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Daugaard, Book Review   149 

 

Book Review 

 

Blood Entanglements: Evangelicals and Gangs in El 

Salvador 
 

by Stephen Offutt 

 
Reviewed by Andreas Daugaard 

 
 

   
 

New York: Oxford University Press. 2023. $29.95. 

 

Blood Entanglements is a compelling account of 

the interactions between the two most dominant groups 

in lower-class El Salvador: gangs and evangelicals. 

While the two groups might seem like polar opposites 

to most, Offutt explains how these groups have more in 

common than typically thought. This has implications 

for understanding how the groups interact, and how 

evangelicals may work to reduce violence in gang-

controlled neighborhoods in El Salvador and across 

Latin-American.  

Evangelicals and gangs certainly are different: 

Whereas evangelicals are generally perceived to be 

doing God’s work and providing hope and light in 

difficult contexts, gangs’ interests are perceived to be 

much darker as they bring violence, extortion, fear, and 

sometimes even have a direct connection to Satan (2). 

And yet, the two groups are subject to the same 

vulnerabilities and afflictions. They generally live in 

neighborhoods characterized by broken systems: 

deplorable health care conditions, inadequate schools, 

broken families, lack of jobs and dysfunctional political 

institutions. Rather than comprising two groups from 

radically different realities, Offutt argues that 

evangelicals and gangs share a common social reality 

(28). 

The book similarly points out parallels between 

how gangs and evangelical groups are structured: 

members of each share patrimony (e.g., meals, goods, 

and resources) with other members and these are 

managed by a pastor or, in the case of gangs, a 

palabrero. Each group conducts rituals such as 

baptisms or gang initiations, they recruit locally through 

relationships, generate income through tithes or 

extortion, have codes of conduct and national as well as 

international connections to other churches or cliques 

(30-40). 

Both groups provide feelings of belonging (30). In 

that sense, both groups provide a path for marginalized 

peoples to overcome the challenges in their social 

realities and “become someone,” which proves very 

attractive for people with few other options. 

Furthermore, most gang members believe in God and 

even consider themselves to be evangelicals: 95.3% of 

gang members consider their relationship to God as 

important and 54.9% of them identify as evangelicals 

(50, see Cruz et al. 2017). 

The main point of the book is that gangs and 

evangelicals not only live within these same realities, but 

their lives are entangled. For example, they share a 

similar belief system, and it is not unheard of for one 

brother in a family to be a pastor and another a gang 

leader. Gangs and evangelicals sometimes form unusual 

alliances to benefit the communities they are both a part 

of: Christians may seek out gangs for protection (121) 

and pastors may negotiate with gangs to prevent 

violence, settle disputes, or determine appropriate 

punishment for those who violate community rules 

(130), and churches and Christian organizations may 

provide aid for gang-members and their families (137). 

Offutt argues that, in the absence of a functioning 

government, gangs and evangelicals collaborate to fill 

that void (137). 

The book engages well with and builds upon 

previous literature, including particularly the works of 

Steven Dudley and the Martinez brothers, who have 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(2),  Winter 2024 

Daugaard, Book Review   150 

 

researched the workings of gangs for decades, but also 

Brenneman (2012) and Wolseth (2011), who have 

written about the relationship between gangs and 

Christians.  

Brenneman and Wolseth write about the so-called 

morgue rule exception. Traditionally, gangs do not 

permit members to leave the gang once initiated. Yet 

the authors document a widespread practice that, by 

converting to evangelicalism, members are allowed to 

leave the gang, albeit under close observation to ensure 

the sincerity of their conversion. Offutt builds on their 

work and finds this exception is not always respected. 

He documents a case where the rule was suspended by 

a gang because “many of them have cheated” (62). 

Offutt describes the case of high-ranking MS-13 leader 

El Piwa, who apparently used conversion as a disguise, 

acting publicly as a preacher while ordering 

assassinations.  

Offutt also discusses the haven thesis, which is 

often used as a framework for understanding the role of 

evangelicals in society. The haven thesis describes how 

evangelicals traditionally chose to distance themselves 

from certain common practices of society: sometimes 

cutting ties to family, avoiding tobacco, alcohol, and 

extramarital relationships, or opting out of certain 

aspects of cultural and political societal life (8). The 

morgue rule exception is an example of the drastic 

change that becoming an evangelical can entail.  

Yet, while haven theory was useful to understand 

the sense of separation (and often marginalization) felt 

by poor evangelicals in the 20
th

 century, the model no 

longer fully captures the reality of evangelical life in El 

Salvador and the rest of Latin America. Evangelicals 

now include a healthy share of all economic/social 

classes and are a dominant force in lower class El 

Salvador (18). Offutt holds that better models are 

needed and proposes the entanglement thesis. In short, 

rather than understanding evangelical life as a haven 

separate from the society in which gangs reign, 

evangelical life is intertwined with the gangs because 

they live in the same neighborhoods and face the same 

problems, a reality that forces them to interact regularly 

and deeply.  

