God vs. gang? For some in El Salvador, rehab happens at church
More than 400 ex-members say that Protestant groups have helped them leave the gangs.
(The Christian Science Monitor) Wilfredo sits on a plastic chair inside Eben Ezer Church in a gang-controlled neighborhood of El Salvador’s capital. It’s not hard to see why he’s a leader at the church: he is charismatic, bilingual, and polished in his button-down shirt despite the sweltering heat.
Beneath his Adam’s apple, two numbers are visible: a one and an eight, for Barrio 18—one of El Salvador’s two main gangs, which have helped make the country one of the world’s most violent. The shirt hides many more tattoos, signs of the different kind of leader Wilfredo once was, running Barrio 18’s international communications from Honduras to El Salvador and across Mexico and the United States.
“I got to know Christ in jail,” said Wilfredo, whose last name has been omitted for privacy. Every Tuesday at Eben Ezer, he brings together former gang members who also have left gang life after becoming Christians in prison.
