Blood Entanglements

Abstract

Abstract Evangelicals and gangs are tightly linked in lower-class communities. The two groups share a religious cosmos, are members of the same families, use similar organizational strategies, and engage each other in local marketplaces. Pastors and gang leaders compete for power within communities but also informally share community governance. Gang members can even be found in churches and faith-based organizations, while an evangelical presence exists within prisons and other gang-controlled spaces. To make sense of such findings, I introduce the entanglement thesis. The thesis explains how and why evangelicals have such frequent and often intimate interactions with gangs—groups that many evangelicals believe are evil. The entanglement thesis also helps to explain how evangelicals are engaged with Latin American society and social problems more generally. Data for Blood Entanglements comes from the Religion, Global Poverty, and International Development Project (RPD). The ongoing study contains 143 interviews, sixteen focus groups, and ethnographic data from churches, penal centers, schools, health clinics, marketplaces, and homes. It provides new and unique insights into evangelical and gang identity and interactions. In the concluding chapter, I propose policy recommendations that are commensurate with my research findings. They are intended for evangelicals and those wishing to partner with evangelicals to reduce gang prevalence and violence. Blood Entanglements thus offers theoretical insights that are built on extensive empirical data and which are policy relevant. In short, the book contributes significantly to the literature on Latin American religion and culture.