Abstract
This chapter discusses the impact of the evangelical presence in urban society and the place of subaltern minorities in these religious contexts. To this end, the author undertakes an analysis of the role of Pentecostalism in the dramatic, recurring violence on the periphery of Rio de Janeiro. Taking an ethnographic approach, the author walks the streets of the Parada de Lucas community seeking signs of evangelical action and then relates these signs to sociological analyses of Latin American religion. By the end of this venture, the author concludes that the evangelical church—and particularly its Pentecostal element—has immersed itself in two dimensions of sociopolitical action: social work and moral inquisition. In both cases, the action is limited and limiting: on the one side, the amateurism of their social projects; on the other, the intensive targeting of sexual and reproductive rights through legislative processes. Both have, ironically, led the church into dangerous associations with organized crime.
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Notes
- 1.
The event, known in Portuguese as the Jornada Mundial da Juventude, took place from July 23 to 28, 2013.
- 2.
Then mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, told the press that early attendance projections suggested that the World Cup and ensuing Olympics would be the largest events in the city’s history.
- 3.
For sake of privacy, we have changed the name of our guide.
- 4.
Youth with a Mission (YWAM, in Portuguese, JOCUM) is an international and interdenominational parachurch organization that mobilizes young people in a host of countries for evangelistic ministry. According to the official Web site (https://www.ywam.org), YWAM is currently comprised of 18,000 missionaries, including 1300 Brazilians, in full-time ministry across 180 countries. “About us,” YWAM, accessed August 23, 2015, https://www.ywam.org/about-us/.
- 5.
Jacarezinho a community or bairro in Rio’s North Zone, Rio de Janeiro, has about ten thousand residents. Mandela is a favela located in the bairro of Manguinhos, an urban region infamous for its high indices of violence. In this regard, it frequently receives negative coverage in the local press.
- 6.
In the south and southeast regions of Brazil, having personal or family origins in the northeast is a source of social stigma that often results in discrimination, ridicule, and other forms of social marginalization.
- 7.
For a more detailed discussion of this theme, see Luiz Antônio Machado da Silva, Vida sob Cerco: Violência e Rotina nas Favelas do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 2008).
- 8.
The 2002 film City of God (Cidade de Deus) narrates one such territorial power dispute in a major favela of Rio de Janeiro.
- 9.
For more on this phenomenon, see Luiz Antônio Machado da Silva and Márcia Pereira Leite, “Continuidades e Mudanças em Favelas ‘Pacificadas’: Apresentação ao Dossiê Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora (CEVIS),” Dilemas: Revista de Estudos de Conflito e Controle Social 7 (2014): i–iv.
- 10.
See Michel Foucault, Vigiar e Punir: Historia da Violência nas Prisões (Petrópolis: Vozes, 1987).
- 11.
See José Arocena, El Desarollo Local—Um Desafio Contemporâneo (Caracas: Nueva Sociedad, 1995).
- 12.
Márcia Pereira Leite, “Dor, Sofrimento e Luta: Fazendo Religião e Política em um Contexto de Violência,” Ciencias Sociales y Religión (Impresso) 19 (2013): 31.
- 13.
To be precise, the municipality of Rio de Janeiro recognizes 23,923 residents in Parada de Lucas distributed among 7716 households. These statistics for all Rio bairros (2010) are available at: “Bairros Cariocas,” accessed October 31, 2014, http://portalgeo.rio.rj.gov.br/bairroscariocas/index_bairro.htm. For Parada de Lucas, see http://pcrj.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=096ae1e5497145838ca64191be66f3e3.
- 14.
Cf. Jailson de Souza e Silva, As Unidades Policiais Pacificadoras e os Novos Desafios Para as Favelas Cariocas (São Paulo: LeMetro/UFF, 2010).
- 15.
See Souza, Subcidadania Brasileira: Para Entender o País Além do Jeitinho Brasileiro (São Paulo: LeYa, 2018). “Subnormal agglomeration” (Port., “aglomerado subnormal”) is the term employed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) to designate that which is known popularly as the “favela.” Still other government organs prefer the term “precarious settlement” (Port., “assentamento precário”). For a discussion of the diverse nomenclatures applied to such urban areas of social marginalization, see Jailson de Souza e Silva, Jorge Luiz Barbosa, Mariane de Oliveira Biteti, y Fernando Lannes Fernandes, O Que É Favela, Afinal? (Rio de Janeiro: Observatório das Favelas do Rio de Janeiro, 2009).
- 16.
Jessé Souza, ed., A Ralé Brasileira: Quem É e Como Vive (Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG, 2009).
- 17.
In Portuguese, Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora. Peacekeeping units were first established in the slums of Rio de Janeiro at the end of 2008, initially on the hill of Santa Marta. With the approach of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, the police occupation of the favelas was intensified. There is a growing critique of this security model as an explicit strategy of violence, as well as an implicit strategy of social control.
- 18.
Interview of Gabriel Bayarri for the Instituto Humanitas Unisinos (IHU-On line). “UPP: Uma Política de Segurança Ambigua. Entrevista Especial com Gabriel Bayarri,” Combate Racismo Ambiental, June 30, 2015, accessed August 17, 2015, http://acervo.racismoambiental.net.br/2015/06/30/upp-uma-politica-de-seguranca-ambigua-entrevista-especial-com-gabriel-bayarri/.
- 19.
For a case study of the role of the UPP in a Rio bairro, see Sonia Fleury, “Militarização do Social Como Estratégia de Integração – o Caso da UPP do Santa Marta,” Sociologias (Porto Alegre) 14, no. 30 (May/August 2012): 194–222.
- 20.
The article is available at: Rafael Soares, “Traficantes Proibem Candomble e ate Roupa Branca em Favelas,” O Globo, October 9, 2013, http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/traficantes-proibem-candomble-ate-roupa-branca-em-favelas-9892892. Candomblé’s rituals at time involve the wearing of white articles of clothing.
- 21.
This public hearing of the Comissão de Combate a Intolerância Religiosa (CCIR) took place on August 18, 2015. Among the participants was state deputy Marcelo Freixo, President of the Commission on Human Rights for the State Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ).
- 22.
See Ulf Hannerz, “Fluxos, Fronteiras, Híbridos: Palavras-Chave da Antropologia Transnacional,” Mana 3:1 (1997): 7–39.
- 23.
The term “social minority” in this context refers less to numerical status and more to subaltern status, to groups dominated or controlled by the social “majority.”
- 24.
For a published discussion of the relationship between the evangelical sermon and the religious discourse that shapes social practices of violence, see my article entitled “O Falar de Deus: Um Olhar Antropológico ao Púlpito Evangélico,” Protestantismo em Revista 27 (2012): 9–16.
Bibliography
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YWAM. “About Us.” Accessed August 23, 2015. https://www.ywam.org/about-us/.
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da Silva, A.F. (2019). “This Precarious Life”: The Public Impact of Evangelical Churches in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In: Miller, E., Morgan, R. (eds) Brazilian Evangelicalism in the Twenty-First Century. Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13686-4_8
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