Reclaiming the Keys to the Kingdom (of the World): Evangelicals and Human Rights in Latin America

Abstract

Christian Evangelicals are a growing political and social force in Latin America. Most recently, conservative Evangelical movements have intervened before human rights institutions to undermine basic LGBTI achievements, such as same-sex marriage, and other demands for equal rights. Some commentators thus speak of an imminent showdown between human rights protection and Christian Evangelism, emerging from a resurgence of religious populism also seen elsewhere in the world. This chapter problematizes this narrative, by exploring the origin of Evangelicalism in Latin America, and its approach to key human rights issue of their time in three different moments and places: Chile in the 1970s, Colombia in the 1990s, and Costa Rica in the 2000s. Through this exploration, the chapter interrogates the traditional framework of the secular state in Latin America, and warns against the current ambition of a top-down “secular fundamentalism” in the region, which may disenfranchise Evangelicals, and create deep resentment against the human rights movement. Costly as it may be, human rights institutions need to be bold in creating argumentative spaces that allow for the Evangelical experience to exist in the public sphere in Latin America, in a context of respect for human rights in general, and LGBTI rights in particular.