THE RESPONSE OF THE CHURCH TO THE CAUSES OF CIVIL WAR:
A Christian Response to Poverty and Human Suffering
I first met María Melgar in 1983. She was twenty years old and already an old woman. Her twenty years had been packed with more human suffering than most people experience in a lifetime. At the time of our first meeting, she was frightened, insecure, sick, and hungry. She had been living in the old sugar mill at Colima for four years. War had driven her and her family from their home, property, livestock, and any means of livelihood. Her mother and four small brothers and sisters were alive, but they were sick. They suffered from parasites, anemia, malnutrition, malaria, and a host of other afflictions. This family of six occupied a space in the old mill equal to about sixty square feet. They cooked, bathed, and slept in these cramped quarters. Four years in these dark, damp, humid, and bacteria infested conditions had exacted its toll on their lives.
The story of María’s travels to Colima is very similar to the many sagas of human tragedy among the thousands of people displaced by the civil war in El Salvador. In 1979, María and her family were awakened late in the night by the sound of someone pounding on their door: Fear gripped the heart of each person in the house. Someone calling this late meant that either ORDEN, the government sponsored civil defense organization that reportedly was responsible for thousands of deaths of rural and union leaders was looking for someone, or the leftist guerrillas, the Farabundo Martí Army of National Liberation (FMLN), were recruiting young people. At the door, Maria’s mother was greeted by six or seven young men dressed in army green and tennis shoes. These were the guerrillas. Their request was for Juan, Mara’s fifteen-year-old brother. A couple of minutes later, Juan was gone into the night. The family never saw him again. Two weeks later, María and her family were again awakened in the midnight hours, but this time by the drone of motors off in the distant. The government had heard that this little community near Suchitoto was providing soldiers for the subversive army, and they were coming to put a stop to this activity.
As the soldiers pulled into the village, they were immediately attacked by guerrillas residing there. An intense battle ensued. Approximately one hundred soldiers against an undetermined number of guerrillas, both well-armed, resulted in a bloody battle. Government soldiers as well as guerrillas died that night. But there were other casualties as well. The other victims of this battle were the common ordinary rural workers who suffered dearly at the hands of both the government, its military organizations, and the leftist guerrillas. It was these people who were caught between the warring factions. As innocent peasants began to be killed, survivors fled from their homes leaving their gardens, their livestock, their pigs, and chickens. To save their lives, they abandoned their adobe huts, their homes, their meager furniture, and anything that was too heavy to carry.
As these rural peasants fled that night, they passed in front of María’s house. They called to Rosa Malia, María’s mother, encouraging her to join them in their flight. Quickly Rosa dressed herself and the young children. Within ten minutes, they were gone into the night. María immediately followed with her six-month old baby securely on her back. Outside the battle raged. As María slipped into the stream of people fleeing that night, she felt her baby’s body suddenly contract, then relax. The little six-month old daughter had just been killed by a bullet.
For two days these three hundred and fifty people wandered through the countryside. They had no place to go. They now had no home to which they could return. To save their lives they had abandoned their humble homes and gardens. They were wanderers and strangers in their own land. On the second day of their journey, they arrived at the Rio Lempa. There, in the sands of that river, Marla buried the body of her infant daughter. Then, someone told them about the old sugar mill at Colima. When they arrived, they found six hundred other in-country refugees already in the mill. There was no other place to go, so María and her neighbors moved in. Almost one thousand people occupied the fifty-year-old mill. They stretched hammocks between the pipes and cots among the huge pieces of rusted machinery. For most of these displaced people, this would be home for the next five years.
María’s story was common among El Salvador’s five hundred thousand displaced people. They were from all over the country, driven by fear, hoping to survive. They lived in the many makeshifts, crowded, and disease infested quarters. But their stories were always the same. They had to flee to save their lives. El Salvador’s civil war complicated their daily lives; Civil war was not the reason for their poverty, but it was the reason for their present misery.
The Causes of War
The causes of this present civil conflict are many and varied. Some say that poverty and ignorance are the roots of civil unrest; others say that the Communists or Marxists are at fault; and still others blame the United States and its economic policies for all the strife in the Western Hemisphere. The following pages will review some of the historical and political events that have influenced the present struggle. However, in the end I hope to have identified the major causes of war in El Salvador.
Salvadorans have always been ready to vigorously fight for freedom. Before independence from Spain in 1821, the Salvadorans urged their Central American brothers onward to the fight. Later, when Central America was under the dominance of Mexico, again, the Salvadorans constantly agitated for total independence. Even after El Salvador became an independent nation, Salvadorans fought Salvadorans. In the 1830s Anastacio Aquino led a yearlong peasant rebellion against the government. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, no less than five small uprisings occurred. This demonstrated that Salvadorans are no strangers to social and political upheavals. Yet the present civil war has elements that were unknown during the previous eras of social chaos. We will briefly examine some of the roots of the present conflict.
In 1886, the government of the liberal president, Zaldívar completed the confiscation of all Indian common grounds. These lands had been held by the Indians long before the arrival of the Spanish to New Spain in 1519. The same families had subsisted on these lands for many generations. But the Zaldívar government felt that it was more important to cultivate and export coffee for the economic well-being of the nation. The ejidal lands, the Indian’s common property, were made available to the large hacienda owners who quickly incorporated these properties into their own plantations. Some writers have estimated that the amount of ejidal properties was equal to twenty five percent of the country’s cultivated farmlands. This estimation may be somewhat exaggerated, but none the less, the nation’s coffee growing plantations increased in size at the expense of the Indians.
As a result of these governmental actions, many Indians, and mestizos (mixture of Indians and Spanish blood) were displaced from their lands of origin. For the following forty-six years, resentment smoldered in the breast of these unfortunate people. The actions of the Zaldívar ´s government ended centuries of Indian traditions, forcing them to become wanderers and day laborers. Some of the Indians became colonos (sharecroppers) while others became artisans (bakers, tailors, shoemakers, etc.). Most had never worked for other people in their lives and greatly missed the traditional lassie faire Indian life. There is little surprise that for years many felt resentment and indignation toward the white man’s government.
