ 9 Gomez et. All, “Religious and Social Persecution in War-Torn Areas of El Salvador,” Journal of Interamerican ​ Studies and World Affairs 41, 4 (1999), 63, Gomez, Ileana et. all. “Religious and Social Participation in War-Torn ​ Areas of El Salvador.” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 41, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 53-71, accessed May 10, 2017, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/166191.pdf. 10 Manuel A. Vasquez, “Pentecostalism, Collective identity, and Transnationalism among Salvadorans and Peruvians in the U.S.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67, 3 (1999), 629, Vasquez, Manuel A. “Pentecostalism, ​ ​ Collective identity, and Transnationalism among Salvadorans and Peruvians in the U.S.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67, no. 3 (September 1999): 617-636, accessed May 10, 2017, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1466210.pdf. 4 While the changes and potentials evangelical Protestantism brought to the region were impactful on their own, what stood out the most about the faith was that most researchers argued that it was purely a homegrown development. They stated that the faith was centered and 11 propagated by locals, who were often free of support from the U.S. Resources and missionaries 12 from North America had poured into the region; however, they had little to no effect on a faith that was growing as a purely grassroots development, researchers argued. With the rise of the ultra-conservative Religious Right and the association between American evangelicals, the Republican party, the CIA and authoritarian regimes, evangelicals fell under the scrutiny of anthropologists, concerned liberal Christians and theologians. At best, they were presented as separate from the grassroots change taking place in Central America or barely acknowledging it; at worst, they were against the development as tools of the Religious Right. It was in this frame that the evangelical missionaries to Central America entered the picture. No researcher outright decried all missionaries as servants of far right politics or foreign dictators. However, the missionaries were largely excluded from the grassroots evangelical change in Central America; their ministry, researchers argued, did not support the homegrown development. The reasoning for this appears to be twofold; the already mentioned influence of the conservative American evangelicals, government and Religious Right, and the largely failed history of Central American missionaries up until World War II. When mentioned, the 11 Virginia Garrard-Burnette, Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 133. ​ ​ 12 Stoll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant, 10. ​ ​ 5 13 missionaries were denounced for being unknowing tools of the Religious Right or for their 14 connection with the American Republican Party and loyalty to the U.S. Conservative American evangelical missionaries were unlike the missionaries of the 1800s and early 1900s. They were a product of the renowned fervor of the reinvigorated American fundamental and evangelical movement, and sought to evangelize the world. Their presence is largely overlooked because their time of arrival in Central America, by irony or destiny, compounded with the beginning of the Cold War and the homegrown evangelical 15 “boom” in Central America. Local evangelicals were first thought to have been tools of U.S. ideals and dictatorships, but this “invasion of the sects” mentality died as quickly as it began. Researchers, as previously stated, declared that this evangelicalism was distinctly homegrown, defying traditional evangelicalism as witnessed in the U.S. and Europe. Foreign missions, on the other hand, had their ministry listed as a different development, and one that had little bearing on the groundbreaking change of local evangelicalism. Furthermore, when foreign ministry was studied, only the leaders of North American evangelicalism were inspected. Men like Bill Bright and Pat Robertson were used the standard by which all foreign evangelicals were judged, including missionaries. Foreign missionaries rode into Central America on the backs of the revival of American evangelicalism. Before they entered Central America they agreed with the mentality of 13 Stoll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant, 327. ​ ​ 14 James K. Wellman and Matthew Keyes, “Portable Politics and Durable Religion: The Moral Worldviews of American Evangelical Missionaries.” Sociology of Religion 68, 4 (2007), 385-386, accessed May 10, 2017, ​ ​ https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20453182.pdf. 15 The word “boom” is the most fitting term for the sudden appearance of evangelicals in Central America. Some researchers have used the term development, while others, like David Martin, have referred to it as an “explosion.” The term is used here because evangelical presence, out of nowhere, suddenly was present everywhere throughout Central America. It signifies their influence and widening range. 6 mainstream American evangelicalism; however, no researchers have purely studied how the missionaries’ views were affected by time abroad. None have specifically ventured to unearth their individual ministries and view their effect on and relation to Central American
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