In the Name of God and Christianity: Ultra-conservatism, populism and religious communication in Latin America

Politics and religion are usually considered as strongly interlinked in Latin America. Despite the fact that discourses about religion, Christianity and God are assumed to play an important role in political competition, we are still confronted with a gap of systematic comparative large N analyses. This work attempts to map religious discourses of 87 parties and presidential candidates in 15 Latin American countries based on quantitative content analyses of 14,379 posts on Facebook and to identify the discursive context of religious content. We find that religious references serve to emphasise one’s own closeness to God and Christianity, to promote traditional morality and to portray competitors as immoral and corrupt. In this sense, religious references fit well with ultraconservative populism. Religious discourses mainly occur in Central America and Brazil where Evangelical groups are on the rise and where societies are particularly religious. The Evangelical rise may therefore have a substantial impact on society and political campaigning. Religious discourses in society without relevant Evangelical groups can be explained by strongly conservative parties and an extremely religious population.