Forbes’s Unprofessional Behavior: Six Years After Publishing Misinformation on Brazilian Televangelist Silas Malafaia Before Its U.S. and International Audience, Forbes Retracts — Only Before Its Brazilian Audience
By Julio
Severo
Through its largest outlet, which reaches
a massive U.S. and international audience, Forbes misrepresented a Brazilian
televangelist in 2013. Then, 6 years later, realizing that its information on
the minister was exaggerated and unfair, Forbes used its smaller Brazilian
outlet, far away from the U.S. and international audiences, to apologize.
 |
| Silas Malafaia |
Forbes’s small apology, translated by me from
Portuguese, was:
CLARIFICATION
NOTE
May
3, 2019
On
January 18, 2013 a report was published on our website entitled “Bishop Edir
Macedo is the richest pastor in Brazil with a fortune of $ 950 million — Leader
of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is ahead of Valdomiro Santiago
and Silas Malafaia.”
The
mentioned report contained information that Pastor Silas Malafaia had estimated
assets of US$ 150 million.
Thus,
in the face of allegation that the publication of the report at the time would
have caused displeasure in Pastor Silas Malafaia, since his patrimony in fact,
according to him, allegedly corresponds to only 3% of the amount quoted in the
article, according to official documents that he has allegedly voluntarily made
available, FORBES, historically committed to ascertaining the truth of facts,
regrets what happened and seizes the opportunity to offer excuses to Pastor
Silas Malafaia.
Forbes’s apology referred to its Portuguese
report and forgot mentioning that Forbes’s main misrepresentation was in
English, in a 2013 report titled “The
Richest Pastors In Brazil,” which said:
Religion
has always been a profitable business. And if you happen to be a Brazilian
evangelical preacher, chances of hitting a heavenly jackpot are actually pretty
high these days. Even though Brazil remains the world’s largest Catholic
country, with about 123.2 million of its population of approximately 191
million defining themselves as followers of the Vatican-based church, the
latest census figures pointed to a strong decline among the ranks of Roman
Catholics, who now account for 64.6% of the country’s population–down from 92%
in 1970.
Meanwhile,
the number of Protestant evangelicals has soared from 15.4% of Brazil’s
population just a decade ago to 22.2%, or 42.3 million people. It’s likely that
the downward trend for Catholicism will continue and it’s estimated that by
2030, Catholics will represent less than 50% of Brazilian churchgoers.
So
why are evangelicals taking over Brazil’s religious scene?
One
of the evangelicals’ most appealing qualities is their belief that material
progress results from God’s favor. While Catholicism still preaches a very
conservative look to an afterlife instead of earthly riches,
evangelicals–especially the ‘neo-Pentecostal’ ones–are taught that it’s all
right to be prosperous. This doctrine, known as ‘Prosperity Theology,’ is in
the foundation of the most successful evangelical churches in Brazil.
The
value of material progress in Brazil’s evangelicalism is explicit and actively
promoted…
Then
there’s Silas Malafaia, the former leader of the Brazilian arm of the Assembly
of God, Brazil’s biggest Pentecostal church. The most outspoken of his
colleagues, Malafaia parted ways with the institution in the late 1990s to
start his own spin-off denomination, the Assembly of God-Victory In Christ
Church. Malafaia is constantly involved in controversies related to the gay
community in Brazil, of which he proudly declares himself to be the biggest
nemesis. The supporter of a law that could classify homosexualism as a disease
in Brazil, Malafaia is also a prominent figure on Twitter, where he is followed
by more than 440,000 users. In 2011, Malafaia–who’s worth an estimated $150
million according to several Brazilian business publications–launched a
campaign called “The One Million Souls Club,” that aims to raise $500 million
(R$ 1 billion) for his church in order to create a global television network
that would be broadcast in 137 countries. Those interested in contributing to
the campaign can donate sums starting at $500 (R$ 1,000), that can be paid in
installments. In exchange, donors will receive a book. Malafaia also owns one
of the four biggest record companies in Brazil’s gospel segment, according to
Billboard Brasil, and the country’s second largest gospel publishing company, Central
Gospel, with sales of a reported $25 million (R$ 50 million) per year.
Forbes inaccurately published information
that Malafaia had a fortune of about $150 million, when actually he has just 3%
of that amount.
Only
after many years Forbes accepted the truth, because according to Malafaia’s website
Vitória em Cristo, “With official documents, Pr. Silas Malafaia proved, in
court, that the value of his patrimony corresponds to 3% of the amount quoted
in the article.” So it was judicially proven that Malafaia had just 3%. It is
proven truth.
The problem is that Forbes apologized only
in regard to its report in Portuguese, which had a smaller audience, not to its
original English report, which had a massive audience.
For example, Christianity Today, in a 2013
report titled “List of Richest Pastors in Brazil Prompts
White House Petition,” mentioned Malafaia according to
Forbers’s misinformation. Christianity Today, which is one of the leading Protestant
magazines in the U.S., has never apologized to Malafaia and, considering that
there is no English apology of Forbes available, it will be unlikely to
apologize.
In
Brazil, the consequence of the misinformation was also devastating. Coincidentally
or not, the Brazilian version of Christianity Today, Cristianismo Hoje, targeted
Malafaia in a long 2013 report titled “Malafaia: A quem ele representa?” (Malafaia:
Whom does he represent?) immediately after the Forbes report, according to GospelMais,
one of the most prominent Protestant websites in Brazil, in its 2013 report “Malafaia não me representa”
(Malafaia Does Not Represent Me).
Brazilian Calvinist outlets exploited the
Forbes report to increase their attacks on Malafaia. Calvinist Facebook page
Bereanos launched a campaign that Malafaia does not represent Brazilian
evangelicals.
Calvinist minister Renato Vargens,
interviewed by Cristianismo Hoje on Malafaia, seized the opportunity to note: “This
has contributed to an unnecessary belligerence between civil society and the
Church. So his errors, unfortunately, eventually affect all evangelicals.” He
meant Malafaia’s conservative activism, which includes open stances against
abortion and the homosexual agenda. Malafaia has been the more forthright
evangelical voice in Brazil defending pro-family and pro-life values, even in
prominent TV shows.
Vargens
and other Brazilian Calvinists consider Malafaia’s message “heretical.” In
fact, Vargens said clearly in Cristianismo Hoje that Malafaia’s teaching is “heretical.”
Now that Forbes published an apology in
Portuguese to Malafaia, will the Brazilian version of Christianity Today produce
an equal long report apologizing to him?
Will Calvinists leaders and outlets that
exploited the Forbes report to attack Malafaia publish their apologies?
Yet, Forbes should now publish an apology
in English too, because its original report was in English.
After Forbes publishes its apology in
English, will Christianity Today publish an apology in
English too?
Forbes was unprofessional by publishing inaccurate
information that eventually strengthened left-wing and Protestant voices that
hate Malafaia’s message, values and stances. For a publication as Christianity Today,
to redistribute such misinformation is not only unprofessional. It is
unchristian too.
A retraction from the original source and
its secular and Protestant redistributors is long overdue.
Portuguese
version of this article: Comportamento não profissional da revista Forbes: Seis
anos depois de publicar informações errôneas sobre o televangelista Silas
Malafaia diante de sua audiência americana e internacional, a Forbes se retratra
— somente diante de sua audiência brasileira
Source: Last Days Watchman
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