Imagining Christian Sex: Reproductive Governance and Modern Marriage in Oaxaca, Mexico

A large body of scholarship examines how Pentecostal and evangelical churches alter gender relations in Latin America. Some argue that these churches reform even the most liberation‐resistant social structures—the domestic sphere—by fundamentally reordering the relative participation of women and men in this realm. What has received less attention are the sexual responsibilities assigned to women that are a recommended part of Pentecostal gender reforms. In a longitudinal ethnographic study examining Pentecostal healing in Oaxaca, the authors observed companionate marital training where women are warned not to put their children before their husbands, as women's conjugal relationships are portrayed to be more central to their gender identity than motherhood. We examine the history of companionate marriage in Mexico and discover parallel commitments of various state institutions and religious actors to reform key aspects of gender in Mexico. We employ the theory of reproductive governance to understand how moral regimes directed toward reproductive behaviors and practices are fully entangled with political, economic, and modernizing projects. By examining the history of this particular modernity project, we hope to contribute to ongoing debates about women's participation in evangelical Christianity in Latin America. [ gender, sexuality, Pentecostalism, Mexico ]