Evangelicals in the uruguayan political arena of the 21st century

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to analyze the presence of publicly recognized evangelical figures in the Uruguayan political arena of the 21st century, with a focus on understanding what agenda they promote, what their political projects and reactions are, as well as the effects and transformations that contemporary Uruguay is experiencing in both the political and religious spheres. The research question is: what is the religious worldview that inspires the performance of evangelical political representatives in the Uruguayan political arena? It is based on the premise that the "evangelical field" is formed by a diversity of churches that have their own nuances and tensions within them, coming from two major poles: the conservative biblical pole (the evangelical and the Pentecostal) and the liberationist historical pole (churches descended from the Reformation of Luther and Calvin, and from the Anglican schism) (Wynarczyk, 2009). Mixed research methods are used to approach the object of study. Based on this, the Uruguayan evangelical field is analyzed, and the passage experienced by its parishioners from a pietistic and withdrawn attitude to an active and dynamic posture in the political arena. It is concluded that, in Uruguay, the political evangelicals of the biblical conservative pole are the ones who have the greatest prominence in the political arena, with pro-life and pro-family positions and against gender ideology. However, there are evangelical politicians from the liberationist historical pole with positions far from those taken by biblical conservatives. The evangelical figures present in the political arena have not formed a political party or an evangelical caucus, because, although they are mostly in the National Party, they are scattered in different parties and there is no organic coordination.
Keywords: Evangelicals, politics, Uruguay, religion