| On September 11 of 1973 a military coup ended the presidency of Salvador Allende Gossens and set up an authoritarian, military regime led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. In seeking legitimacy for his repressive regime, and lacking the support of the Catholic Church, General Pinochet sought the favor of the evangelical churches. Through historical analysis, this dissertation examines the first decade of that military regime and seeks to answer the question: what is the role of the evangelical Church when under a repressive authoritarian regime?;In this dissertation which is a literature based historical analysis, in order to understand the options faced by the evangelical Church the different kinds of Church-State relationship types are examined. Some of the issues that influenced the type of Church-State relationship chosen by the different evangelical churches are grouped in three different categories: ethical, social and theological. Among the topics explored are: authoritarianism, repression, moral opposition, legitimacy, and the prophetic voice of the church.;The literature base of this dissertation was supplemented with personal interviews of key people, including church leaders, tortured persons or relatives of the tortured, and other church members. The research showed that the evangelical churches were divided into several organizations which chose very different Church-State relationship types, based on ethical, social, and theological considerations. Since they were divided, and at times struggling against each other, the evangelical churches did not have a strong prophetic voice in Chilean society during that period. Based on what happened in Chile, this dissertation concludes by developing some initial guidelines suggesting how the evangelical Church should respond when under the rule of an authoritarian State. |
