Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religion News
Why Have Evangelical Churches Gained So Much Political Influence in Latin America? Expert Points to 5 Factors in BBC Interview

Why Have Evangelical Churches Gained So Much Political Influence in Latin America? Expert Points to 5 Factors in BBC Interview

Last updated on: November 26, 2019 at 1:13 pm by Andrew Chesnut

Why Have Evangelical Churches Gained So Much Political Influence in Latin America? Expert Points to 5 Factors in BBC Interview 2019-11-26T13:13:01-05:00 Andrew Chesnut

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“The Bible has returned to the palace,” Bolivian interim President Senator Jeanine Áñez said when taking office last week. A few days earlier, Fernando Camacho, one of the leading voices in the process that led to Evo Morales’s resignation, entered the Bible with his hands in the same building and said that “God” would return to “government.”

Both are Catholic and have been supported by conservative sectors of the Church and evangelical leaders to weaken Morales.

In recent years, mentions of God and Bible passages seem to have multiplied in political discourse, and evangelical support has become instrumental in the rise of right-wing leaders in Latin America and the United States.

Royalists occupy positions in Brasilia and rehabilitate ultra-conservative Catholic group
Uprising against Universal Church leads to death and diplomatic crisis in African country

In Brazil, evangelicals are President Jair Bolsonaro’s main electoral base. In the United States, it’s no different – Donald Trump had the support of evangelical churches to be elected.

For American historian Andrew Chesnut, author of dozens of books and articles on the growth of Pentecostal churches, the strong influence of evangelicals on the rise and fall of political leaders is one of the main “trends” in the current politics of the American continent.

What explains this growing influence of religion on the politics of countries in the continent?

“Even in Mexico, where the Pentecostal population is small at only 8 percent, a political party founded by a Pentecostal pastor helped elect the current president of the country, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador,” Chesnut told BBC News Brasil.

“Evangelical political influence is one of the most important political trends of the last four decades on the American continent,” adds the professor, who teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University and is the author of several publications on the role of religion in Latin America, including Born Again In Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty.

But what explains this growing influence of religion on the politics of countries in the continent? And why have evangelical churches become increasingly popular among Latin Americans?

In an interview with BBC News Brazil, Chesnut listed 5 factors that help answer these questions: the ideological cohesion of evangelicals, which would facilitate political articulations; the fact that the rites of the evangelical churches are more “consistent” with aspects of Latin American culture; the adoption of less strict rules for the formation of clergy, allowing greater insertion in the working classes; the creation of support networks in underserved communities; and the ability to echo thoughts shared by conservative sectors of the middle and upper classes.

Growth of evangelical churches – and their entry into politics

The American continent has experienced a sharp drop in the number of Catholics, while there has been a large increase in the evangelical population.

According to the Pew Research Center, the main research center for religions, from 1900 to 1960, Catholics were 94% of the population of Latin America.

But that percentage has dropped dramatically. A 2014 survey of the same institute showed that 84% of respondents grew up as Catholics, but only 69% continued to identify themselves as such.

In contrast, only 9% of Latin Americans were raised as evangelicals, but 19% say they follow this religion today. In Brazil, the percentage of evangelicals is even higher: according to Datafolha survey, they now account for 29% of all Brazilians, while Catholics ceased to be a majority, representing 50% of the population.

In Brazil, evangelical sectors form one of Jair Bolsonaro’s main bases of support.

According to Andrew Chesnut, who has been studying the Pentecostal movement for 25 years, an important feature accompanies the growth in the number of evangelicals on the American continent: the political engagement of leaders and members of this religion.

The researcher points out that Catholics are a more “heterogeneous” group, with segments linked to the left and others to the right. Such plurality would in practice hinder coordinated political mobilization.

“Within Catholicism you have conservative, Opus Dei-linked sectors, for example, and more progressive ones, like members of liberation theology. So there is more diversity and that makes the task of forging a Catholic alliance more difficult,” he explains.

“Evangelicals are more politically homogeneous. This facilitates unity and alliances to elect certain politicians.”

