Evangelicals key to El Salvador elections

Such sentiments represent a departure from the past. Pentecostal membership surged during the civil war, from 3 percent of the population to 15 percent by the end of the war in 1992. Throughout much of that period, Evangelicals remained on the political sidelines. But as their growth continued in the '90s, political parties set their eyes on the churches. In 2004, Evangelicals played a key role in Arena's victory.

"Evangelicals have traditionally been afraid of the left, because they believed the left were atheists," says Mario Vega, the head pastor for Misión Cristiana Elim Internacional, one of the country's largest churches.

The associations some Evangelicals make between the left and godlessness still exist. Nelson Valdez, president of the National Network of Pastors, fears the FMLN will bring communism and religious repression to the country. "We have seen what happened in the Soviet Union and Cuba," he says.

But evolving views among some pastors are overturning those sentiments. It is a shift that is incipient, says Timothy Wadkins, the director of the Institute for the Global Study of Religion at Canisius College in New York. "The intelligentsia on the left has normally looked at Evangelicals as so heavenly-minded that they have no real concern about social justice here and now," Mr. Wadkins says. "But [some pastors] are as leftist as any liberation theologians."

Last month, the Foundation for the Union of Salvadoran Evangelical Churches, led by Edwin Guzman, held a meeting with 600 pastors to listen to Funes's platform. By doing so, says Pastor Guzman, "we broke a taboo, and the paradigm that Evangelicals have to fear the left."

In many cases pastors are more radical than their membership. But Pastor Vega attributes the leftward tilt in evangelical voting patterns to candidate Funes, who was not a militant in the war and represents a more moderate left. Vega says he hopes the shift translates into more social justice on the part of Evangelicals: "We could become the country's social conscience."

The pastors who criticize the right say they do not adopt political positions within church walls. Still, their views have been controversial. Rivas says he receives hundreds of e-mails a week, many labeling him a leftist and atheist. He says he dismisses such invective.

Yet if the FMLN does win Sunday, Rivas concedes it will be a test for pastors. They have been a voice of opposition, a role he feels comfortable in. But if Funes wins, he and his colleagues will be forced to maintain a strict line. He says all churches run the risk of becoming political instruments, on both sides of the spectrum. "We will have to redefine what our role is," he says.

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