Bolsonaro and the Evangelicals: campaigning with higher forces

Brazil’s President Bolsonaro has a powerful ally in the election campaign: Pastor Malafaia, head of a large evangelical church. He attunes millions of his supporters to Bolsonaro – and is already warning of electoral fraud.

They stretch out their hands to him as if the devil himself were standing there. Spotlight cones circle it, camera cranes drive up, LED walls reflect the images. Pastor Silas Malafaia, 63, with horn-rimmed glasses, a tailor-made jacket and dandy-like slicked-back hair, first warms up a little before shouting his opinion of Brazil’s forthcoming presidential elections into the microphone, pointing his index finger up – as if he were trying to exorcise a demon in Brazil’s politics

“Anyone who defends drugs, who defends abortion, who defends gay marriage gets applause! For them we are the fundamentalists. How did it come to this?” Malafaia roars. “This is the culture of Marxism, it controls thought, social networks, everything. It’s worse than dictatorship. Freedom, I say freedom! In the name of Jesus: the corrupt, the plunderers of the nation will not come to power to return!”

His words echo from around 6000 throats. Silas Malafaia is a powerful man in Brazil. The prominent Pentecostal preacher is head of the evangelical mega-church “Assembleia de Deus Vitória em Cristo”. In addition to the main church in Penha, a working-class district in Rio’s northern zone, it maintains around 150 other temples in the country, has its own publishing houses and TV stations and has around twelve million followers. Malafaia brought his candidate with him that day so that they also know where to put their crosses in the election on October 2nd.

You help each other

“Never in the history of Brazil have we had a president who honored the Christian people, the Church of Jesus and God like Jair Messias Bolsonaro. Never!” said Malafaia.

Mito, call him here, myth. Bolsonaro stands next to Malafaia and smiles devoutly. He calls his “spiritual adviser” the preacher – and in August he extended the current tax exemption for the churches to include their pastors.

70 million professing evangelicals

In what was once the largest Catholic country in the world, 70 million are now evangelicals – one in three Brazilians. Ascending trend. Among them there are also traditional Protestant communities such as Lutherans or Baptists. The most popular, however, are the Bible-believing and ultra-conservative Pentecostal churches, which often have their roots in the USA.

In the meantime, they also represent an influential group in Brazil’s Congress, the so-called Bible faction. And according to polls, the majority of their supporters vote for Bolsonaro, including Catharina Tonell: “Our president defends our principles. Freedom, family, life. All of that is at risk if there is a change of government. The left-wing Labor Party is trying to infiltrate churches and Indoctrinating children with socialism. Socialism means misery.”

“Clear Instructions in the Word of God”

The big Pentecostal churches, on the other hand, preach the so-called prosperity gospel. Those who worship God will be rewarded, right here and now. Financial success is a sign of God’s favor. This is particularly popular where there is no state and everyone has to see to it on their own how they can get by with their families, in the violent suburbs or in the country.

Priscilla Casar from Penha has just been baptized: “You feel like you belong here. The church offers a network that supports us. And it gives us a clear direction. Here for the first time I received clear instructions in the Word of God, which has changed my life”

After Mass: a seed of honor for the pastor

Gospel choirs and guitar riffs, hate tirades, sublime prayers and the love of Jesus – the mass is a roller coaster ride of emotions and ends with the call to plant a seed of honor for the pastor. Account numbers are displayed, dozens of helpers pour out with envelopes and credit card readers. Many donate in the belief that only then will they receive something in return from God. Ten years ago, Forbes magazine estimated Malafaia’s personal fortune at $150 million, but he himself denies this.

“We are more than 30 percent of the population. The evangelical church is a force. And we will continue to grow. And of course we will also have an influence,” says Malafaia. “We bless this nation. And we declare: No one will commit fraud against the sovereign will of the people in these elections.”

Fear of a second “capitol storm”

Another clear message. After all, Bolsonaro has been preaching for weeks that he can only lose the election if there is fraud. The great unknown is how his supporters will react in the event of a possible defeat. Some fear chaos similar to the storming of the Capitol in Washington. “God only,” Bolsonaro once said, remove him from the presidency.

However, the evangelicals will continue to expand their political influence even without the right-wing agitators. According to research by the investigative platform The Intercept, the “universal church of the kingdom of God,” Brazil’s second evangelical mega-church, has already given its pastors the freedom to decide who to advertise for. After all, nobody wants to be on the losing side.