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Protestantism in Rural Guatemala, 1872–1954

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2022

Virginia Garrard Burnett
Virginia Garrard Burnett*
Affiliation:
Trinity University
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For eighteen months, between March 1982 and August 1983, Guatemala was ruled by a born-again Christian, General Efrain Ríos Montt. He drew world attention to Guatemala because of his brutally effective suppression of the nation's guerrilla movement and his idiosyncratic style of rule but above all, because of his religion. The idea that a Protestant could serve as the chief of state in a country as staunchly Catholic as Guatemala struck many observers as an anomaly. Closer examination reveals, however, that it was not anomalous for a Protestant to be president of Guatemala. By 1982 nearly 30 percent of the Guatemalan population were Protestants, the result of a quiet wave of conversion that started during the nineteenth century and has accelerated dramatically in the last three decades. The idea that President Ríos Montt's religion would influence his entire administration was even less surprising, for Protestantism has been wed to politics in Guatemala ever since it first arrived in the country. The purpose of this research report is to examine the development of patterns in the relationship between the Guatemalan state and Protestantism as they evolved during the formative years between 1872 and 1954 and to explore the effects of this relationship on Protestant conversion.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , 1989 , pp. 127 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by the University of Texas Press

References

Notes

1. For a thorough discussion of Liberal ideology, see Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Central America: A Nation Divided, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). See also David McCreery, “Coffee and Class: The Structure of Development in Liberal Guatemala,” Hispanic American Historical Review 56, no. 3 (1976):342–460; and Thomas R. Herrick, Desarrollo económico y político de Guatemala, 1871–1885 (San José: n.p., 1974).

2. See Gobierno de Guatemala, Recopilación de las leyes emitadas por el Gobierno de la República de Guatemala, vol. 1, 3 June 1871–30 June 1881 (Guatemala: Tipografía “El Progreso,” 1881), p. 24. See also Herbert Miller, Iglesia y estado en el tiempo de Justo Rufino Barrios (Guatemala: Universidad de San Carlos, 1976); J. Lloyd Mecham, Church and State in Latin America: A History of Politico-Ecclesiastic Relations, 2nd ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966); Mary P. Holleran, Church and State in Guatemala (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949).

3. Recopilación, 174; and Paul Burgess, Justo Rufino Barrios (New York: Dorranca, 1926), 109.

4. David Stoll, Fishers of Men or Founders of Empire? The Wycliffe Bible Translators in Latin America (Cambridge, Mass.: Cultural Survival, 1981), 40.

5. Iglesia Evangélica Nacional Presbiteriana de Guatemala (hereafter cited as IENP), Apuntes para la historia (Guatemala: Iglesia Nacional Presbiteriana de Guatemala, 1980), 40; and Edward Haymaker, “Footnotes on the Beginnings of the Evangelical Movement in Guatemala,” mimeo, 1946, p. 11.

6. Archives of the Iglesia Nacional Presbiteriana de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A., Board of Foreign Missions, letters to John C. Hill, 1882–1886, Presbyterian Boards of Foreign Missions letters, 1882–1902 (hereafter cited as PBFM).

7. See Josiah Strong, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis (New York: Home Missionary Society, 1891), 32. For a discussion of the development of specific denominations, see Wilkins Bowre Winn, “A History of the Central American Mission as Seen in the Works of Albert Edward Bishop, 1895–1922,” Ph.D. diss., University of Alabama, 1963; Mildred Spain, And in Samaria: A Story of Fifty Years' Missionary Witness in Central America, 1890–1940 (Dallas, Tex.: Central American Mission, 1940); Harold Ray, Un breve resumen de la Iglesia del Nazareno (Guatemala: Iglesia Nacional del Nazareno, n.d.); Mario Ríos Paredes, “Apuntes sobre la historia de la Iglesia Evangélica de Guatemala,” manuscript, 1982; Alfred Blakeney, “The Origin and Growth of Protestantism in Guatemala, 1824–1950,” M.A. thesis, University of Alabama, 1956; Central American Bulletin, 1896–1987; Aquí empezó … y creció: crónicas del medio siglo de la obra Amigos en Centroamérica, edited by Carlos H. Marroquín Vélez (Guatemala: Litografía CAISA, 1983), 2; Paul Enyart, Friends in Central America (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 1970); and Margaret N. Hays, An Outline History of Fifty Years: 1922–1972 (Guatemala: Primitive Methodist International Mission Board, 1972).