Students of Salvadoran history are not surprised to find that during the years between 1910 and 1930 new labor unions easily recruited members from the rural western region of the country. This is exactly where the majority of ejidal lands were previously located. Many of the Indian colonos and artisans felt that the labor unions would bring a measure of justice to their miserable lot in life. And too, the Mexican revolution of 1910 and the Russian revolt of 1917 gave inspiration to some malcontents who fanned the fires of rebellion.
The tension among the Indians and rural mestizos reached its climax in January of 1932. Farabundo Mart°, leader of the Salvadoran communist party, and his aids, sent out a call for revolt. As a result, Indians, and mestizos in Sonsonate, Nauhuizalco, Izalco, Jauyua, Tacuba, and other western townships initiated the rebellion. Properties of the coffee growers and processors were occupied. A few of the landowners and their employees were killed. Some of the insurrectionist leaders issued calls to the local peasants to join the rebellion. These calls to arms were given on the pain of death to those who refused to join the uprising: Some writers of this period accused the Communist of instigating the revolt.
Although the Communist party of El Salvador was not officially formed until 1930, there is little doubt that many Communist agitators, working under the Third Communist International, had been active among the Salvadoran laborers since the mid 1920s. Protestant missionaries working with the Assemblies of God, American Baptist, and the Central American Mission, claimed in their writings that Communist rabble rousers were responsible for much of the troublemaking.
As a result of this social conflict, President Arturo Araújo was overthrown by a military coup and General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez was made president. His instructions from the military leaders and their elite accomplices were simple: End the revolt. He sent troops into the region in late January 1932. By the end of February, the revolt was over, and thousands of Indians were killed. Although no accurate account of the dead is available, good estimates range from ten thousand to thirty thousand. It is sure, however, that the brutal repression of this uprising changed forever the traditional lifestyle of the Indians. As a result, in El Salvador it is difficult to find signs of Indian culture, Indian art, or native Indian costumes.
From 1932 until the constitution of 1950, the formation of any unions was strictly prohibited. Even until the late seventies and early eighties, there were no rural unions in El Salvador. No organizations were allowed that would in any way hinder the export of coffee, the nation’s economic life blood.
In 1944 and 1948 military coups toppled the governments of El Salvador. Again, in the 1950s more coups capsized the incumbent governments. Without attempting to define the exact causes of these revolts, it is sufficient to say that conflicts arose between those who wanted to modernize the nation’s industries and those who longed to keep the Salvadoran economy resting on agricultural exports. However, by the mid-fifties, the banking system of El Salvador was committed to financing new industries despite the political conflicts. Multinational corporations began building factories and businesses in the country. But with the arrival of new businesses and industries, there were still problems for the Salvadoran poor.
New industries arriving in the country displaced individual artisans that provided goods and services. For instance, a cobbler could make one pair of shoes a day. In contrast, the shoe industry, with machinery and the labor of many workers, made dozens of shoes each day at prices with which the artisan could not compete. This example was experienced time and again by the various artisans such as tailors, bakers, glass cutters and many others. Some of the artisans found salaried jobs with large companies, but unfortunately, many were displaced and had to seek employment in other areas. In addition, the Salvadoran population increased from one and a half million in the 1930s to almost two and a half million by 1960.The population expanded far more rapidly than did industries’ capacity to employ the people. By the mid-sixties, manufacturing industries increased production four times while employing only six percent of the labor force.
In the agricultural sector, there were other problems. By the 1960s, cotton and sugar joined coffee as exportable crops. Most of the cultivated lands were reserved for these money crops that yielded high returns for the landowners. From the end of the nineteenth century until the 1960s, the landowners and the colonos that lived on the property took care of the harvest. The colonos were given a small house and a plot of land to plant and harvest enough beans and corn to satisfy their family’s needs. When the terrateniente (landowner) needed workers, they were available at his demand. This system supplied laborers for the landowners and minimum housing and a food supply for the rural poor.
However, two factors disrupted this arrangement. First, the rural peasant population increased drastically doubling between 1930 and 1960. This increased number of workers was greater than the landowners need: there were simply too few jobs available in the agricultural sector. This resulted in great benefits for the landowners who were able to pay extremely low wages for needed laborers: Those who were employed received only subsistence wages for their labor.
Most of these peasants lived on unproductive land provided by the landowners. But as the number of peasants increased, the landowners were unable to provide land for the increasing rural laborer population. The second event aggravated this serious housing condition for the poor. New technological advances, such as chemical fertilizers, made heretofore unproductive lands cultivatable and profitable. Therefore, the landowners began to put land on which many of the peasants lived into production. This had the effect of displacing many peasant families. The disruption of traditional working and living arrangements between landowners and laborers caused many of these displaced families to seek employment as salaried workers. Some moved to the urban areas while the majority attempted to find seasonal work in the coffee, sugar, and cotton plantations. Without the gardens or home sites, traditionally supplied by the landowners, these uprooted people had to live on meager salaries to provide their basic necessities.
Another factor in the displacement of peasants was the Salvadoran government. Under the more moderate administrations of Presidents Rivera y Molina, the government made attempts to alleviate some of the problems of the peasant sector of society. Laws were passed placing responsibility on the landowners for the well-being of the peasant workers. Higher minimum salaries and other worker benefits were decreed by the governments. The burden of these decrees fell on the landowners who eluded much of this responsibility by dismissing all but necessary workers. And to make matters worse, a 1969 war with Honduras resulted in over one hundred thousand Salvadorans returning home. They had been living and working in Honduras for several generations. This event added one hundred thousand people to the unemployment lines and acerbated the problems of the laboring class. By 1970 there were by far more workers than there were jobs. Even many of the available jobs were seasonable jobs that provided work only four to six months a year. Coffee, sugar, and cotton need many workers only during harvest. Therefore, jobs were available for only limited months during the year.
From this brief account, the basic problems of the Salvadoran poor can easily be seen. The skyrocketing population was more than the nation’s agricultural and manufacturing industries could absorb. Without doubt, some landowners and industrialists took advantage of the plight of the poor who had no land on which basic family needs could be produced. However, from this writer’s research and interviews with landowners, as well as the rural poor, most landowners treated fairly the poor who lived and worked on their property. They provided land for homes and gardens, medical attention, and in some instances, schooling for the rural laborer’s children. But those were the fortunate rural workers. There were many who fared much worse because of greed and exploitative measures taken by unscrupulous landowners.
