Baptists and liberation theology in South America.

South America in pre-Hispanic times was dominated by the Inca culture (Peru), with a tendency to expand into the Inca Empire (or Tahuantinsuyo in the Quichua language). Towards the North (Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela), the cultures it met were of the Chibcha family. Toward the Southern Cone (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay), Inca expansion encountered the diversity of the Magellan peoples (Chile), the peoples of the Pampas (Argentina), and the Chaco cultures (Paraguay). In Brazil, there were two vast regions with their respective cultures, i.e., Eastern Brazil and the Amazon region.

In the sixteenth century, South America was dominated in the Spanish and Portuguese conquests, provoking a cultural shock as the sociopolitical organization was forcibly dismantled by a culture characterized by the dominating presence of Catholic Christianity. For some 300 years, the Catholic Church took root in the fibers of Latin American culture until it became a constituent of its being. This was not by decree; it was a process, slow and complex, by which means Catholicism became part of the culture of these lands.

In the nineteenth century, the Protestant insertion on the continent began. One of the pioneers of this process was Diego (James) Thompson, a Baptist colporteur of the British Bible Society, who reached Buenos Aires in 1818 to promote the Lancaster system of reading (1) which had achieved a measure of success in England. Diego Thompson also worked in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, founding in the last mentioned country the first Bible Society of Latin America in 1825.

Baptist presence in South America accompanied the process of planting carried out also by Presbyterians and Methodists, and after midcentury we find a continuous presence of Baptists on the South American continent. Currently, there are more than one million Baptists in some eight thousand local churches, (2) of which 80 percent belong to Brazil, which leaves about 200,000 Baptists in the rest of South America, of whom 60,000 are in Argentina. This panoramic view allows us to conclude that Baptists are a minority in most South American countries, even though their impact on the evangelical field has been significant.

Baptist work in this part of the continent was mostly developed by the Southern Baptist Convention of the U.S.A. In almost all of the countries of South America, the presence of the SBC Foreign (International Mission Board has been dominant and very influential in the formation of seminaries, churches and other educational institutions, elementary and secondary--as well as clinics and hospitals. Mission boards of other Baptist groups have also been present--the Baptist Missionary Conference, the Baptist Union of Canada, the Baptist Bible Fellowship International, the British Missionary Society of London, the American Baptist Churches, and other smaller groups.

Considering the general position of the Baptist missionaries in Latin America and their directive role in the different national unions and conventions, one can conclude at first brush that their relation with the Theology of Liberation (LT) and the impact it has will be minimal. Although social action has been present on the Baptist agenda, there has not been a contextual involvement with the poor and their aspiration for social transformation.

The position of South American Baptists has been similar in general terms to that held by the missionaries, but, as we shall see, there have been variations, ruptures, and divergencies. Taking the former into account, at least three reasons can be cited why the Baptist "people" have not experienced a dynamic and close relation with LT.

Ecclesiological. Among Baptists, there has not been an open relationship with other Evangelical churches and less with the Roman Catholic Church where LT reached an important development. Among Baptists, there has existed a sense of self-sufficiency: Baptist Seminary, Baptist Clinic, Baptist Book Store, Baptist Bibliography, Baptist Hymnbook. Apparently, there is no need to talk with other theological expressions because there is "our own theology." (3)

This fact of self-sufficiency existed even in responses to the poorest, to natural disasters, and to crucial moments of our political history. It is possible that the same attitude existed in other churches, but in the evangelical field, Baptists have been considered a church that is not easily involved in joint actions.

Even though this attitude has changed some in the last decade, the dominant tone has been one of little ecumenical openness. Occasionally, it has been anti-ecumenical in principle, especially in churches related to the SBC Board of the U.S.A.

Political. Baptist tradition has emphasized the separation of church and state in such a fashion that it has drawn the conclusion that Christians should not become involved in politics. (4) In relation to LT, most Baptists have suspected its adhesion to a government or to leftist politics, a supposition that led to its open rejection. Among Baptists there has been a supposed political neutrality, or the belief that political affiliation is a private affair for each believer which does not commit the local church. Occasionally there has been participation in manifestations of support for certain government policies that affect religious liberty, which is, of course, a political position.

Missiological. Among Baptists there is the idea that the mission of the church is limited to the church and its growth and development. There are few expressions among Baptists that include a missiological agenda of social concern beyond assistance in natural disasters, where a significant contribution has been made. For this reason, the position toward LT, which situates the missionary praxis of the Christian in history, has been reactive because LT rejects the ecclesiocentric concept that prevails among Baptists and evangelical people as a whole.

