According to his calculations, close to three million Chileans profess the evangelical religion and although not all of them are registered as voters, they are a percentage of the population that could be decisive in a second round scenario in the race to reach La Moneda. For this reason, in the Evangelical Church they are closely following the development of the presidential race and they already warn that they will negotiate with the standard-bearers to decide who they will end up giving their support to when casting their vote.
The president of the Expanded Union of Evangelical Churches Table, Emiliano Soto, expressed the concern that exists among his ranks for the different value issues that the candidates have been putting on the table in this campaign: therapeutic abortion, homosexual union, the morning after pill and the decriminalization of marijuana.
The bishop, in an exclusive conversation with Terra.cl, assured that they have already held meetings with some candidates to present their points of interest. “Definitely there will be a pronouncement of who is best for the evangelical world of the two or three candidates who are going,” Soto says.
The Protestant churches went on alert as soon as value content began to be discussed in the campaigns, such as when Enríquez-Ominami was in favor of homosexual marriage. “It is something that would complicate us (…) marriage is between a man and a woman. It has been created to love and procreate, and in that line it is an intransigible subject. It would be amoral for same-sex marriage to be encouraged,” the bishop categorically affirms.
But despite the radical position on points such as the above, the religious is in favor of debate and openly expressing his opinions, since he says that this position “will be added not only evangelicals, but also Catholics and many people ”.
They show a similar position towards abortion, since they are not in favor of it, except in specific cases such as when it is clinically proven that the mother’s life is at risk. “It is not even the religious part that is deciding, but the medical part”, explains the bishop.
Soto also expresses his absolute rejection of the decriminalization of marijuana use, since these churches have been characterized by working “in the line of educating and preventing drug use.”
For this reason, they are wary of the openness that Marco Enríquez-Ominami has shown regarding these issues. “Perhaps because of his training outside of Chile, he has different values and principles from Chilean society that make him a bit atypical (…) He lacks a period of political maturity, development of proposals, knowledge of Chilean society. Four or eight years from now, he could perhaps be a better candidate, but at this moment he is not in a position to be a good candidate”, he explains.
For the president of the Expanded Union of Evangelical Churches Table, Frei and Piñera do have the necessary characteristics to reach La Moneda, but in both cases their concern is focused on the possibility of guaranteeing the principle of equality between faiths, as have done in the current government of President Michelle Bachelet.
“In what other government did the evangelicals have a national day, a holiday; In what other government were evangelical chaplains implemented in the Armed Forces (…) It is a job that I think would have been difficult with a Catholic President”, explains the bishop.
He adds that depending on the reception of the candidates to their concerns and to the extent that they accept them in their programs, “we are going to tell the people who is accepting our proposals.”
THE NEGOTIATIONS OF THE LAST SECOND ROUND
Bishop Soto comments that in the second round between Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera they held meetings with both candidates. In one of them, Piñera confided to them that “if the president of the Episcopal Conference called him on the phone and asked him for a favor, perhaps he could do the wrong, but if he asked him twice, for him it was an order.”
In the case of Michelle Bachelet, she acknowledges that the fact that she was an agnostic –like Ricardo Lagos- guaranteed them greater independence, but not a few looked at her with suspicion for this fact. And she “because she is a woman, separated and socialist, it made it difficult for many, but the majority opted for her to be a strategic President for the evangelical world in the religious part.”
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