Guillermo Hansen (professor of theology and global Christianity at Luther Seminary) is correct when he says in his prescription to the book, most Americans would be surprised that the first Lutherans were not in North America, but the Caribbean. In fact, the oldest Lutheran church in the Americas is Frederick Evangelical Lutheran Church on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands (1666), established by the Danish. German-Austrian Lutheran missions followed in Surinam and Guyana. Slavery in the Danish West Indies was brutal. Churches were established on the island of St. John and in St. Croix. At first there were separate churches for the Dane and for the slaves. Over time the churches integrated.
Rodríguez recounts the history that begins even before that, with pirates and commercial companies from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, and other colonial powers staking their claim on the Americas. Truthfully, the story of missions in the Americas cannot be told without a frank acknowledgement of the colonial history that funded it.
For example, when Charles V borrowed money from the Welser’s in order to fund his wedding to Isabel, for payment, the Welsers requested Venezuela. Charles “gave” them Venezuela. Their German conquest was every bit as unscrupulous as the Spanish Conquistadors. It’s a complicated and messy history.
We owe much to the early missionaries who travelled oceans and made significant sacrifices to proclaim the love of Christ in the so-called New World, but the church was ever in bed with the state. No one’s motives were pure.
Carribbean Lutherans: The History of the Church in Puerto Rico is a gentle but honest retelling of the history of Lutherans in the Caribbean archipelago, albeit focused on Puerto Rico. Dr. José David Rodríguez was my thesis project advisor for my doctoral studies. When he retired from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, he indefatigably began working on another PhD in this topic, near and dear to his heart. This book is the product.
The first Roman Catholic bishop of Puerto Rico was also named inquisitor, charged with the duty to expose and eliminate the Lutheran heresy. Crypto-Lutherans met in homes quietly in the early years. Lutheranism became more public in the 19th century, especially with the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American War. Protestants flooded into the Caribbean bringing the gospel of Americanization.
Poorly-behaved, pleasure-seeking American tourists left a bad impression. They often seemed hardly Christian at all to the locals. Military chaplains, however, held services and ministered to the community, often learning Spanish and serving selflessly. Missionaries followed, often funding their own mission through work in the community. some were anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish, encouraging abolition, democracy, religious tolerance, and separation of church and state. They built schools. They experienced some resistance, but also found much support in various progressive segments of society.
By the time of the US invasion of Puerto Rico, 15% of the population could read and write. The death rate was 31 per thousand people. There was a severe economic crisis.
Three months after the invasion, Gustav Sigfrid Swensson, a Swedish-American second-year Lutheran seminary student from Augustana College and Seminary in Rock Island Illinois dropped out of seminary due to lack of funds and went to work in Puerto Rico during the occupation as a clerk. He arrived on the island, October 13, 1898. He saw Puerto Ricans as people in “misery, ignorance, superstition, and fatal errors.” Such was the mentality of North American missionaries. They intended to bring health, education, and a new social order. Many good things. The challenge is we often end up preaching our culture more loudly than the gospel. A Puerto Rican parable suggests the Wise Men brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but sometimes forgot The Child.
The story goes he was walking down the street in December 1898 when a Jamaican man called out to him and said, “Can you preach? You look like a man of God.” They talked and he promised to return in the morning. The next day, Sunday, he held the first Lutheran service in San Juan. 8 attended in the morning and 30 that evening, American military officers and Puerto Ricans. He received no denominational support. Soon after that, missionaries were sent. In time Puerto Rican candidates for ministry (lay and clergy) emerged and were sent to Philadelphia Seminary for training. Among them were Eduardo Roig, Gabriella Cuervo, and Demitrio Texidor. Roig would become the first Puerto Rican Lutheran pastor, and later the first president of the Caribbean Synod. The synod’s camp bears his name.
Rodriguez carefully winds through the history of the church. The first churches: First Lutheran, San Pablo, Divino Salvador, Santissima Trinidad. In 1908 seminary was established at Divino Salvador lutheran Church in Cataño. By 1913 there were nine congregations. By 1936, 13. The growth continued through two world wars. The Caribbean Synod was established in 1952.
Caribbean Lutherans recounts the extraordinary contribution of women to the growth of the church. Missionaries, pastors’ wives, deaconesses, lay women, and eventually women pastors. Gabriela Cuervo was the first female Lutheran missionary, arriving in 1906. In 1983, Rafaela Hayde Morales Rosa became the first female pastor in the Caribbean Synod of the LCA. In 2001, Margarita Martínez became the first woman bishop of the Caribbean Synod.
Rodríguez concludes with reflections on the eschatological nature of mission, God’s work in the world to which we are invited. He points out the theology of the cross is where the Lutheran Reformation and Liberation Theology meet. Something faithful, history, and contextual emerged in the interaction of Lutheran missionaries and indigenous followers of Christ. He wonders aloud why the Caribbean Synod has not considered becoming an independent church body.
This book is a worthy read. It is very personal for José David, who is a puertorriqueño, or as many say in Puerto Rico, a boricua, an indigenous Taino word from Borikén, the Taino word for the archipelago. He buried his father at Santissima Trinidad Lutheran Church in Bayamón in 2012.
You can find Caribbean Lutherans on Amazon.com for $10 in paperback.