8. Haymaker, “Beginnings of the Evangelical Movement,” 36; also, interview with Pauline Burgess Sywulka, CAM missionary, Seminario Teológico Centroamericano in Guatemala City, 22 Feb. 1985.; “Comulgantes,” Libros de Actas, 1924, Iglesia Central Presbiteriana, archives of the Iglesia Central Presbiteriana, Guatemala City; see also various issues of the Central American Bulletin 1900–1920; Paul Burgess, Historia de la obra evangélica presbiteriana en Guatemala (Quezaltenango: Tipografía “El Noticiero,” 1957); El Cristiano, 1907–1910; and Harvester, 1910–1920.

9. Central American Bulletin 14, no. 4:5–6; PBFM to Guatemala Mission, 18 July 1908, PBFM letters 1882–1902.

10. Central American Bulletin 103 (1919):11; Central American Bulletin 110 (1920):14–15; Paul Burgess of PBFM, 16 Oct. 1922, archives of the Iglesia Nacional Presbiteriana, Guatemala City; see also Albert Julian Lloret, “The Maya Evangelical Church in Guatemala,” Doctor of Theology diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1976; Coke, “Ethnohistory of Bible Translation.”

11. See various issues of the Central American Bulletin, 1891–1940; El Cristiano (a Nazarene publication), 1907–1908; Harvester (Friends), 1936–1952; El Mensajero (Presbyterian), 1909–1947; El Noticiero Evangélico (Presbyterian), 1926–1940; and Rayitos de Luz (Nazarene), 1936–1944.

12. See Kenneth Grubb, Religion in Central America (London: World Dominion Press, 1937); Enyart, Friends in Central America, 70; and the following issues of the Central American Bulletin: 18, no. 20:19; 9 (1918):14; 24, no. 1:3–4; 9 (1918):14.

13. See the issues of El Protestante (nondenominational) dated Aug. 1910, Nov. 1910, and Mar. 1911; El Cristiano, 1907; and Central American Bulletin, 1900–1920. See also William Allison to PBFM, 5 May 1910; PBFM 1910–1911; PBFM to Guatemala Mission, 10 June 1901, PBFM letters 1903–1911; William McBath to PBFM, 1 June 1904, PBFM letters 1902–1911.

14. For a detailed analysis of cultural conflict and reaction in folk communities, see E. Bradford Burns, The Poverty of Progress: Latin America in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).

15. Letter from Margaret Birchard, 23 Jan. 1985; Stoll, Fishers of Men, 40; Central American Bulletin 6, no. 1:6; Central American Bulletin 3, no. 11:6; Harvester, Jan. 1937, p. 3; Winn, “History of the Central American Mission,” 143; El Mensajero 4, no. 4:6–7; “La agonía del protestantismo,” El Nazareno (Catholic) 3, no. 508:7–8; “No es religión, es una farsa,” El Nazareno, n.v., no. 613; “La Biblia contra los protestantes,” El Nazareno 14, no. 612:2–3.

16. For a discussion of the period, see David W. Noble, The Progressive Mind, 1890–1917 (Minneapolis: Burgess, 1981); Henry Steele Commager, The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character since the 1880s (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1950); Richard Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1945); and Paul F. Boller, Jr., American Thought in Transition: The Impact of Evolutionary Naturalism, 1865–1900 (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, Inc., 1981).

17. Boller, American Thought in Transition, 118.

18. Ríos Paredes, “Historia de la Iglesia Evangélica,” 6; Winn, “History of the Central American Mission,” 204–20; Stoll, Fishers of Men, 31; “Revisión de valores políticos,” El Unionista 1, no. 94:1. Also, Archivo General de Centro América (hereafter cited as AGCA), Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, “Registro de extranjeros,” signatura B104.17, legajo 8315–20.

