El Salvador: Pentecostal Churches Offer Gang Members A Way Out Alive

Pentecostalism is helping members of street gangs in El Salvador escape the violent groups. In 1843, a spinoff magazine of The Economist Group, Sarah Maslin writes that churches offer a compelling mix of "boot-strapping individualism and tight-knit community" that is seen by many as the only way out that is not inside a body bag. 

"There are now more than 70,000 gang members in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala," the author explains. "In pockets where public services and streetlights are scarce, the gangs have more sway than the government. They patrol the neighbourhood, checking ID cards and licence-plate numbers, keeping watch for rivals and police."

These gangs, such as powerful Barrio 18 and MS-13, stay in power by keeping a large army of people they prevent from defecting as it would undermine their projection of strength and dominion. They also don't like former members leaving their clique with knowledge of very sensitive information: some might give away clues on how their leadership is structured, where key members or weapons are located, and how extortion and other operations actually work.

Gangs seem to be more lax when their members defect to religion, however, which they see as a kind of ankle tag that lets them keep an eye on former members, who often shy away from alcohol, drugs, and other elements of their former lives once they join Pentecostal churches. At the same time, "religion can provide comfort and forgiveness for those who have committed serious crimes".

For a government fixated on repressive answers to gang violence, however, the prospect of an individual gang member's rehabilitation does nothing in the face of a mounting, systemic challenge: "The question facing El Salvador in the long term isn’t whether an individual gang member can change, but whether society will create the conditions to make such change sustainable," Maslin underscores.