For those unfamiliar with the context, Blood 

Entanglements provides a very useful understanding of 

the history and rise of both groups in El Salvadoran 

society. The book is engaging to read as it mixes 

context, history, and data with personal stories, though 

some parts may be somewhat technical and thereby less 

accessible to casual readers. A major strong point of the 

book is how it demonstrates why gang-life is attractive 

to many kids and young people on the margins of 

society. The book concludes with a set of policy 

recommendations for churches and Christian 

organizations.  

After finishing the book, I was left wanting more 

on two fronts, both of which could be subjects of future 

research by Offutt or others who follow up on his work.   

First, the entanglement thesis creates a whole set of 

ethical and theological dilemmas that the book 

acknowledges (191), but for which it does not 

convincingly provide answers. Should churches provide 

aid and mentoring to gang members and their families, 

even while aware of the violence they may be 

committing once they walk out of church? Should 

pastors negotiate with gang members to create a truce 

or reduce violence, or ask permission to work in a gang-

controlled area, knowing that doing so may increase the 

gang’s legitimacy, influence, and power? Should pastors 

hide gang-sympathizers from repressive police raids? 

Knowing that church and gang members are 

intertwined is one thing, but should church members 

and pastors intentionally increase those entanglements? 

Such questions regarding our interactions with 

gang members bring up important and relevant 

questions about Christian aid and advocacy in other 

arenas of public life. For example, should Christians 

work with corrupt politicians to make structural 

changes, or with abusive police or military officers to 

provide security? Should they work with corrupt judges 

in search of justice?  

Offutt provides useful reflections on these 

questions. He argues that including gang members’ 

children in programming is part of the church’s mission 

to reach the most vulnerable and give everyone a 

chance to experience God’s love (173). He draws a 

parallel between gangs exercising criminal governance 

and the Roman occupiers at the time of Jesus and cites 

Jesus’ comment about giving to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s 

(192), suggesting Christians may have to accept the 

reality of gang control, and work to spread the gospel 

regardless. Finally, he brings in a quote from Martin 

Luther describing Christians as Simul Justus et 

Peccator, saints and sinners entangled within the same 

personality (207). He argues the church will always be 

entangled with the sinful world. Still, these questions 

beg for more and deeper reflection, both 

moral/theological and practical. “What would Jesus 

do?” is an important question, but so is “How can a 

pastor keep his children safe?” 

The second question that stuck with me through 

the whole book was how the situation in El Salvador has 

changed because of the extreme measures taken by 

current president Nayib Bukele. As the book mentions, 

Bukele’s crackdown on gangs has been so severe that 

he incarcerated nearly 80,000 supposed gang members, 

which has, according to El Faro (a Bukele-critical 

investigative news outlet) effectively shattered the gang 

structure and eliminated their presence from most 

neighborhoods in El Salvador (Martinez et al. 2023). In 

light of Bukele’s crackdown, it may be that the 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(2),  Winter 2024 

Daugaard, Book Review   151 

 

description of gang-evangelical entanglement and the 

suggested policy recommendations are more applicable 

to Mexico and the rest of Central America than to El 

Salvador. 

Overall, Blood Entanglements is a valuable 

contribution to the understanding of interactions 

between gangs and evangelicals and will serve as 

required background for future research and 

discussions on the dilemmas created by those 

interactions in El Salvador and the rest of Latin 

America. But it is also a bit more than that. This book 

led me to consider how its title, “Blood 

Entanglements,” and its description of the way the 

violent reality of gangs intertwines with that of 

evangelicals, is perhaps an apt description of Christ’s 

relationship with the church. Jesus came to earth and 

entangled himself with sinners, the marginalized and 

outcasts, and ended up dying for them. In other words, 

not only does this book help us see more clearly those 

entanglements between gangs and evangelicals in El 

Salvador, it also pushes us to think about entanglements 

in our own lives and how we should deal with them. 

 

References 

 

Brenneman, Robert. 2012. Homies and Hermanos: 

God and Gangs in Central America. New York: 

Oxford University Press.  

Cruz, J. M., J.D. Rosen, Y. Vorobyeva, and L.E. 

Amaya. 2017. The New Face of Street Gangs: 

The Gang Phenomenon in El Salvador. Kimberly 

Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at 

Florida International University. 

Dudley, Steven. 2020. MS-13: The Making of 

America's Most Notorious Gang. Hanover Square 

Press.  

Martínez, Carlos, Efren Lemus, and Óscar Martínez. 

2023. “Bukele Government Dismantled Gang 

Presence in El Salvador.” El Faro, February 3. 

https://elfaro.net/en/202302/el_salvador/26694/B

ukele-Government-Dismantled-Gang-Presence-in-

El-Salvador.htm 

Wolseth, Jon. 2011. Jesus and the Gang: Youth 

Violence and Christianity in Urban Honduras. 

University of Arizona Press.  

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andreas Daugaard is deputy research director at 

Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa (ASJ), the 

national chapter of Transparency International in 

Honduras. He holds an LL.M. in International 

Law from Copenhagen University and is currently 

pursuing a PhD at the University of Salamanca. 

His main areas of study include police and justice 

sector reforms, gangs, and organized extortion as 

well as Christian aid and advocacy. 

 

Author email: adaugaard@asjhonduras.com  
 

 

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