In the United States, evangelicals who get politically involved tend to be on the right. In Latin America, evangelicals who get politically involved tend to be on the left. That’s because evangelicals in Latin America are often poor, and left wing politicians present themselves as the champion of the poor. This is also the case in Venezuela, where the neo-Marxist president Hugo Chavez is consolidating his power, nationalizing the property, suppressing opposition, and setting himself up as dictator for life.
Some Venezuelan evangelicals there, to their credit, are having second thoughts, according to the article. But it raises some interesting questions: How much of American evangelical politics reflects OUR class interests? If evangelicalism, as we sometimes hear, can go with a range of politics, is this because a highly internalized, subjective take on religion is not being honestly applied to the external world? Are evangelicals an easy prey for demogogues from either end of the spectrum? Do you see any lessons in what is happening in Venezuela and the part Christians are taking?
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