Hope for South America — and Christianity

Gwynne Dyer’s recent piece on South American politics was most encouraging.

We’ve become accustomed to thinking of South American states as being prone to dictatorships. The list is long, and hasn’t stopped growing longer.

The names are notorious — Trujillo, the Duvaliers (Papa & Baby Doc), Somoza, Pinochet, Noriega and many more. They all claimed to be benevolent, to have their people’s best interests at heart, but all ruled ruthlessly. Many of them were supported in their tyranny by (surprise, surprise!) the USA.

Dyer offers examples of a long-needed leftward shift in Hispano-american politics, and sees this as a hopeful trend. I could not agree more. Central and South American victims of dictatorships developed a prophetic theology of liberation, having recourse, like the Caribbean Rastafarian movement, to the struggle of the children of Israel as recounted in scripture. This is where I see hope for South America, and hope for Christianity.

I doubt that Dyer intended us to hijack his political insights for religious purposes, but it’s difficult to separate politics and religion in the modern world.

The revolutionary lesson taught by Jewish and Christian scriptures have been ignored and even denied for too long, but will have to be reassessed and adopted by Christians. It is a mistake to believe that right-wing politics can be followed by committed Christians, or that making common cause with wealth and power can serve religious purposes.

For Christians, the example of Jesus of Nazareth leads us away from power and wealth — they were constant targets of His ironic observations and His outright condemnation. Liberation theologians like Guttierez, Boff, Segundo and Sobrino, challenge the Christian to work toward the liberation of all those women and children and men of all nations and ethnic groups who suffer under unjust laws and customs. It’s useful to note that some of those unjust rules were imposed by Christians.

I thank Dyer for his timely analysis, and hope he’ll forgive my presumptuous co-opting of it. I intended no harm.