THE PROTESTANT LANGUAGE IN A REVOLUTIONARY ENVIRONMENT
By: Cubie Ward
Since the tower of Babel, language has been one of the many perplexities that has haunted mankind’s adventures on the planet earth. Though oral language is only one means of communication, it is the most frequently used and discussed form of interpersonal exchange of information. This language, even within the same national tongue and culture, is often a source of frustration, even for the most talented speakers: For often the same word may carry different meanings in different regions of the same country. And often, idiomatic expressions and localisms confuse meanings for those who are not aware of their significance. And too, within a subculture of a nation, there are words and phrases that imply certain political causes and ideologies. Could it possibly be that one-day history will demonstrate that language and its usage was the determinant factor that raised up governments and destroyed others? In the Central American country of El Salvador, a country ravaged by civil war since 1979, language has played a sizable role in the progression and execution of the war. Though conditions of exploitation and injustice have been present in the country for centuries, it was not until the peasant population had a verbiage that communicated these concepts that these conditions became part of a larger political discourse. However, the revolutionary language of this discourse was not embraced by all peasants. Among the rural population, there was also another discourse whose language had an increasing appeal. The purpose of this paper is to examine the non-revolutionary language of rural Protestant Salvadoran peasants, its origin and application as well as its impact on society.
A Brief History of the Salvadoran Conflict Since 1968
Poverty and wealth have always played a part in Salvadoran social history. Those who have endured the hardships of poverty, the high birth mortality, low literacy, high birth rate, and low capacity to resist illnesses, represent most Salvadorans. The wealthy elite, a small tightly knit percent of the population, have enjoyed the vast rich natural resources of the country. Conflict between these two groups of people have highlighted the nation’s history.
During the 1830s, Anastacio Aquino, an Indian cacique, led a yearlong rebellion against the white landowners. During the last thirty years of the last century, no less than five revolts shattered the tranquility of the Salvadoran nation. Then in 1932, a Communist inspired revolution wracked havoc among the Indians of the western part of the countryside. All these uprisings have shared one common component: They were all motivated by perceived injustices to the weaker and poverty striken classes.
Since 1968, revolution simmered among the poorer peoples of the rural countryside. During these later years a change had been affected among the rural peasants. During the earlier conflicts, the revolutionary activities erupted to protest certain alleged injustices, whereas the 1960s and 1970s witnessed a seething revolution of another quality. Not that there were more accusations of injustices perpetrated on the poorer classes in relation to the growing population than in earlier times, but the peasant and working classes were organized and trained for this uprising. During the previous uprisings, the conflicts were settled through force of arms which the rich and powerful controlled. In this later conflict, not only did the poorer classes have arms, but they also possessed a revolutionary strategy, philosophy, and language that functioned to cohere the far flung and various groups that lived and worked in the Salvadoran countryside. Briefly, I will discuss how the revolutionary strategy, philosophy, and language came to be known by the rural peasants. But later, more importantly for this study, I will discuss the entrance and impact of a non-revolutionary or passive language on the rural peasant society.
Los Cursillos de Capacitación Social
During the early 1960s, groups of Maryknoll and Jesuit priests taught a series of training courses in various regions of El Salvador. These Cursillos de Capacitation Social were designed to bring the rural campesinos closer together by teaching people how to help one another. In the beginning these courses were apolitical, but as time moved on the recognition of the vast economic differences between the social classes were registered and noted. Some campesinos questioned why their children died at birth while infants of the wealthier families did not die or why colono children were sick more often than children from wealthy families. Through these classes, the peasant class became aware that health care was available for the rich, then they questioned why it was very scarce in the rural areas of the country. Similar questions continued to be posited during these sessions and eventually, the Cursillos became the first attempts in El Salvador to raise the conscious awareness of the Salvadoran peasants to the problems that assaulted their class.
CELAM and Liberation Theology
In 1968 the second meeting of all Latin American Catholic bishops, known as CELAM, met in Medellin, Columbia. During this series of meetings, a change was noted in the political alignment of the Latin church. No longer would the church stand idly by while the poor were exploited by the richer classes. This new ideology, though it divided the church in El Salvador, positioned the church in most Latin American countries on the side of the poor. Instead of being a passive voice within the community, the new liberationist movement of priests voiced loud and clear their concerns regarding the conditions of the rural and urban poor. A new discourse and language began to take form among the Salvadoran rural poor. This discourse helped provide a language through which the poor could voice their frustrations. It was also a unifying discourse that linked peasants and peasant organizations around the country.
Christian Base Communities
A corollary to CELAM were the Christian Base Communities (CBC). Starting in 1969, several Jesuit priests initiated small groups of people that usually met once a week for instructions. CBCs played a significant role in promoting social justice and advocating for the rights of the marginalized communities. The CBCs came together to study the Bible, reflect on their faith, and discuss social issues affecting their communities.
One of the main values of the CBCs was their ability to empower and mobilize the local population. Through their emphasis on liberation theology, which seeks to address the root causes of inequality and oppression, the CBCs provided a platform for individuals to understand and challenge the socio-political structures that perpetuated injustice.
The CBCs also served as a source of support and solidarity for those affected by violence and poverty during the civil war. They offered a safe space for people to share their experiences, seek guidance, and collectively work towards improving their circumstances. The sense of community fostered by the CBCs helped to build resilience and encourage activism among the participants.
Furthermore, the CBCs played a crucial role in providing education and organizing grassroots movements. They educated individuals about their rights, social issues, and alternatives to the prevailing economic and political systems. By empowering individuals with knowledge and critical thinking skills, the CBCs contributed to the development of a more informed and engaged citizenry.
Though the CBCs were organized by the priests such as Father Rutillio Grande who was credited as one of the pioneers of the CBC movement in El Salvador. Fathers Jon Sobrino and Ignacio Ellacuría were both Jesuits who strongly supported Liberation Theology and played significant roles in theological reflections and supporting the rights of the poor. They also advocated that as soon as local leadership could be established the priests relinquish leadership to locally trained “Delegates of the Word.” These “delegates” continued the training using the local rural language with its localisms that were accepted more readily than were the foreign priests who taught the courses. As Berryman and Cardenal pointed out, the purpose of these CBCs was to make the peasants aware of their precarious economic situation in comparison to that of the richer class. Another purpose of the CBCs was to unite and form fraternal bonds between rural families and friends. The results of the training received in the CBCs produced highly vocal and well-informed groups of peasants who could argue their case against the exploitive methods of the local landowners.
