Evangelical Leaders Vent Criticism of Brazil’s Bolsonaro Administration for Giving Them Very Little Space
Disgruntled with very few posts in the government, Evangelical Parliamentary Caucus promises to support the Bolsonaro administration only on issues such as abortion and gay agenda
By Julio
Severo
Disgruntled with the fact that the Brazilian
government has not talked to evangelical leaders and has given very little
space for evangelicals in its high-profile posts, the Evangelical Parliamentary
Caucus, traditionally the most conservative force in the Brazilian Congress,
has decided to support the Bolsonaro administration only on ethical issues such
as abortion and the gay agenda. Congressmen elected with support from evangelical
churches are not sparing President Jair Bolsonaro, whom they helped elect, from
public criticism on social networks.
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| Evangelicals raise their hands in prayer as they listen to a song during a service at the Assembly of God Victory in Christ Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) |
Representative Sóstenes Cavalcante
(DEM-RJ) said that “ideologically, never” the Evangelical Parliamentary Caucus
will “sabotage the government,” but he warned that “politics is done with
dialogue or each one will take care of his tenure.”
Sóstenes, who is connected with Assemblies
of God televangelist Silas Malafaia, added sadly: “The (evangelical) caucus
never had space, but now it is worse.”
It was for Bolsonaro, who was elected
largely by evangelicals — a
fact acknowledged even by his socialist political enemy Fernando Haddad —,
to give more space to his supporters. But he has not done so. Because his administration
has proclaimed itself conservative, it was for him to at least give post to his
more conservative supporters, who are just evangelicals.
However, it is not what is happening. If
before Bolsonaro, evangelical leaders had little place in the government, now,
as Sóstenes has pointed out, they have much less.
To make up for the very few posts he has
given to evangelicals in government, some interpret that President Bolsonaro
has appealed for another strategy to try to please the Evangelical
Parliamentary Caucus: the moral discourse. There have been many government
speeches showing that the conservative tone will have priority.
Bolsonaro’s effort today to keep
evangelicals out of most of his ministries is a contrast with his attitude of
seeking evangelical support during his campaign in 2018. He was even baptized
by a Pentecostal minister in the Jordan River in Israel in 2016 in a clear
political ploy to draw evangelicals. It worked. The U.S., Brazilian and Israeli
press credited evangelicals for his victory.
Yet, if evangelicals are not getting the
preference to fill the most important positions in the Bolsonaro administration,
who is getting them? The two key government posts — Ministry
of Education and Ministry
of Foreign Affairs — were granted to adherents of the astrologer Olavo de
Carvalho, a Brazilian immigrant self-exiled in the United States for 15 years
who is known in Brazil for profanity, advocacy
of the Inquisition, advocacy of smoking and Guenonian anti-Marxism.
While evangelicals have only one
representative in a high-profile government ministry — Dr. Damares Alves, who
is a Pentecostal minister and heads the Ministry of Family and Human Rights — olavetes,
as the astrologer’s adherents are called, have received far more post to the
detriment of evangelicals that elected Bolsonaro.
Olavetes brought with them all their
well-known radicalism, including advocates of the Inquisition, who tortured and
killed Jews and Protestants. One of these advocates was exposed by me in this
recent article: An
Undercover Agent of the Inquisition in Brazil’s Ministry of Education?
Such radicalism usually provokes crises,
which are only avoided when there are authorities with open eyes. It was no
different in that case. Last week, under pressure from the Brazilian military,
all the adherents of the astrologer Olavo who had vital and strategic posts in
the Ministry of Education were demoted to insignificant posts.
Silvio Grimaldo, an activist directly associated
to the astrologer, complained on his Facebook page: “The purge of Olavo de
Carvalho’ students from the Ministry of Education is the biggest betrayal
within the Bolsonaro administration that has been seen so far.”
He has his reasons for complaining. He
held a very high position in the Ministry of Education. He was demoted to a
small and useless position and resigned.
However, he has no right to complain as if
he and other adherents of the astrologer were owners of the Brazilian
government. Who should complain of “betrayal” are evangelicals who were largely
forgotten by Bolsonaro and besides not getting important positions, had to
watch quietly important posts being delivered to olavetes submissive to an
astrologer who advocates the Inquisition and attacks evangelicals.
Olavetes could perhaps speak in betrayal
if they had been vital to the election of Bolsonaro. They were not.
Who was vital to Bolsonaro’s election were
evangelicals, according to a New
York Times report, which cited the name of Pentecostal minister Silas Malafaia
as the evangelical leader who led millions of evangelicals to vote for
Bolsonaro. But even the name of Malafaia has been little honored in the Bolsonaro
administration, which prefers to often glorify the astrologer Olavo.
Evangelicals might call it betrayal, but they do not do it.
What evangelical leaders are doing in the
face of the obvious “betrayal” is to support the Bolsonaro administration, for
the sake of Brazil, only on ethical issues such as abortion and the gay agenda.
