On 2 December 1997, an agreement was signed between the Colombian state, represented by then President Ernesto Samper, and 19 non-Catholic Christian religious institutions, including the Assemblies of God Council of Colombia, Christian Crusade Church, United Pentecostal Church of Colombia, Foursquare Church, House on the Rock, Integral Christian Church, Pan American Mission of Colombia, Pentecostal Church of God International Movement in Colombia, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Wesleyan Church, Puente Largo Christian Church and the Council of Evangelical Churches of Colombia (CEDECOL). The aim was to deepen commitment to the principles of freedom and religious equality set forth in the Constitution of 1991 and the Law of Religious Freedom of 1994. However, critics argued that, instead of advancing religious freedom, this measure created a discriminatory precedent, since other Christian and non-Christian religions were excluded. What these Christian churches obtained were privileges that the Catholic Church had traditionally enjoyed through the Concordat of 1887, for example in the provision of Christian spiritual assistance in prisons, hospitals and chaplaincies of the military and police forces; Christian religious education in official educational establishments; and the legal recognition of marriages officiated by churches. They also received significant tax exemptions for both sanctuaries and for social and cultural activities conducted by churches. For this reason, President Samper himself called the agreement an ‘Evangelical concordat’. Although space was apparently opened for tolerance and respect among the various Christian denominations, the new relationships of the churches and the state and the participation of representatives of the Christian churches in politics would intensify in the twenty-first century and move away from the ideal of a secular state and a secularised society established by the 1991 Constitution. On the contrary, as we will see, this development strengthened the role of religion in relation to politics and society.

Retracing Christian History

The new Evangelical concordat sought to transform the historic Catholic presence in the Colombian state and society. Retracing that history of Catholicism allows us to understand significant aspects of Christianity as a whole in Colombia today. The presence of Christianity in the territory of New Granada – of which Colombia was a part – began with the process of conquest and colonisation by the Spanish in 1510. The mendicant orders (especially Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustinians), along with the Jesuits, were initially in charge of the work of evangelisation of the conquered natives.