Church Entanglement In Solution To Puerto Rico's Budget Crisis

Puerto Rican writer Mayra Montero has an op-ed column in today’s New York Times suggesting that the role of religious groups in settling Puerto Rico’s recent budget crisis was much greater than had generally been realized. While it had been reported that San Juan’s Catholic Archbishop Roberto González had been instrumental in getting a special commission formed to come up with a solution to the governmental crisis, Montero’s reporting suggests a much more pervasive religious influence in the matter. She says:

Serious debates over taxes, public spending and government bonds were held amid prayers and hymns. Although San Juan's Roman Catholic archbishop took part in the negotiations, the messianic tone of evangelical and Pentecostalist churches predominated. Each session began and ended with a "prayer circle." The speaker of the House told reporters that he was consulting with God about the budget. San Juan's mayor led a mystic march accompanied by a woman with a title like "director of spiritual affairs."

At the Capitol, legislators surrounded a singer of religious music, a "holy man" with miracle-working pretensions who walked around laying on hands. The governor himself joined his opponents to murmur praises, and he was "anointed" by the leaders of evangelical churches who wandered through the Capitol and the executive mansion, La Fortaleza, advising, instructing and eating snacks. If anyone complained about their presence, they threatened to put "100,000 Christians" inside the Capitol to apply pressure.

It worked: on Monday, public employees returned to work after a resolution was reached, though not without a mini-crisis last weekend that was once again resolved thanks to mediation by religious leaders, who declared their work a "great victory of Jehovah, king of kings."

Ms. Montero argues that the role of religious institutions in this crisis will give them undue influence on substantive issues that are likely to later come to the Puerto Rican legislature.