Based on the foregoing, we may propose the following hypothesis: the majority of Baptists in South America hold an attitude of ignorance or rejection of LT, although there have been minority expressions that articulated their evangelical convictions and social engagement with LT. Within this minority one can differentiate between those who were marginalized or marginalized themselves and those who maintained their positions within the denomination in a continuing tension.

To understand this minority, it is important to remember that LT moves from praxis to reflection. At least, this was the method proposed by its foremost expositors. (5) The first step is action, and then comes the reflection from within this liberating action.

In this sense, there were Baptists whose "praxis" would put them within LT, although they did not always take the second step with a process of reflection of faith, due to an absorption in social commitment or owing to institutional resistances that led to progressive marginalization.

On the other hand, there were Baptists who managed to develop a critical reflection that could be included within LT and which has not been accepted by representatives of LT as such because it does not constitute the second step of a clear and open option for the poor. In spite of this, those who developed this type of reflection were considered by their denominational authorities adherents of LT without this being the case. They suffered denominational marginalization and sanctions.

This paradoxical dynamic between Baptists and LT is part of a picture that can be drawn about the impact of LT on Baptist theology and the contribution of Baptists to LT in South America. To develop this topic, we shall refer to several collective efforts that express the praxis of LT among Baptists in South America, and then describe the theological reflection proposed by some Baptists in dialogue, understood as a proposal and response of LT.

Collective Efforts

An effort of reflection on LT emerged among some Baptist youth in Colombia in 1984 who were part of an ecumenical group of Evangelical Work. This group held workshops and lectures and sponsored projects of social action, inspired by reflection on LT that was nourished by the participation of some of its members in the annual workshops at the Ecumenical Department of Research (DEI) in San Jose, Costa Rica. The author of this article was a member of this group, among which were members of other churches such as Mennonites and student groups at the University Christian Union.

The theological reflection produced in this context has not had much diffusion, it being also small in quantity. On the one hand, this incipient reflection is to be found by the participants in the Encounter of Rereading Baptist Heritage in Latin America which took place in San Jose, Costa Rica, in 1986, an event organized by Jorge Pixley and sponsored by the DEI. (6) Among the contributors were Fernando Estrella, at that time a Baptist pastor, and Betty Ruth Lozano, a student leader of the 1980s. The author was part of the coordinating team for this event.

This group developed work in comprehensive health with children and community mothers (7) among whom it promoted and reflected on giving value to the role of women in the community. This project continued for seven years in two barrios in the District of Aguablanca in Cali. The ecclesial cover for the work was the Redeemer Baptist Church, and the work continues to the present with important variations since now it deals exclusively with children who are students.

In Chile, Justo Anderson says that during the period of the Popular Unity Government led by Salvador Allende, "Several leaders and pastors embraced the revolution and, sometimes with good intentions, tried to introduce this spirit into Baptist work." (8) They belonged to a revolutionary sector of the Baptist Youth Convention. This fact provoked reactions and conflicts that were later surpassed without divisions. Some Baptists committed to the Allende government suffered the consequences of this commitment after the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet in 1973, for among the "disappeared" there were also some Baptists.

A person worth mentioning is Luis Zurita Rivas, a Baptist pastor graduated from the seminary in Santiago and a student of journalism at the University of Chile. This pastor was among the hundreds held in the National Stadium in Santiago in and after September of 1973, where he was tortured, judged, and expelled from the country. He went into exile in Argentina and there studied at ISEDET, the distinguished Protestant theological school. In his theological reflection during those years, he made a rediscovery of the Anabaptist tradition which allowed him to appreciate his own Baptist heritage in a new perspective.

Other names to remember are those of Abner Zapata and Hector Olivares, Baptist youth leaders committed to the church and to a political praxis of support to the Allende Popular Unity Government. They did not stay within the Baptist fellowship.

There is no consensus among those interviewed (9) about the participation of Chilean Baptists in the meeting of Christians for Socialism in April of 1972, an event important in the creation of the Christians for Socialism movement under the leadership of Giulio Girardi. What is certain is that there were more Baptists than commonly believed who participated in political options that they were not able to articulate with their evangelical faith.

There was an important group of Baptists who, even though not adherents of LT, were inspired by the Latin American Theological Fraternity (FTL) and could be defined as "progressive evangelicals." Among them, those who stood out were Oscar Pereira, Humberto Lagos, and Josue Fonseca. They produced materials on the social responsibility of Christians and human rights.