Peasant Institutions
The liberationist priests who participated in the creation of the CBCs, were also active in the creation of peasant institutions such as rural cooperatives and mass movements. The advent of peasant organizations can be traced back to the early 20th century when peasants began organizing themselves to demand land rights and better living conditions. Although rural unions have been prohibited since 1932, the rural peasants showed interest in again organizing themselves into cooperatives and other rural organizations through which they could register their grievances. Peasant organizations played a crucial role in supporting peasant causes in El Salvador during the civil war. These organizations emerged as a response to the dire socio-economic conditions faced by rural communities, who were often marginalized and exploited by powerful landowners.
It wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s, during the prelude leading to the civil war, that these organizations gained significant traction and became powerful advocates for peasant causes.
The priests of Suchitoto, Aguilares, and San Vicente (two municipalities of El Salvador) were instrumental in forming mass movements and other peasant groups. These groups, along with the CBCs, demonstrated a common language that identified their frustrations with the ruling classes. As we shall see later, this language was central to the ability to mobilize the rural poor for political demonstrations.
Peasant organizations, such as the National Association of Salvadoran Peasants (ANC) and the National Federation of Salvadoran Peasants (FENASTRAS), provided a platform for rural communities to unite and fight for their rights. These organizations played crucial roles fostering a language of the Salvadoran marginalized poor.
The Genesis of Social Awareness
With the initiation of the Cursillos in El Salvador, conditions developed that would alter the passivity of the rural peasants. The Cursillos opened the door to larger and more ambitious organizations intent on making political, economic, and social changes in the country. After CELAM, agents of liberation theology, priests and specially trained teachers, arrived in the country and began a new teaching, emphasizing the poor and their rights. The liberationists raised the conscious awareness of the poor and directed the training programs that fostered a new language among some segments of the nation’s rural population. The genesis of social awareness coincided with the birth of rural organizations and institutions. Christian Base Communities along with mass movements emphasized the conditions of the rural poor. This focus on the exploited rural poor highlighted the inequalities between the poor classes and the landed elite. This spotlight on elite and peasant relations revealed new knowledge about that association, or at least what was perceived as knowledge. The significance of this new awareness was the interpretations that these foreign priests and teachers applied to the same perception of truth. What may have been considered as a privilege for one group, such as having colonos to work their crops, was necessity for another, such as work from which earned income purchased food; and what was important and necessary for a group of poor peasants, such as the need for sufficient land on which to grow basic food grains, could have been interpreted as revolutionary for another strata of society.
A Discourse Against Elitist Power
Since the mid nineteenth century, the export of coffee has been the major source of income for the nation of El Salvador. By 1950, sugar had also become a major export along with cotton. Landowners sought to maximize their income by planting more and more of these cash crops. However, by these actions, many of the rural poor were displaced from land that had been their home for generations. Technological advances in fertilizers and administration had made land profitable that previously had been useless for agricultural purposes. Ejidal lands, common lands dedicated to the poor of municipalities and villages where basic food stuffs could be raised, were those lands most often reclaimed by local landowners. The displaced poor were either moved to smaller and less productive rocky lands. Coffee, sugar, and cotton were planted on all available lands reducing the possibility that tenant farmers could have sufficient lands to raise basic grains which were necessary to feed their families.
Another factor that frustrated the rural poor was the lack of educational opportunities for rural children. Acerbating this situation was the mortality rate experienced by the rural campesinos. Parasitic infections were rampant and infant mortality rates often reached 200 per thousand. These conditions reduced or sharply limited the hope of upward mobility and consequently, produced conditions in which the rural peasants were ready to entertain possibilities of armed insurrection.
The discourse that developed against the landed elite included accusations that the wealthy were purposely maintaining the poor in economic conditions of subsistence: that by removing the peasants from ejidal land and keeping them from receiving an education, the wealthy were guaranteed an available cheap labor supply. Behind these charges was the idea that Salvadoran landowners were applying capitalist principles in their farm operation which demanded a specific and increasing return on investments. Therefore, when a landowner dismissed peasant families from the farm in order to use the land that the family previously occupied or when the landowner refused land to new families, he was accused of being “repressive.” The landowner was accused of being “oppressive” when he refused to hire more workers. This refusal increased the workload on each colono and maximized the landowner’s profits. When the revolution began, the cry to “revindicate” the losses of the rural peasants was often heard. On many occasions, these disenfranchised peasants moved on to and settled unused lands. The landowners often called the local army commander who would send troops to remove the “squatters.” Often the process of removing the squatters resulted in the killing of peasants. As a result of these actions, the army, as well as the landowners, were accused of denying “human rights” to the squatter peasants. The discourse that developed against the elite included concepts that were expressed by the words “oppression,” “repression,” “revindicate,” and “human rights.” To the landowners, these accusations were lies used for the purpose of creating a false impression that the landowners were cruel and insensitive to the needs of the poor class. On the other hand, the peasants, along with the liberationist activists, held that these were true accusations that accurately described the landowners and the armed forces. Much of the rhetoric that has been produced by the last twenty years of the Salvadoran civil conflict has focused on these concepts.
Michel Foucault in his books, Power/Knowledge and The Order of Things, developed the thesis that every discourse generates its own resistance. Since the later years of the nineteenth century, the wealthy class of El Salvador had developed its traditions of affluence and privilege. These affluent families and their discourses allowed only a few to enter their sacred halls and enjoy the opulent fruits of their positions. This writer cannot say that the affluence of all elites resulted in the misery of others, however, the vast inequality of life between two classes of people occupying the same space or territory did allow for conditions to exist that encouraged this perception. Liberation theology and its accompanying structures gave opportunity for the development of a language that resisted these perceived inequities of the Salvadoran society.
A Resistance to Domination
“But In this I have been brought closer to the fire of persecution, to the crucible of torment, and to such lengths that they have asked that study be forbidden to me….Abbess….. commanded me not to study…but that I study not at all is not within my power to achieve.” The ruling authority had ordered that this mere woman cease her critiques of priest’s sermons: No simple woman should be allowed to voice judgments or evaluations about the work of God’s holy ministers. And so, it was with the poor of El Salvador; they, with the help of the church, voiced their discontent with the ruling structures of the country. However, they too were told by the actions of the government and some sectors of the elite to cease their protests. The poor voiced their concern for having no voice in the selection of government and little participation in the economic system. Though illegal in most instances, the structures of the rural organizations and mass movements along with the Christian Base Communities gave opportunity for voicing peasant concerns.
