Evangelicals in Brazil: an American religion
Luiz Andrada
November 22, 2020.
Note: In the past, a friend told me that these evangelical religions are infiltrated by CIA agents, in a clear plan to "spiritually" dominate other countries. At that time I found it a little conspiratorial, but now I think it is quite possible.
Protestants and evangelicals in Brazil form an American-based religious group. Even historical churches born in Europe, such as Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist, suffered ruptures and migrations to the USA, and from there they came on missions to Brazil. An example is the IELB (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil), a Lutheran church linked to the Missouri Synod, in the USA.
The fastest growing religious segment in Brazil deserves a close look at its ideologies, practices, customs. Since when Americans took on the role of the world's redeemers, the new Israel of God, their tactics of spreading and imposing their culture span from music to technology, from fashion to religion, among other diverse areas.
Pentecostal churches, such as the Assembly of God (the largest evangelical group in Brazil). Neopentecostal churches, which spread prosperity theology. Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans, Lutherans. Charismatic churches and communities. Sects like Adventists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Messianic Jews (for example, Jews for Jesus). And an infinity of groups and theological tendencies. All of these institutions were born in the USA, or were born in Europe and then went to the USA. All Brazilian Protestant and Evangelical churches are daughters of American groups. It is a phenomenal and extremely efficient religious expansion project. It is a kind of Protestant crusade, aimed at conquering the Latin American continent. So far the project has been very successful.
The services are in the North American style. Denominational conventions are filled with American missionaries. Many Brazilian pastors studied theology at American universities. American songs, hymns and worship groups translate and imitate American songs, hymns and worship groups. Evangelical bookstores are full of books written by Americans. The most respected theologians in Brazil are Americans. In other words, the Brazilian evangelical religion is North American, made in the USA.
Research institutes claim that by 2030 Brazil will have a Pentecostal evangelical majority, and will cease to be a Catholic majority. Something that worries me a lot, because the Pentecostal milieu is very sick, fanatical and rigid. Politicians, psychopaths and opportunists, from all ideological specters, have already realized this, and always turn to evangelical services to make promises, and to ask for votes.
This phenomenon deserves a close look, yes. Fundamentalist theology in the southern United States, especially strong in the Baptist church, migrated to Brazil, and here it teaches the same falsely biblical bias racism that is taught there (the theory that blacks would be descendants of Cam, the cursed son of Noah). This is just one example. There is a framework of the most violent craziness being imported into Brazil, and many of these religions are literally insane and maddening. Public authorities need to watch. The Brazilian needs to learn to observe and criticize, in order not to submit to speeches by imposters who promise, for example, wealth, employment, house, car, if the citizen joins the church and faithfully delivers tithes and offerings. God doesn't make that kind of bargain.
