Bonus Sample: US v. Liberation Theology (Part 2)

Conspirituality

Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Spirituality, Social Sciences, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Listen to the full episode on Patreon Part 2 follows the money flowing from US agencies and interests to anti-Liberation Theology figures in Latin America. We meet Jesuit operator Roger Vekemans, who in the 1960s drew funding from the CIA, USAID, West German bishops, and U.S. conservative foundations to undermine Liberation and Christian socialism in Chile and beyond. Nelson Rockefeller used Protestant missions as a model for soft power in the region, including the Summer Institute of Linguistics and their aviation-radio infrastructure (JAARS) that doubled as state and military logistics in Amazon frontiers. That infrastructure was part of a project to rewire communal lifeways into an individualism compatible with capitalism. But what about the “reverse boomerang”? Pope Leo XIV’s Dilexi te: On Love for the Poor, is a pastoral yet pointed retrieval of Liberation Theology’s moral center, in which inequality is posited as the root of social ills. Leo rejects trickle-down myths, insists on solidarity with migrants, and quietly sidelines the old Marxism panic. By grounding church mission in the lived poverty of Jesus himself, Leo offers a calm but withering rebuke to Christofascism and the politics of exclusion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everybody. This Patreon episode is called US versus Liberation Theology Part 2, Part 1 dropped on Saturday on the main feed. I'm Matthew Remski. This is Conspiruality, where we investigate the intersections of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults,
0:21.6	pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism.
0:24.3	You can follow me, Derek and Julian on Blue Sky.
0:27.2	The podcast is on Instagram and threads under its own handle.
0:31.4	And please support our Patreon.
0:33.9	If you're not listening to this on Patreon, thank you so much if you are.
0:37.7	You can also find me on YouTube and TikTok at Anti-Fascist Dad.
0:48.0	So in episode one of this two-parter, I coined the term evangelical boomerang, which is a loop of spiritual and political
0:57.8	manipulation that starts with U.S. Cold War strategy and then comes home in the age of Trump. My
1:03.5	springboard example was Hayer Bolsonaro's rise in Brazil and his Jordan River baptism by Brazil's evangelical leader. That moment
1:15.1	isn't just political theater. It encapsulates decades of U.S. soft power in Latin America,
1:20.8	where the CIA literally helped expand evangelical Christianity as a counterweight to Catholic liberation theology.
1:30.7	Evangelicalism's focus on individual sin, salvation, and prosperity happens to be perfect for
1:36.6	capitalist and imperialist impulses. It directs faith away from collective struggle and towards
1:44.0	personal obedience and discipline and seeking dignity through accumulating wealth.
1:49.6	Now, I proposed that this was a conspirituality story because it reveals how religious and spiritual movements get engineered to serve authoritarian power.
2:00.9	We've already shown how wellness influencers and magamistics blend conspiracy theories with
2:06.7	spirituality to sanctify hierarchy.
2:09.9	Here, I'm tracking how the U.S. exported through its state apparatus and individualized,
2:17.3	depoliticized Christianity
2:18.7	that eventually came roaring back home,
2:22.4	fueling Trump's fusion of self-help religion,
	...

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