The following phrases were taken from local Salvadoran newspaper advertisements paid for by various local popular social Christian movements:
1. …continue fighting for the liberation of the Salvadoran people.
2. …Repressive conditions and imperious terror.
3. …Despite the campaign of terror unleashed by the high military command and….. against popular and labor organizations.
4. The fight is for democracy, for liberty, for social justice, the well-being of the people and for an effective independence.
5. Do not sing songs of peace, instead shout for war! Do not contend for understanding, rather, contend for confrontation and hate!
6. It is well known the profound crisis that has befallen over our country whose worst consequences are that the weight of the situation has fallen on to the backs of our workers.
7. “For peace with social justice and liberty, all to the fight.”
8. That which has been conquered shall not be surrendered.
9. …Respect of Human Rights which means: no persecution, no arrests and jailed, free expression of thoughts, and freedom to organize.
The above list of phrases and slogans demonstrates the concerns of the rural and urban workers. Prior to the end of the 1960s, these words, such as oppression, repression, and human rights that formed the above concepts and thoughts hardly ever appeared in local newspapers of El Salvador. During the first years of the decade of the thirties, Faribundo Martí used some of these expressions, but immediately after the outbreak of the 1932 rebellion, this labor leader was captured and summarily executed. From the early thirties until the mid-sixties, these phrases were seldom used in any context by the rural peasantry. Even in contemporary society, the rural peasant hardly whispers these concepts and ideas. These ideas and slogans are unfamiliar phrases to the uneducated Salvadoran peasant language.
It is noteworthy to mention the use of such words as “fighting,” “repressive,” “terror,” “shout of war,” “conquered,” and “injustices.” In everyday life the peasant faces the adversarial conditions of getting food and clothing for the family. This is an everyday “fight.” The agonistic conditions of life have already prepared the rural peasant for conflict. Walter Ong comments “In distant ages, speech, together with thought, was a highly combative activity, especially in its more public manifestations – much more combative than we in our present-day technological world are likely to assume or are even willing to believe.” In the near illiterate world of the Salvadoran peasant, oral communication is strengthened by using metaphors which link words to known concepts. The present-day Salvadorans relate to the daily conflicts that they face. In this reality, they may reflect Ong’s comment regarding language and conflict of the ancients. In the discourse against the dominant elite, the repetition of these adversarial words and phrases directed the peasant’s combative understanding to the exploitive and unjust behavior of the landowners. Since the rural peasants already understood the concept of conflict, they only needed to understand the concept of how the dominant elite exploited and unjustly used the peasant class.
Paulo Freire and Conscientization
Paulo Freire offered a possible means to teach the rural poor. In his book, The Pedagogy of the Poor, he explained how most educational systems are like a banking system in which deposits are made. That is, most educational systems consider people’s minds as blank or empty vessels in which education is placed or deposited. Freire’s system begins with what the student already knows and affirms the student in whatever social class or level that the student may find himself. This system accepts the student with whatever natural knowledge that he may have. Rural peasants know how to plant and harvest corn and maybe other crops, but they do not know how to express their emotions and feelings, especially those that concern the local landowners. Freire’s method of concientización permitted the rural peasant to feel good about his position in peasantry while at the same time allowing the rural person to understand concepts of poverty, exploitation, oppression, and human rights. One activist explained, “What we did was help the peasants come to an awareness of their own dignity and worth, and that’s what the powerful can’t forgive.” With an understanding of these new concepts and a language to express them, the peasant confronted the political and economical systems that maintained the peasantry in ignorance.
Methods used to Concientizar the Rural Population
Activist priests, fifty percent of whom were foreign to El Salvador, university and seminary students, and university professors taught courses to concientizar (raise consciousness) to members of the rural mass movements and other rural organizations. The CBCs were especially used to teach and promote this language of revolution. For the liberationists, the term, “evangelization” implied the need to convince rural peasants of the need to join the CBCs, or one of the several rural organizations that had grown up in the countryside. Activists and liberationists encouraged the peasants to join these organizations in which they could be made aware of their exploitation. Some writers have concluded that the peasants were given this imported discourse (that is, a language of resistance that was not a part of the existing rural consciousness), not so much to benefit the peasants, but rather, for the benefit of promoting a particular political ideology. The language unified the peasants by emphasizing the injustices that the poor endured. This new consciousness facilitated the activities of mobilizing the unified peasants to effectively bring about political and economic change. It might be interesting to note that during the period between 1968 and 1980, a period when most of the concientización of the rural peasant took place, a period when the language of revolution gained prominence among the poor, was the period of greatest government restraint (some might say oppression) of the Salvadoran laborer and rural worker. It is also noteworthy that while church, mass movement, and labor leaders were promoting a political strategy for liberating the peasants from exploitive actions of the landowners and industrialists, more rural peasants died espousing a language of liberation than during any similar period.
The Protestant Language of Passivity
Soon after the initiation of the labors of concientización by the Catholic Church and other social organizations, a new sound began to be heard from the rural countryside. Peasants voiced political and economic issues with ease and comprehension. They demonstrated a particular grasp of concerns such as land usage and ownership; cash crop farming instead of basic grain production; foreign hegemony over national industry. They voiced concerns over an economic system that allowed for loans to be granted only to the wealthy class and none to subsistence farmers who needed help in supplying food for their families. Those peasants who cried loudest, often were later found murdered.
As Cardenal explained, these conscious raising efforts usually only affected about ten percent of the population. However, this ten percent had a deafening effect juxtaposed against a mostly silenced peasantry. Most of the peasant population were apathetic toward politics in the capital; however, they were concerned about their families’ education and health. There was also a segment of rural peasants who had a concern about religion and the part that it played in their everyday lives.
There were also evangelical denominations that took a more conservative and apolitical stance during the civil war. Some of these churches discouraged political involvement and emphasized individual salvation rather than collective action. They focused on personal morality, piety, and spiritual matters from which a language of passivity emerged rather than addressing socio-political issues.
These churches often promoted a passive approach to social issues, encouraging their followers to trust in God’s providence and pray for peace without actively engaging in social and political change. They believed that societal transformation would come through individual conversions and personal spiritual growth rather than through collective action or political advocacy.
