Financial Times: Brazil’s Evangelicals Push
Politics to the Right
By Julio
Severo
A
recent report from the British newspaper Financial Times (FT) accurately said
that Brazil’s evangelicals are pushing politics to the right, but it used an inaccurate
example: Marcelo Crivella.
FT said,
“An evangelical missionary in Africa for several years, Brazilian senator
Marcelo Crivella once described Catholics and other Christian denominations as
demonic and condemned homosexuality as a terrible evil. Such opinions —
outlined in his book documenting his time in Africa — would raise eyebrows
coming from any politician. But Mr Crivella, a gospel singer from Brazil’s
evangelical Universal church, is the overwhelming favourite to become the mayor
of Rio de Janeiro, one of the Americas’ most racially and socially diverse
cities.”
FT
then says, “His imminent victory in second-round elections on 30 October
reflects the emergence of an evangelical bloc that is driving Brazilian
politics to the right, analysts say, and is set to become more powerful and
influential.”
Even
though Crivella is being helped by the emergence of a powerful Brazilian right energized
by evangelicals and their pro-family activism, he and his church have stances hardly
resembling conservative or right-wing stances. In the Brazilian Senate floor in
2007, then Senator Crivella boldly said, “The Gospel is the most communist handbook
that exists.”
In
communist ideas, he does not represent most Brazilian evangelicals, who are
conservative, even though most Catholic bishops would agree with him. And the Brazilian
evangelical Right does not represent him.
Crivella’s
history includes his role as a UCKG bishop.
When
the socialist administration of impeached President Dilma Rousseff wanted to
pass a anti-“homophobia” bill that would endanger religious freedom in Brazil,
Crivella did not know if he should side with his socialist ally Rousseff or
conservative evangelicals.
Even
so, the Financial Times, pretending impartiality, presented the opposing view of
Jean Wyllys, the only openly gay member of the Brazilian Congress who is a
lawmaker from the leftist Socialism and Liberty party. In the FT report, Wyllys,
who supports homosexual indoctrination of children and their annihilation
through legal abortion, is quoted as saying: “It’s not enough for them to
evangelise — they also want to influence the law.”
In
Wyllys’ view, only his homosexual activism should direct laws. Christians
should be banned.
FT
acknowledges that the evangelical bloc, represented especially by the
Evangelical Parliamentary Caucus, is an influential power in the Brazilian
Congress and that “it played a key role in the impeachment of leftist former
president Dilma Rousseff.” In an April report titled “President’s
Impeachment Shows Growing Evangelical Power in Brazil,” CBN had also
acknowledged it.
FT
says that in the 513-seat lower house, the House of Representatives,
evangelical politicians form the “evangelical bloc,” accounting for a total of
199 seats.
FT
said that the impeachment itself was led by one of the Congress’ most prominent
evangelical leaders, Eduardo Cunha, then house speaker, previously known for
championing bills against the gay agenda and abortion. Yet, FT reminds that he
was arrested in relation to a corruption scandal at Petrobras, the state-owned
oil company — a scandal that has engulfed the most powerful Brazilian
socialists who were involved in larger corruption cases.
“The
rise of evangelical politicians reflects in part demographic changes in Brazil.
While still home to the world’s largest population of Catholics, the last
Brazilian census in 2010 showed that evangelical churchgoers had risen to 22.2
per cent of the population from 15.4 per cent a decade earlier,” said FT.
U.S. magazine
Christian Century seems to agree with FT by saying, “Some of the most vocal
politicians in favor of the impeachment were evangelical leaders. In 2010, 44 million
Brazilians, or about 22 percent of the entire population, identified themselves
as evangelical or Protestant, and that growth has led to political influence.
Neo-Pentecostals have led the evangelical boom and have uniquely contributed to
the development of an evangelical political ideology.”
“Their
growing influence is causing some concern,” said the Islamic news site Al
Jazeera.
“The
growth in evangelical Christianity is taking place without a deep discussion of
the values enshrined in our historical character,” said Rogerio Baptistini, of
Mackenzie Presbyterian University, a mixed
liberal and conservative Calvinist institution that does not accept the neo-Pentecostal
growth.
“We
are an open and tolerant society, but this sudden growth threatens rationality,”
added Baptistini, according to Al Jazeera.
If
Marcelo Crivella would depend on communism, which he praised, to be the next
mayor of Rio de Janeiro, he would surely lose votes from most evangelicals. But
he is facing a more radical socialist opponent. FT says, “In Rio de Janeiro,
better known for its city beaches crowded with scantily clad bathers than its
deeply Catholic Portuguese past, polls suggest that Mr Crivella is leading with
46 per cent support, compared with 29 per cent for his rival, leftist candidate
Marcelo Freixo.”
FT
said, “Mr Crivella has sought to distance himself from his more extreme
statements. In his book, first published in 1999, Mr Crivella wrote that… public
health could be improved by expelling the demons that caused disease. He said African
religions were based on ‘evil spirits,’ a controversial claim in Brazil, where
half of the population has some African blood.”
Even
though half of the Brazilian population has some African blood, FT infers that there
is an automatic obligation to portray and label blacks as members of African
religions. Most Pentecostal churches in Brazil, including the Assemblies of
God, which is the largest Brazilian evangelical denomination, have a membership
and leadership of many blacks and people who have African blood.
“Mr
Crivella has apologised profusely for what he wrote, saying the book was the
work of a young missionary, ‘whose immature seal led him to commit this
lamentable error.’ The book was published when he was 42. ‘I love Catholics,
spiritualists, evangelicals, everyone. If I have on any occasion caused
offence, I ask for pardon. The same in relation to homosexuality,’ he said,”
according to the Financial Times.
Yet,
Crivella has never apologized for praising communism, even though his candidacy
is being propelled by conservative evangelicals who hate communism.
Will the
emergence of a powerful Brazilian evangelical conservatism push Crivella to the right?
With
information from the Financial Times, Christian Century and Al Jazeera.
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