Evangelicals in El Salvador and Right-Wing Politics

https://evangelicalfocus.com/world/6406/evangelicals-are-a-majority-in-el-salvador-for-the-first-time

A watershed moment to be sure. Evangelical populations in Latin America have exploded in recent decades even as membership in the Roman Catholic Church has declined. The Pentecostal Movement played no small role in this transformation as it is the main driver of the Evangelical Movement and also has played a significant role in modifying the region's Catholicism.

Cultural norms and standards are subject to change with these shifts. The political power of Catholicism is waning even as Evangelicals have largely made peace with Rome in other contexts. Indeed, in the United States the Evangelical Movement and a significant element with Conservative Catholicism have forged something of a socio-political alliance. This detente has been less successful in the Latin America context where the differences are more acute and there is lingering bitterness over the culture war these two groups have fought.

And yet, secularism is rising and it's possible that in another generation the two groups may experience an alliance as seen in the United States.

One thing is certain. Evangelicalism is politically oriented. The Latin American movements also have ties to both North American Evangelical groups and in many cases Right wing political organisations deeply entrenched within Washington. Various permutations of Dominion Theology motivate these groups and you can be sure this will continue to affect Latin America politics – all the more as the region has within the last decade made a significant turn to the Right – a reaction to the Leftist wave that arose in the late 1990's and early 2000's. There is a veritable cultural and political struggle at work in the region and this changing demographic will play a significant part in the struggle. It also is without a doubt a conduit for American Right-wing influence and money which has been pouring into the region.

This reality also fueled a shift in thinking with American GOP circles that grew during the Obama era. The modern Republican Party which has often been perceived as racist and anti-immigration attempted to break with its past. The movement has laboured to promote any minorities within its ranks and in light of the Culture War, many GOP intellectuals believed the Party needed to embrace the Latino immigrants as many are socially conservative and Roman Catholic. Declining support among the mainstream population has meant that the Republican Party needed to find and incorporate a new demographic. The Latino community was viewed as the solution to this problem and party leaders had been attempting to lay the groundwork for this – also seen in the promotion of Latino political candidates.

This shift was underway even though it apparently had little support among the grass roots members of the Party. Enter Donald Trump. The current president smashed this strategy and banished it from the party's platform and rhetoric and pursued a harsh anti-immigration policy. While his predecessor had sometimes been called the 'Deporter in Chief' the Trump policy was more caustic, confrontational and even brutal.

As a result of Trumpism the party has abandoned the Latino strategy and has instead picked up disillusioned Rust Belt whites – formerly members of trade unions and longtime supporters of the Democratic Party. Will this work in the long term? It's hard to know for sure but this also helps to explain why the party pushed for Biden – a perceived Blue Collar/Conservative-type Democrat, the very sort of candidate the Rust Belt types will go for – a candidate that would remind them of the Democratic Party of the 1960's-1980's. That's the battle of the moment, but in the meantime the shift among Latinos is still underway and though it has fallen by the wayside this election cycle, it's still an issue and a hot one south of the US border – as Latinos in the United States are still connected to their countries of origin and the social and political movements at work in these societies.

This Latin American transformation continues to leave many top thinkers within the GOP with a sense of unease and pending crisis. They will (at some point) have to remedy the situation caused by Trump – and do so while keeping the Trump base within the party. They don't want to alienate the Evangelicals and Right wing movements within Latin America – with their deep connections to the US social structure and economy. This is a developing story and the Evangelical angle just further complicates the issue and from the standpoint of New Testament Christianity – which is opposed to both Charismatic and Dominionist Theology – it represents a troublesome if not troubling aspect to the equation.

Of course we want to see people converted – especially away from Roman Catholicism. But to what end? And what role will these people play and how will they be used by the various forms of political Christianity? And when the fires of culture war rage what will be the result? What will happen to the testimony of the Church and the Biblical gospel? What will it look like when the dust settles?