Religion

I visited two places today that tend to give you really disparate
impressions of the Catholic Church in Peru (and Latin America in general).

After getting some breakfast and a bus ticket, I stopped into the Lima
Cathedral to take a look at Pizarro's tomb. I had been into the
cathedral before, when I came here with my high school kids, but I
didn't really have a chance to look around.

Pizarro's tomb itself is (remarkably) beautiful, and ironic.
Breathtakingly decorated in colorful mosaics, there are religious scenes
and a mosaic of one of Pizarro's earlier encounters with Peruvians,
during which he spirited away two indigenous Peruvians to be displayed
in Spain as curiosities, and to demonstrate the potential of the new
land to the crown (hoping to get a loan). If my history is right, the
event took place during Pizarro's second trip to South America, before
he defeated the Inca Atahualpa.

The tomb is ironic because of the religious imagery (I don't associate
Pizarro with many of the values of any church), and because of the huge
"PAX" written on the floor. Pizarro was no peacemaker. He lived a life
of violence (from his early life fighting in Italy elsewhere to his
assassination at the hands of his rivals).

Even with Pizarro's unholy bones hanging around, there is no question
that the cathedral gives you (or at least gives me) a peaceful feeling
of awe, as much at the beauty of the religious artifacts on display
there as at the religious significance of the place. So many beautiful
paintings and incredibly intricate woodcarvings, among other things,
really speak to the inspiration that religious beliefs have brought to
many people here, religious functionaries and lay-people alike.

Although I suspect my family will be surprised, I have to say that, were
I to adopt some other religious creed (I consider myself an
episcopalian, though not a dogmatic one in any respect), I wouldn't feel
uncomfortable adopting the Catholic faith. Although the official
beliefs of the church are much more conservative than my own, the
religion, as it's practiced in everyday life, is often pretty loose, and
there is also a strong political tradition (Liberation Theology) that
comes out of the Catholic Church that I can associate with.

I tend to be a little more skeptical of the evangelical churches that
are in evidence here and, especially, in Guatemala. Those guys are a
lot more conservative than me. But at the same time, evangelical
churches are also known for being popular with women (especially poor
women), because the women believe that church membership makes their
partners more reliable. It is feasible. Those churches discourage
gambling and drinking (among other things) and create a dense social
network which probably places social sanctions on individuals that break
those norms.

Of course, the evangelical churches also energetically oppose birth
control, which can't be helpful, economically. It always scares me to
see so many small children running around. Latin American kids are
super-cute, but they eat as much as American kids and cost a lot of
money to clothe and educate as well.

On the other hand, I spent a good portion of the afternoon in the
"Museum of the Holy Inquisition," which is a really creepy place.
Torture equipment on display, an excavated dungeon where prisoners were
kept... Really scary.

The inquisition was, to put it mildly, a completely unjust and truly
frightening episode in American history (that is, the history of the
Americas). The lonely planet book refers to it as a "Kafka-esque
nightmare" and "utterly surreal." Which is about right. Although at
the risk of polemicizing, (is that a word?), some of the things they did
weren't all that different from some of the creepy things the CIA has
been involved in (waterboarding and whatnot). The inquisition developed
a range of methods that would cause great pain and fear while not
permanently damaging the body of the defendant (victim?). That sounds
pretty similar to the current administration's efforts to justify
interrogation techniques which have the information-extracting power (or
lack thereof) of torture, but technically, can be defined as "not
torture."

Kind of makes you wonder about the church all over again. On average,
good or bad?

For those of you who slogged through all of that, I'll shortly have some
pictures of some of my recent attempts at touristing up on my picasa
site--when I upload them, I'll put a link up, although you can also get
to my pictures from my CU web site (http://sobek.colorado.edu/~wrightgd).