After the military coup and during the hardest years of repression, Humberto Lagos was the director of the Catholic office for the defense of human rights created by Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez. Josue Fonseca was the defender in the case of well-known Baptist Felipe Campos who was murdered by the dictatorship two weeks after the coup on 21 September 1973. The State finally gave indemnization to the family and held a ceremony to restore the good name of Felipe. Pastor Fonseca also rejected the falsification of the name of Baptists on a document of support for General Pinochet, demanding a public clarification. Pastor Oscar Pereira is a Baptist leader with a long record in theological formation, both as a teacher and a writer in biblical studies and currently rector of the Baptist Seminary. He publicly made known his opposition to using the churches to support the Pinochet regime.

In the opinion of Justo Anderson, the socialist option was not the result of reflection linked to LT but a political and nationalist protest against Christian democracy. In spite of this opinion, they may be counted as those who gave the first step of LT, action, but we know of no publications or later reflections out of this movement. The final destiny of these Baptists whose names must remain anonymous for security reasons remains to be traced. These were personal options that did not commit the Baptist Convention, but they give evidence of the existence among Baptists in the 1970s of sensitivity to the insensitivity of the social and political situation of those years.

In Bolivia, Mario Rivas commented about Baptist presence in Bolivian reality that a part of Baptist leadership was formed in mining centers as union leaders, thus breaking dualisms of church-state and faith-politics. (10) Some of them were active members of Church and Society (ISAL), the Student Christian Movement (MEC), and committees of human rights. He does not mention the names of these leaders, but what he mentions indicates that they were objects of much resistance from denominational authorities and that their leadership was not always recognized, even though their presence in the peasant and mining zones gave a distinctive profile to the local churches.

Efforts of Theological Reflection

The general response to LT among Baptists was one of ignorance, or simplifications and a priori accusations. While in Central America, the relation with LT was productive and dynamic; in South America, it was limited and tense.

In spite of this general attitude, there were among Baptists some efforts to engage in dialogue with LT, to be challenged, and to listen attentively to the challenges posed. Some cases may help to exemplify this fact, but there are surely more that received little publicity for the reasons aforementioned.

In Cali, Colombia, Alan Neely, a U.S. missionary in Colombia between 1964 and 1976, was professor of the philosophy of religion and missions in the Baptist International Seminary. He was a visiting professor at the Baptist International Seminary of Buenos Aires during 1982-83, and after 1988 was professor of missions and ecumenism at Princeton Theological Seminary until his retirement. During his tenure as a professor at Cali, he organized a course on LT to which he invited as a guest lecturer the Colombian Catholic Rafael Avila; he translated into English Avila's Theology and Politics (Orbis 1981). Neely also translated into English Enrique Dussel's A History of the Church in Latin America (Eerdmans, 1983), one of the basic texts of the Commission for Studies of the History of the Church in Latin America (CEHILA). Among Neely's most important works one could mention his early article, "Liberation Theology in Latin America: Antecedents and Autochthony," in Missiology 6 (July 1978), and his 1977 doctoral thesis at The American University, "Protestant Antecedents of the Latin American Theology of Liberation."

This is an atypical case in the Baptist missionary movement in South America. (11) Professor Neely was able to show sensitivity for theological reflection from Latin America from a context like the Colombian where the first steps of LT were taken with Father Camilo Torres (in liberating action) and the group of priests known as Golconda who articulated the first efforts toward a theology about the situation of poverty in which the church is inserted.

A case of reflection from biblical studies is that of Juan Carlos Cevallos, Ecuadorian, who distinguished himself in the leadership of the Ecuadorian Baptist Convention, and as a teacher and director of the Baptist Seminary of Quito. His theological reflection and critical position before certain missionary direction at the seminary brought much resistance not only to his ideas but to his administration as director. Some Baptist leaders and students at the seminary who supported his administration were separated from the seminary and to a degree from the convention itself.

Juan Carlos did his studies in theology, both master's and doctorate, at the Baptist seminary in Cali toward the end of the eighties and early nineties. His degree theses were about contemporary hermeneutics and the hermeneutics of Matthew. (12) In these works, he attempted a hermeneutic from a perspective that is evangelical Baptist and Latin American that can be applied in biblical work in the church. These works also reflect a Baptist response to LT in a reflective and academic manner that did not always receive the attention it deserved.

The writings and pastoral practice of Juan C. Cevallos show a concern for the manner in which Baptist churches have received the missionary heritage and what they have done with it. He shows an appreciation for it, but he also exhibits the necessary rupture to begin to produce from and for Latin American Baptist churches.

Another sort of dialogue and articulation with LT is the case of Tomas Gutierrez Sanchez, Peruvian, a Baptist pastor for some years in Lima, and then coordinator and executive director of CEHILA for the study of Protestantism. CEHILA was founded in 1973, and its major founder was Enrique Dussel, who has been linked to LT since its beginnings with a literary production mostly philosophical and historical, although theology is very present in his thought.

