Julio Severo Interviews Brazilian Congressman Marco Feliciano: How Massive Homosexualist Opposition Has Skyrocketed His Name into Fame, Making Him the Most Prominent Evangelical Politician in Brazil
By Julio
Severo
Marco Feliciano
has become the most prominent evangelical leader in Brazilian politics. His
fame came involuntarily. As a Congressman, he was appointed chairman of the
Human Rights Committee in the Brazilian House of Representatives last March.
Immediately, all the Brazilian Left began a massive campaign against his
appointment. Artists, politicians and even ministers in the socialist
administration of President Dilma Rousseff wanted him out of this committee chairmanship.
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| Marco Feliciano |
In the face of such
fierce opposition, the chances for Feliciano to remain in office were slim to
none. No one was willing to side with him.
I was among the
tiny minority of Christian leaders supporting him, in spite of his past. As
Ariovaldo Ramos and many leftist evangelicals and Catholics, Feliciano had
supported the election of socialist President Rousseff. But my Catholic
pro-life contacts assured me that he was instrumental in many pro-life battles
in the Brazilian Congress. Besides, these sources told me his support for socialist
Rousseff was based on pure naiveté. Unlike Ramos and Amaral, who are
ideological militants and supported Hugo Chavez and socialist administrations
in Brazil, continuing to support them even after they began to promote abortion
and homosexuality, Feliciano withdrew his support of Rousseff over these
issues. In fact, the massive opposition to his appointment was over his solid
stances against abortion and homosexuality.
Marco Feliciano
is the president of Catedral do Avivamento (Revival Cathedral), a church
connected to the Assemblies of God denomination in Brazil. His fame has
skyrocketed because, in spite of systematic socialist hostility, he has
remained as the chairman of the Human Rights Commission in the Brazilian House
of Representatives.
Before his
appointment, this committee, which was controlled by powerful socialists, had for
many years approved grants to homosexual groups. Since 2010, over 100,000
dollars were allocated to the gay agenda. With Feliciano in office, these
massive financial resources are being earmarked for legitimate human rights
needs.
Leftist groups
throughout the Brazilian society are furious about the losses to the homosexual
agenda. But true human rights have won.
I am privileged
to have interviewed Congressman Marco Feliciano to inform you of his colossal
battle to uphold pro-family values in Brazilian politics — which is dominated
by socialists bent on foisting the culture of death on Brazil.
Julio Severo: Your appointment as Chair of the Human
Rights Committee (HRC) in the Brazilian House of Representatives provoked
indignation in the ruling Workers’ Party (whose Portuguese acronym is PT) and
the Left. I have never seen an evangelical politician so attacked as you were.
Why did PT and the Left do it?
Marco Feliciano: The Brazilian Left hates everything and everybody hindering their
nefarious progressive plans. Since my election in 2010, honoring the votes of the
Christian population, I have paid special attention to major issues and I was
surprised to find about 200 bills turning homosexuals into a super-race. Today,
on close examination, I found more than 900 bills before the House of
Representatives which harm the traditional family, church and free speech. I
have become a kind of “bodyguard” for family. Long before HRC I had, for
example, petitioned for the impeachment of a justice in the Brazilian Supreme
Court because he disclosed beforehand his vote for the abortion of anencephalic
babies. I did it with the assistance of the late Catholic Bishop Bergonzini,
Bishop of São Paulo. I had several battles in House committees and on the floor
when the subject was sexual orientation, and from that time on, they made me a
public enemy. When my name was nominated for the HRC chairmanship, the
opposition went crazy. After all, I was, for them, basically a rightwinger
chairing a committee created exclusively by and for the Left.
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| Marco Feliciano with Catholic pro-life leaders |
Marco Feliciano: One fine day I received a call from someone connected to Ariovaldo,
saying that he wanted to talk to me before issuing a declaration. I admit, I
had never heard of him before. I obeyed the Bible command: “Strive for peace
with everyone.” I met with him, and he was accompanied by several other leaders
comprising the Board of Directors of the Evangelical Alliance. For over an hour
I provided my explanations, denounced how bills are processed in the Brazilian
Congress, mentioned hundreds of bills threatening the freedom of worship and
the destruction of the traditional family, etc. Yet, I was questioned about how
I would conduct myself before the demands from Indians, the poor, social
issues, and then I perceived that these leaders, friends of the leftist
Rousseff administration, had no concern at all with the threats I had exposed.
They were activists, worried about provoking a holy “war,” advising me not to
be intolerant, lecturing me about the perfect Lula administration (the
predecessor of socialist Rousseff)… Anyway, before this meeting, Ariovaldo had
already signed a public document denouncing me.
Julio Severo: In your desperation, you contacted
ANAJURE, a Christian organization recently founded to defend civil rights of
Christians, for help. What was their answer?
