Religião e política: a participação pentecostal na esfera pública brasileira

Elisa Rodrigues

doi:10.5752/p.2175-5841.2021v19n58p24

Abstract

This article is an attempt to briefly describe the current participation of Pentecostals in the Brazilian public sphere. I use the term tentative because it is not easy to discuss the Brazilian Religious Field and its power relations, controversies and tensions. In fact, in recent years, Pentecostal groups have shown themselves to be more visible, mainly due to social networks and communication networks on TV, radio and internet. This article is an effort to present this context based on the problem: How could Christians, especially evangelicals, support a Federal Government that defends destructive and non-social policies? How could Pentecostal believers reaffirm social inequality, through ethnic-racial hatred, the denial of gender diversity and the subjection of women to the authority of men? To answer these questions, I describe part of the debate proposed by Brazilian literature on Pentecostalism and present some of the main evangelical leaders aligned with the conservative agenda of the current federal government. Finally, I declare that the literalist hermeneutics that goes back to the texts of the Hebrew Bible do legitimate and authorizes policies of social inequality and violence against communities in situations of social and economic vulnerability.

Highlights

Whatever it is, in current the political capital owned by Pentecostals and their interpellate power is so significant that they are constitutive social actors which cannot be disregarded anymore
In the Brazilian context, it is remarkable that the term Evangelical to mean a kind of generalization, different than North American meaning
Dossiê Pentecostalismo, Política e Direitos Humanos – Artigo original: Religion and politics: the Pentecostal participation in Brazilian public sphere community was characterized by the total denial and aggressive reaction to these deities and people

Summary

Introduction

In current the political capital owned by Pentecostals and their interpellate power is so significant that they are constitutive social actors which cannot be disregarded anymore. Dossiê Pentecostalismo, Política e Direitos Humanos – Artigo original: Religion and politics: the Pentecostal participation in Brazilian public sphere community was characterized by the total denial and aggressive reaction to these deities and people. This is exemplified by countless episodes of violence, such as the depredation and attacks to the sacred spaces. Since the 1990 ́s until nowadays, Pentecostal action has helped many people in Dossiê Pentecostalismo, Política e Direitos Humanos – Artigo original: Religion and politics: the Pentecostal participation in Brazilian public sphere precarious situation To these people to think that a policy of Minimum State would be good has become natural. It is about power and about subduing the Other using power to destroy it

Biblical references that support conservative thinking and belligerence

Findings

Conclusion