President’s Impeachment Shows Growing Evangelical Power in Brazil
CBN
News
Comment by Julio
Severo: Last year, the most significant
position
paper of the ruling socialist Workers’ Party in Brazil declared that
Eduardo Cunha, a Pentecostal leader, is the most dangerous man in the Brazilian
Congress, because Cunha has been advancing, as no one else, a conservative
agenda. Under his leadership, the pro-abortion and homosexualist agendas are
being weakened and pro-family and pro-life interests are a priority. Above all,
Cunha is the man behind the impeachment. Read now the CBN report:
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| Dilma Rousseff |
Some say it shows evangelical influence is rising
inside the traditionally Catholic country.
Brazilian historian Karina Bellotti told the Christian Science Monitor that "during the last roll
call vote for the continuation of the process of impeachment in the lower
house, several politicians dedicated their vote 'for God.'"
"Some of them were Catholic, but most were
evangelical, from the Pentecostal churches," she added.
Estimates put the number of Pentecostals in Brazil at
about 45 million.
"Brazil is at the vanguard of the global trend of
the Pentecostalization of Christianity," as well as "the epicenter of
world Christianity, with the largest Pentecostal population," Andrew
Chesnut, author of Born Again in Brazil, told CSM.
The impeachment proceedings against Rousseff stem from
allegations that illegal accounting tricks allowed her administration to
maintain government spending to shore up flagging support.
Her critics contend that she also hid deficits that
contributed to the country's worst recession since the 1930s.
Rousseff has defended such fiscal maneuvers as common
practice in Brazil. She insists the accusations are a flimsy excuse by the
traditional ruling elite to grab power back from her left-leaning Workers'
Party, which has governed for 13 years.
The lower Chamber of Deputies didn't agree. On Sunday,
the body voted in favor of impeachment. The measure is now in the Senate, which
is expected to decide by mid-May whether to put the president on trial.
A simple majority vote by senators is needed to approve
a trial, and Rousseff would be suspended for up to 180 days while it was
conducted.
During that time, Vice President Michel Temer, a
Lebanese-Brazilian Maronite Christian, would take over.
But the impeachment leader, Cunha, is also under a
cloud after his name appeared in the recently disclosed Panama Papers. An
opinion poll showed 77 percent of people believe he too should be impeached.
Source: CBN
News
Divulgation: Last Days Watchman
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