Poverty and its Effects on the Ideal of Self
It is not news that poverty affects the verbal skills of most disadvantaged groups in the United States. What may be of more interest is the fact that in many third world countries, such as El Salvador, levels of extreme poverty may reach as high as 60 to 75 percent. This level does not represent some of the minority groups, rather, most of the nations’ population is affected. From recent studies, it has been shown that poverty influences verbal and political skills of its victims. Other studies have shown that children from ghettos have great difficulty expressing their emotions; often they have no verbal skills with which to make their feelings known. These were exactly the findings of Paulo Freire in Brazil. This author concluded that often the rural peasants were unable to express their feelings, especially those feelings that dealt with injustice and oppression. Members of the lower classes in developing countries suffer from a restricted speech pattern which limits their ability to express emotional and subjective feelings. They maintained what Paulo Freire referred to as a “culture of silence.” This was exactly the point that Cardenal made about the children in the Aguilares area of El Salvador.
When Protestants arrived in El Salvador during the latter years of the last century, they attracted converts from the poorest levels of Salvadoran society. Most often, the new Protestant churches were in rural communities and very small rural villages. Baptist, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian church groups carved congregations out of the socially Catholic communities. These new converts found a new identity within the Protestant church, but they also lost community standing and credibility among the overwhelming Catholic populace. Often, they were alienated for having joined a Protestant church. This alienation, along with the isolateon of poverty effected a divorce of the Protestants from the larger society. This isolation may have amplified the rural Protestant’s feeling of powerlessness. Since poverty had marginalized the group from the larger society, Protestantism had isolated them from the local community. Among many Protestant sects, an often-heard theme was the sinfulness and evilness of mankind’s human nature. The human tendency to sin was a powerful motivation for behavioral virtue. Often the peasants “fell from grace” which reaffirmed the weakness of the flesh and helped create the Protestant theme of dependency on God rather than on weak human nature and human institutions. Poverty and the Protestant message reaffirmed the rural peasant’s individual worthlessness and inability to contribute to the needs of the larger society.
Individual Reality as Seen Among the Rural Poor
Richard Brown cites the work of William F. Whyte who described a system of “hierarchy of personal relations.” Whyte’s system included an emphasis on (1) primary group relations (2) which are based on the principle of reciprocal assistance. The third feature was the personalization of social relations. According to Brown, other studies seem to validate this last feature of Whyte’s system: Often in poverty areas individuals are given leeway to interpret any given social situation. For instance, if a Salvadoran worker is dismissed from a job, he may accuse the management or owners of abusing his right to work or for repression against the working class. The worker is allowed to choose his own expressions to describe the conditions of his present unemployment. Being that his options for understanding the reasons for his dismissal may be limited, he may use expressions that suit only his immediate emotional state. In higher socioeconomic levels, individuals generally have a larger repertoire of personal experiences in which to analyze a social situation. This litany of experiences is included in a standard list of accepted behavior which persons from poor areas do not have. These situations indicate that although persons from higher socioeconomic levels have more control over the conditions, the poor have less alternatives for coping with the social situation. This may indicate why people from lower economic levels maintain a fatalistic view toward economic and political events and why they also may choose anti-social behavior in their attempts to manage the situation. It may also explain why the Salvadoran Protestants chose to withdraw from society. When confronted with social situations of poverty or conflict, the Protestants’ response, which was predicated on a developing discourse of passivity, was to withdraw to the Protestant ghetto. Since they felt powerless to change or alter the social situation, be it poverty or conflict, their learned response was to declare their dependence on God.
The Salvadoran poor generally have not had educational experience above the sixth grade. They have not been given the opportunity to hypothetically analyze human events, actions, or behaviors. They certainly have not been exposed to the vast amount of political and economic theories that prevail in the university lecture halls. Therefore, when confronted with questions of private property, ownership of production, or the distribution of wealth, the average campesino has few recourses on which to make judgements. They seek their immediate benefit which limits drastically their options for action. Most rural peasants really do not care what is happening in the world’s coffee or sugar markets. Their interests are in feeding and caring for their own families and their own constricted world. With few options open to them, it is not surprising to see a violent reaction when they feel that they have been unjustly used.
The experiences of Father Rutilio Grande and his team of Jesuit priests in Aguilares demonstrated that rural peasants can be taught a language, foreign to their natural and historical traditions, that can unite and direct revolutionary actions. However, it is important to note that these vociferous groups of peasants represented only about ten percent of the population of Aguilares. The larger percentage of rural people were untouched by conscious raising processes of the Aguilares priests. The language that these people knew was the language of silence, non-participatory in social events.
As Moral Agents
Individuals in rural areas of Central America, in many cases, have been marginalized socially and economically by their poverty. Brown’s analysis of oppressed workers in the United States during the early years of this century, along with factory workers of later years who were victims of repetitious and standardized work, showed signs of self-esteem deprivation. These groups created a language to express their frustrations with conditions in their environment. This common language became a means of expressing mutual feelings and sentiments. Members of these groups developed a self-consciousness which was expressed through a language of concern and frustration. Individuals who were able to discriminate between their feelings desired a change in the status quo, they desired to change the causes that produced the frustrations. As individuals, they spoke out or wrote letters, or helped form associations that had as their goals that of changing conditions which produced frustrations. These aware individuals became agents of change, they sensed a need to act and engaged others in their moral attempts to alter society, people, or institutions. These aware individuals, through their enlightened efforts wanted to create meanings and forms.
In El Salvador there were individuals who desired to create new forms and new meanings: These persons desired to form a government that was based on revolutionary ideology. The liberationist priests, who formed groups of Christian Base Communities (CBC) continually taught and trained their rural flocks, building a discourse and language that conceptually supported a revolutionary style government. It is interesting to note that violent conflict did not appear until the discourse of revolution and the associated language was given to the peasants. Conditions of poverty already existed: Salvadoran peasants had endured the hardships of an insensitive and unjust society for years. These consciously aware individuals, acting collectively, became moral agents of change.
A history of rebellion based on peasant injustice was already a part of Salvadoran history. But it was language that linked social and economic injustices to political causes. Unjust exploitation of peasant workers was a historical fact, but it was the discourse of poverty that united the rural peasants to political purposes. Brown may be correct in saying that conditions promoted the initiation of language, but it is the language that provided the medium through which the conditions were interpreted, and that interpretation disseminated. This interpretation was the fodder for the linguistical canons that raised the conscious awareness of the campesinos.
As indicated above, many members of the CBCs moved on to the armed revolutionary groups and into acts that were either violent or liberating. These descriptions are determined by the point of view of those observing the actions. These liberationist priests were ideal agents of social change. The traditional priests were agents of resignation and passivity, while these liberationists were instruments of change who broke ideological barriers and unleashed unexpected energies. As Montes observed, “many rural peasants who did not accept the new active ideology moved over to the Protestant sects”. It is interesting to note that the new language that resulted from the new conscious raising ideology was a major factor that produced tension which resulted in the cohesion of some peasants while division among other rural peasants.
