El Salvador Perspectives

The former bishop of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church, Medardo Ernesto Gomez Soto died on Thursday, March 27 at the age of 79. He was the first bishop of the Lutheran church in El Salvador, after being consecrated in 1986 during the midst of El Salvador's civil war, and served as bishop until two months ago. Bishop Gomez died after a prolonged period of illness. I had the privilege to know Bishop Gomez for almost 24 years. He was a steadfast voice for social justice in El Salvador. His church serves the poorest communities in the country, and his work was rooted in Latin American liberation theology which he expanded and adapted as a "theology of life." During the civil war, he was abducted and tortured by death squads, and on the same day the Jesuits were massacred in 1989, Bishop Gomez narrowly escaped when troops arrived at his church with orders to capture him. For his work during this time, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The following quotes give a small t...

69 Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical Christian leaders in El Salvador published an open letter to the Salvadoran public on Ash Wednesday, February 17.   My English translation follows: “I have seen the affliction of my people” Exodus 3:7 We, pastors and priests of various Christian denominations, with deep concern about the situation of sin that permeates Salvadoran politics and society in general, wish to express the truth in love to churches, and people in general, to warn them against temptations, false doctrines and political idolatries. We express our deep unease at a dangerous time when the churches are exposed to the temptations and bribes of power that seek to silence their prophetic voice when, rather, they should be attentive to Paul's exhortation: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed through the renewing of your mind, to be able to discern the will of God: what is good, acceptable, and perfect" (Romans 12: 2). We express our deep regret over...

It feels like the movement towards a water law is reaching a critical moment in El Salvador. After the March 4, 2018 national elections, conservative parties have a stronger position in the legislature, but this has motivated an equally strong response from civil society.  Groups coming together under the umbrella of the National Alliance against Privatization of Water demand recognition of water as a public good and a fundamental human right to be administered and protected by the State. In such administration, there must be citizen participation. Water resource management must holistically focus on entire watersheds.  They have submitted to the National Assembly a proposed "General Water Law" to accomplish these goals. These groups reject a separate proposal by ARENA and other conservative parties and backed by business interests which would put water management for El Salvador under a five member board.  On that board, private business would have two s...

According to statistics from El Salvador's National Civilian Police , the number of murders in the the first month of 2017 dropped to 256, compared with 484 violent deaths in a very bloody January 2016. That represented an average daily murder rate of 8.3, and the country enjoyed its first day without any murders in quite some time.    The country is currently debating two questions.   First, will there be an extension of the "exceptional measures" put in place at the end of March 2016?   Those measures include increasingly harsh conditions in the prisons aimed at isolating imprisoned gang leaders as well as more and more aggressive police and military tactics in the communities.  The government credits these measures with bringing down the homicide rate.  The legislative assembly is debating whether to approve an extension to those exceptional measures, which would appear likely. The second question is whether the government will respond favor...

On October 31, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation will hold a commemoration in Sweden for the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.   The event will include the participation of Pope Francis, LWF President Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan and LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Martin Junge.   It is part of a dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches regarding their common beliefs and practices. The symbol of this event in Sweden is a cross painted by Salvadoran artist Christian Chavarria Ayala.  You can read about the images on this cross here .  Christian says he has painted around 250,000 crosses of different sizes and colors to raise awareness on issues such as poverty, water, globalization and peaceful coexistence. The crosses are the “best therapy to cope with difficult moments,” says Christian. Christian grew up during El Salvador's bloody civil war.   In an attack on his childhood home, Christian saw the...

On November 16, 1989, that same fateful day in El Salvador when the Jesuits were murdered, Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez was also targeted by the military. For Bishop Gomez and his Lutheran church were also voices who denounced the injustice they saw in Salvadoran society. They were deemed to be subversives by the government for siding with the poor and doing such radical things as operating a refugee camp for families fleeing the armed conflict, or for teaching the poor that they were entitled to equal human rights with the rich and powerful. You know the government's view of your church when it sets up a machine gun post directly across the street from your church, your church named Resurrection Church – the church of Easter, and the machine gun is always aimed at the front door of the church. A few weeks before November 16, 1989, in a special service of reconciliation, the congregation of Resurrection Lutheran Church in San Salvador was asked to lay the sins of their c...

A group of churches in El Salvador yesterday made public their proposals to the government for working on the problem of gang-fueled violence in El Salvador.   Calling itself "IPAZ," the Pastoral Initiative for Life and Peace, the group of Protestant and Catholic churches propose a "tridimensional dialogue" between the churches, the gangs and civil society to seek an understanding for a reduction in the levels of violence and homicides.  IPAZ proposes to be the facilitator of this process. The church leaders do not describe this process as a continuation of the so-called truce process, but instead an attempt to rescue those pieces of that process which had produced positive results.   They expressed a certainty that there were various gang members who truly did want to give up lives of crime.   IPAZ stands opposed to those who would say there can be no dialogue with the gangs. IPAZ specifically does not call for the government to negotiate with the gangs or...

