scholarly journals Sexuality, Law, and Religion in Latin America: Frameworks in Tension

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Marco Vaggione
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
Sexual Diversity ◽  
Religion And Law ◽  
The Family ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Rights

One challenge opened by contemporary sexual politics in Latin America is to rethink the relations between religion and law. The debate on the regulations of sexuality, reproduction or the family makes visible the complex interconnections between religious worldviews and the legal system. Particularly, how the secularization of law has been compatible with an imbrication process in which law traduces and conserves catholic sexual morality into secular regulations. The article offers an analysis of the ways in which stakeholders in conflict over sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America mobilize religion and the law to pursue their agendas. First, the article considers the main strategies implemented by the feminist and sexual diversity movements in order to overcome the power and influence of the Catholic Church on lawmaking processes. Although these movements tend to share an anti-clerical standpoint, they present a complex and dynamic construction of religion. Second, it presents different adaptions by Catholic sectors in defense of a natural sexual order. In their quest to influence state legal systems, these sectors deploy a dynamic and strategic understanding of religion and its impact upon public and legal debates. Building upon these considerations, the article contributes to the question of the complex articulations between religion and law in contemporary Latin America.

Religious Patterns of Neoconservatism in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Marco Vaggione ◽  
Maria Das Dores Campos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
The Past ◽  
Collective Actors ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Rights

During the last four decades, Latin America has witnessed the political strengthening of collective actors with conflicting agendas: feminist and LGBTQ+ movements on one side, and Catholic and Pentecostal Evangelical sectors on the other. While the first two movements focus on gender equality and the extension of sexual and reproductive rights, the Pentecostal and Catholic sectors have also adopted a political identity, but with an agenda prioritizing the defense of religious freedom and Christian sexual morality. Far from being a holdover from the past, the political strategies employed by these religious sectors continue to affect public debate across much of Latin America today.

scholarly journals The conservative uses of law: The Catholic mobilization against gender ideology

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-266
Author(s):  
Juan Marco Vaggione
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Universal Morality ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Rights

The term ‘gender ideology’ has become a conceptual and political tool used by various religious and secular actors who defend a legal system embedded in a sexual universal morality. Although the use of the term began within the Catholic sphere, it currently characterizes the politics of different countries that are facing a wave of neoconservative activism. The article analyzes the expansion and uses of this term by considering two main aspects: first, an analysis of its emergence as a strategy by the Vatican to combat the impact of Sexual and Reproductive Rights (SRR) on Universal Human Rights; second, a presentation of the appropriations and uses of the fight against gender ideology as part of a neoconservative movement in Latin America.

Cultural Opportunities and Tactical Choice in the Argentine and Chilean Reproductive Rights Movements

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Borland
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Institutional Power ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Reproductive rights movements throughout Latin America contend with the strong influence of the Catholic Church. In Argentina and Chile, two predominately Catholic countries where abortion is illegal yet common, reproductive rights activists see the church as their focal opponent. Analyzing data on the reproductive rights movement in each case, I argue that cultural opportunity is important for understanding the ways that activists address religion and the church in strategizing collective action frames. In Argentina, weak social support of the church foments more confrontational activism, despite the institutional power that the church still wields. In Chile, strong links between church and society obstruct reproductive rights challengers, leading to more cautious critiques of the church. Considering political and cultural opportunities is necessary when studying movements that make claims on both state and society, especially movements that challenge powerful cultural actors like the Catholic Church

scholarly journals Reproductive Rights versus the Christian Culture of the Body. Two Different Perspectives

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-21
Author(s):  
Marian Machinek
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
The Body ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Sexual Activities ◽  
The Family ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
Family Based ◽  
Body Concerns ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Rights

The comparison between the concept of sexual and reproductive rights and the idea of gender and the Christian culture of the body with its personalist anthropology reveals their essential differences. The concept of reproductive rights is permeated with individualism, where sex identity can be freely defined, and sexual activities of individuals—provided that they stay within the boundaries of law—are not subjected to any moral norms. The main point of the disagreement between the concept of reproductive rights and the Christian culture of the body concerns the meaning of human corporeality. For the former, human body is, in a certain way, an ‘outside’ of the self-determining subject. According to the latter view, human body participates in man’s dignity as his constituent dimension. Another difference revolves around the meaning of sexual activity. Efforts to force implementation of sexual and reproductive rights, along with gender informed law and culture, are dangerous to the fundamental group unit of society—the family—based on the marriage between man and woman.

Sex, Pregnancy, and Schooling: Obstacles to a Critical Teaching of the Body

1987 ◽  
Vol 169 (3) ◽  
pp. 58-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie A. McDade
Keyword(s):  
School Boards ◽  
Teenage Pregnancy ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
School Site ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Critical Teaching ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Rights

This paper focuses on how a pedagogy of the body is not facilitated in schools. An examination of the contemporary dilemma of teenage pregnancy at one school site maps the obstacles that prevent a critical teaching of the body in one historical and situational moment. Teachers presented information to students in a cloak of protectionism that was designed to shield students from stress or harsh realities but in effect promoted disinformation to students. Teachers' relationships with administrators and school boards circumscribed their abilities to critically teach a pedagogy of the body. As a result, teachers as subjects of domination were often deceived through an identity of professionalism that concealed their vulnerability to the political implications of their teaching. Finally, the author suggests that a critical teaching of issues of the body requires a vision much larger than one that is focused on a classroom or a school. Such teaching requires a vigilance in questioning all assaults on the sexual and reproductive rights of students while attending to the sexual politics of conservative agendas that are purported to be for “a student's own good.”