Walter Ong argues in Fighting for Life that “What contest is about is buried within the interiors of two interior consciousnesses.” He argues that any contest cannot be reduced to just impersonal structures. These structures, of course, can be political ideology or parties as in the case of El Salvador. Using Ong’s argument then, one concludes that some of those people involved in the civil war sensed a conflict much deeper and more personal than just mere political differences that divided and separated rural Salvadorans. It may be that the politically inspired language that the peasants acquired hid a deeper consciousness than simple injustice. It well may be that the peasants who entered the conflict harbored deep desires to own property and attain wealth. It may be that their war was one of envy more than one of correcting injustices. Without doubt, some peasants had been mistreated by the landowners, but even these feelings of injustice could be suppressed in favor of owning the economic source that made the landowner powerful. If the envious peasant could own land, then he too would be strong and powerful just like the terrateniente. Therefore, the language of revolution revealed only a political cause and structure of conflict while rural participants vented in their aggression a deeper, more personal motive for conflict.
This is very reminiscent of the Pancho Villa army that fought in northern Mexico during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. General Villa had liberated much of northern Mexico and had confiscated many of the larger ranches and properties. This confiscation of properties was ostensibly for the purpose of a land reform program that would redistribute land to the rural peasants. However, the outcome was that the peasants received none of the liberated lands. Instead, the properties became personal trophies of the generals and leaders of the Villa army. Land reform for the peasants was an empty battle cry that hid the real desire of the revolutionary leaders, the desire to own and control land and people.
The people trained with a revolutionary language were not the only rural people who were attempting to change society. Since the early part of the century, Evangelical Protestant sects had been growing in the rural areas. The first Protestants, Presbyterians working with the Central American Mission, arrived in 1896. The Protestants came to Central America, and eventually to El Salvador, at the invitation of the traditional Liberals. The first Protestants in El Salvador, though not personally or institutionally involved politically, were used by the Liberals in hopes that their teachings would help loosen the control that the Catholic clerics held over national government. Through the first five decades of the century, Protestant church growth was slow, though steady, however, Protestantism grew more rapidly from the decade of the sixties and onward. By 1980, Evangelicals had a strong presence in Guazapa, Aguilares, Chaltenango, and other smaller communities where Father Grande and his training teams were vigorously teaching and training. The Protestants also had a goal of changing society through the evangelization of vast numbers of rural campesinos. By turning the peasants’ thoughts to Biblical issues of morality, by encouraging the abstinence of alcohol and fidelity in marriage, these sects also impacted the rural society. Their message was simple and plain; it taught a reliance only on God and removed mankind from responsibility of caring for neighbors, society, earth, or government. Jesus Christ would come back to earth and take away the poor, hurting, and suffering Christians to heaven where they would live eternally in blissful joy. Without doubt this message did have an impact on rural society.
Citizens, but non-Participants
This Protestant message and language separated the Central Americans, not from their citizenship, but rather, from participation in the body polity of their nations. The “others” were those that drank alcohol, womanized, had money, stole from the poor, participated in politics, held political office, and even voted in political elections. The small Protestant rural religious groups, trained by North American Evangelical missionaries, liberated their members from all these “sinful and ungodly acts”. Among many small church groups, rural church leaders assumed a position making members accountable only to them. These conditions in which the members are subjugated to the church leadership strengthened the separation and compartmentalization of rural Protestants which increased their alienation from society. Their poverty and their religious foundations added to their marginalization from society. Within these small groups there was reciprocity to the extent that individual needs were supplied, but there was no commitment toward the larger scope of social problems. Montes complained that the Protestants remained separated from the rural problems and had no desire to participate in social changes. Conformity to the ideals or rigid standards of the small group were tantamount to an individual identity with a particular group which added to the alienation of that group from the rest of society.
Laurie Price noted that retelling stories of illnesses in Ecuadorian culture often served to reinforce friendships and family ties. It may also be that the Protestant discourse, not only alienated and isolated the community from the rest of Salvadoran society, but it may also have been used to strengthen individual ties within the peasant church community. Most rural Protestant churches have a time of testimony during the normal church service. During this period of the service, individual members are encouraged to stand and relate stories of how they overcame temptation, escaped injury or death, or how God answered a prayer for healing or economic aid or some other need. As these positive stories are shared, the language serves to reinforce the members’ dependence on God rather than man or the state. Without doubt, the rural Protestant discourse served to isolate and alienate these citizens, but also it could be said that the related events also served to strengthen their passive discourse.
Richard Brown commented that “The bureaucratization of modern societies has been accompanied by a massive shift of responsibility from individuals as moral beings to rules, regulations, and calculations of efficiency….” Brown was focusing on the North American populace, however, the explanation that he posited may also be helpful for understanding the behavior of various Salvadoran groups. The fracturalization and compartmentalization of the Salvadoran Protestants may demonstrate results like the bureaucratization of the North American society. Rules and regulations, enforced by each church or denomination, governs the behavior of Protestant sects’ members which causes them to focus only on the sect and its needs. This behavior results in the “neutralization of subjectivity” which abrogates the Protestants’ responsibility beyond the limits of the sect.
Rural peasant Protestant groups, due to their skepticism of government, social power groups, and competing religious organizations, have not learned to participate with the rest of society and be one with their neighbors. They have not learned to enjoy the God of Saint Augustine through their relationships with their neighbors, nor have they really learned how to use the earth and its fullness as they pass through it toward their eternal abode. Their non-participatory and alienated behavior has resulted in their withdrawal, hidden away in the Christian ghettos of their poor communities or their displaced person’s camp. This non-participatory behavior has often been reinforced by the vast numbers of dead bodies of rural activists that appeared by the roadsides. The lifeless bodies acted as Augustinian signs that forbade political involvement to the rural Protestants.
Skeptical of Power Groups
During the initial years after the Presbyterian and Pentecostal Protestants from the United States and Canada arrived in El Salvador, they were harassed by skeptical and fearful Catholic priests as well as government officials who were concerned about these new religious groups descending on their country. During the early years groups of young children as well as adults, often led by community leaders or even a priest, would throw rocks at the buildings where the Protestants were worshipping. In some cases, new Protestant converts were dismissed from their employment due to their new religious conversion. Without doubt, these events shaped the lives and collective attitudes of rural Protestants toward social or governmental power structures.