Marco Feliciano: I was really desperate. For 30 days, I was under cross fire and a very
few people helped me. I remembered ANAJURE. I remembered also the desperate
request these noble “Christian” lawyers made to the Evangelical Parliamentary
Caucus saying that ANAJURE could not be recognized unless evangelical
parliamentarians gave them their seal of approval. After all, this group was
being created for the express purpose of protecting evangelical
parliamentarians in their struggle to defend religious freedom and family. I
called the ANAJURE president* who was in France. I talked to him more than
once, and he told that he was on my side and that ANAJURE would legally defend
me. Idle talk! Nonsense! Some days later a note by these holy lawyers attacked me
and advised me to leave HRC because I was not qualified. After this episode,
ANAJURE lost some of its most important founding members, including our faith
warrior in Brasilia, Dr. Damares Alves.
Julio Severo: In the heat of persecution, the ANAJURE
president issued a press release warning that your presence in the Human Rights
Committee was going to “divide the evangelical church even further… Just
because personal projects are above the values of the Truth of the Gospel of
Christ.” Why, instead of helping you, did the ANAJURE president decide to issue
this press release?
Marco Feliciano: Out of cowardice, because it was not convenient to combine the image of
his organization with a “leprous dog” like me at that time. I was an offense to
them. Very few people believed that I would be able to withstand the pressure.
He was sure that I would leave, that I would fall. But the Lord, through the
prayers of the church, has sustained me.
Julio Severo: What did you go through as a result of the
massive opposition, coming especially from the media and the secular and
evangelical Left?
Marco Feliciano: Persecution, death threats, physical ailments and public humiliation.
My wife suffered a psychosomatic illness. My younger daughters (10 and 11)
needed psychological support, because in a worship service gay activists
climbed on my car, exposed their genitals, shouted loudly, swearing and
spitting when my small daughters were in the car crying. I lost 22 pounds,
because I was unable to eat and sleep properly. The media were cruel, editing
sermons I had preached 15 years ago and showing them daily in their news and TV
reports. The social media were disgusting. Gay activists vandalized our
churches and campaigned at the doors of some churches hindering members from
entering. In some small cities the battling was so great that church members
were afraid to attend worship services, because when they came they met gay
activists smoking, drugging themselves, drinking and dancing half-naked.
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| Protest against Marco Feliciano |
Marco Feliciano: Yes. Today, rarely I go to public places. When I do, if someone calls
my name, or comes near abruptly, I get worried, because I do not know what is
going to happen and what this individual’s intent is. This is why I avoid going
to restaurants and malls.
Julio Severo: Have your family suffered threats
because of homosexualist pressures?
Marco Feliciano: My oldest daughter, 18, had to discontinue her studies in Brazil,
because her surname, Feliciano, was a burden. I had to send her to study in the
United States.
Julio Severo: Gay militants have called you names and
threatened you? Have you called them names and threatened them too?
Marco Feliciano: My profile is peaceful and calm. I have emotional health. I never use
abusive language. I never threaten. Even when I have legal grounds to file a
legal action, I do not do it. I am a Christian, not just nominal, but
practicing.
Julio Severo: What do you think about homosexual
behavior? Is it medically healthy? Is it morally healthy?
Marco Feliciano: It is a behavioral phenomenon beyond comprehension. It is an issue that
should be studied, but gay militants have pressured psychologists to abandon the
topic and never discuss it. This is deplorable and even criminal. They have turned
it into a “trendy” thing, and the next generations will pay the consequences
for it. Gay behavior results in confusion, distress, and desperation. I am
sorry for them.
Julio Severo: What do you think about God’s condemnation
of homosexual behavior in the Bible?
Marco Feliciano: I do not question God or his thoughts. The Old Testament had
prohibitions aimed at preserving our species. For example, circumcision, bans
on foods like pork or seafood. Today we know how these dietary rules and
circumcision increased the people’s lifespan. It was intended to keep them
healthy. I see the condemnation by God of the homosexual act in several
respects, the preservation of species. If you put 500 homosexuals on an island
for 70 years, it will eventually be uninhabited. Anal copulation is unsanitary.
Diseases like HPV and AIDS spread easily among GLBTT people, and there is the
issue of sin, which is everything offending God and making Him sad. But
remember that the condemnations were from the Old Testament, in the
Dispensation of the Law. With Christ in the New Testament, the condemnation is
spiritual, it is about eternity. The eye-for-an-eye law was changed to “Love
your neighbor as yourself.” So I love homosexuals, but I abhor the homosexual
act.
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| Marco Feliciano receives support from March for Family in June |
Marco Feliciano: PLC 122 is the padlock that swill forever lock up free speech and severely
chastise the Christian Church.
Julio Severo: Do you agree with the government’s
attitude, with media complicity, of forcing children and adolescents to be
exposed to homosexual indoctrination in schools and other settings?
Marco Feliciano: I am opposed to it and I pay a high cost for that. The so called “new
family structure” is dishonest, macabre, putrid, wretched and implacable!
