Sunday, 27 May 2018
Pentecostal and Charismatic Media
Exam Questions :
• Should we expect the mediatisation of religion to provide pastors of Pentecostal
churches with more or less authority ?
• What ethical questions are raised by the staging of religious media spectacles?
Future in the Mirror : Media, Evangelicals, and Politics in Rio De Janeiro - Patricia Birman
• When the world’s biggest football stadium, Rio de Janeiro’s Marcana, hosted non-catholic
religious event in the mid-1980s it was clear that something in the city’s traditional religious
patters was changing.
• Even though it had taken several years for the stadium to be used in this way by what was
then still a low profile religious group, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of god (UCKG).
• The first evangelical television channel was launched in 1990, operated by the universal
church, and today religious mega shows in football stadiums have become routine events
throughout Brazil.
• A decade later the sheer number of religious rituals presented as public shows is a clear sign
of social, religious and political importance that Pentecostal churches have now attained in
Brazil clearly demonstrating the new religious face of what was once the largest catholic
country in the world.
• Evangelicals are not just grown in number but also in visibility . Their presence is also felt in
performative settings in politics, musical events, religious spectacles on television and in both
secular and religious press.
• This visibility in turn is translated into a close connection between personalities linked to the
Universal Church, public shows and the media.
A Holy War or an industry of miracles ?
• However, from the early colonial period we start to see these contrasting beliefs and
practices from the local population - african salves, Portuguese heretics, exiled
criminals
1
, Sunday, 27 May 2018
• Out of these various groups, grew beliefs such as umbanda, spiritualism, candomble,
which can all ultimately be described as afro brazilian cults.
• Although Catholicism, was the official state religion it was unable to eradicate these
non- christian values and practices and ultimately provided ‘ an enormous nationwide
umbrella’ providing shelter for minority beliefs.
• The UCKG tends to clash head on with the catholic church as a national and
international hegemonic force.
• They sough to confront the possession cults, through routine practice of exorcism with
demons, the UCKG was thus opposing the syncretic bonds that made these cults
catholic, albeit non practising.
• From this we see a denouncement on there parts of catholicism, for allowing idolatry,
complacence and these forms of evils. The church launched a holy war. In their
meetings they would cast out demons in the possessed.
• This war appeared to shake the very foundation of what was once a stable catholic
country.
• The UCKG also challenged the social hierarch within Brazil, as there propagation of a
theology of prosperity and a belief in social mobility challenges the idea of poverty as
natural and ineradicable and thus threatens the stability of the social hierarchy.
• Reaction came initially from the communications media because of the competition
from the church ( it bought a concession for a tv channel ) as well as from the
country elite, whose has long pen predominantly Catholic.
• An intense campaign was waged against the universal church by the secular media,
implicitly reflecting a catholic sensibility wounded by the methods of this emerging
cult, that its combining of televised shows of exorcism with successful business
through an industry of miracles and the payment of tithe by its follower.
• Bishop Macedo, the church religious leader, was depicted on tv as someone who cheated
the poor by promising wealth and happiness. Dishonest and charlatanism were associate
with economic exploitation of the poor through false promises.
Fight the Devil, Fight Poverty, Fight the Sources of Disorder
2
, Sunday, 27 May 2018
• The most powerful media companies started a discussion on violence between 93-94 that
placed heavy blame on the pentecostals ( among other people ) for a cause historically
unparalleled internal spit among the poor.
• By conducting a holy war against traditional and popular religiosity, they were caused of
producing intolerance and religious conflict where before they had only peace.
• The media at this time highlighted the two social factions shows to be the sources of
disturbance and conflict- the poor and fanatical Pentecostals from the UCKG- as one and the
same.
• In Rio the media has played a key role in building an image of violent city. The violent and
social conflicts disassociated from the churches but the churches became- with the willing
complicity of the media - a new instrument for pacification.
• The image of a peaceful society, which historically coincides with the predominance of Catholic
ideology had lost ground to a disruptive and conflict ridden image.
• This in turn has been absorbed into Pentecostalist discourses concerning the path to salvation,
which proclaim Pentecostalism as one of the sources of peace in the world. New entrants are
transformed into people cable of combating evil with the Word and through exorcism.
• Those who have taken Jesus into their hearts are the new messengers of Good, peace and
prosperity.
Faith is the Star
• One of the clearest signs of the religious transformation in society and of its impact in the
communications media - is the importance given to the religious affiliations of public figures.
They have both increased in frequency and importance.
• During the initial stages of pentecostal explosion in the media, led by the UCKG, the
pentecostals were branded as a disruptive presence, provoking conflict and disorder.
• As this image was transformed , so was their name and from pentecostals or believers they
became evangelicals.
• By calling itself evangelical, it began to align itself with the broad spectrum of Pentecostal or
protestant learning groups now existing in Brazil.
• To understand how this new political religious role was created, we need to recognise aside
from the work of the media how the evangelicals have continually presented themselves as
those who bring good in contrast to other social groups that operate diabolically through the
use of violence.
3
