Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro receives his blessing during a music festival hosted by a local missionary radio station on July 2, in Rio de Janeiro.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro receives his blessing during a music festival hosted by a local missionary radio station on July 2, in Rio de Janeiro.
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RIO DE JANEIRO – In front of about 500 worshipers at an evangelical Christian church in a working-class Rio neighborhood, Pastor Abner Ferreira made himself in a frenzy describing God’s power to save souls.
But he is also passionate about politics.
During his nearly three-hour service, Ferreira praised Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and displayed photographs of him alongside the right-wing leader on a giant screen displayed behind the altar.
Later, in an interview with NPR, he said Protestants were attracted to Bolsonaro because he advocated conservative family values and opposed abortion and gay marriage.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attends the 30th edition of “March for Jesus” to celebrate Corpus Christi, an event that brings together many Protestant congregations, in São Paulo, Brazil, on July 9.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attends the 30th edition of “March for Jesus” to celebrate Corpus Christi, an event that brings together many Protestant congregations, in São Paulo, Brazil, on July 9.
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With the president seeking another four-year term in the October 2 election, Ferreira predicts: “I’m sure Protestants will vote massively for Bolsonaro.”
Bolsonaro is counting on their support to relieve his frustration. He trails his main rival in the race, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in all polls, largely due to Brazil’s sluggish economy.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, who is campaigning to return to work, speaks during a rally in São Paulo, Brazil, on Saturday. Brazilians go to the polls in their presidential election on October 2.
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Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, who is campaigning to return to work, speaks during a rally in São Paulo, Brazil, on Saturday. Brazilians go to the polls in their presidential election on October 2.
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In the last election, Protestants, who now make up nearly a third of Brazil’s population, proved their influence. Nearly 70% of them support Bolsonaro ahead of the run of the 2018 presidential election, giving him an easy win, based on Brazilian polling company Datafolha.
Nearly a quarter of Brazil’s National Assembly is made up of Protestants, while Bolsonaro has included them in his Cabinet. In December, he appointed the first missionary pastor, André Mendonça, to the Supreme Court. After the announcement, the first lady Michelle Bolsonaroa zealous missionary, was overjoyed, leaping to his feet and shouting “Hallelujah!”
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It’s a big change for Brazil, which has long been the largest Roman Catholic country in the world. Juliano Spyer, a Brazilian anthropologist who studies the evangelical movement, said that for a time in the 1800s, Catholicism was the official religion while other denominations were not allowed to open churches. .
Protestants – conservative Protestants who, in general, believe that the Bible is the ultimate moral authority and that lives must be transformed through the experience of “being born again” – only make up a small portion of the population.
But amid the massive migration from the countryside to Brazil’s cities that began in the 1950s, mission churches began to spring up in poor urban neighborhoods.
“People come from everywhere,” says Spyer.
He recalls doing field work in a poor settlement near the Atlantic city of Salvador. It has one Catholic and 80 Protestant churches, which, due to fewer internal regulations and bureaucracy, are easier to open. In impoverished areas ignored by the government, he says missionaries have stepped in to provide everything from spiritual guidance to day care and after-school sports programs.
Evangelical churchgoers pray at the Assembleia de Deus Vitória em Cristo Church in the vicinity of Penha, Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday. Having opened more than 18 new churches since 2020, the church also known by its initials ADVEC is one of the fastest growing mission churches in the country.
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Evangelical churchgoers pray at the Assembleia de Deus Vitória em Cristo Church in the vicinity of Penha, Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday. Having opened more than 18 new churches since 2020, the church also known by its initials ADVEC is one of the fastest growing mission churches in the country.
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“If you lose your job, there’s an infrastructure in place for you to get help. If your kids are involved in drugs, you can find a lawyer. So that’s a huge draw to be. part of that organization,” he said.
Among the faith’s most famous projects are drug addiction treatment centers, such as Desafio Jovem Ebenezer the facility is about an hour west of Rio. There, 128 patients who live there receive religious instruction and classes in automotive mechanics and other technical training as they recover from addictions to cocaine, heroin, and alcohol.
One of the supervisors, Carlos Faria, was a former drug addict who had been treated there. He was living on the streets of São Paulo when evangelical pastors invited him into a church. Soon after, he was admitted to a rehab center, where Faria says, with God’s help, he got rid of his cocaine addiction.
“I was going through a very difficult time,” Faria said as she walked around the grounds of the treatment center. “But I have found refuge in Jesus Christ.”
Carlos Faria at the Desafio Jovem Ebenézer drug rehab center on July 18.
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Carlos Faria at the Desafio Jovem Ebenézer drug rehab center on July 18.
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Protestants now make up 31% of Brazil’s population, according to a Survey 2020 by Datafolha. According to the survey, they still outnumber Catholics at about 51%, but evangelicals are growing at a much faster rate.
Going forward, José Eustaquio Alves, a demographer formerly with the government’s Institute of Geography and Statistics, told Infobae news service that evangelists will fit into the Catholic population by 2032.
“In 10 years, Brazil will no longer be a Catholic country,” said Fabio Zanini, a columnist for the Folha de S.Paulo The newspaper covered Bolsonaro’s rise and religious rights, told NPR.
However, not all evangelists are conservatives. Anna Virginia Balloussier, a Brazilian journalist who is writing a book about the country’s missionary movement, says many are poor, single mothers and of African descent, and often vote for left-wing political candidates. due to their economic proposals.
Lula, as the former leftist president is known, is Catholic but he is also trying to appeal to Protestant voters, who analysts say are often more politically active.
Evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia speaks to mass-goers at the Assembleia de Deus Vitória em Cristo Church in the vicinity of Penha, Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday. “The most basic and important value for us is family,” Malafaia told NPR. “Any candidate who threatens this value will be attacked. Lula criticized the traditional family, and I took the stick and hit back with force.”
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Evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia speaks to mass-goers at Assembleia de Deus Vitória em Cristo Church in the vicinity of Penha, Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday. “The most basic and important value for us is family,” Malafaia told NPR. “Any candidate who threatens this value will be attacked. Lula criticized the traditional family, and I took the stick and hit back with force.”
María Magdalena Arréllaga for NPR
“The mission community is more involved in everything they do,” Balloussier told NPR. “And so it’s easier to mobilize people in mission churches now.”
Bolsonaro is working to prevent Protestants from defecting to Lula. At a meeting with evangelical pastors last month, Bolsonaro stated that true Christians do not vote for leftist candidates. Why else? meet in May, he told the pastors that God had entrusted him with a difficult mission – a mission to lead Brazil.
The pastors responded with a standing ovation for Bolsonaro – and then by praying for him.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro drinks a drink symbolizing the blood of Christ during Protestant worship at the National Congress on August 3, in Brasília, Brazil.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro drinks a drink symbolizing the blood of Christ during Protestant worship at the National Congress on August 3, in Brasília, Brazil.
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