Latin American agenda

Christian Century, Jan 31, 2001 by Paul Jeffrey

IF THE LEADING ecumenical organization linking Protestant churches across Latin America is to survive in the new millennium, it must overcome its image as an advocate for leftist politics and repair its tendentious relationship with the region's churches, says a prominent Latin American church historian.

That message was delivered by Arturo Piedra to a gathering of church officials in the Colombian port city of Barranquilla. Piedra is a professor of theology and church history at the Latin American Biblical Seminary in San Jose, Costa Rica. His keynote address--which also called for recognizing competing influences from Pentecostalism and big-church, "prosperity" teachings--launched a Consultation on Mission that immediately preceded and overlapped the general assembly of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI). The five-day assembly began January 14.

Piedra contended that CLAI leaders had blundered in the choice of "the methods used to get across alternative ideas or ideas that didn't conform with tradition. This process of introducing social and ecclesiastical change, combined with an arrogant desire to state what the church had to do, occasionally generated unnecessary rejection by the churches." He added that CLAI's relationship to the region's churches was not helped by the impression that the ecumenical council "had assumed, at times uncritically, all of the agenda of the political left, in which the utility of faith was measured in terms of social change. It lost sight of the fact that the preaching of the gospel affects individuals as well as societies, families as well as political institutions."

Piedra praised CLAI for its "commitment to the marginalized majorities and its valuation of Latin American theological thinking." But, he said, it was "absurd" to adopt positions "that ended up forming prophets without people, radicals whose proposals and language were understood only by a few."

CLAI'S membership includes about 150 different churches in 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The organization was founded in Mexico in 1978. Previous general assemblies were held in Peru in 1982, Brazil in 1988 and Chile in 1995. Whether or not CLAI will hold another assembly depends, according to the professor, "in large part on its understanding of the churches and its relevance for them. It makes no sense to belong to an association of churches that represents little for the life of the churches."

A Costa Rican, Piedra was expelled in 1985 from his nation's Association of Biblical Churches because of his progressive views. He then helped found the Fraternity of Evangelical Churches of Costa Rica.

During the consultation, Piedra outlined a series of challenges facing the ecumenical movement in the region, including what he called the "Pentecostalization" of the churches, the megalomania of some successful church leaders, the theology of prosperity, and postdenominationalism.

CLAI's general secretary, Israel Batista, told Ecumenical News International that Piedra had pointed to the Gordian knots of the ecumenical movement in Latin America. "During the 1990s things changed in the region whether we like it or not, and it's been difficult at times for CLAI to make the adjustments necessary," Batista said.

Such institutional struggles were part of a larger "crisis of paradigms for the left," said Batista, a Methodist from Cuba. "The left wasn't always ready for the changes that took place during the last decade, and many of the terms of reference we used before no longer fit," he said. "Today we find Pentecostals who are socially involved and Roman Catholics who don't fit the stereotype of biblical illiterates that we grew up with."

However, Norman Bent, a Moravian pastor from Nicaragua, contended that Batista and many members of CLAI's board of directors support the "Pentecostalization" trend. "Yet the historical churches are worried that CLAI is losing its prophetic vision in exchange for gaining new member churches, members without any prophetic vision," Bent said.

The general assembly's opening service reflected the eclectic nature of the region's culture and changing church scene--from hip-swaying carnival rhythms and a performance by a well-known Colombian evangelical singer, Nancy Ramirez, to loud, enthusiastic Pentecostal praise music that prompted many participants to put their fingers in their ears.

The devastating earthquake on January 13 in El Salvador saw many delegates from that country attempting to arrange flights back home. A letter sent to the CLAI assembly from Emanuel Baptist Church in San Salvador said that many churches had taken up relief work. "Thousands of Salvadorans have volunteered to work in the rescue brigades and to collect food and clothing," the church leaders wrote.

A theological fault line reappeared within the Consultation on Mission meeting on January 15 when CLAI president Walter Altmann announced that the church association's theology commission had withdrawn a lengthy document that had been two years in the making. It was heavily criticized for three days by participants for sins of omission and commission. Altmann said the group will now spend two months rewriting it.