Jair Messias Bolsonaro maintains the support of the most extremist evangelicals as his reserve legion. Some millionaires and influencers. A kind of golden army of Yaveh as a support to rule. Bolsonaro seems to live a fantasy. This faith, the fanatical certainty of what is not seen, seems to be the foundation of Brazil’s debacle. The president and his porfied reasoning have led South America’s largest country into an unparalleled health collapse, for, as he has said, “the best antidote to the virus is faith.” But how did a character representing a fanatical sector achieve Brazil’s presidency?
Evangelicals do not have a vertical organizational structure like Catholics. Then any individual, to get out of poverty, self-proclaims himself pastor and builds his church. A church can be comparable to a company. The church will enter the evangelical market. Depending on the level of persuasion of the pastor, this firm can succumb or grow. For example, the successful pastor who created a megachurch with fast food-style branches will interpret his luxuries as a blessing from God. Luxuries that can be a high-end vehicle or a home in some elite neighborhood.
God, of course, blesses the cheerful giver according to the Bible. In Brazil, the formula of the “divine trick” has been used by thousands of shepherds. Recruitment churches have names typical of a marketing class like, “Jesus, come and stay here.” In each shopping district of the popular sectors, there is a bar or “boteco” and, next door, an evangelical church. It was necessary to unite this diversity of Christs in competition to climb to the same political power. Bolsonaro made it. And from the political peak, Bolsonaro has led to a series of subsidies for the creation of more evangelical churches. Subsidies such as not paying common expenses. In the end, it is a faith that will be transformed into vows to perpetuate his “divine work”.
The Bible is a bomb in the hands of an autocratic leader. Bolsonaro elucubra with “his divine right to rule”. He quotes texts from the Bible, to give himself reason. In a country as culturally diverse as Brazil, it seems that it is only worth one view: that of the evangelical faith. Then, to follow the political fantasy of Bolsonaro, it is necessary: to accept God; transform into evangelical; follow all the rules of worship and say no to abortion, not homosexuality; to deliver tithing responsiblely to enlarge the work; work hard and respect the employer. Having completed the above, we can declare ourselves pursenarists. And I forgot: never question the pastor in his decisions, let alone the President. Well, that would be to question God himself.
Bolsonaro reached the presidency amid a power vacuum. A power that was being questioned by corruption. In the midst of this political chaos, only God could interfere, and so believed by a great deal of Brazilians.
The Covid-19 pandemic has stripped off Bolsonaro’s poor driving, the cost of which is already around 350,000 dead, a figure comparable to all the inhabitants of a city like Antofagasta from day to day. And, on the other hand, the deforestation of the Amazon continues, with the environmental price for the whole continent. Brazil’s “a man of faith” like Bolsonaro has become an insufferable neighbor. God only knows his destiny.
The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
