Evangelicals and political participation in Argentina: Human Rights defense during the military dictatorship (1976-1983) and evangelical support to the same-sex marriage law (2010)

DANIEL JONES; SANTIAGO CUNIAL; ANALÍA QUINTÁNS

Buenos Aires

Congreso; IX Conferencia de la Asociación Internacional para el Estudio de la Sexualidad, la Cultura y la Sociedad (IASSCS); 2013

Asociación Internacional para el Estudio de la Sexualidad, la Cultura y la Sociedad (IASSCS)

Religious actors are increasingly participating in the contemporary public arena, such as the debates related to sexual and reproductive rights. In Latin America, apart from traditional Catholic political activism, we have to add the activism of different evangelical groups and traditions. The aim of this paper is to compare two processes of political participation of evangelical leadership in Argentina: the Human Rights? defense during the military dictatorship (1976-1983) and the support to the same-sex marriage law (2010). Our hypothesis is that both historical processes, despite their marked differences, share some significant characteristics to understand the styles of political participation (not related to political parties) of religious actors. This paper is based on an on-course research about the relationships between evangelicals, politics and sexuality in Argentina, which focuses on diverse documentary sources (religious and secular press, churches? declarations) and interviews with key informants (especially, evangelical leaders). We analyze the performance of the so-called historical protestant churches (such as the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina, the Evangelical Church of River Plate, and the Evangelical United Lutheran Church).This comparative analysis will allow us to reconstruct a style of political participation of religious actors, which is relevant to comprehend other contemporary debates (like sexual and reproduction debates) in which these actors take part. The shared characteristics of both process are: declarations and other public actions of demand or protest; the existence of internal reactions against these ecclesial official positions; political alliances with religious and non-religious actors (like social movements and non-governmental organizations); and political fragmentation of the evangelical field facing these issues. At the same time, we found out that their defense of Human Rights during the dictatorship has been a noteworthy political precedent to understand the further support to the same-sex marriage law.