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Bolsonaro as an evangelical

Young couples in developed countries are not having children. Despite the efforts of the religious right’s efforts to purge abortions across the United States, the nation is experiencing a record rise in such pregnancy terminations. Mental stress is enveloping younger demographics; younger parents are feeling it more than ever, and there is a severe disconnect between macro-statistics (which tend to represent numbers where big, rich elements distort the average and the quantitive whole) and the life experience of average citizens (which reflect daily costs and basic wages). Even for those who decry the existence or the power of climate change, they know and feel in the back of their minds that something is happening. It’s hard to ignore killing heat, an increase in the intensity and frequency of wildfires, floods and powerful storms… but since they cannot figure it out, perhaps God will lend a hand.

Since finding solutions and learning to live with a profoundly difficult world often stumps even the best minds on the planet, it is not surprising that the answers for so many lie somewhere between the pledges of “say anything to get elected” candidates and the reliance on God to intervene. The deniers they hate the most are those who oppose those beliefs… and since perceived mandates from God do not require further justification, passion of faith becomes a path for extremism. Marginalizing the “vermin” who oppose them, recasting a particularly ugly part of our past as the glorious “good old days,” finding innocents to blame, becoming part of a massive movement with simple answers, ordered responsibility and outsourcing opinions to “higher sources” are part of that existential search for an anchor upon which they can rely and explain life … and just let go.

And while misery loves company, the Harris-Walz campaign seems to have found a counter to the above: the politics of joy and optimism, perhaps the only non-religious (but is it?) counter to the same old-same Trump litany of complaints, mostly personal vitriol, and the “worst [insert phrase, person or institution] in history” standard response that is getting severely worn and tiring. But for all his personal “charisma,” Donald Trump’s political instincts – at least when he was able to focus and not wander into tangents about his personal trauma – initially understood the fears of so many American traditional demographics, ordinary citizens who faced displacement, their own marginalization and a most basic fear of behind left out or left behind. This is hardly unique to the United States or simply a recent change. It’s been building for years. Everywhere.

So as an example, I will examine in a different nation, Brazil and its politics, with startling parallels to US politics. In Jordan Mintzer’s August 29th Hollywood Reporter’s review and summary of a film by Petra Costa, a Brazilian documentarian and past Oscar nominee, as she examines the volatile state of democracy in her homeland with the eye-opening exposé Apocalypse in the Tropics ( Apocalipse nos Trópicos ), a nation where evangelical fundamentalism now defines a once profoundly Roman Catholic nation: “[Costa] she focuses primarily on Silas Malafaia — a popular televangelist and key figure in the Assembleias de Deus Pentecostal church, who holds great sway over politicians on both the left and right in a country where evangelists represent over 30% of the population.

“With its portrayal of fundamentalist agitators, fake news purveyors, the very Trump-like [ex-president] Jair Bolsonaro, and, during an explosive finale, an attack on the country’s capital waged by hordes of insurrectionists, the similarities between events depicted in Tropics and recent U.S. history are uncanny, to say the least.

“But Costa goes further than simply making unspoken comparisons. She explores the history of evangelism to try and grasp how its apocalyptic visions managed to capture the hearts and minds of so many Brazilians. By doing so, she sheds light on a phenomenon present not only in Brazil and America, but in countries around the world where ‘faith in progress and democracy’ is currently being tested like never before…

“Costa cleverly uncovers how evangelism arrived on Brazil’s shores via the likes of Billy Graham and Henry Kissinger, who saw the increasingly left-leaning turn of the Catholic church in South America as a danger to U.S. interests. The new name of the game would be ‘Christ and capitalism,’ with fundamentalist pastors flooding Brazil and opening new churches across the land. By the time we arrive at the 2022 election, the country counts 50 million or more evangelists, who can no longer be ignored by any candidate running for office…

“It’s hard to tell if Bolsonaro, who gets baptized in the Jordan River to prove his Christian bona fides, is a true believer or strategically aligning himself with one of the nation’s most potent political forces. Either way, the people are soon referring to him as a ‘messiah’ — a reference to his actual middle name, Messias, as well as to his promises to save Brazil from the triple threats of corruption, communism and wokeism.

“The crusade against the former, resulting in the false imprisonment of Lula for nearly two years, backfires big time when it turns out the Bolsonaro-appointed prosecutors of the case were the actual corrupt ones. That — along with the president’s disastrous handling of the COVID crisis, where he told the people, ‘I’m a messiah, but I don’t do miracles,’ as his ill-prepared country took on the highest death toll outside the U.S. — spells Bolsonaro’s defeat to Lula during the latter’s comeback four years later.

“And yet, the many evangelical powers in play, whose apocalyptic visions of Christianity were inspired by an all-too-literal reading of the Book of Revelation centuries ago, and who see Jesus as a violent martyr rather than a figure of peace and brotherly love, do not take their electoral loss lightly. Taking cues from the Jan. 6 riots, they and other Bolsonaro supporters storm government buildings in the capital of Brasília and make their way into the Supreme Court, which they hold responsible for validating Lula’s victory — breaking windows, smashing statues and leaving the place trashed.” Yet Lula embraced the evangelical movement as well, a seeming essential in Brazilian politics these days.

But this embrace of these retro values has also seeped deeply into the American Roman Catholic community, where US priests are vastly more conservative than Catholic priests in general. “The number of priests who identify as progressive has nearly vanished, especially among those ordained after 2020, with more than 80% of them identifying as ‘conservative/orthodox’ or ‘very conservative/orthodox,’ according to a report by Catholic Project at the Catholic University of America.” Mariya Manzhos, writing for the August 31st Deseret News.

The experience of US architect Nicolas Charbonneau, who earned his degree with a focus on classical architecture, uniquely taught at the University of Notre Dame, is telling. Eschewing the progressive architecture of so many new churches and temples around the country, Charbonneau’s firm is in high demand these days, as conservatism seeps into that yearning for the past. “Working from Washington, D.C., he leads Harrison Design’s Sacred Studio, which focuses on designing traditional and classical churches. In the 10 years since Charbonneau launched the studio, it has seen an increase in commissions from all around the country for classical and traditionally designed churches, mainly in the Catholic tradition, a surprising development given the backdrop of declining church attendance and church closures…

“The influence of modernism as well as the Second Vatican Council, a series of meetings held between 1962 and 1965 that sought to modernize the Catholic church, gave rise to boxy, austere and futuristic-looking churches, which ultimately didn’t stand the test of time, Charbonneau said. In other faiths too, ornamentation and traditional styles were abandoned in favor of more experimental church designs.” Deseret News. Leading American candidates seeking higher office are increasingly making sure to associate with church services attendance and must show a clear affinity for Christianity, regardless of party, with many ending their speeches with, “May God bless America … and protect our troops.” Sincere? Manipulative? Or a bit of both. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and while moral values reflected in most religions give many solace and direction, all too often they allow people refuse to take responsibility for their acceptance of toxic habits and work for a better world… and rely on those leaders who misuse faith simply to manipulate voters into sheep-like passivity.