scholarly journals DIREITOS SEXUAIS E REPRODUTIVOS E LAICIDADE DO ESTADO

Numen ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonel Piovezana
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Sexual Rights ◽  
The West ◽  
The Family ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Life Movement

RESUMOA hegemonia jurídica do terreno da sexualidade e da reprodução sempre foi disputada pelas religiões e pelo poder político. No Ocidente, com a constituição dos Estados laicos (século XVIII e XIX), deu-se a separação entre Estado e Igreja, sendo esta consignada em suas Cartas Magnas. Mas a disputa em torno das normas que regem o exercício da sexualidade e da reprodução continuou ao longo dos séculos XIX, XX e início do XXI, constituindo-se ainda em tema de grande atualidade. Neste artigo abordamos a interferência da Igreja Católica no Congresso Nacional  na disputa de projetos de Lei sobre Reprodução e Sexualidade na década de 90. Nele caracterizaremos três atores ligados à Igreja Católica: o Grupo Parlamentar Católico, o Setor Família da CNBB e o Movimento Pró-Vida, destacando sua organização e suas estratégias nesta disputa cuja arena foi o Congresso Nacional.Palavras-chave: Laicidade. Estado. Direitos sexuais. Direitos reprodutivos.ABSTRACTThe legal hegemony of the sexuality’s terrain and reproduction has always been disputed by religions and for political power. In the West, with the secular States Constitution (eighteenth and nineteenth century), occurred the separation between State and Church, these being consigned to their Magna’s letters. But the dispute around the rules governing the exercise of sexuality and reproduction continued throughout the 19th, 20th and beginning of the 21th centuries, still in big theme today. In this article we discuss the Catholic Church’s interference in the National Congress in the dispute of law projects about reproduction andsexuality in the 90s (nineties). It will feature three actors linked to the Catholic Church: the Catholic Parliamentary Group, the Family of the Brazilian Bishops and the Pro-Life Movement,highlighting its organization and its strategies inthis dispute whose arena was the National Congress.Keywords: Secularism. State. Sexual Rights. Reproductive Rights. 

Strategies of Self-Proclaimed Pro-Life Groups in Argentina

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Manuel Morán Faúndes ◽  
María Angélica Peñas Defago
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Evangelical Churches ◽  
Sociedad Civil ◽  
America Latina ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Rights ◽  
Pro Life

Over the past few decades political processes recognizing and broadening sexual and reproductive rights have produced a reaction from conservative sectors seeking to block those gains. Although the Catholic Church hierarchy and some Evangelical churches have led the opposition to these rights, various sectors of civil society have begun to foment resistance to pluralist sexual politics. In Argentina self-proclaimed pro-life nongovernmental organizations have become important in the local context, using channels legitimized by contemporary democracy. While they initially devoted themselves primarily to the issue of abortion through activities associated with assistencialism and cultural impact, their actions since the 1990s have diversified, entering into the politico-institutional field and aiming at other issues associated with the country’s sexual policy. The movement and religion overlap at many levels and are separate in others. The complexity of the relationship between them requires rethinking of the normative frameworks through which progress on sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America is usually theorized. The separation of religion and politics under the paradigm of laicism can be insufficient to guarantee sexual pluralism in our societies. En las últimas décadas, los procesos políticos por el reconocimiento y ampliación de los derechos sexuales y reproductivos han generado la reacción de sectores conservadores que buscan obstaculizar dichas conquistas. Si bien la jerarquía católica y algunas iglesias evangélicas han protagonizado el rechazo a estos derechos, distintos sectores de la sociedad civil han comenzado también a activar una resistencia a las políticas sexuales pluralistas. En Argentina las organizaciones no-gubernamentales autodenominadas pro-vida han adquirido relevancia en el contexto local, utilizando los canales legitimados por la democracia contemporánea. Mientras las primeras se abocaron centralmente a la temática del aborto desde acciones asociadas al asistencialismo y al impacto cultural, a partir de los noventa sus acciones se han diversificado, entrando al campo político-institucional y orientándose a otros temas asociados a la política sexual del país. Este movimiento y la religión se superponen en muchos niveles y se separan en otros. La complejidad que reviste su relación implica repensar los marcos normativos mediante los cuales se ha solido teorizar el avance en los derechos sexuales y reproductivos en América Latina. La separación de la religión y la política bajo el paradigma de la laicidad puede resultar una estrategia insuficiente para garantizar el pluralismo sexual al interior de nuestras sociedades.

scholarly journals Secularities, Diversities and Pluralities: Understanding the Challenges of Religious Diversity in Latin America

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar Zavala-Pelayo ◽  
Manuel Góngora-Mera
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Entire History ◽  
Multiple Secularities ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Rights

Latin America is experiencing today the greatest religious diversity in its entire history. However, it must also be noted that a large number of the growing religious minorities may be classified into types of Christianity with conservative overtones. In this paper we will suggest that the literature streams on multiple secularities in contemporary (Western) societies and religious diversity in Latin America do offer insightful perspectives yet fail to adequately convey the challenges raised by the religious across contemporary Latin America. Addressing Latin America’s historical background, we will distinguish conceptually and empirically among different degrees of secularities<em>, </em>diversities<em> </em>and<em> </em>pluralities<em> </em>and will construct with these distinctions a descriptive-normative model that can guide future analyses of secular and religious phenomena in Latin America. It is only through a comprehensive understanding of diversities, pluralities and secularities that the debates on those human rights crucial for social inclusion—from sexual and reproductive rights to gender and religious equality—can be fruitfully conducted in and beyond Latin America.

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