In the rural areas of El Salvador, mass movement organizations such as the Frente Populares de Liberación (FPL), Bloque Popular Revolucionario (BPR), and the Frente de Acción Popular Unificada (FAPU) became increasingly active. Unions had been forbidden since 1932, but these organizations acted as political mobilizing agents: Each aligned politically with one or more of the armed revolutionary groups. Many of the rural leaders were functioning in mass movements as well as CBCs. These same leaders were also active in local political rallies and activities. During the late years of the 1960s and through the 1970s many of these organizational leaders disappeared. Many of the leaders of mass movements and CBCs accused ORDEN, (Organización Democrática Nacionalista), a quasi-government rural organization, of causing the disappearance of these workers. The deadly conflict that often erupted between the rural organizations and ORDEN was viewed by Protestants as sinful and usually personally harmful. This perception of rural politics by the Conservative Protestants reinforced their isolationism and alienation from political participation. These physical handicaps to social integration further hardened their resolve to maintain independence from the “others” of this “sinful” society.
Government and Protestantism
During the decade of the twenties, thirties, forties, and part of the fifties, it was difficult for Protestant organizations to obtain legal status in El Salvador. Government red tape made it difficult for these organizations to incorporate. Often, legal incorporation was denied on the most minute detail. These obstacles were often seen as “Satanic” attempts to deny the “truth of the Scripture” to the Salvadoran population. These obstacles also often served to alienate the Protestants from the greater society causing them to withdraw and form small clans. These small groups served to protect the rural Protestants and reinforce their skepticism of government.
Competing Religious Groups
Brown noted that the modern corporations with their vast bureaucracies often alienate their employees. By dividing persons into small groups under rigid controls, corporations can control the activity of these persons to increase or maintain production. This is a “central logic of modern culture, the logic of value-neutral, instrumental efficiency, the constructing of people through the language of things.” In Central America, Protestantism also alienates its members from the rest of the social structure. Protestantism is fractured in many various denominations. These denominations are individually separated from each other by doctrinal beliefs that range from minor doctrinal differences, such as whether members and pastors should wear the top button of their shirts buttoned, to more complex doctrinal and organizational issues that include questions on the Trinity and the centrality of church government. However, the important point is that not only are these people estranged from society, but because of the competitive nature of their religious organizations, the members become alienated from each other.
A Protestant language surrounds these Evangelical peasants. Their “saved” language separates them from the “others” or “sinners” of their locality. In some cases, their “speaking in other tongues” separates them from other religious groups. In addition, men’s usage of long sleeves or women’s usage of white veils separates them from other Protestant groups. These norms or standards are rigidly observed to maintain the “purity” and identity of the groups. This tendency prevents many smaller rural churches from participation with large urban groups and prevents the rural church members from being “contaminated” by the modernity of the urban church. The results are rural church members who are alienated from society, but they are also separated from the larger Protestant groupings where a greater degree of socialization could take place.
An Imported Language
The poor of Central America, as described above, also developed a language that interpreted their collectivist attitudes. The language of revolution, described above, is but one of the languages that emerged in Central America. Protestant missionaries, who began work in the late mid nineteenth century to save the Salvadoran peasants from Indian “paganism” and Catholic “idol worship”, helped create a language of individualism. Much of their language has its roots in the positivistic ideologies which were rooted in the Enlightenment period and were developed during that time. As the world’s technological emphasis spread, so did the rational reasoning that accompanied scientific advances. Compartmentalizing the world into “them” and “us,” “Christian” and “sinner,” “church member” and “nonmember,” “colono/peasant” and “terrateniente,” etc. were taught to the rural peasants of these countries. This had the effect of separating the Christians from the rest of society to identify them.
In recent interviews with rural peasants and urban poor Protestant Christians, one important observation was made: Not one time were the words “oppression,” “repression,” or “individual rights” mentioned. These words are not part of these people’s normal language. They do not use these terms to describe their conditions or economical situations. Neither do they use these words to describe the political struggles within the country. Rather, their language is one of noninvolvement with the “world” and the political institutions that compose it. Their language centers on the salvation of the person’s soul, the eternal abode of the soul, and God’s power to sustain the person here on earth. Words and phrases such as, “If God wills it,” “When Jesus comes…,” “Evangelize the community,” “Win the lost,” “Saved,” “Salvation,” “The way of salvation,” “Working in His vineyard,” or “Doing His will” form part of the language” that is often heard in Protestant communities. This language is part of the religious consciousness that was imported by Protestant missionaries. It is also easily observable that many of these Protestant Christians are not concerned about the Salvadoran society’s need for economic independence from the nation’s wealthy elite or the United States. What is less certain, and observable is the degree to which these people have identified themselves with a modern concept of individualism, the seeking of individual happiness through the accumulation of material goods. Those critical of this Protestant attitude argue that it encourages individual consumption at the expense of greater social needs.
Language of Individualism
In Central America, materialism is consuming most of the region’s population. The desire to possess land, houses, electronic gadgetry, cars, and other possessions is an indication of the region’s reliance on modern technology. With this increase in modernization also is the appearance of the compartmentalization of society and a dependence on bureaucratic rules and theories. This type of social construction seems to promote individualism instead of a collective social consciousness. As Max Weber pointed out in the book, Protestantism and the Spirit of Capitalism, Protestants have a work ethic that encourages frugality, morality, and work as part of a Christian work ethic. In the everyday setting of the rural peasants, these characteristics have utility value. These values permit the rural peasant the capacity to feed, clothe, and house his family. This ethic is expressed in the language of the rural peasants. Their religion and faithfulness to their belief system bolsters their devotion to these conservative and individualistic values. The peasant’s loyalty is greater to these group ethics and values than to the values of the “others” and the “them” of society. The strengthening of individualism in the region opens the area to large scale Protestant proselytization. This language, in addition to the accompanying behavior, creates a consciousness of personal value.
Segundo Montes, a late Jesuit professor at the Universidad Centro America José Simón Cañas, lamented this Protestant value system. He saw this system as anti-socialist which caused people to seek personal benefit rather than seek the benefit of the society. Carlos Cabarrús deplored the evangelization process of the Protestants because once a person was “saved” and had joined the church, his work ethics raised the economic level of the family to the extent that the new Protestant family was not willing to join the rural institutions. The Protestants were not organizable. Since these new Protestant Christians gave their loyalty to their churches and to its moral ethics, and to their individual family’s economic needs, they were not interested in revolutionary activities nor a revolutionary language. They were much more interested in individual concerns.