On Thanksgiving Day in the United States, I want to share an essay by Brian Rude, a Lutheran pastor living in El Salvador titled Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread .   Brian describes the role of corn in the dance of life in rural El Salvador: Corn–next only to water–is the lifeblood of the Salvadoran people. Salvadoran people are “el pueblo de maíz”, corn people. Their tortillas, without which a meal isn’t a meal, are made from dried and ground corn kernels.... The majority of the harvest–the “mazorcas”, or cobs–is left to dry, after the dried stalks are broken and bent. At harvest, these corn husks are broken off and are brought to the house, where the mounds of cobs fill every available storage space, even much of the living space, waiting to be husked and degrained. This labour-intensive process, danced while seated and often while socializing, fills every waking hour. The kernels are then stored in cylindrical metal grain bins, often inside the farmhouse. They are mixed...

A wide coalition of El Salvador's churches came together Saturday to launch the Pastoral Initiative for Life and Peace.    Bishops and pastors from the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Assembly of God, and other protestant and evangelical churches came together to indicate their collective agreement to use their role as pastors of Christian churches to advocate for a culture of peace in El Salvador.   The clergy see the current gang truce as a true opening where an opportunity for peace exists. The truce has lowered the average daily homicide rate from 14 to 5.3 in the country.    Catholic bishop Fabio Colindres, who was involved with brokering the truce, delivered a sermon focusing on the biblical call for the faithful to be peacemakers.   He also rejected those who view the gang truce with suspicion or as something unreal.   Colindres and the leaders of the other Christian churches called on the government and all sectors of Salvadoran society ...

The online periodical El Faro reports this week that El Salvador's police authorities believe they are seeing the start of an improvement in El Salvador's tragically high murder rate. According to the report , July 2010, with 9.4 homicides per day, had the lowest monthly daily average recorded since the 8.5 murders per day in December 2008, the last time the homcide figure was below double digits. In the first two weeks of August 2010, according to police sources cited by El Faro, the average increased to 10.1 homicides, but the numbers were down between 6% and 40% over August 2009 in five departments: San Vicente, Santa Ana, Usulután, San Salvador and Sonsonate. July marked a turning point in the fight against the killings, believes the Minister of Justice and Public Safety, Manuel Melgar, who was cautious in forecasting whether or not this marks a trend for the crime rate. 'We have noticed a decrease in killings and are working to make this a trend. You have to see how ...

ONE CROSS, TWO STORIES This is a story about two crosses in San Salvador. One is a cross made from houses destroyed in the earthquake, el terremoto. The other is the cross that hangs by the musicians in the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. This cross is the subversive cross, La cruz subversiva. Both crosses Come from Medardo Gómez, the Bishop who pastors the church. The Bishop calls the cross made from ruins, the Cross of Life— No es la cruz de la muerte, he says. It’s not the cross of death. The Subversive Cross is the cross that went to prison. The Cross of Life is for the Church, maybe for the library. The Subversive Cross is for the heart, it has other work to do. Bishop Gómez ministers to refugees from the war, He says he’s a refugee himself. He says we’re all beggars. Medardo es El Obispo de la Paz, The Bishop of Peace, he calls his Church a prophetic Church. Now, during the time of this telling, a guard has been killed at the Lutheran University. Medardo says it wasn’...

On November 16, 1989, that same fateful day in El Salvador when the Jesuits were murdered, Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez was also targeted by the military. For Bishop Gomez and his Lutheran church were also voices who denounced the injustice they saw in Salvadoran society. They were deemed to be subversives by the government for siding with the poor and doing such radical things as operating a refugee camp for families fleeing the armed conflict, or for teaching the poor that they were entitled to equal human rights with the rich and powerful. You know the government's view of your church when it sets up a machine gun post directly across the street from your church, your church named Resurrection Church – the church of Easter, and the machine gun is always aimed at the front door of the church. A few weeks before November 16, 1989, in a special service of reconciliation, the congregation of Resurrection Lutheran Church in San Salvador was asked to lay the sins of their country...

A Salvadoran musical group which has been enjoyed by many who have visited the Lutheran churches in El Salvador is Tohil. This group plays a variety of Salvadoran folk music with a mix of traditional instruments. Now they have a website with full length versions of many of their songs as well as pictures from their recent tour through Germany. Enjoy!