19. See Dennis Teague, “A History of the Church of God in Guatemala,” M.A. thesis, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1975; and Samuel Cadwallader, “Historical Background for an Understanding of Guatemalan Baptist Missions,” mimeo, n.d., 27.

20. AGCA, Ministerio de Gobernación, carta 100, Jorge Ubico to Ministerio de Gobernación, 18 Nov. 1931; AGCA, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, “Inscripciones de extranjeros,” 542. For a study of the Ubico administration, see Kenneth J. Grieb, Guatemalan Caudillo: The Regime of Jorge Ubico (Athens, Ohio: University of Ohio Press, 1979).

21. Noticiero Evangélico 29, no. 255:3; Mecham, Church and State in Latin America, 320; and Georgia R. Allcott, “An Historical Survey of Evangelical North American Mission Boards in Guatemala,” M.A. thesis, Columbia Bible College, 1970, 29. The literature on the revolutionary period is extensive. Some of the best studies include Thomas M. Leonard, The United States and Central America, 1944–1949: Perceptions of Political Dynamics (University: University of Alabama Press, 1984); Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1983); Thomas and Marjorie Melville, Guatemala: The Politics of Land Ownership (New York: Free Press, 1971); Richard Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982); and Leo A. Suslow, Aspects of Social Reform in Guatemala, 1944–1949, Latin American Seminar Reports no. 1 (Hamilton, N.Y.: Colgate University, 1949).

22. Acción Social Cristiana, 11 Oct. 1945; Acción Social Cristiana, 22 May 1947; see also Anita Frankel, “Political Development in Guatemala, 1944–1945: The Impact of Foreign, Military, and Religious Elites,” Ph.D. diss., University of Connecticut, 1969.

23. Boletín de las Iglesia Central Presbiteriana, 23 Mar. 1947; Harvester 56, no. 1:4; Harvester 27, no. 3:6–11; Central American Bulletin, no. 266 (1946):3; PBFM to Guatemala Mission, 3 Jan. 1946, p. 3, IENP; El Mensajero 41, no. 2:18; and Publicación Pro-Alfabetización, 1945–1951.

24. Publicación Pro-Alfabetización, 1945–1951; Minutes of the Annual Meeting, October 1945, p. 1, IENP; Central American Bulletin, no. 266 (1946); “Resultados de la campaña de alfabetización por el Comité del Sínodo,” El Cristiano 42, no. 472:5–6; Noticiero Evangélico 30, no. 276:9–10; and “A Mission's Contribution to the Indian Problem of Guatemala,” Guatemala News 39, nos. 3–4:3.

25. Letter from Paul Winn, 12 Feb. 1985; Mensajero Evangélico 41, no. 7:23–25; El Mensajero 39, no. 10:5; and El Mensajero 39, no. 9:4.

26. Paul Burgess to Ruth Wardel, 18 Nov. 1950, IENP; AGCA, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, “Ingresos de religiosos,” 565; Annual Report, La Patria School, 1953, IENP; Northern Presbyterian Annual Report, 1954, IENP.

27. Ricardo Fall, “Evolución político-religiosa del indígena rural en Guatemala (1945–1965),” Estudios Sociales Centroamericanos 1, no. 1:27–47; Rubén E. Reina, Chinautla: A Guatemalan Indian Community (New Orleans: MARI Publications, 1960); Stoll, Fishers of Men, 48.

28. “Carta Abierta, Cantel, enero 1954, ‘A los policastros evangélicos: David Ordóñez Colóp, Gabriel Sam Chuc, Obispo Salánic, Felipe Santiago Colóp García, Juan Itcep y otros, con motivo de la manifestación de los ”revisos“ no Revolucionaria del 13 de diciembre próximo pasado,‘” IENP; “Presbyterian Agrarians,” Guatemala News 44, no. 6:3–5; and Ronald H. Ebel, “Political Modernization and the Community Decision-Making Process in Guatemala,” SECOLAS Annals 1, no. 1.

29. Ríos Paredes, “Historia de la Iglesia Evangélica,” 13–14; and Enrique Domínguez and Deborah Huntington, “The Salvation Brokers: Conservative Evangelicals in Central America,” NACLA 17, no. 1:15.