The Christian Responsibility
The economic and social conditions of the Salvadoran poor have been primary causes for the nation’s political unrest. The problems outlined above, cause many Christians to shake their heads in frustration. Many evangelical leaders refuse to acknowledge any responsibility for the poor and needy. The Scriptures, however, indicate that the church must accept some responsibility for the poor. The extent of this responsibility will be the focus of controversy among local churches for years to come. The bottom line is that the evangelical church does have a responsibility to the poor and hurting of this world.
Some years ago, soon after beginning to work with the poor, I came home after an exhausting day of work. I remember going out to the wall that encircled my home. From that position I could look down over the city of San Salvador. I can remember as if it were yesterday the overwhelming feeling and concern for the many poor and sick people that I had crossed paths with that day. Jesus must have experienced somewhat the same feeling looking out over Jerusalem. Thousands of people, but few leaders; few people willing to give up their personal peace in order that others might be comforted; many people needing divine answers to their misery, but there were very few who were in touch with the Master who could give good counsel. That evening, tears came to my eyes as I thought about the many people who were left standing in line that day when the supply of beans, rice, and corn ran out. People clamoring for food, sick people; tired and scared people; young and old people looking for a little hope in life.
Then it seemed that the Lord spoke to my very inner spirit. He asked me who created the world and all that is in it. I answered, “You, Lord.” Then He asked, “When did I stop creating?” “You never have stopped creating,” I replied. Then He seemed to show me that the problem was not one of supply and distribution, but rather, the problem was one of creation. God still creates by the same principles with which He created the world. The natural laws of reproduction follow the same courses as they did thousands of years ago. God put these laws into motion, and they have remained the same ever since. One plants and later he reaps abundantly more than he had previously sown. God wanted me to see that the problem was not land, beans, and corn, but rather, the problem was one of faith in the existence of the Almighty God; faith in the King of the universe; faith in the very Son of God. Faith is expressed in action, not words. Not so much the action of planting and harvesting beans and corn, but rather, the action of planting, or seeding in the spiritual kingdom.
Let me explain. People in the third world are poor, not just because of a bad distribution system of goods. This is only one speculation for the cause of poverty. Marxists claim that the industrialized nations with their greed have exploited the workers and their labor while extracting the wealth and profit. In too many cases this has proven to be true, but this does not explain why the people were poor before the advent of capitalism and the large multinational corporations. People were poor long before the arrival of large multinational corporations or the oligarchy to El Salvador. The reason why they were poor and had not risen above this level for these many generations was simply that they had not been taught to trust in the Almighty God. It is true that many people had worked for the Catholic church for many years, but unfortunately, history reveals that the church had patronized the Indians, and later the rural workers. During the colonial period, and later during the traditional liberal rule in Central America, the Indians and rural poor depended on the handouts from the church. They had not been taught to work for God. Instead, the church had patronizingly assumed a care-taker position over them.
When people plant in the kingdom, that is, financially contribute to God (this is only one way to plant in His kingdom), God will respond to these actions. It is His law, and He has never failed His principles. Economically contributing to the cause of Christ is a form of planting. When people plant, they can expect to harvest. This is God’s law. People of the third world have been under the heavy hand of patronizing and corrupt governments and the Catholic church for centuries. During the colonial years in Latin America, there was little teaching about God’s individual provision through His laws of sowing and reaping. Instead, for centuries the church and the government united to exploit the labor of the dependent poor. During the past four hundred years, the Central American poor were not taught the principles of sowing and reaping, rather, they were taught to quietly submit to the landowners and bosses, to government officials, and to the Catholic church.
The residual effects of this type of exploitation were a lack of understanding Biblical principles of sowing and reaping. This spiritual deficiency can easily be seen as a cause of poverty in Central America. Immediately after the Salvadoran civil war started in 1979, more than five hundred thousand people were displaced by the violence of the conflict. These displaced people were huddled into makeshift camps where government or relief agencies came by regularly to hand out beans, rice, powdered milk, oil, and sugar. As the war wore on into the fifth and sixth year more people were displaced, others fled the country. Today, of the five million people who inhabit El Salvador, more than sixty percent of these people are unemployed, underemployed, hungry, sick, and without basic education. And many of these people are members of evangelical churches.
For many evangelicals, membership in evangelical churches has not changed the many years of the poverty syndrome. Though these evangelical churches have done excellent jobs of reaching the lost with a message of salvation, they have also been limited by not understanding God’s laws of sowing and reaping. Without this understanding, they were also lacking in the knowledge of God’s creative powers. God’s creative powers are released when a seed is planted in the soil; when a church provides food and shelter for the poor; or when development agencies teach poor rural mothers how to prepare nutritious food for their children. These actions return many benefits through God’s creative powers. Yet, many evangelicals, like the general population, have been taught that their subsistence depends on government or the handout of the wealthy or the Catholic church. Or they have been taught by unwise evangelical pastors or missionaries to do nothing; that God will miraculously supply if the Christians only maintain the faith. Therefore, many evangelical churches live with their hand out expecting that the wealthy, government, or some foreign agency will be God’s miracle.
All these thoughts came to my mind that evening as I stood overlooking the city of San Salvador. Suddenly, it became very clear the direction that Paralife in El Salvador had to take. Yes, we would have to meet immediate needs. Jesus was our example, and he certainly healed the sick, raised the dead, and fed the hungry. As an organization, we too had to manifest a Samaritan compassion. But also, I felt that God was saying that the Salvadoran church also had to learn something about sowing and reaping. That evening, I knew that the challenge that God was giving me was greater than any task that I had ever dreamed of. The challenge was to teach people to fish rather than giving them a fish. This type of action is true development, noble love, and proper evangelism. This would require time, patience, and money. It would also require a thick skin, for many people would not understand the concepts of “developmental compassion.”
