Among those arrested were at least four evangelical pastors, according to Agência Pública, a Brazilian investigative news agency, which analyzed the government labor records of 1,398 detained demonstrators. The pastors were representative of the significant presence of evangelicals and Catholics among the mob.
In this issue of A Public Witness, we look at the role of Christianity in Brazilian politics and consider what the violence on Jan. 8 means for churches. While many reporters and commentators draw comparisons between Jan. 6 and Jan. 8, religion is too often
Allegations that two evangelical pastors have used their influence with Brazil’s Education Ministry to steer federal funding to friends — and in at least one case seek a bribe — are causing a new election-year controversy for the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday named Attorney General Andre Mendonca, who is also an evangelical pastor, to fill a vacated seat on Brazil’s supreme court, the conservative president’s second appointment to the 11-member court.
Stating that Brazil’s federal government displayed contempt for protecting the health of the population and showed criminal conduct, 380 Brazilian Christian religious leaders filed an impeachment request against President Jair Bolsonaro for the crime of shirking his responsibilities. Read full piece
In a year the Black Lives Matter movement spread across the globe, Brazilians are beginning to focus on the role the Catholic Church played in the institution of slavery in the country. Read full piece
Throughout Latin America, evangelical churches have flouted public health guidelines by holding in-person services, or have personally ministered to church members in homes and other settings. In at least two countries, evangelical pastors have died in alarming numbers during the pandemic.
When the first COVID-19 cases hit Brazil in March, the government agency in charge of protecting the country’s Indigenous peoples ordered all civilians to leave the Indigenous reservations. But a new law made an exception for one group: Christian missionaries. And some people aren’t happy.
Colombia and the Brazilian Amazon remain two major hotspots for deadly attacks on environmental defenders, a new report from human rights and environmental NGO Global Witness reveals. Read full piece
The head of the largest Baptist convention in Brazil recently recovered after a serious case of COVID-19. But the good news after weeks of prayer for him comes amid a growing coronavirus outbreak in the largest South American nation.