Indecent Pentecostalism: A Twenty-first-century Re-reading of Elisabeth Brusco’s Work in Colombia

The term “Indecent Pentecostalism” may seem contradictory. Many Pentecostalisms in Colombia reproduce theologies that impose heteronormative morals and biblical interpretations that place most expectations of sexual holiness on women. Yet, this paper advocates for the urgent formulation of Indecent Pentecostalisms. It does so by revisiting Elisabeth Brusco’s influential work, The Reformation of Machismo, frequently cited in Pentecostal studies in the United States. Conducted in the mid-1980s, Brusco’s work argues that Colombian women’s conversion to Pentecostalism serves as a liberating act that propels the conversion of their husbands–whose machismo makes them reject the domestic realm–and transforms the family structure resulting in upward mobility among other beneficial consequences. Drawing on ethnographic research with twenty-first-century Pentecostal women in Colombia, this presentation challenges the continuing validity of Brusco’s conclusions for present-day Pentecostalism in Latin America. The paper engages Brusco’s findings in conversation with Marcela Althaus-Reid’s advocacy for the indecency of heterosexual women in Latin America, which requires coming out of a “heterosexual closet” characterized by domestication, monogamy, and submission.