Abstract
Nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries forsook their home in North America to establish the Protestant Church in Brazil. They went with very definite expectations based upon their experience with Protestant institutions on the frontier. They went to reform a society they considered morally, politically, and economically decadent. After a century of effort the churches, schools, seminaries, and other institutions introduced by the missionaries have substantially failed to transform Brazilian society in the manner anticipated. On the contrary, observers have criticized Brazilian Protestantism for its nepotism, clericism, violation of democratic processes, authoritarianism, fiscal irresponsibility, and antiecumenical spirit-characteristics generally considered to be atypical of Protestantism. This essay attempts to explore some of the reasons for the cultural subversion of Brazilian Protestantism and the subsequent disillusionment of the sending churches by using two sociological concepts: (1) the distinction between manifest and latent functions of institutions, and (2) the role of indigenous value system in modifying imported institutions so that they can be integrated into the larger society.
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