A Marxist Strategy for El Salvador
The Marxists have a strategy for taking El Salvador and Central America. This strategy calls for the elimination of private property, the placing of all sources of production in the hands of the “people,” and the elimination of all institutions that promote individual initiative. The plan is partially being carried out by the “Popular church,” (the leftist elements of the Catholic church), many of the labor unions, the so-called mass popular movements, and the armed revolutionary groups. The goal of this section of the book is to explain some of the ways and means through which the Marxists are attempting to carry out their goals.
The Cuban revolution was an anomaly to Marxist strategy for revolution. Most political revolutions need a cause, leadership, external support, and mass popular organizations. Castro’s revolution had a cause and leadership, but it had little external support nor internal mass popular organizations that whipped up support from the nation’s population. Therefore, the Cuban revolution was a deviation to normal revolutionary strategy. After the successful Cuban revolution, in 1961 Che Guevara (an Argentine revolutionary medical doctor who Castro met in Mexico while both were in exile) went to Bolivia with the goal of fomenting a revolution in that country. This revolution lacked popular support from the rural population. With help from North American military personnel, the Bolivians killed Guevara and his revolution sputtered to a halt. From this experience the Latin Marxist strategists concluded that no Latin revolution would be successful without the involvement of the Latin American Catholic church who would teach social revolution as part of church doctrine.
Within eight years of the death of Che, the liberal elements of the Catholic church organized and promoted a theology that focused on the poor of Latin America. A Peruvian priest, Gustavo Gutierrez, systematized this theology which equated poverty with righteousness and wealth with oppressive sin. The Latin American Catholic Bishops Conference (CELAM), approved in 1968 a strategy for implementing the social teachings of liberation theology. Liberation theology would be the basis of the Latin church’s social actions during the 1970s and 1980s.
A corollary to liberation theology, as approved by the CELAM meeting, were the Christian Base Communities (CBC) that were initiated by the leaders of the popular church. Most of the Latin CBCs were in the poorest sections of the cities or in the rural areas. After the initial meetings, most of the Salvadoran CBCs’ sessions turned to discussions of politics while Scripture was abandoned.
The concept of the CBCs was no stranger to evangelical churches. Paul Yongi Cho, of the great church of Seoul, Korea made cell groups a hit with evangelical churches. Some churches call them house churches, or cell churches, or care groups, or love groups. But whatever the name used; they are members of a larger church that met together for the purpose of building relationships while studying the Word of God. The Latin CBCs, ostensibly had the same purposes.
The CBCs’ leaders had been trained by the local priests, many of whom had received training in Riobamba, Ecuador under the tutelage of leftist Bishop Proado, the founder, and head of the Latin American Pastoral Institute (IPLA). Other Salvadoran priests were members of a Chilean organization called, Christians for Socialism. The lay leaders trained by these priests were called “delegates of the Word.” During initial sessions, group leaders would ask if there was evil in the world. Of course, these poor peasants knew there was evil in the world and after an hour or so discussing the graft, theft, and exploitation of workers, someone would read the story of Cain and Able. After this reading, evil was described as the act of not caring for one’s brother. Applied to the local situation, the conclusion was that the landowners and foreign companies were evil for they were robbing the poor and exploiting them of their labor.
At a subsequent meeting, the question, “What is God like? was introduced. After an hour of discussion with everyone presenting their idea of what God was like, the leader would read the story of Moses and the exodus. It was concluded that God, who liberated the children of Israel from Pharoah’s bondage, would also free those in bondage to Salvadoran landowners and multinational corporations who exploited and wrongfully used the poor. God even killed the Egyptians who pursued Moses and the children of Israel. The inference was that God was like those revolutionaries who killed the landowners and industrialists and fought for the rights of the poor.
Using this technique to teach peasant masses, leftist priests of the “Popular church,” were able to incite the poor of El Salvador. Many of these “enlightened” peasants joined the marches of the mass popular political movements. They filled the streets in protest marches. These protest marches, supposedly nonviolent, destroyed property and challenged the government of El Salvador. Usually, the government responded with violence and often dozens of innocent peasants were killed. These deaths were then used by the Marxist agitators as indications of the brutality and insensitivity of the Salvadoran government.
Slain Catholic priest, Father Rutilio Grande, an activist promoter of liberationist ideology, used the CBCs in the Aguilares area of El Salvador. Grande began his experiment with CBCs only after having visited IPLA and Bishop Proado. Upon his return from Ecuador in 1972, Grande took his position as parish priest in this little northern agricultural center. Within two years he and his Jesuit team of priest and seminary students had established 37 CBCs, trained 300 local leaders, and influenced three thousand to four thousand people in this area. An interesting method of operation was to cease celebrating mass in the traditional chapels that had been provided by the local landowners. Grande and his team of liberationists then held mass in family homes of the people living in the local communities. The purpose was to separate the peasants from the centers of local power. He apparently wanted to call attention to the vast difference between the rich and the poor. It seemed that his purpose was to arouse class conflict, a vital part of Marxist strategy. But also, another declared goal of these liberationists was to destroy the traditional landowning system and redistribute the land to the rural workers.
The mass popular political movements and many of the labor unions were also used by the Marxist agitators to foment rebellion and social unrest. These organizations, along with some labor unions, used their great memberships to protest certain government actions or to agitate for higher salaries or more government handouts. They also served as the political voice of the armed revolutionaries. Very often the priests of the Popular church were organizers and participants with the mass movements who promoted violent demonstrations and local uprisings.
Father Inocencio Alas, pastor of the Suchitoto church, was a neighbor to Father Grande in Aguilares. Alas also promoted CBCs in his parish. But Alas was also a founder of the Frente de Acción Popular Unificada (FAPU). FAPU was one of the most aggressive of the mass popular movements. It has been claimed that Alas was one of thirty priests responsible for the creation of FAPU. The Bloque Popular Revolucionario (BPR) was another of the mass movements. Some writers claimed that the BPR was the most violent of all mass movements and responsible for most of the kidnappings, political murders, and bank robberies during the late 1970s. These two groups, BPR and FAPU, could put one hundred thousand peasants into the streets to demonstrate against the Salvadoran government. Priests and delegates of the word were members of these two political organizations who agitated against the government and the military. (During the late 1970s, one priest was killed fighting with the BPR) Often these groups would physically take over a Catholic church or a foreign government embassy which would be widely publicized. These actions were simple protest actions of hungry peasants when they were the actions of Marxist agitators and priests making political use of the peasants.
