Religion and Politics in Brazil: The Conservative Evangelical Parliamentary Front

This paper analyzes the positions of Brazilian federal deputies that integrate the Parliamentary Front of Public Security and the Evangelical Parliamentary Front. These Fronts are respectively known as the “Bloc of Bullet”, because they defend a wide permission for having guns, and the “Bloc of Bible”, because they justify their proposals with a religious discourse based on the Bible. They are also very belligerent on the issues regarding abortion, homosexual marriage, and stem cell research. We start discussing Weber’s theories on the diverse connections between religion, economy and politics, mainly those theories that discuss the tension between ascetic values and the down-to-earth negotiations necessary in economic affairs and, above all, on the political realm. Some religions, therefore, abstained from mingling in those activities, whereas others developed a quite militant and warrior like way of defending their religious values and practices. Among the last ones, the obligation of defending the church against those who threaten their freedom of expression has always been adamant. A tendency to purify their churches from the surrounding faiths increased the antagonism that called up the believers to fight relentlessly against evil in all its forms. Although there are studies that show how the belief in hell or heaven have had a positive effect on economics, other consequences of such beliefs may ensue in day to day social practices. The way religion may impact on the political development of a modern nation trying to consolidate democracy may have other damaging outcomes in so far as it tends to seclude the others, and create a non-crossable polarization within the nation. Therefore, we are seeking to apprehend the interests that are common to these two conservative fronts, focusing the inclinations of evangelical parliamentarians towards conservative legislative deliberations on issues that involves more rigid and repressive security policies, such as the discourse about self-defense through the use of guns, the reduction of legal age for being arrested and prosecuted according to the Brazilian Penal Law, the prohibition of stem cells research and the prohibition of terminating pregnancy. Finally, we also discuss the positioning of evangelical members on the dominance of the State of Israel in the Middle East, which culminated often in a belligerent discourse against a malevolent enemy, i.e., all enemies of Israel. Neo Pentecostal churches in Brazil have nurtured a tremendous identification with Israel, to the point of building a copy of Salomon temple in São Paulo, as a way of showing their adherence to the Bible. We collected and analyzed information on the legislative proposals involving these themes that were submitted to and voted in the Federal Chamber of Deputies. Evangelical parliamentarians have been most active and successful in their endeavors. In addition, we did semi-structured interviews with members of evangelical churches in order to verify whether their opinions on the subject of security matched the ones defended by the evangelical deputies. The inclinations of these parliamentarians demonstrate the impacts provoked by the prominence of religiously fundamentalist and politically conservative justifications that make up their legislative agendas.