Blood Entanglements: Evangelicals and Gangs in El Salvador

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Stephen Offutt (Associate Professor of Development Studies, Associate Professor of Development Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary)

Blood Entanglements

Evangelicals and Gangs in El Salvador

Stephen Offutt (Associate Professor of Development Studies, Associate Professor of Development Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
06 August 2023

Religion & politics; Protestantism & Protestant Churches; Religious groups: social & cultural aspects; Social & cultural anthropology

"In many low-income neighborhoods in El Salvador, two groups have significant influence over the public sphere: gangs and evangelical churches. Members of both groups often belong to the same families, use similar organizational strategies, and engage each other in local marketplaces. Pastors and gang leaders compete for power within communities while informally sharing community governance. Entanglements even occur within formal organizations: Gang members can be found in churches and faith-based organizations, while an evangelical presence exists within prisons and other gang-controlled spaces. Blood Entanglements shows the importance of religion in gang-controlled neighborhoods in El Salvador through extensive empirical data and the personal stories of people who live there. Stephen Offutt uses the notion of ""entanglement"" to explain how and why evangelicals have such frequent and often intimate interactions with gangs, which are groups that many evangelicals believe are evil. Entanglement, he shows, also sheds light on how evangelicals engage with Latin American society and social problems more generally. The book concludes with policy recommendations for reducing gang prevalence and violence in areas with a prominent evangelical presence."

By: Stephen Offutt (Associate Professor of Development Studies Associate Professor of Development Studies Asbury Theological Seminary)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 243mm, Width: 159mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 504g
ISBN: 9780197587300
ISBN 10: 0197587305
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 06 August 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Ch 1 Evangelicals & Gangs: Inverted Images Ch 2 Shared Cosmologies Ch 3 Ties that Bind: Family Networks Ch 4 Competing for Local Authority Ch 5 Unusual Alliances in Community Governance Ch 6 Economic Engagements Ch 7 Infiltrated Organizations Conclusion Appendix I: Methodology Works Cited

Stephen Offutt is Associate Professor of Development Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of New Centers of Global Evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa.

Reviews for Blood Entanglements: Evangelicals and Gangs in El Salvador

In El Salvador, the country with highest murder rate on the planet, criminal gangs and evangelicals, mostly pentecostals, are the two most influential groups in towns and cities across the violence-plagued nation. This book, on the complex relations between the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs on one hand and evangelical communities on the other, is the most nuanced and insightful study to date on the topic. It belongs on the top shelf of readers interested in global Christianity, gang violence, and Latin American studies. * R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint * Like street gangs, religious traditions have always adapted to changing surroundings. Stephen Offutt's fascinating account of the overlapping social worlds of gangs and churches in El Salvador sheds light on the dynamic relationships between evangelicals and violence on Central America's urban margins. A must read for anyone interested in the place of lived religion in the Global South. * Robert Brenneman, author of Homies and Hermanos: God and the Gangs in Central America *