This was not the only violence that occurred at the hands of these popular mass movements. They also kidnapped and murdered government officials as well as members of well-known families. Dozens of Salvadoran families fled the country on account of the violence that these mass movements committed. On one occasion, members of FAPU confronted Eduardo and Francisco Orellana, the owners of the hacienda at Colima. One hundred and fifty peasants who were living on Orellana property were being displaced by the water of the new hydroelectric plant, Cerron Grande. These people, who were being displaced by the rising water, wanted the Orellana brothers to provide other property on which to live. At this meeting, a fight broke out and Francisco was mortally wounded. Who killed Francisco was never determined, but this writer spoke with various peasants who lived on the farm during these years who often saw some of the Aguilares priests carrying guns.
The FMLN is composed of five different fighting groups. The political orientation of each group ranges from moderate socialist to extreme Marxist-Leninist. Their purpose is to replace the government of El Salvador with a Marxist type of government. Recent events have linked these local groups with international Marxist organizations. Though some of the leaders of the FMLN are people seeking justice for the poor and exploited, the majority are people seeking to destroy the capitalist system of El Salvador. Unfortunately, these people have no use for the evangelical church and abhor the essence of evangelical doctrine, an individual God, and an individual relation with the only God of the universe.
It is very important to realize that many of the soldiers fighting in the ranks of the FMLN passed through the CBCs, to the mass popular movements, and on into the armed guerrilla factions. Many of the leaders, both priests and delegates of the word, encouraged the CBC members to join armed revolutionary groups. There is now proof that very tight links existed between the Popular church, the CBCs, the unions, the mass popular movements and the FMLN.
The Need for A Christian Strategy in El Salvador: The Implementation of Biblical Principles
Central America, like so many other regions of the world, is the product of its history, its traditions, and its relationships with its closest neighbors. Politically, until the 1960s, El Salvador and the rest of Central America had little to interest the larger countries of the world, therefore, they were neglected and passed over. Only the trading companies that enriched themselves from the coffee, sugar, bananas, and other commodities being exported had interest in these tiny nations. Though there were some short-term dividends for the local countries, the attitude of these northern companies often degraded local workers and their interests. Greed motivated many of these companies leaving the workers and local management frustrated. These frustrations, left unattended and unanswered, were propaganda fodder for the leftist revolutionaries.
North American church groups that came to Central America often had similar attitudes. They often came with a North America attitude of superiority that the local brethren felt and resented. In many instances North American churches implanted traditions into cultures that were not familiar with the reason nor the significance of certain religious functions. Many North American church leaders assumed that their church norms were correct and could be implanted in any culture. But the result of this kind of North American mentality left some Latin brethren concerned for their church and their future.
There are many reasons to be concerned about the evangelical church in Central America. Several dangers threaten the Central American church. Today there are churches in El Salvador that are unable to see the need of educating their children. Their concept is that should the Lord return “tomorrow,” what would be the benefit of education? In the meantime, the children could be working in the fields or small shops helping the family income.
There are other churches who taught the doctrine of separation of church and state to the point that during the last elections they would not allow their members to vote. They were fearful that God would consider this an act of rebellion and therefore, sin. There are also many evangelical churches more concerned about women’s wearing apparel and the participation of women in regular church services than the physical condition of poor families living next door to the church. Many of these church traditions and dogma were imported from the United States and have no basis in local culture. The result of this lack of foresight by many church planters is that the evangelical church has developed numerically, but these numbers have not been translated into influence at any governmental levels. Therefore, the traditional evangelical church of El Salvador is threatened by the political left through its influence on civil matters that directly and indirectly affect the existence of local churches. The evangelical church is also threatened by the Catholic church that has been politically damaged by its leftist tendencies and is now attempting to recoup its losses. In Central America, the Catholic church is extremely powerful in government and politics and uses this influence to hinder evangelical evangelistic and social actions.
There is also a more dangerous threat that is now appearing. This threat is more subtle and insidious than any other harms that have come against the church in El Salvador. There are no manifestations or newspaper articles or television ads that herald the advance of this threat. But in ever increasing quantities this threat is being felt in El Salvador. The evangelical church seems blinded to this force that soon will have the power to hinder local evangelical churches. This religious political force is known as “Liberation Theology”. Its presentation in El Salvador includes, besides its teachings on systematic causations of poverty, a healthy dose of anticapitalism, anti-individual responsibility, and antidemocratic philosophy.
Many pastors and university students of El Salvador bought into this trap. Scores of books that innocently portray Christ as the leader of the poor with its focus on revolution are being sold in Central America, and unfortunately, some evangelical pastors are buying this anti-Biblical philosophy. The real danger that evangelical churches face is that often many of these books are dealing with a social reality that traditional evangelical leaders have dismissed. The need to help the poor, heal the sick, feed hungry people, and care of the foreigners and strangers are Biblical exhortations that even the Lord Jesus Christ pronounced to His disciples.
For many years traditional evangelical churches disdained social action and concern for human needs while attending only to the spiritual needs of mankind. Liberation theologians saw this need as a legitimate ministry for churches and began filling the bookstores with materials dealing with these issues. One could ask, “Well, what is wrong with a genuine concern for the poor?” Most Christians would answer correctly, “nothing.” And indeed, many people are becoming involved by helping the poor find ways and means of helping themselves. This is good; however, evangelicals often miss the point. The Marxist are taking advantage of this political blindness of most “do good” evangelicals and other Protestants. Many good intentioned North Americans as well as Latins are buying into liberation theology without understanding what is being taught. Often, books and materials that offer help to the poor incite hatred for the industrialized world, teach a polity of centralized government, and promote collective or common property rights. Some evangelical pastors and members in developing countries, without understanding the issues, have accepted this philosophy, and unwittingly become pawns of those who would deny religious freedoms in Central America.
There is also one other failure of evangelical churches who attempt social action. Some churches use social action as another program to increase church attendance rather than a true effort to relieve pain and suffering. In these churches, programs and a pride of large numbers are the motivator of social action rather than a concern for hurting humanity. The poor see through this subterfuge and react accordingly.
