Content area
Full Text
Abstract: Using data from three surveys of religion in El Salvador from 1988 to 2009, this research looks at changes in the demographic characteristics, religious orientations and practices, and political attitudes of Salvadorans as they transition from civil war to democracy and participation in global capitalism, and from mostly Catholic affiliation to increasing affiliation with Pentecostal Protestant churches. Over the two decades encompassed by the study, the Protestant population has become less clearly differentiated from the Catholic majority in terms of education, income, occupation, and even political beliefs, while remaining distinct in terms of religious beliefs and practices. Unlike much previous research, this study allows for comparisons among practicing and nonpracticing Catholics as well as Protestants and those identifying themselves as unaffiliated.
Our primary goal in this article is to document changes in religious affiliation and practice in El Salvador between 1988 and 2009 and to explore demographic and political shifts occurring among the various religious subgroups, using data from three nationwide surveys on religion conducted by the Instituto Universitario de Opinión Pública (IUDOP) at the Jesuit Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA) in San Salvador. In doing so we will be replicating the work of Edwin E. Aguilar and Kenneth M. Coleman and their associates (see Aguilar et al. 1993; Coleman et al. 1993). In addition we will use this rich longitudinal data to test several hypotheses regarding the nature of religious change in El Salvador.
Over the two decades covered by this study, El Salvador has witnessed the remarkable spread of Evangelical religiosity, especially its Pentecostal elements such as speaking in tongues and faith healing. From 1988 until 2009, the percentage of the population identifying itself as Protestant grew from 17 percent to over 35 percent, and four out of five in this group are Evangelical and/or Pentecostal.1 This growth is in line with the experience of other countries in Latin America and the global South (Acosta 2009; Bergunder 2002; Freston 2008; Garrard-Burnett 2009; Ireland 1998; Pew Forum 2006a; Smith 2009). Typical of what is primarily an urban phenomenon, in the capital city of San Salvador alone there are now over a dozen Evangelical or Pentecostal churches, each having attendance figures of more than two thousand. One of the largest is the...