They will not support Bolsonaro on other political issues precisely because
Bolsonaro gave preference to those who were not vital to his election —
olavetes — to the detriment of those who were vital to his election —
evangelicals.
In contrast, olavetes, as Grimaldo’s
outburst showed, are revolted at losing vital positions they did not deserve.
The military who expelled olavetes from the
Ministry of Education leadership did a great good to Brazil, because olavism is
problematic in all its nature, especially since the source of its anti-Marxism
is the Islamic sorcerer René Guénon, who founded the Traditionalist School, to
promote a fascist esoteric “conservatism” to fight Marxism. Guenonianism has no
shortage of fascism. Guénon’s greatest adherent, Julius Evola, was an advisor
to the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and to Nazism itself.
Activists influenced by Guénon cause chaos
and confusion wherever they go. One of them passed through the White House and
caused chaos and confusion. His name is Steve Bannon, who is now persona non
grata in the U.S. government after President
Donald Trump drove him out of the White House, calling him an opportunist and leaker
of secret information to self-promote. Supported by evangelicals, Protestant
Trump managed to get rid of Bannon’s craftiness and opportunism.
Coincidence or not, Bannon
and Carvalho are today friends and united to promote their “conservatism,”
and they are winning the hearts of Bolsonaro and his sons. Even supported by evangelicals,
Bolsonaro and his sons have been unable to get rid of the craftiness and opportunism
of Carvalho and Bannon.
Trump identified very well the opportunist
and treacherous nature of Bannon, who is an adherent of Guénon and even praised
Guénon and Evola at a Vatican conference in 2014. The nature of fascist
esoteric “conservatives” is opportunistic and treacherous. This is the nature
of Olavo de Carvalho. This is the nature of olavetes.
Yet, this is not the nature of evangelical
leaders who worked so hard for the election of Bolsonaro and are now forgotten
in vital government positions. The anti-Marxism of evangelical leaders and the
evangelical population has no roots in Guénon and his “traditionalism,” a “conservatism”
that has much more of esotericism and fascism in its soul than the alleged
(syncretic) Catholicism that Bannon, Carvalho, and others Guenonians proclaim.
Evangelicals offered Bolsonaro an
anti-Marxism based on the Bible. He largely rejected it.
Carvalho and Bannon offered Bolsonaro and
his sons a Guenonian-based anti-Marxism. He largely accepted.
Anti-Marxism with evangelical foundations
leads to good results. The United States, the most Protestant and most
anti-Marxist nation in the world, is a good example, especially with President
Ronald Reagan, who was a Protestant. American
evangelical anti-Marxism is the greatest inspiration for Brazilian evangelical
anti-Marxism. In fact, American
anti-Marxism is traditionally the greatest ally of evangelical churches in
Latin America.
Anti-Marxism with occult bases leads to
disaster. Hitler,
who was an anti-Marxist occultist, is an example.
In the 1960s, the military saved Brazil
from communism. This is an undeniable truth. And now, with its pressure to destroy
the influence of olavetes in the Ministry of Education, the Brazilian military
is saving Brazil from the Guenonian anti-Marxism and its fascist esoteric “conservatism.”
Such a military intervention came in good
time because Olavo de Carvalho was so self-assured that the Bolsonaro administration
was under his spell that days ago he
publicly called for the Federal Police to investigate me under the allegation
that my denunciations against him involving the Inquisition and occultism are
collusions paid by the Russian government that threaten national security.
That is, he tried to use his influence on Bolsonaro to portray me as an enemy
of the Brazilian government and to “encourage” the Brazilian State to persecute
me.
Like many evangelicals, I voted for
Bolsonaro. Like other evangelicals, I am saddened to see how olavetes, who are anti-evangelical
opportunists, have won government offices.
Perhaps the necessary intervention of the
military is the prayer of evangelicals being answered. With more prayers,
Bolsonaro may someday remember evangelicals who supported him, and that the
occupation of government posts by Carvalho’s activists is at the expense of
evangelicals.
While Grimaldo and other olavetes complain
and revolt because they lost posts they have never deserved and treat as “betrayal”
their loss of undeserved privileges, fueling chaos and confusion against the
government, evangelicals who deserved vital posts and did not win are not slandering
the Bolsonaro administration as traitor and are not fueling any chaos and
confusion. They are praying for the Brazilian president and will continue doing
what they have always done: working against abortion and the gay agenda.
With information from
Estadão.
Portuguese version of this article: Líderes
evangélicos desabafam críticas ao governo Bolsonaro por lhes dar pouquíssimo
espaço
Source:
Last Days Watchman
Recommended
Reading:
How the Powerful Union of Trump with
Evangelicals Saved the U.S. from Steve Bannon and His Occult Plan of a
“Traditionalist” Government
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Helps, Cheers Rise of Brazilian Authoritarian”
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