In 1986 I was asked to read a thesis written by two students at the Evangelical University of El Salvador. The university’s board was somewhat upset about the work written by the two authors. (The school had allowed two students to do their master’s program together.) The thesis was a 600-page report on the growth of the evangelical church from 1979 through 1982. It had reviewed the history of the evangelical church in El Salvador through 1982. This was a major work and very thorough. However, I was very perplexed by the conclusions of these two students. They had concluded that the evangelical church was a major contributor to the political crisis of the country. They were critical of the lack of political involvement and social awareness of the evangelical community. I joined them in wishing that the evangelical community was more politically and socially aware, but I could not join them in their desire to see the evangelical church promoting socialist values and goals. Their conclusion was that a Marxist type of government would bring equality and fairness to the Salvadoran people.
When I reviewed their bibliography, I understood their conclusion. Ninety percent of their sources were writers from the Jesuit University. At first, I was upset at the students who were members of one of the largest evangelical churches in the city of San Salvador. Then I was aggravated at the university and those who directed this research. I questioned how the university could allow a work that followed this line of reasoning. Then, after more thought, I realized that the students and the university were following a normal process that was rampant in Latin America. The students were repeating and making evaluations based on the only resource materials that were available. The liberal sectors of the Catholic church spent years writing and making available these materials. On the other hand, the evangelical church had not produced books to offer counter alternatives to the Marxist plan for society and government. With this I concluded that the church was winning many battles and souls, but in the end the evangelical church would lose the battle in these Latin countries if we could not offer a Biblically based alternative to Marxist literature.
Those that are promoting the message of liberation theology in Latin America base much of their claims on the following points that many evangelicals miss. First, they have reread the Scriptures and have correctly found that the Lord is greatly concerned about the plight of the poor in the world. In their zeal to prove their point, they twist many verses to demonstrate that God is concerned for the poor and helpless. The use of these twisted verses is unnecessary, for the Scripture is clear about Christ’s concern for the poor. A second focus of Liberation Theology is in the area of politics, economics, and government. They make the point that the economic and political structures must change to prevent the unjust oppression and exploitation of the poor. A third focus of Liberation Theology in Latin America is its social action component. In many areas this action is radical and often results in armed conflict. The purpose of this radical, armed intervention is to change the political and economic infrastructures of government so that a more equitable and just social system can be installed.
Unfortunately, evangelicals have washed their hands of these issues and seek help only in prayer. It is time that the evangelicals stand up to the threat that may soon affect the present freedom of worship laws. However, this can only be done through prayer, education, and correctly directed social action such as that demonstrated by Paralife International.
A Christian Response to the Cause of Civil War
María Melgar once asked that I explain love to her. She did not understand the preaching of many of those who came to Colima. She could not reconcile their preaching with their actions. People would come to the old sugar mill and distribute beans and rice. Sometimes medical doctors would come and examine some of the people and leave medicine. This was all appreciated, but often totally misunderstood by the inhabitants of the sugar mill. Most of these visitors to María’s community would teach about Jesus and His love. Few ever did any more than preach or hand out a few beans and rice. The people that occupied this sugar mill needed more than just handouts; they needed someone to express the true Christian love. These displaced and poor peasants needed someone to demonstrate God’s true love to them. They needed someone to show them how to develop beyond their poverty, sickness, and ignorance.
In 1984, with help of many people from the United States, Paralife started to build houses for these people. These houses were small, but in comparison to what these displaced people presently had, they were mansions. A church was built with a clinic attached. Eventually, a feeding center and a school were built. A water system was installed for their benefit. (Later books will explain these programs.) The Communists and Marxists attempted to tell the poor of El Salvador that health, education, and prosperity would come only after a Marxist style government had been installed. The message that Paralife left in Colima was that the church of Jesus Christ had the capacity to provide what the Communists were promising. The message was not that the evangelical church would provide these things for the poor, but rather, as people learned the Biblical principles and applied them, that they would be able to provide for themselves. These people needed immediate help, and Paralife provided immediate help in the form of food, medicine, and housing. Paralife used developmental compassion to demonstrate love and concern to Colima. By using this approach to development, one day soon this community will have the ability to provide health care, education, and nutrition for their own families. This was agape love in action.
This was only part of Paralife’s message: Paralife seeks to teach that permanent changes come about by changing the heart. Many development agencies attempt to change the environment and expect that environmental change will change the individual. If changes occur at all following traditional development methods, they will be temporary. However, if redemptive influence is demonstrated in a needy situation such as in Colima, that change of heart will move outward from the heart and affect the environment. This is permanent change, not just an emotional temporary change. This is true developmental compassion. This also is agape love in action. It is the only permanent answer for social unrest and civil war.
Church Responsibility in El Salvador
In El Salvador, there has been little teaching to the Salvadoran churches of their responsibility to the world around them. No one has ever seriously taught the church of its redemptive nature and that nature’s impact on the community of people living in its shadow. It seems that the Evangelical Church is oblivious to its mandate from Christ to preserve the world by interaction with the people of the world. It is estimated that the Evangelical church of El Salvador numbers 27% of the population. (Some writers estimate 40%.) If that set of 1,300,000 people could ever be turned on toward redeeming the nation, there would not be a mountain too large for God’s Salvadoran kingdom. The key that would unlock this vast redemptive power is the teaching of the principles of God to the masses as well as to the professional class. The Communist used this strategy for years and in many different countries. If the ungodly can use certain principles to destroy the work of God, then the church must understand its mission on earth and counter Satan’s attempt.
The Christian Democratic Party proclaimed a third alternative to Communism and Capitalism. They saw themselves as that third alternative, pluralistic in nature and open to free and democratic elections. They also claimed to seek just salaries for the workers and peasants. They argued for a more just distribution of wealth through the productive capacity of man. These goals were part of their political strategy. As part of this grand strategy, the PDC has been working and organizing the urban and rural poor since the early 1960s. The poor masses outnumber the middle and upper classes making future elections more difficult for conservative political parties. The PDC as well as leftist political parties’ strategy seemed just and equitable for the poor, but it was weak in that God’s individual saving grace was absent. It was also weak in that its strategy was compromised by liberation theology that would destroy individual initiative.