Protestant theologians and historians like Jose Miguez Bonino and Carmelo Alvarez have worked with CEHILA since its beginnings, with the intention of writing the history of the church in Latin America in a liberating perspective and from a Protestant vision. Over the years, young Protestant historians joined CEHILA through brief courses held in Mexico in 1984 and in other countries later. Baptists Tomas Gutierrez and Pablo Moreno have been members of CEHILA for several years, and their participation has resulted in the historiographic production about Latin American Protestantism. Both have maintained their Baptist membership and identity within the ecumenical climate of CEHILA.

On Brazil, one should note the essay of Israel Belo de Azevedo which is little known in the Spanish-speaking world. (13) In this work, Azevedo describes critically the situation of "Baptist theology" in Brazil in the decade of the eighties as a theology "of the repetition of given concepts, ... of utilitarian character, ... of contemplation." (14) It is a repetition of concepts and the reproductions of texts that have not taken the Latin American context into account. His proposal is to do theology "with the people" nourished by a multifaceted investigation of "the Word of God; of the word of humans yesterday and of the faces of humans today." (15) Azevedo emphasizes that what he describes corresponds to the majority of Baptist theology in Brazil. There have been alternative voices that are isolated and minority expressions that did not achieve sufficient resonance to affect the majority position.

An interesting case in Argentina is that of Nancy Bedford. A daughter of U.S. missionaries, she studied in Germany under the direction of Jurgen Moltmann and is presently professor of theology at the Baptist International Seminary of Buenos Aires and at the Evangelical Higher Institute for Theological Studies (ISEDET). ISEDET is one of the most important Protestant theological centers in Latin America, and LT has found fertile ground there. Professor Bedford is one of a very few persons in Argentine Baptist history who have taught at both of these institutions.

Also in tune with LT is the reflection of Brazillian Ligia Ferreira, who participated in the Encounter for the Rereading of Baptist Tradition in San Jose, Costa Rica, in 1986. She undertook a critical approach to the Bible from a feminist perspective. (16) In a rereading of the role of women in society and church that is biblical, one must take into account "the whole witness of the Bible, as opposed to the traditional use of fragmentary witnesses from some of its parts." (17)

Two more essays on the same subject are those of Betty Ruth Lozano, Colombian, and Graciela Chamorro, Paraguayan. (18) Betty did a study of Baptist publications like the Hogar Cristiano, El Expositor Biblico, and the journal Heraldo Bautista in which she discovered a "Baptist ideology" for women in the home and at work. One of her conclusions is that among Baptists, ideas are spread that are a reproduction of the dominant ideology in society, going only half-way in the formation of new men and women in the church.

Graciela Chamorro also relates the situation of Baptist women with respect to the affirmation of women as persons and their place in a given society. One of the problems she mentions in her essay is the situation of Baptist women in theological institutions where they are prepared to serve the Lord. Normally, women enter institutions dominated by masculinizing stereotypes and thus emerge and end up reproducing these same stereotypes in the church. Chamorro concludes there must be a ministry personalized for women, a pattern of ministry that includes serious reflection on maternity, marriage, home, and work. Graciela carried out her work on the basis of her own experience as a graduate of a theological institution in whose perspective there was no place for women's roles any different from the traditional feminine ones. Her experience as a pastor subsequently found resistance to the point that she left the Baptists to find recognition for her ministry with another church (Lutheran).

A case of critical dialogue with LT not only from a Baptist perspective but a general evangelical one in the Latin American Theological Fraternity (FTL) is that of Baptists Rene Padilla (Ecuador) and Samuel Escobar (Peru). We choose from their works Padilla's article, "Una valoracion critica de la Teologia de la Liberacion," and Escobar's book, La fe evangelica y las teologias de la liberacion. (19) These works make a critical evaluation of LT, not the a priori rejection of most Baptists, but in a perspective which tries to be balanced and to underline the challenges and relevance of LT.

Padilla underscores the emphasis on praxis, on the historical situation, on the uses of social sciences in the hermeneutical task, and on the social conditioning of theology, but he warns of the risks of pragmatism, historical reductionism, sociologism, and the ideologization of the gospel. In Padilla, there is a description of LT in its incipient development, pointing to authors and publications most of which he rejects for their lack of articulation with the church, their academicism, or their "ideologization" of the Bible. He lifts up Gustavo Gutierrez and Juan Luis Segundo for their biblical and pastoral concerns. These two were, in any case, responses from a sector known as "tercerista" (of the third way) within the polarization which occurred in the seventies and eighties in Latin America and in the "evangelical world." The FTL was something of a window through which several Baptists looked at LT while taking different positions, some closer and some more distant from LT. Juan Carlos Cevallos, Tomas Gutierrez, Rene Padilla, and Samuel Escobar are part of the FTL, the latter two dominant leaders therein.

