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| Forward: Once passive to a disrespectful husband, Adelina Zuñiga is now a pastor, helping women move beyond war in Colombia. Sara Miller Llana |
In Colombia, women use new faith to gain equality
Pentecostal women are demanding more of their husbands and themselves as they move beyond civil war.
from the December 19, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
"In general, in the Catholic Church, there are not a whole lot of places where people want to listen to your sob stories. But evangelical churches are all about that," says John Burdick, an anthropologist at Syracuse (N.Y.) University. "It's all domestic issues all the time."
The neatly swept dirt floor of the Remanso de Paz church was a garbage dump when Zuñiga and her family arrived in Sincelejo seven years ago, after one of the country's worst massacres hit her hometown. They cleared the debris bottle by bottle, and founded a congregation that today is almost entirely composed of the displaced. The church has become the community's meeting point. People stream in all day, every day. They come for training. For advice. For bus fare. Or just simply to talk.
"This community of women helps me get rid of my pain each time I come here," says Bienvenida Vuelva, whose adult son was killed as a result of fighting in 2003. She converted to Pentecostalism after being displaced; her husband and other children have not. "For me, the party has ended; this is what I have now."
Getting husbands to shape up
But Pentecostal churches are more than just support networks for women. Elizabeth Brusco, an anthropologist at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington State, published a pioneering book called the "The Reformation of Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Colombia" in the mid-1990s, arguing that the strict moral code of Pentecostalism redirects a man's priorities to the domestic sphere, which in turn boosts women's status. When they no longer drink or cheat, the couple's goals align, which forms a type of "strategic women's movement."
"In and of itself, it is a transformative social movement," Ms. Brusco says.
Women are also able to hold prominent roles within the church. Unlike in the Catholic Church, women can serve as copastors with their husbands or even as head pastor, as in Zuñiga's case. It's the first time many women say they have ever held leadership positions or even felt comfortable talking in public.
Religious ideology is often viewed with suspicion by feminists, who see it as a way to institutionalize patriarchy. But Jasper Rodriguez, Zuñiga's husband, who has a dazzling smile and a flirt's ease with compliments, says he is proof that the faith can help fight against machismo, and all its chronic problems.
"In the Afro-Colombian culture, men like to exert control," says Mr. Rodriguez, who converted eight years after his wife.
He stopped drinking, smoking, dancing, and seeing other women. Above all, he says he learned to defer to her more often because the Bible states that men and women are equal before God. "I had to learn, through being Christ-centric, that I have to respect her wishes. Now we have the same goals."
"Now he is the husband of the pastor," says Zuñiga, winking.
Many couples say that both their relationships at home and their roles in the church helped them to transition in Sincelejo when they suddenly found themselves in the midst of extraordinary role reversal.
Role reversals
Before, men in the countryside were the ones with the money and authority. But most aren't trained for anything but farming, so here in the city they rely on the woman's knowledge of cooking, sewing, or cleaning to make ends meet. It has been an emasculating experience for many, and in many cases led to abuse, drinking, and abandonment.
"My husband had to go back [to the countryside] because he couldn't find work. Now I am the one who works," says Marelis Padilla, a member of Zuñiga's church, during a recent fast in a closed room on the church grounds. It has been tough, but she relies on the teachings of the Bible. "We understand the role of men and women as equal," she says. "I would not have assimilated as well without it. There would be many more fights."
Many scholars say that the liberation ends there, that women's empowerment has not led to the type of Western feminism that has demanded equal access in the workplace or society. But in war-torn areas of Colombia, where people have to struggle to survive, women say the confidence that they have derived from their faith has put them in a position to take on roles outside the home and church.
Pentecostals have often been criticized for being insular, focusing on spirituality without taking participatory roles in government and secular life that they see as corrupt, says Hector Pardo, a pastor in Bogotá and past president of the Colombia Evangelical Council. "We closed our eyes to the world," he says.
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