The Rev. Dr. Robert F. Gussick passed away on January 4, 2007. Rev. Gussick was a minister from Wisconsin who founded the Lutheran church in El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America. In 1947, Gussick began his mission work in Guatemala and El Salvador, facilitating the creation of valuable educational resources and providing comprehensive theological training that qualified many local candidates to be ordained as Lutheran pastors, or to serve as lay leaders While serving as the Executive Director of Lutheran Border Concerns Ministry (LBCM) from 1971 to 1982, Gussick led a holistic outreach to the people of Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico. Gussick’s wife, Ruth Yunghans Gussick, participated fully in his distinguished ministry career. They have two daughters, Carol Felsch and Mary Lohrbach. Rev. Gussick's ministry lives on in the thriving Lutheran churches in the region.

If you were one of the readers of this blg who were impacted by the murder of Pastors Francisco and Jesus Carillo, you will want to read the reflection of Stephen Deal, ELCA missionary, at this link .

Following the cold-blooded murders of two of its much-beloved pastors, the Lutheran Church in El Salvador is clamoring for justice -- not just for those pastors, but for all who are afflicted by the wave of violence currently rolling over the country. Describing Francisco and Jesus Carillo as martyrs, the church vowed to continue its work on behalf of the poor. Read the statement of the church at this link .

This message is from Father Dean Brackley, a teacher at the UCA in San Salvador and great friend of the Lutheran Church... Dear friends, Last night (Sunday) I joined members of the Jayaque community to receive the bodies of Francisco Carillo and his wife, Jesus Calzada de Carillo, co-pastors of the Lutheran Church in Jayaque. Francisco and Jesusita were both shot in the Colonia Dos de Mayo, near Los Sí­tios on Saturday (Nov. 4) at 5:20PM as Francisco locked up the Lutheran chapel there following a religious service. His wife was shot and killed as she waited nearby in their vehicle parked and ready to take them and a couple of passengers home. Francisco was not killed immediately but actually died along the road at Los Chorros on the way to the hospital. (To compound the tragedy, by law the vehicle had to stop and call legal authorities --who do not work nights on weekends. The two bodies, along with the couple's two adult children, Roxana and Wilber, had to spend the night on th...

From the Salvadoran Lutheran church: San Salvador, Nov. 4 (ALS) With profound pain we are communicating to the national and international community the murder of Lutheran pastor Francisco Carrillo and his wife Jesús de Carrillo, also a pastor, gunned down on November 4 at 5:30 in the afternoon just after celebrating worship in “Montes de Pensbert Lutheran Church in Colonia Independencia, located in the Municipality of Jayaque in the central department of La Libertad. The Carrillos worked with two churches located in the same municipality, "“Pan de Vida"” Lutheran Church located in the town center of Jayaque where they celebrated worship services on Sunday and the aforementioned church where they worked every Saturday afternoon. According to preliminary investigations, three youthful subjects confronted the pastors and, during the crime, shot them repeatedly; both were killed instantly by the multiple gunshot wounds that they received. At the writing of this statement (9:00 ...

This is the fourth in a series of posts on Tim's El Salvador Blog regarding the work of Dr. Beatrice Alamanni de Carrillo, the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDDH) in El Salvador. In the past 7 months, two high profile slayings took place which worry labor and social activists in El Salvador. In November, Salvadoran-born Teamster Gilberto Soto was murdered, and in February, the watchman of the Salvadoran Lutheran University (ULS) was murdered and left hanging in a tree. In each of these cases, the police arrested suspects, proclaimed the incidents to be "common crime" and declared the cases closed. In each of these cases, colleagues and relatives of the victims do not believe the crimes have been solved and fear that political motives are behind the crimes. The office of the PDDH has reviewed the investigations of both cases and issued reports highly critical of the police investigation. In the Soto case, the PNC declared that the murder had been masterminded by Soto's mothe...

The Procuradora para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (PDDH), El Salvador's Human Rights Ombudsman, issued an initial report on the slaying of the watchman of the Salvadoran Lutheran University and subsequent police investigation. The report is highly critical of the police and prosecutors' investigation of the crime. Earlier I noted the reports that two suspects had been arrested and the stolen computers and other equipment recovered. When brought before a court, however, the charges were lowered to possession of stolen goods because of insufficient evidence to tie the suspects to the robbery or murder. The court noted a large number of unanswered questions and chastised the police for relying only on a confidential informant. Some of the conclusions of the PDDH report include: It is highly probable that the murder and robbery of the university were intended to create terror in the Lutheran religious and academic communities. The PDDH noted that the Lutheran Church...