The Pastoral Training Center
The evangelical Church of El Salvador has the potential of saving itself from humanistic captivity. This potential is not based on guns and bullets, but rather, in the revelational truth of God’s Word. The principles of His Kingdom are sure laws that will work. However, they must be implanted in the nation again and again and again. This is the purpose of the Pastoral training center. Biblical principles will be taught and applied to all career disciplines. God’s principles have no more to do with theology than they do with law, education, biology, or any other discipline. God’s principles apply to all the disciplines of learning and will work in any world system to bring redemption to that system. The training center is not a Bible school, rather, it is a process in which a Christian world view is made clear to disciples through education and application.
The proposal of the training center is to help students gain a true Christian world view. For so long man has been made to think in thesis and antithesis and synthesis. It is now time for the church to see truth, understand that truth, and apply that truth to his world. For decades the church has thought in terms of what is spiritual and secular. It is time that the church begins to see the world around it as part of God’s perfect creation that Satan has corrupted. All of creation is good, it is only awaiting the revelation of the children of God in order that the good can be revealed. The children of God will be revealed when the Church has possessed its rightful spiritual power. Spiritual power will return with signs following just as soon as the Church sees its responsibility of prayer and obedience. The Church prays and fasts, but it has not understood its responsibility of obedience. The second command of Jesus is just as important as the first. In fact, the degree of compliance with the second command will determine the degree that one is obeying the first command. The Church has not taught its adherents how to love their neighbors and until this is accomplished it will be difficult to teach its members how to love God.
The Learning Center Strategy
The Learning Center is a plan that offers a Christian alternative to the humanistic schemes of powerful world governments. The goal of the Learning Center is to put the memory of God back into business, education, science, and society. These Biblical/kingdom principles are seen in Jesus’ teachings found in the Beatitudes. A few of these principles are humility, seekers of truth and righteousness, mercy, righteous lifestyle, purity of thought, seekers of peach, etc. These are not current, modern leadership characteristics generally propagated in leadership seminars worldwide. Another way of looking at this leadership training is simply teaching church leaders how to lead from behind. To look for hope in Latin America during the next century, secular humanism must be confronted with workable, practical, and understandable principles/ethics. The Learning Center will provide a three-tiered approach incorporating God into the daily life of Latin America. Those three levels are:
1. Teach pastors and professionals the Biblical principles that govern each profession. The Bible is for all men, in all nations, and for all times. It speaks to every profession.
2. The Christian Peace Force is a Christian alternative to the Peace Corp. Send young, trained Christians to developing nations to live and work in poor neighborhoods and provide models for Biblical principled living.
3. The Christian Educational System would offer a model for national schools. The Christian schools will offer quality education while teaching children biblical, or kingdom principles for living.
The Learning Center proposes a third alternative to the choices offered by the two superpowers of the world. This alternative is Christian in its concept and direction, but it is also Biblical in the principles that it teaches and promotes. These principles are taught and promoted in two distinct ways. First, through seminars organized to teach pastors and church elders. These persons preach to literally thousands of Salvadorans each week and in this way the theme of each seminar is multiplied. Therefore, a goal would be to teach pastors and elders the essential Biblical principles that relate to their lives and to the world around them. This would be an ongoing program continually circulating through the country.
There is also a second level of teaching. In this level students are brought to the learning center for a definite period. At this location students would be divided according to their career path and taught how to apply Biblical principles to their chosen profession. The goal at this level will be to challenge the philosophy that directs the present world systems with Biblical guides that have the potential of redeeming these world systems. We are not talking about changing structures in the world, rather, we are proposing a change in the principles and philosophies that guide the world systems. If there are changes in the structures of the world systems, these will be accomplished by internally stimulated pressures. If these pressures occur, they will occur due to the masses seeking a more Biblical pattern for the operation of their vocations.
Another very important part of this teaching is to help students reevaluate their nation’s history. Most history books that have been written since 1960 analyze the present situation in Latin America only in terms of class conflict. Class conflict may be a result, but it is not the cause of Central America’s problem. The rich may have exploited the poor, but this is a result of other events. Central Americans need to analyze their history from a Biblical view of broken covenants and unheeded Biblical principles. The Learning Center will stress this point in its curriculum.
Presently, Paralife is touching the lives of approximately 85,000 people annually. Our attempt is to seed in each person a small grain of Biblical principle. Most of those impacted by Paralife live in rural communities, therefore, the Christian Peace Force would be of significant value as a catalyst motivating lifestyle changes. In these Christian base communities, adequate teaching programs should have two forms: One form is to provide a pattern and encourage people to follow the example while learning, while the heart changes. The members of the CPF would be living examples of church members acting in redemptive capacities bringing true life to dead community traditions. They would provide examples of family gardens as means of feeding the family and providing assistance to the family income. This will help destroy the inclination toward dependency on the state or any other social institution.
Paralife’s Christian school system prepares young men and women for the world that is awaiting them. The school system teaches these young minds how to change the world systems that they are about to face. The proposal for the school system includes a training program for the teachers. The ones that will be teaching in these schools will be philosophically trained with Biblical principles based on God’s Word, local church, and country. With these pillars of principle as the foundational guides to teaching, the school will produce students, who upon leaving the school, can face the world with confidence in God and in their own country.
The Learning Center Methodology
The following brief sketch of the proposed learning center’s methodology is to acquaint the reader with the idea. The learning center is not a functioning integrated program, rather it exists in a rather unorganized form in Paralife’s pastoral training program. In order that the following outline, be expanded and fully operable, Paralife’s missionary staff would have to be expanded.
1. Seminars of Principles
The purpose of these seminars is to take basic Christian World View principles to churches where pastors and elders can receive instructions in a familiar environment. These pastors and elders are usually not well trained academically, therefore, demonstrating Biblical principles using familiar subjects would be most effective. For instance, when teaching that Christians should pray for those in authority, it would be beneficial to begin with the nearest authority to the local church, which most likely would be the mayor of the local municipal area. The mayor’s name would be identified, and generally most all the members of the local church would know him. At this level, emphasis is made on application of the principles, rather than the origin or concept of principle.
