All Religions Are Good in Tzintzuntzan: Evangelicals in Catholic Mexico

THREE: Accounting for Missionaries and Money

T H R E E ACCOUNTING FOR MISSIONARIES AND MONEY I N Latin America, it is a standard refrain of Catholic and civil leaders alike that new churches constitute a foreign imposition, taking root only with the help of North American resources and malevolent chicanery. They blame missionaries for luring men and women away from the Catholic Church with cash, clothing, and the promise of further riches. La Farge raised this concern as early as 1932 on a visit to two Maya communities in Guatemala. While the parish priest evinced little interest in delivering more than the basic sacraments, three evangelicals from the United States operated a health clinic, from which they based their aggressive proselytizing. La Farge foresaw difficulties with the prospect of conversion: Nothing could be less well suited to these particular people. . . . They are an introverted people, consumed by internal fires which they cannot or dare not express, eternally chafing under the yoke of conquest, and never for a moment forgetting that they are a conquered people. In occasional drunkenness, in dancing, and in the more elaborate ceremonies with their pageantry they find a much-needed release. A bleaker and stricter religion might result in repressions which would come out eventually in most unpleasant ways. (La Farge 1947:100) So intense was the local dislike for evangelicals that residents would rush to the parish church to burn a candle when they accidentally came in contact with a missionary. Since Mesoamerican people are not suited to evangelical Christianity, then some powerful force, most likely backed by North American funds, must be responsible for large-scale conversion. 6 4 All Religions Are Good in Tzintzuntzan This commonly voiced criticism of evangelicals, which continued throughout the twentieth century, exaggerates both the number and skill of missionaries. More representative of conversion experiences in Mexico is the example of Miguel Kaxlan in Chiapas. Although missionaries play a role in the establishment of non-Catholic churches, native proselytizers like Kaxlan quickly take over in expanding their ministry and responding to local concerns . Attributing the popularity of evangelical faiths to coercive missionary tactics overlooks the significant contributions of Mexican-born leaders in spreading new faiths. The influence of foreign missionaries in supporting evangelical congregations is declining, and the churches’ current success is homegrown. A historical survey of non-Catholic missionaries in Mexico since their arrival in the nineteenth century illustrates how membership in evangelical churches flourished only after the presence of missionaries had diminished. Of the thirteen non-Catholic congregations I included in my fieldwork, missionaries founded seven, Mexican pastors began three, and three more arose through schism from other churches. By 1999, the only church left with its original foreign patron was Dr. John Cook’s Nueva Vida en Cristo. Ethnographic evidence from his ministry shows that even with the involvement of the well-financed founder, converts choose to affiliate with his church without coercion. Interviews with members of Dr. Cook’s church suggest that conversion must be understood as a personal—not an imposed—choice. Where women and men convert to evangelical churches, they do so according to their own spiritual understandings, which often retain Catholic beliefs and practices. WA N I N G M I S S I O NA RY I N F L U E N C E After winning independence from Spain, the nascent Mexican state battled to forge a viable government without the apparatus of colonial bureaucracy. Protestantism held a certain attraction for Mexican liberals due to its association with their increasingly powerful northern neighbor and with separation from the Spanish Empire. Comparing the thriving economy of the United States with their stagnating one, liberal leaders considered Protestants ‘‘more active, more industrious, and more rich than Catholics’’ (Bastian 1980:49). The challenge for the Mexican nation builders would be to balance the utilitarian spirit of North American Protestant society with the distinctive, Catholic-infused Mexican culture. When the liberals achieved national power, they established religious free- Accounting for Missionaries and Money 6 5 dom in the 1857 Constitution. In subsequent measures, the liberals disestablished the Catholic Church from its status as official state church and further circumscribed its wealth and power (Martin 1990:93). Benito Juárez, Mexico’s strong central executive at the time, paved the way for missionary activity. In 1870, he showed interest in spreading Protestantism to Mexico’s millions of indigenous peoples, who remained outside...