Another aspect that some writers noted was the apolitical position maintained by many Protestants. To many Evangelicals, participation in political activities was often considered sinful and worldly. Therefore, they resisted a revolutionary language that promoted a certain political ideology. Montes suggested that because the Protestants seemed to move slightly upward socially, that is, their economic situation changed somewhat for the better, they did not see the plight of the extremely poor. This lack of concern for the conditions of the extreme poor could also be translated as a feeling of spiritual superiority. This Protestant superiority could then be used in appeals to the extreme poor to accept the Protestant religion and be “blessed by God.” The Protestant religious evangelism, linked to a small economic advantage, promoted the ideologies of both the North American and Salvadoran governments as well as the wealthy landowners. Their self-identity and well-being were linked to the prosperity of the ruling dominant class. Protestant groups loathed any political activity that would risk their newly acquired economic position.
In interviews made on February 15, 1990, with rural peasants who attended a medical clinic in the city of San Salvador, special attention was taken to hear these peoples’ concern about the civil war in El Salvador. It was interesting to note the terminology used by these Protestants; a terminology that suggested an alienation from the larger segment of society. Phrases like, “God has permitted the war,” “The war is in God’s hands “” if God wills”, or “It is God who will determine the outcome of the war,” were used by almost all the interviewees. These phrases reveal a dependence on God, but they also reveal a lack of confidence in human institutions for dealing with the civil war. These phrases demonstrate a lack of confidence in the unions, mass movements, and the political parties as to their capacity to solve the war related problems. These rural peasants, who have been isolated from the larger society, showed their individualistic training which revealed their lack of confidence in collectivist concepts. Their language showed no faith in “we the people” which probably indicated their lack of confidence in the self.
Another interesting factor that these interviews demonstrated was the total absence of words like “oppression,” “repression,” or “human rights.” These words, mentioned above, reflect a social consciousness that the poor classes have obtained from many liberationist movements. These buzz words indicate a social condition of tyranny and injustice that had allegedly been perpetrated by the wealthy class on the poorer classes. These interviews also indicated an absence of class consciousness among the Protestant rural peasants. It could be that the social and religious isolation of these peasants has prevented this group of people from perceiving, or at least, verbalizing their exploitation by the richer classes.
Individual salvation
The individualism of Protestant religions is supported by the very rhetoric of Protestantism. Not only is individualism and political alienation of Central America’s poor a result of poverty and traditional liberalism, but it is an integral part of religious doctrine. Most Protestant doctrines hold that the historical God is a very personal God. This very personal God provides a personal Christ who in turn bestows an individual salvation. A personal and individual salvation is the basis for an individual reward in heaven or a personal punishment in hell. The individualization of salvation supports and encourages a nonparticipatory citizen. The Central American Protestant Christian can emotionally retire into his religious environment, waiting for the “rapture,” leaving “them” and the “sinners” to care for society. In this way, society becomes equated with sinfulness while adherence to religious standards or norms becomes an individual rite of righteousness.
Evangelization or proselytizing of neighbors and friends becomes an act of mercy in that a soul is saved from damnation’s fire. But the evangelical process can also be considered political as well. The persuasion of others as to what is morally correct, becomes a political act which impacts society. The greater the number of Protestant Christians who are nonparticipatory with progressive social goals, the greater will be the political significance on conservative or revolutionary politics.
“In the words of Jesus of Nazareth: ‘There will be a new heaven and a new earth…’ The final goal is preceded by great eschatological events that will rigorously be completed, such as the second coming of Christ, the millennia kingdom, the final judgement, even the renovation of the earth…”
“It is not the labor of only one person, rather of a new generation of men and women with a commitment: Sure of their salvation and committed to carrying the salvation to the world, only in Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ.” “The man that refuses the will of God becomes the enemy of God; he is at war with God, but God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, is reconciling himself with mankind and putting peace in the human heart. Everyone that receives Christ as Savior and Redeemer, becomes the people of God. This gives real meaning to the words of God to Solomon over thirty centuries ago, “And if my people, the people that bears my name, will humble themselves, pray, look for me and leave their bad behavior, I will hear them from heaven and forgive their sins and I will return prosperity to their country.“
These writings all refer to an individual salvation that is taught and preached by the evangelicals of El Salvador. They encompass a language that isolates evangelicals from the greater society, while identifying themselves as part of a Protestant community. They refer to the Second Coming of Christ to the earth which most evangelicals anticipate. And the last writing, quoting from II Chronicles suggests that when the people of God cease their wickedness that prosperity will return to their country. These writings reflect the generally accepted doctrines of the Salvadoran evangelicals. However, these writings may also reflect another, subconscious belief; a belief that peace and prosperity will return to the country only after the population accepts a Protestant belief in Jesus Christ. This could explain the drive to evangelize and spread the message of salvation, which is the evangelical belief of individual salvation. Salvation allows the evangelical to escape any responsibility for earthly events; his mind and thoughts are heavenly and not concerned with the daily, mundane happenings on earth.
This reveals a dualism with Protestant belief: If man is getting ready to go to heaven, why attend the earthly needs of the earth or mankind. The secret to the future is heaven, therefore the need for salvation. Earthly justice and peace are subjugated to the greater spiritual needs of mankind. Social justice is unimportant to the evangelical just as political processes are irrelevant to the spiritual reality of evangelicalism. This mentality promotes an anti-social activism within the evangelical missions and further isolates them from participation in any social or class dialogue. Rural evangelical peasants become even more alienated from society, reinforcing their beliefs in individual responsibility before the Almighty God of the universe. The result is an evangelical language that does not reflect the social and political conditions of a nation, but rather, reinforces a nonparticipatory language of noninvolvement in social issues.
Reliance Only on God and Not Man
In many interviews that this writer recently had with Salvadoran peasants, one interesting theme kept coming to the fore; these people continued to state their dependence on God for deliverance. This is an interesting observation. Of course, these peasant individuals have not historically had good relations with the government. Many even remember the 1932 massacre of thirty thousand countrymen by the Hernández Martínez government. Neither have they understood the aesthetics and strictly political philosophies of the revolutionaries. They have been alienated from the rest of society by their poverty as well as their religion, and naturally, they have felt very alone in this present political struggle. Therefore, they have not felt that any political group supported them. To depend only on God was one way of saying that they were alone and were depending only on themselves. It was Christ in them that gave strength to face the violence and misery each day. They did not depend on the rest of society to carry their burdens. Social actions were even condemned by many of the rural pastors as sinful. This increased their social alienation by cutting them off from contact with other members of society.
