The limits of the concept of “fundamentalism” for the study of religion and politics in Guatemala

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the problems which arise when the term “fundamentalism” is removed from its original context in the United States and applied in an inclusive sense to militant religious movements around the world. Among researchers, the term “fundamentalism” is used to describe different phenomena. Undefined discourse about “fundamentalism” thus leads to confusion. The problem concerns some of the evangelical groups that supported the policy of the United States in Central America and the Guatemalan Army during the 1970s and 1980s. Three concrete examples from Guatemala are discussed: 1. The Verbo Church in which the ex-dictator General Efraín Ríos Montt is a member; 2. The paraecclesial agency Overseas Crusades, which planned to make 50 percent of the Guatemalan population evangelical by 1990; 3. The massive conversion to evangelical churches by members of the indigenous Mayan group Ixil in a region where the conflict between the Guerrilla Army of the Poor and the Guatemalan Army was very intense.