“They threaten, brothers, to close our temples,” the pastor cried, at a service of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD), in a city about 400 km from São Paulo, using false news against Lula da Silva spread on social networks. Later, another religious associated “the devil” with “these unions of man to man and woman to woman.” And at the end of the session, political campaigns by candidates for state deputy, federal deputy, senator and governor of São Paulo, all Jair Bolsonaro’s lists, took the opportunity to hand out pamphlets to the faithful at the entrance of the temple.
The DN was incognito, so as not to avoid any possible political manifestation, in two services of the IURD just over a week before the elections that faced Bolsonaro, the re-election candidate who has one of his electoral pillars in the evangelicals, and Lula da Silva.Silva, attacked by Protestants, but preferred by Catholics (and atheists according to polls).
The first sect, called “total healing stream” because it focused on fighting disease, had no political reference. The second, called “current for the liberation from all evil”, because it was partly devoted to moral issues, had the episodes mentioned above, which serve only as a very small example of the politico-religious warlike that reigns in Brazil.
In a country where 21 evangelical churches are opened a day, totaling 178,511 churches, in May 2022 numbers, there are serious cases of the use of faith for the presidential campaign – the “holy war” between Bolsonaro and Lula, as the press puts it. calls .
A preacher from Gurupi, in Tocantins, was admitted at his request and said that God showed him in revelation the evil spirits ready to invade Brazil, in case Bolsonaro should lose. In Botucatu, São Paulo, a pastor vetoed the Lord’s Supper against Lula voters. “I hear believers say: I’m going to vote for Lula. You don’t deserve the Lord’s Supper if you continue with this system.”
In a church in Goiás, a believer who asked a pastor not to talk about politics was shot in the leg by another, hurting the preacher. In São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro, Pastor Sérgio Dusilek challenged evangelicals to ask Lula’s forgiveness during a demonstration in favor of the former president, a speech that led to his resignation from the Carioca Baptist Convention under pressure from leaders of that church .
In contrast, in the Catholic Church, bishops such as that of Nossa Senhora de Aparecida, whose Eucharistic celebration is broadcast throughout Brazil, have been accused of pro-Lula bias. “Yes, life, not hatred. Yes, no truth. No. Democracy yes, no coup. Bread on the table yes, no hunger. Our faith is expressed in love, solidarity, brotherhood, in the culture of environmental care and human life,” said Dom Orlando Brandes on Sept. 7, about the same time as Bolsonaro’s speech, known for his use of the term “relentless.”
On another occasion, Brandes called for a “beloved homeland and not an armed homeland,” a clear reference to the current president’s policy of arming the population. Subsequently, Bolsonar deputy Frederico D’Ávila called Catholic bishops “naughty pedophiles” and Pope Francis a “vagabond”.
in the name of power
But the IURD itself, defending today that “true Christians do not vote for the left”, was an ally of the governments of the PT: the dedication ceremony of the Temple of Solomon, the world headquarters of the church, in São Paulo, was attended in 2014 by the presence of the then President Dilma Rousseff, her Vice President, Michel Temer, the Governor of the State of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, and the Mayor of the City, Fernando Haddad, all, with the exception of Temer, manifest voters of Lula this year.
Silas Malafaia, pastor of the Vitória em Cristo Assembly of God, sat next to Bolsonaro and First Lady Michelle at the funeral of Queen Isabel II, is a constant visitor to the Planalto and author of vociferous speeches in favor of the president and against the left, the traditional media and the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which has targeted Bolsonaristas across the government. One of Bolsonaro’s nominees for the STF is André Mendonça, a former justice minister and influential Presbyterian. “I’m going to appoint a judge for the terribly evangelical STF,” the president promised to balance the accounts of a group of 11 judges, mostly Catholic.
“My perception is that the political theme is especially relevant in some leaders, not all, of the neo-Pentecostal evangelical denominations, especially those most committed to economic conglomerates, as is the case of the IURD and others,” says the IURD and others. Christina Vital to DN, researcher at Fluminense Federal University and author of Religion and Politics: Social Fears, Religious Extremism and the 2014 Elections.
“During the celebration of 200 years of independence on Sept. 7, Bolsonaro supporters held up posters asking for freedom to talk about politics and religion, but they are demonstrations at gatherings that don’t necessarily take place in the temples, these churches that are businesses, will continue to try to always be close to power, whether exercised by someone, because they act for religious values but also for economic interests,” he continues.
“Despite these occasional instances in Brazil’s vast universe of daily cults, most of the evangelical public goes to temples much more after spiritual and emotional healing, connection to the divine and the sacred, and much less to politics,” however, defends Christina Vital.
DN asked an anonymous worshiper, after the “Total Healing Stream” service, where participants were invited to tithe the money saved on medicines thanks to the miracles of the UKKG, if she had ever been pressured to pay the current president to vote in the cults. “I know that the shepherds and the workers… [ajudantes dos pastores] from here almost everyone will vote, some of the believers taken by them will also vote, but what’s more in this temple are poor and humble voters of Lula who just don’t feel comfortable letting him in here” .
Source: DN