Some evangelicals recognize the need of national politics and see society as a political actor that forms the environment in which the politicos act. One Salvadoran evangelical leader recently recognized the role that the evangelicals play in society. This role, however, is a passive role or even a secondary role, for it will be God acting on and through society and not man acting in society that will make the difference. This leader commented that “God is forming new men because he is constructing a new society that is the Kingdom of God….the Lord is going to establish peace and justice.The function of the evangelical church in this period of crisis is a double function: one action is theoretical and the other is practical. In the theoretical function, the church should know the work of God through theology, by reflecting on the Scripture. In its practical action, the church should be constructing a human society by means of proclaiming the gospel.” The language in this proclamation is constructive but removes responsibility for social action from the evangelical church. The speaker affirms that society needs changing, but God will do the changing through the preaching of the word. It is the preaching that changes society and not any action of mankind. This mentality may proceed from the collective consciousness of powerlessness that is endemic to the rural and poorer levels of evangelicalism.
The attitude that political and social action should be left only to God and that Christians should refrain from participation in such events was confirmed by two evangelical pastors in a recent newspaper article. These pastors affirmed their belief that “action by pseudo-religious groups that participate in street demonstrations is anti-Biblical.” These pastors further confirmed that the function of the church was to attend to the spiritual needs of the people. They further suggested that pastors should refrain from being involved in political activities while people are perishing as sinners. This language cultivates and strengthens the current evangelical proclivity that Christians are in the world but are not a part of the it: That mankind is unable to affect the environment in which he lives. Again, this is the idea that only God can affect and change society.
Fatalism
The fatalism of the Central American Protestant Christians is also revealing. In recent interviews that this writer held in El Salvador, indications are that many of the poorer Christians believe that the present civil war of that country is an event approved of by God in order that the “enemy” would be defeated. What will happen depends on His will and God always wills the best for His children. The war and the defeat of the enemy, those that challenge the theology or economic status of this privileged peasant class, is the will of God. What God wills will come to pass.
The Protestant discourse, which includes such phrases as “God will provide,” “if God wills,” “The war is in God’s hands” or “Jesus is coming soon for the church,” discharges the Protestants of social responsibility. This discourse relieves the Protestant Christian from any responsibility to make decisions that affect the larger spectrum of society. Since the poor, the class from which the Protestants have emerged, never had voice or participation in government or politics, this isolated and alienated social group has never considered itself as a social or political actor. Therefore, this language relegates the responsibility of events and social situations only to God. One interviewee considered that the war was allowed by God to defeat God’s enemies. This consideration removes humankind from any causal or resolution responsibility for the civil war. Individual or collective actions are powerless and therefore have no influence upon future events. Jesus is to come and “rapture” (take up and away) the church, therefore, if the church is whisked away, it makes no difference what one individual or group of people do. In the Protestant discourse, this fatalistic view justifies the Protestant social passivity.
The Salvadoran Protestant world view is one that anticipates an imminent “rapture,” therefore, what is important is winning the lost: Time spent changing society or in social action would be wasted. With this view toward society, the evangelicals cannot truly accommodate the rural mass movements or similar organizations. This lack of accommodation is not only seen as useless effort, but such action could also be judged as “mixing with the world.” Brown comments, “Integration of identity, in the sense of integrity as well as unity, presupposes the capacity to integrate diffuse role identities on the one hand and to prevent total absorption into excessively harmonious roles on the other.” The evangelical isolation denies the possibility of integrating an identity of righteousness with diffuse and useless social action. This writer has heard some rural Christians making statements as, “Why send the children to school to learn to read and write, for Jesus is soon to return for the church. The children’s time could be more useful working to get food for the family.” Though most rural evangelical families desire education for their children, this statement does represent a very common view that time on earth is short, therefore, the only effort worthwhile is focused on the immediate family or action that promotes the well-being of the religious sect. Another statement that is heard often, “After Jesus comes, the neighbors can have anything that is left,” implies that the neighbors, who are “sinners” will not leave the earth in the rapture, but rather, they will continue with the earthly trials and frustrations. What these statements demonstrate is that generally these rural peasant evangelicals are so convinced of an eschatology in which Christians are taken out of the world that only the ungodly are left on earth. This view as seen through the language nullifies any reason to join society to make the world a better place to live.
Conclusion
Although Protestants claim to be apolitical, their non-revolutionary language has produced a non-participatory citizen which, knowingly or unknowingly, strengthens the hand of the government in the present civil war. This political component is very important to future political activities. Since 1979, the Protestant population has grown rapidly from 98,000 to over 1,300,000 in 1988. Without doubt, Protestants have increasingly become important to Salvadoran society and politics. However, if Salvadoran Protestants are to become anything other than a footnote to history, they must accept a social responsibility. The evangelical withdrawal from rural social events weakens the voices of those activists who decry oppression and repression. Very few of those pastors assassinated in the countryside have been Protestant. They seem too loath the activist behavior. To make matters appear even grimmer for the Salvadoran activists, the Protestants generally do not occupy positions of extreme poverty due to their work ethics. They seem to generally always be working and supplying for their families’ needs. These better conditions enjoyed by the Protestants adds to the tension among the peasantry and even caused Montes to muse if some of the Protestants were not part of ORDEN. Without doubt, a non-revolutionary language can be almost as divisive as one that is purely revolutionary.
There is one more social tension produced by the Protestant discourse, that could become important to future Salvadoran governments: Because of the Protestant work ethic and the individualistic characteristic of the Protestants, they tend to support government policy that allows for private ownership of production and private property. Being that the Protestants seem to be upwardly mobil, they would like to protect that political system in which their individual talents have allowed them to economically benefit. The Protestant discourse, bolstered by the Biblical parable of the talents, encourages aggressive and intense commercial behavior. The growing Protestant population with its discourse of individual prosperity, assumes a conflictive posture with the more collectivist ideologies of the Progressive sectors of Salvadoran society. However, the evangelical sector is not yet a majority of the population and a large part of the progressive sectors compose a strong revolutionary movement within the Salvadoran society. It could be that if the Salvadoran Protestant language could ever be coopted to include a political conservative language, then the components would exist for continued conflict. The Protestants would have to shed their coat of passivity and make hard decisions. This probably will not happen.
8/19/1990
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