Bolsonaro, Camacho and … Trump

The most recent and obvious examples of evangelical muscle in politics are the election of Jair Bolsonaro and the fall of Evo Morales in Bolivia. Both episodes had crucial support from evangelical sectors.

In the fall of Morales a figure linked to the more conservative wing of the Catholic Church and evangelical leaders gained prominence: Luis Fernando Camacho.

He serves as chairman of the Pro-Santa Cruz Civic Committee, an entity that brings together about 200 institutions, including residents’ associations, right-wing workers and businessmen. The committee operates in Bolivia’s most populous city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and is called “moral government.” Camacho’s constant mention of “the power of God” and the habit of quoting from the Bible led the international press to refer to him as the “Bolivian Bolsonaro.”

He was the main articulator of the street protests that culminated in the withdrawal of support from the police and the Armed Forces to the Morales government. Camacho has the habit of starting his speeches with a prayer and, upon entering the former Government Palace in La Paz, a few hours before the resignation of the president, placed a Bible on the Bolivian flag.

Camacho is Catholic and supported by conservative sections of the church and evangelical leaders to overthrow Morales, Chesnut says

For Chesnut, Camacho and Bolsonaro have characteristics in common.

“Bolivia is interesting because it is a more Catholic country than Brazil. In the range of 70% of Bolivians are still Catholic. But in the fall of Morales, we saw a strong evangelical influence,” he says. “Camacho is more or less like Bolsonaro. He is still Catholic but has great Pentecostal influence and has Pentecostals as srong allies. And his discourse is 100% Pentecostal.” Senator Jeanine Áñez, who proclaimed herself interim president of Bolivia following Evo Morales’ departure, follows the same line. She entered the Government Palace in La Paz, raising a huge Bible, and behind an altar set up with candles and the image of the crucified Jesus, she swore in.

“An important aspect of the role religion has played in Latin American governments is the convergence of evangelicals and conservative Catholics,” says Andrew Chesnut. Although the Brazilian and Bolivian examples of religious influence in politics are striking, the American professor says that the growing trend of evangelical influence in governments is not only characteristic of Latin America. He said the phenomenon began in the United States, began to gain traction in Latin America in the 1980s, with the rise of a Pentecostal general as president of Guatemala, and can be clearly seen today under Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump Maintains Close Relationship with US Evangelical Sectors

According to a Washington Post report, 61% of US evangelical pastors expressed in a survey their intention to vote for Trump in the 2016 election. And the US president maintains close relations with famous evangelical leaders in the country.

“In the US, evangelicals are one of Trump’s main constituencies,” says Chesnut. According to him, one of the reflections of the American president’s approach with religious sectors is the decision to transfer the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Bolsonaro even announced that he would do the same, in response to the plea of evangelical groups that rely on biblical interpretations to argue that Jerusalem must be “protected” and inhabited by Jews. However, the Brazilian president eventually decided to open a commercial office in the city, following strong pressure from Arab countries and the commodity export sector, which feared trade retaliation.

“One of the current important agendas for evangelicals is support for Israel,” says Professor Andrew Chesnut.

And what made evangelical churches so attractive to the public? In addition to ideological cohesion, which facilitates the political articulation of evangelicals, Chesnut lists four factors that have contributed to the success of the Pentecostal movement among Latin Americans. First is that evangelical churches adopt rites “more in keeping with the culture of the peoples of the region.” In this sense, songs of praise and the most informal and direct way that pastors talk about portions of the Bible plays an important role. Another aspect listed by the researcher is the support networks created by evangelical churches to intervene in community problems, such as alcoholism, crime and drug addiction.

The third factor would be the flexible criterion for the formation of clergy.

“One big advantage that Pentecostal churches have is that pastors can get married and there are not the same educational requirements. A Catholic priest is part of the Latin American elite in terms of educational level,” he says.

Andrew Chesnut lists three elements that have contributed to the success of evangelical churches in Latin America in recent years.

“This ease of not requiring extensive academic training or chastity has allowed for greater entry of Pentecostal churches into the poorer strata.”

In addition, the researcher points out those conservative sectors of the middle and upper classes in the United States and Latin America have come to see their positions echoed in the new evangelical churches. Among these agendas are concerns about sex education in schools, fear of what they call “gender ideology,” and the position firmly opposed to easing abortion laws.

