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Christianity Today, May, 2009 |

El Salvador's Values Voters

Evangelicals discount portrayal as leftist voting bloc.

Deann Alford | posted 4/21/2009 08:42AM

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Were El Salvador's evangelicals responsible for putting into power a party once considered a terrorist organization? News reports said evangelical Protestants, who compose one-third of the country's population of seven million, were behind the March 15 presidential election of Mauricio Funes. His FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) was the leftist guerrilla movement of the country's 1980s civil war and has been reborn as a peaceful Social Democratic party.

But reports of evangelicals' support were overblown, said Javier Osorio, a Baptist pastor and El Salvador director of Christ for the City International. Osorio said his congregants divided their votes between left- and right-wing parties, as did other church bodies in the nation's evangelical alliance. Endorsing candidates from the pulpit would not violate Salvadoran laws, but most local churches stay out of politics. "Within the church, we're to glorify the Lord," said Osorio.

Funes's platform—that churches' moral strength was the key to solving El Salvador's rampant problems with gangs, violence, and unemployment—may have been compelling, but observers stressed that evangelicals did not vote as a bloc.

"It's a lot more complicated than that," said Danny Carroll, a Denver Seminary professor and adjunct professor at the Central American Theological Seminary in Guatemala City. Corruption in the current right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance is believed to have moved many to support the FMLN. "I don't think evangelicals anywhere have a consistent political theology," said Carroll. "They're just looking for a change."

Related Elsewhere:

The Christian Science Monitor also wrote about the elections in El Salvador.

Christianity Today has more articles on South America.

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May 2009, Vol. 53, No. 5

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walrus

Posted: April 22, 2009 12:37 PM

What happened here is that the FMLN finally realized that they could not win the presidency with candidates who were guerrilla commanders during the war. There was not a majority who would vote them in so they changed candidates and part of their platform. I don't know if the right guy won or not, but the win of Funes is a sign of a maturing democracy. The FMLN won with ballots, not bullets, and there was no resulting violence from the losing side. Granted, this may not have been a good election to win, if the economic situation gets too much worse, the party in power will be blamed for it 5 years from now. But I hope and pray that Funes does well, not for the sake of one party over another, but for the sake of the wonderful people of El Salvador.

John	Posted: April 22, 2009 10:14 AM

Take a look at the way the early christians lived, as described in the book of Acts, frankly, they were socialists. Forget what our media and “Christian leaders” say about socialism, If you are living in the 3rd world, you would have to recognize liberation theology is more Christ-like and true to the gospel than the free market fundamentalism pushed on us in this country. Furthermore, look at our current state of economic affairs, unfettered free market fundamentalism is not working so well. Think for yourselves, don’t base your beliefs on what you are told on Christian radio, Fox News, or even Christianity Today. Go to google books and take a look at some of the writings of proponents of the social gospel back in the early 20th century. Try googling “Walter Rauschenbusch”. Forget what you are told about them being godless apostate liberals, if you read their writings, you will see they had a genuine biblical faith, but looked at social issues in a different way.

War Survivor

Posted: April 21, 2009 5:19 PM

As a Salvadorean myself, and a survivor of the bloody Civil War of the 80s and 90s, I find this tragic. I can testify my family is alive today because the Lord had angels watching over us. It is true that both sides (military and rebels) did horrible things during the war. However, I cannot help but be biased when it was the FMLN that took over our town for 11 days, took my brother prisoner to help them bury their dead and stormed into our house looking for my other brothers by name. How did they know us? My mom had employed them in our coffee and tomato fields and I assure you that as a Christian had been fair and kind to all her employees. This is enough proof for me of the FMLN's values and principles. I go back to El Salvador on missions and it saddens my heart to see the poverty and violence affecting the country, yet I doubt the solution is with the FMLN. My biggest fear is that El Salvador will turn into another Cuba or Venezuela.

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