Liberation Theology, Part 2

The 1980s was the golden age of Liberation Theology in Latin America (explained in my previous blog entry). But, while it gave hope to millions of previously hopeless people, the movement also had many critics. Mingling religious authority with social, political, and even military power, Liberation Theology could lead to armed revolution. And it had a potentially corrupting influence on local charismatic priests, who created a cult of personality to empower themselves and their followers. Still, lacking an equally uplifting alternative, many people saw Liberation Theology as the only viable option for people dissatisfied with what they consider a social and economic structure that keeps them poor.

In the 1990s, after the peace accords ended the Civil War, this revolutionary movement morphed into a political party (FMLN), and the Christian Base Communities slowly lost their vibrancy. Today, Liberation Theology seems dormant as a political force. The progressive side of the Catholic Church has been tamed.

Instead, there's been a resurgence of "escape theology" — the apolitical yin to Liberation Theology's yang — in the form of fundamentalism. North American televangelists supplement this empire-friendly approach to Christianity by inspiring their followers to send money so the downtrodden south of our border can be taught to “just say no” when it comes to the political struggle for dignity. The charismatic, US-friendly Pentecostal faith — with an emphasis on building a personal relationship with Christ, rather than dealing with the root causes of economic injustice — is also booming. This “suffer now, enjoy later” theology keeps the opiate in religion. These days, in El Salvador, politics are taboo in many churches. When it comes to economic injustice, don't ask why.

Traveling — whether in Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist lands — you see how religion injects passion into local politics. Lessons learned on the road tend to give me both empathy for people's struggles and a respect for the importance of separation of religion and state. Just as I oppose prayer in school in the US, I don't like it when a Muslim society becomes a theocracy and legislates morality according to Quranic values. Yet when a politicized Church (such as the one that stood by the revolutionaries of Central America in the 1980s) fights for economic justice, I find myself rooting for the politicization of religion. My heart makes my politics inconsistent.

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