Georgetown Hosts Discussion on Role of Religion in Gang Wars in El Salvador

Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs partnered with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to invite journalist and Pulitzer grant recipient Danny Gold on October 24 to discuss his documentary film, The Only Way Out Is Through Jesus. The film centers on the rise of evangelicalism among incarcerated gang members in El Salvador and its role in helping change the lives of those who leave gangs in order to find a better life. The event was moderated by Georgetown’s Professor Marc Howard, who himself teaches courses at D.C. jails.

The event started with Danny Gold recounting his career as a journalist who covered crime. As a crime reporter for the New York Journal and the New York Post, he worked on cases that were assigned to him. However, Gold noted that the experience he had while working on various assignments in New York helped him learn how to interact with different groups, which later became a valuable skill for his time in El Salvador. After his career in New York, Gold became interested in filmmaking after graduate school, but he still chose to focus on crime and conflict around the world as a freelancer.

Gold first grew interested in El Salvador in May 2015, during which time the country saw a record high murder rate due to a three-faction gang war between police, MS-13, and the 18th Street gang. Gold said he was particularly drawn to the gang war because of the unexpected involvement of the United States in creating these gangs. These gangs consisted of refugees in California during the 1980s who were later deported back to El Salvador. They brought their knowledge of gangs from California and created their own gangs in a country that was not accustomed to fighting organized crime.

Gold’s first revelation in El Salvador was over the country’s prison system after the gang war. He witnessed three types of holding cells: MS-13’s, 18th Street’s, and a mixed cell containing members from both MS-13 and 18th Street. The last cell was what grabbed Gold’s attention because these were people who were known to hate each other. He later learned that this was a cell for those who had been allowed to leave the gang they were part of after converting to evangelical Christianity.

The evangelical former gang members presented an interesting case because their conversion meant a different future life. Conversion to evangelicalism was one of the few ways to get out of the gang many of these people were part of since they were children. To consider the social context of the people who feel compelled to join gangs, Gold explained that many in El Salvador do so as a way to survive poverty. The gangs become a valuable family for impoverished young children that provide both a sense of belonging and economic support. They are given respect, companionship, and a system to live by.

Gold also stressed that citizens of El Salvador take religion seriously. The gang war of 2015 was caused by the assassination of Archbishop Romero, a hero in El Salvador who preached about fighting against oppression and poverty through religion. According to Gold, these people were also those who truly believed in the existence of the devil as a part of their everyday life tempting them to sin. This could be the reason evangelical conversion was able to help change these former gang members so much. The church became a new brotherhood for these people, people who had just “wanted a hug or a pat at the back.” Even the gangs they were formerly affiliated with were supportive of the choices made by those who converted—but with a dark twist. Gold explained how these people were allowed to leave peacefully as the gang respected the former members’ choices, but if they were seen straying from their new religion, which Gold considers a natural thing because everyone “slips up” from time to time, they would face serious repercussions from the gang.

An interesting idea raised by Gold’s experience in El Salvador was whether gang members were merely using conversion as an instrument to get better treatment in prison and after being released. Gold talked of when he asked police officers about this doubt and how the police did not believe that the ex-convicts actually repented for what they did. However, when looking at the experiences of the former gang members from the perspective of redemption, it is hard to believe that this is true. Gold stated that former gang members, who have been evangelized, visited the families of their victims and asked for forgiveness. Gold recounted how one family member of a victim told him that she truly believed that the person who took away her family member was now looking for redemption and that he could be redeemed as a good person again.

Gold’s talk ended with his plans for the future. He spoke about how he wanted to go back to El Salvador to explore some of the issues that had been cut from his original documentary. Gold also talked about how he did not just want to create a follow-up to his documentary but wanted to take on the issue from a new perspective. Possible angles he wanted to take included a historical analysis of the gang wars in El Salvador and a focus on the police and the victims of gang violence on the issue.