Parents, beware for your children!
Julio Severo: Before your term, what was happening in
the Human Rights Committee? Is it true that much money was channeled to fund
homosexual projects?
Marco Feliciano: HRC was created about 20 years ago and was used as a visibility
platform for the LGBTT movement. In the past 18 years it is estimated that over
100,000 dollars were earmarked for them.
Julio Severo: What about now under your chairmanship? How
does the Human Rights Committee channel resources? Where is people’s money
going to?
Marco Feliciano: A House committee cannot send money, but it stipulates where the grants
are to be employed. It happens at the end of the year. I have not done it yet,
but when I do it, don’t worry, because I will allot it to people in real need.
Julio Severo: Do you think that the massive
indignation of the gay militancy against your chairmanship in the Human Rights
Committee has to do with the multi-million loss of resources that the gay
movement has suffered?
Marco Feliciano: Of course.
Julio Severo: In the past, you supported politically
socialists Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party.
What has made you change your mind? In the choice between ethical values,
especially opposition to abortion and homosexuality, and support to the
Workers’ Party of Lula and Rousseff, why did you lean toward ethical values?
Marco Feliciano: In the 2010 Brazilian presidential election, we were in a tight spot.
On one side, there was PSDB (a social democratic party) and its candidate José
Serra, who said openly that he supported abortion. On the other side, there was
Rousseff, who signed a public document saying that she was against abortion and
that in her administration she would not approve it. What would you do? I chose
the lesser evil, the candidate who had a document that could be used to hold
her feet to the fire. I supported Rousseff. I have repented. To the ruling
Left, “values” means money.
Julio Severo: Why did Ariovaldo Ramos and other
representatives of the evangelical Left, who also supported Lula and Rousseff,
prefer to join the Workers’ Party and the militant homosexuals in opposing your
chairmanship of the Human Rights Committee? Do not ethical values, especially
against abortion and homosexuality, matter to them?
Marco Feliciano: Who knows? Certainly, there must be some special benefit that we do not
know about. An ancient poet said “Between heaven and earth there are more
mysteries than our vain philosophy of life”… I cannot believe in a church that
prefers error over truth. I cannot understand what leads a minister to support
a wicked system, but to fail to support a simple, weak brother. I really do not
understand.
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| Brazilian Congress |
Marco Feliciano: I do not remember being so near to God before. It was profound.
Dependency on Him was total. Prayer had a pure focus. I had heard about Him
before, but then I knew Him in truth. After 40 days I saw Christians arising to
help me. Evangelicals, Catholics and, amazingly, even spiritualists and
conservative atheists joined in on the internet, in the streets, in prayer, in
TV and radio shows. The rally promoted by Rev. Silas Malafaia in Brasília was a
blessing. I saw God moving the Christian nation to prayer.
Julio Severo: Following this huge opposition, your
stay in the chairmanship of the Human Rights Committee is a miracle. Do you
feel that God had this purpose for you? Jean Wyllys, the homosexualist
congressman in Brazil, says that he was put in the politics by African deities.
What about you? Have you a calling from God for politics?
Marco Feliciano: When I became a candidate for the Brazilian House of Representatives,
many were shocked. A very small number of people understood what I did at that
time. I had a spiritual dream. I was moved by God to politics. My life in
Brazilian politics awakened many in the Brazilian Church. I demonstrated that
it is possible to be a politician and stay filled with the Holy Spirit. I
continue being a minister and preacher. My principles remain intact. Next year
the Brazilian Church will show her power at the polls. I am sure that God is in
this business. I believe that God still has “Josephs and Daniels” in government.
Let’s remember that the Old Testament prophet was the political conscience of
kings.
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| Marco Feliciano |
Marco Feliciano: I was also disappointed with our “sister” Marina. Marina is so leftist
that even the Workers’ Party was not radical enough for her. Look at the people
who are with her building the new party Rede, and you will understand what I am
talking about. If a party owning an electoral TV spot adopted me, I would
become a candidate with no fear. If not now, perhaps the next time around. I am
in prayer. I have to learn many things. I am 40 years old and beginning my
political life. I have the conviction that I am not 100% prepared, but there
are advisers, etc. It is a dream. Let’s dream.
* Uziel
Santana.
For international readers unfamiliar with the
evangelical Left in Brazil, I recommend my recent e-book, available here free
of charge: http://bit.ly/1a6brwP
Reviewed by Don Hank.
Portuguese
version of this article: Julio Severo entrevista Dep. Marco
Feliciano: Como uma oposição gayzista colossal catapultou o nome dele à fama,
tornando-o o político evangélico mais proeminente do Brasil
Spanish
version of this article: Julio Severo entrevista al diputado brasileño Marco Feliciano: De cómo una colosal oposición gay catapultó su nombre a la fama, por lo que ahora él es el político evangélico más prominente de Brasil
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