2. The Christian Peace Force (CPF)
The proposed purpose of the CPF is to promote certain lifestyle changes in the lives of people in the rural areas. The members of the CPF would be catalysts helping to bring about planned changes in community and individual lives to promote productivity and the capacity to sustain oneself and one’s family. CPF volunteers would plant gardens and work in the fields along with rural community members. The CPF women volunteers would use locally grown vegetables, chicken, pigs, and other animals to provide nutritious meals for those of her household. The CPF leaders will teach local sanitation and the value of clean households, the value of preventing sicknesses, etc. The idea is to present examples to a local community that will enable rural people to take better advantage of nutrition and economic opportunities given them. Members of the CPF would be living and working in a local community in housing conditions like others of the area. CPF volunteers would closely relate to local churches in order that models of faithfulness to God can be provided.
3. The World Systems Challenge
The purpose of the World Systems Challenge (WSC) is to counter Satan’s influence in the world systems. Biblical principles will be taught that relate to each career discipline. The Biblical principles that apply to the legal, educational, health care, art, sciences, and religious systems will be taught. Issues such as, “What is Christian Education?” or “What are Christian Absolute laws?” and “What is the work of a Christian Lawyer?” will be faced. The WSC will challenge the world’s humanistic systems with a Biblically based alternative; that challenge will be the seed of a true third alternative to the world’s political and economic systems. The third alternative is a Christian alternative.
4. The Political Systems Challenge
The Political Systems Challenge (PSC) could be considered as part of the WSC. However, special emphasis should be made for positions of authority. God has put people in authority, and it is necessary that each person in authority understand God’s purpose in their lives. By understanding God’s purpose in placing one in a position of political authority, a ruler can understand how he should rule. Solomon was a wise king and ruler, for he recognized the source of wisdom. A ruler must also recognize the true source of authority which is God. A civil authority must also recognize the principles of good and Godly government. The Scripture has much to say regarding a ruler and those who wish to rule well. Rulers must be aware of God’s vision for the earth.
The Real Battle
In 1982, Hap Brooks, a retired pastor from Tampa, Florida, John Carrette, a hotelier from Guatemala, and myself set about to teach spiritual unity to the Salvadoran church. We visited all the major church leaders, invited them to join us in bringing unity to the Salvadoran church body. Most of these men of the church gladly received the message of unity and understood the call to prayer. On the last Saturday of March 1983, we asked these leaders of the Salvadoran evangelical community to meet us for breakfast. The Holy Spirit met us that day in a banquet room of one of the city’s hotels. God entered that chamber, and these men found a degree of unity. At the close of the meeting, I saw Baptists asking forgiveness of Pentecostals and vice versa; I saw Central American Mission pastors embracing Pentecostals and Independent pastors receiving denominational pastors. This was a refreshing time in the Lord. Afterwards, prayer meetings were organized and pastors from the various and many evangelical groups began to meet weekly in prayer.
The country of El Salvador was truly being shaken at that time. The government army was doing poorly against the rebels. The image of the Salvadoran government was terribly marred by the many assassinations and killings. These pastors, in unity, began to pray for the nation of El Salvador. Within six weeks of that Saturday morning breakfast, we saw four events that changed the course of the nation. Those four events prevented the Marxist success on the battlefield. The perception of El Salvador began to change in the minds of many people in the United States. People began to see that the battle in El Salvador was an organized attempt by the Marxist to take over another country in Central America. Since March 1983, the Salvadoran government began to regain its confidence and direction. This change did not occur as a result of battlefield successes. Nor did it occur because of diplomatic successes in Washington or San Salvador. This change occurred because the church of El Salvador prayed a prayer in unity. This is what changed the direction of the war.
By the end of 1983, these unity prayer sessions were discontinued due to the lack of interest. By the middle of 1984, the government was once again in the throes of confusion. The body of Christ was once again split and divided. The Salvadoran church body forgot who the real enemy was. The real enemy was not the Marxists; the real enemy was Satan. The battle for the nations of this earth will not be won in the nation’s capitals or in congresses or in parliaments, but rather the battle for the nations of the earth will be won by churches who believe in prayer and act in true agape love.
In El Salvador we learned some very important lessons for the church. These events taught us that spiritual unity could not be taught, rather, spiritual unity was subjective, not objective. Spiritual unity is the result of Christians accepting each other for who they are in Christ and loving each other the way that Christ loved. This type of Christianity is feared by Satin for it provides a political threat to his humanistic designs for the planet earth.
Politics is the art of governing. Satin’s design for the earth consists of nations governed by men who conform to a humanistic philosophy. The church of Jesus Christ is duty bound to confront this humanistic scheme for the planet earth. Some Christians have declared that this confrontation is using worldly means to compete with earthly, political powers. When Jesus drove the money changers from the temple with the whip, He was confronting an ungodly political system. By His actions and example, He made a political statement as well as protecting and cleansing the house of prayer. Christians already know that their basic weapon of spiritual warfare is prayer. But there are other weapons that must be employed in this battle. Aside from prayer, one important and effective weapon is education. Evangelical churches must be informed. Christians in Central America as well as the United States must understand the political process and use that process to limit the growth of humanistic governments. The true church of Jesus Christ is the only institution that can possibly save the nations of the world from nihilism.
Another weapon is church related social action. Paralife International’s model community at Colima is one rural community in El Salvador where developmental compassion has been successfully applied: The evangelical church reached out to poor and hurting people giving them an option in a politically conflictive nation. Paralife’s developmental compassion in this community demonstrates that the evangelical church can socially and spiritually heal communities in socially and politically conflictive areas of the world.
Conclusion
Paralife International by itself, will be unable to fulfill all the goals and initiatives presented in this paper. Although some are well underway and progressing, the total project is much larger than one small NGO can accomplish; it will take many people, many dollars, and many years to reach the goal. However, by publishing these concepts now, the Holy Spirit may impress on the hearts and minds of other mission leaders how they and their organizations may participate in presenting Christ’s kingdom to El Salvador. The prayer of this writer is that the Holy Spirit may challenge others to exam these possibilities, and correct inadequate concepts, and move onward with plans that develop God’s kingdom in El Salvador.
January 18, 1991
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CubieSphere 