Conclusions

We have noted the dominant Baptist attitude toward LT in South America as one of apathy and ignorance of the challenges posed by this current. On the other hand, there has also been open rejection of LT by some Baptists who taking a priori positions placed it as leftist and refused to dialogue or interact with its proposals. The result is that even today many churches and, surprisingly, theological institutions in South America, know little about LT, and it is being rediscovered in the changed epoch in which we are currently living.

The Baptist minority who moved close to LT in the seventies and eighties in a majority of cases lived a permanent tension in the membership in the denomination, and there were cases in which this tension ended with the exclusion of those who had assumed a liberating praxis. It is not possible to speak in a general way about Baptist contributions to LT; it is necessary to examine each individual effort mentioned as contributions of LT to Baptist membership and identity.

At the present moment, there are quieter conditions for evaluating the significance of the relation of Baptists with LT, and this article is a first step that may bring to light a closer and more fruitful relationship than we envisioned at first sight.

Endnotes

(1.) The Lancaster system received its name from Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), a Quaker who practiced it in the poor neighborhoods of London. It is based on forming student instructors, using the memorization of the Bible as its text.

(2.) The information is taken from Albert W. Wardin, ed., Baptists Around the World (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995), 332.

(3.) Israel Belo de Azevedo, "La practica teologica de los bautistas en Brasil," in Jorge Pixley, ed., Hacia una fe evangelica latinoamericanista (San Jose: DEI, 1988), 177-82. Here it is affirmed that Baptist theology develops in a process of reduplication of North American Baptist theology.

(4.) Pablo Moreno, "Relaciones con el Liberalismo: Doctrina de la Separacion de la Iglesia y el Estado," in Pixley, ed., Hacia una fe, 73.

(5.) Gustavo Gutierrez, Teologia de la liberacion (Lima: CEP, 1971 and Salamanca: Sigueme, 1972). Leonardo Boff and Clodovis Boff, Como hacer teologia de la liberacion (Bogota: Ediciones Paulinas, 1986), 13.

(6.) The papers from this gathering were published in two volumes edited by J. Pixley, La mujer en la construccion de la Iglesia: Una perspectiva bautista desde America Latina y el Caribe (San Jose: DEI, 1986), and Hacia una fe evangelica latinoamericanista. Una perspectiva bautista (San Jose: DEI, 1988).

(7.) Community mothers are women who care for the children of those who work during the day, with support from the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare.

(8.) Justo Anderson, Historia de los bautistas (El Paso: Casa Bautista de Publicaciones, 1990), 3:161.

(9.) On this topic we interviewed the Chilean pastors and professors Oscar Pereira and Josue Fonseca.

(10.) Mario Rivas, "La Iglesia de los pobres: Presencia bautista en la realidad boliviana," in Pixley, ed., Hacia una fe, 59.

(11.) The typical example of the missionary position toward LT is represented by the book of Robert Compton, La teologia de la Liberacion, una guia introductoria (El Paso: Casa Bautista de Publicaciones, 1984).

(12.) Juan Carlos Cevallos, "Hacia una hermeneutica evangelica contemporanea en Latinoamerica" (188 pages), Cali, 1988 master's thesis, and "Emanuel en el evangelio de Mateo como un paradigma para la mision de la Iglesia" (253 pages), Cali, 1991 doctoral thesis.

(13.) Israel Belo de Azevedo, "La practica teologica de los bautistas en Brasil," in Pixley, Hacia una fe, 177-82.

(14.) Ibid., 178-79.

(15.) Ibid., 182.

(16.) Ligia Ferreira, "La vocacion pastoral de la mujer segun la Biblia," in Pixley, La mujer, 55-106.

(17.) Ibid., 106.

(18.) Betty Ruth Lozano Lerma, "Concepcion bautista acerca de la mujer," in Pixley, La mujer, 32-42, and Graciela Chamorro Arguello, "La mujer bautista: Perspectivas teologicas y consecuencias pastorales," in Pixley, op. cit., 17-31.

(19.) Rene Padilla, "La teologia de la liberacion: Una evaluacion critica," in MISION, 1, no. 2 (July-September 1982), 16-21, and Samuel Escobar, La fe evangelica y las teologias de la liberacion (El Paso: Casa Bautista de Publicaciones, 1987).

Pablo Moreno is professor of church history and dean, Seminario Teologico Baustista Internacional, Cali, Colombia.