The Presence of Evangelicals in the Uruguayan Political Scene of the Twenty-First Century

The main objective of this presentation is to analyze the presence of figures publicly recognized as evangelicals in the Uruguayan political arena of the 21st century, focusing on understanding what agenda they promote, what are their political projects and their reactions, as well as the effects and transformations that both contemporary Uruguay experiences in the political and religious sphere. It starts from the premise that the "evangelical field" is made up of a diversity of churches that have their own nuances and tensions within, coming from two great poles: the conservative biblical pole (evangelical and Pentecostal) and the historical liberationist (churches descended from the Reformation of Luther and Calvin, and from the Anglican schism) (Wynarczyk, 2010). Based on this, the Uruguayan evangelical field is analyzed and the step that its parishioners experienced from a pietistic and withdrawn attitude, towards an active and dynamic position in the political arena. The Uruguayan case is contrasted with that of other Latin American countries.

Mixed Research Methods are used to address the object of study. From a quantitative approach, secondary data from various sources (INE, Latinobarómetro, and World Value Survey) are analyzed to illustrate the demographic weight of evangelicals in Uruguay, focusing on characterizing their membership, their political inclinations, and their perceptions about relevant issues on the public agenda (abortion, homosexuality, paternity/maternity of same-sex couples). From a qualitative approach, 21 interviews carried out with evangelical political figures and relevant pastors in Uruguay are analyzed. It is concluded that in Uruguay biblical conservative evangelicals dominate politics with pro-life, pro-family, and anti-gender ideology positions. However, there are historical liberationist evangelical politicians with different positions. Evangelical figures in politics have not formed a party or a specific bench. Although most of them belong to the National Party, they are distributed in several parties and lack organic coordination.