“There was a population that shared these values: it advocated an anti-LGBT agenda, anti-feminism and was against legalizing abortion. These people had no leadership to represent these perspectives in the way they wanted,” says Chesnut.

And what is the impact of this religious influence on politics?

According to the American professor, the main fear related to the increase of evangelical influence in politics is that leaders elected with the support of these sectors end up approving public policies that, in practice, discriminate against other religious creeds or signify setbacks to the conquest of minorities.

“In the case of Bolivia, we have already seen racist comments from the interim president. There, some Pentecostal sectors see indigenous religions as satanic or pagan,” says Chesnut.

In Brazil, the researcher says he realizes the risk of the emergence of an atmosphere of intolerance against religions of African origin. Chesnut speaks Portuguese and lived in Brazil for several years, where he researched the impact of religiosity on society and politics.

In Bolivia, leading opposition leaders to Evo Morales, Fernando Camacho and Jeanine Áñez, were supported by Catholic and evangelical sectors.

He recalls that in August Rio de Janeiro police arrested evangelical traffickers from the so-called “Bonde de Jesus,” a group accused of promoting attacks on African-based churches and expelling Candomblé and Umbanda practitioners from the Baixada Fluminense slums.

“There is a concern that indigenous and Afro-Brazilian religions may suffer persecution with the ruling Pentecostals. Violent groups may feel like there’s a situation of impunity,” says Chesnut.

But the historian points out that the phenomenon of the growth of evangelical churches is accompanied by a very different movement that may also influence the political landscape of the continent: the increase in the number of people who say they have no religion, the Religious Nones.

“In addition to the growth of evangelical churches, there are in many US states and several Latin American countries, including Brazil, a rapid growth of people who have no religious affiliation. In Brazil, they already make up almost 10% of the population,” he says.

And the characteristics of this group are opposite to those that usually define the conservative evangelical and catholic sectors. “They are younger, we know the tendency is to be leftist and more liberal in customs. And they are growing almost as fast as Pentecostals.”

It remains to be seen which of the two sectors will have the most electoral influence in the coming years.

Click here for the original interview in Portuguese with Nathalia Passarinho of BBC Brasil.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

About Andrew Chesnut

Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut earned his Ph.D degree in Latin American History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995 and joined the History Department faculty at the University of Houston in 1997. He quickly became an internationally recognized expert on Latin American religious history Professor Chesnut was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Bishop Walter Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at VCU in 2008. The chair was established as the Most Rev. Walter F. Sullivan was nearing retirement as the 11th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond to honor his nearly thirty years of service. For Professor Chesnut the chair became a unique opportunity to develop Catholic studies in a global context and at a large public university. Professor Chesnut’s early work, Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty (Rutgers University Press, 1997), traces the meteroric rise of Pentecostalism among the popular classes in Brazil following the disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church. His second book, Competitive Spirits: Latin America’s New Religious Economy (Oxford University Press, 2003) focuses on the three groups that have prospered most in the region’s pluralist landscape, Protestant Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and African disasporic religions (e.g., Brazilian Candomble and Haitian Vodou). Professor Chesnut's most recent book is Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint (Oxford University Press, 2025). It is the first in-depth study of the Mexican folk saint in English and has received widespread media coverage. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

November 23, 2019

Pachamama as Lightning Rod of Division over the Papacy of Pope Francis

Next Post

February 6, 2020 Leading Santa Muerte Expert Interviewed on the Fastest Growing New Religious Movement in the West

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Amazon Synod andrew chesnut Brazil Catholicism Christianity death Evangelical Exorcism kate kingsbury Mexico narcocult Orixas Our Lady of Aparecida Our lady of the Bullet Pentecostal Religion Rey Pascual Santa Muerte Uncategorized vodou

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 February 2025 January 2025 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 July 2024 May 2024 April 2024 January 2024 December 2023 October 2023 July 2023 June 2023 April 2023 March 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 June 2022 January 2022 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 May 2021 March 2021 February 2021 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 November 2019 October 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz