How many evangelical churches does Guatemala need? Bill 5272, created by the evangelical church, intends to criminalize miscarriage and same-sex marriages, is one step away from legalization. With the evangelical church being significantly active in rural Guatemala, history reveals how the fall of Catholicism during the Civil war opened a space for the new doctrine.
It’s seven o’clock, and the blaring tones of a woman voice pierce the approaching bedtime in the small Guatemalan village of San Marcos La Laguna. Sounds of dissonant instruments accompany the barely recognisable melody, growing louder every moment. The daily edition of the local version of The X Factor has started, trampling the usual, hardly negligible noise.
The imposed karaoke time is not a specialty of a particular season; it’s a day-to-day activity, organised in the local church. After teachings, it’s time to honour the sacred vocally. There is hardly a better way than with a song, although, in weeks I’ve spent by Lake Atitlan, the musical talents were unchanging, the same voices and a few songs. However, they were fiercely overflowing, penetrating inner peace along with human sanity, tones of dedication and despair.
There are four Evangelical Protestant churches in San Marcos, the village of approximately 3000, predominantly indigenous Mayan, inhabitants. The number of churches is not unconventional; there are almost 40 Evangelical churches around the lake. The religious density is notable all around Guatemala, positioning the country as the most evangelic country in entire Latin America, otherwise known by widespread Roman Catholicism. According to The Evangelical Alliance, the amount of churches in the country surpasses the number of 40,000, which accounts for 96 evangelical churches for one Roman Catholic parish.
The land of the indigenous was long ago devoted to the Christian God, flourishing since the first Spanish settlements. The ultimatum, accepting Christianity or risking death, led thousands of Mayan people to the hands of the foreign lord. Still, the hands of the right-winged government along with economic interests were mightier: more than200.000 people were killed during the 36-year Civil War. The villagers, fighting for their right to land and life, were advocated by their official spiritual leaders, Catholic priests, who soon became prosecuted themselves. By the 1980s there were numerous testimonies of massacred pastoral workers, pushing the rest in exile. Most of the missionary projects were suspended, leaving the locals to fight their battle alone, nonetheless the support of the Pope John Paul II himself, condemning the discrimination they suffered.
The exiled Catholicism opened the space for Evangelical doctrine, based on similar foundations of conversionalism and appetency. Forty years later the Civil War is over, but the living conditions of the indigenous population hardly evolved. Guatemala tops the ratings of the poorest health, infant mortality, and illiteracy. The apparent lack of educational, health and social systems constrain the locals to the indigent conditions. Nevertheless, there is no lack of faith, marching to the beat of pleading hands, seeking fragments of mercy.
While searching for some fried plantains, an unmistakeably liquored up man stops me in San Antonio Palopo.“Seniora, how about a little donation for the church?” The house of worship spreads wide beside the local square, a big white building with a proper roof and wooden doors. Not many buildings in the area have comparable carpentry, most of them consisting of thin boards along with a few raw bricks pilled unsafely among the steep hills. Space is a luxury no one has, except the deities in an empty divine hall. When I ask the man about the children and their need for food and clothes, which are more apparent than God’s requisite for a new façade, I get no answer. Greedy grace doesn’t know the difference, between the poor and the rich, or the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Protestant. What it knows well is the weakness of those who have nothing but the quest for restitution, regardless of the version of the sacred script.