Violence in Brazil reinforces that there is a crisis of discernment in evangelicalism
Violence in Brazil reinforces that there is a crisis of discernment in evangelicalism
My book explains the roots of this crisis
Hello friends,
You’ve probably seen that supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stormed, vandalized and ransacked their country’s government buildings on Sunday, assaulting police officers and journalists as they went.
From the New York Times:
In scenes reminiscent of the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Bolsonaro's supporters on Sunday laid siege to Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices — the violent culmination of years of conspiracy theories advanced the former president and his allies. They set fires, repurposed barricades as weapons, knocked police officers from horseback and filmed their violent acts as they committed them. By Sunday night, the seat of government had been cleared.
The Times has compiled a number of videos here.
There were signs that some participants in the assault on Brazil’s government believe that they — like some of the January 6 insurrectionists — were doing the will of God.
I have had my eye on Brazil for a while, because in my book Testimony, which will be out in April, I trace the history of a man named Lou Engle, who was a leader in the early days of the church I grew up in. Engle went to the west coast after several years in my parents’ church, and in the late 90’s began to become more politically involved. Over the last 20 years he’s become more and more political, while also organizing massive rallies of young people around the country where they sing religious songs and listen to preachers talk about Christianity.
Engle is a bit of an under-the-radar leader. But he’s quite influential. He has fused Pentecostal-style charismatic Christianity with anti-abortion political activism.
The day after the 2020 election, Engle became a big promoter of the baseless stolen election lies being spread by former President Trump. Here he is on November 4, saying this:
"I believe there are spiritual powers in heaven and on earth who are moving in corruption and in fraud."
A few days later, on November 9, he said:
“It is time for the church not to resign but to give themselves to fasting and praying, crying out for the exposure of voter fraud … Joe Biden is not my president ... He is not in authority ... until inauguration day my authority in this nation is President Trump ... until then i do not have an obligation to pray for Vice President Joseph Biden.”
He continued putting out regular videos until right before January 6, 2021. He called news reporting that had debunked the bogus fraud claims “false media lies.” He expressed hope that the election results would be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, throwing out the votes of millions of Americans: “We need five judges. We need to secure the judges.”
Signs of devout Christian belief (and Christian nationalism) were everywhere, of course, on January 6 among Trump supporters who assaulted police officers and stormed the U.S. Capitol building. January 6 was preceded by a “Jericho March” a few weeks prior, in which many Christian leaders participated. In addition, at a rally of Trump supporters on January 5, the day before the insurrection, one of the speakers there was Che Ahn, who also was a leader at my childhood church. Ahn went to California at the same time as Engle and has remained a collaborator and partner with him in their Christian ministries.
One of Engle’s big projects these days is something called “The Send.” These are stadium rallies with young people, which grew out of Engle’s “The Call” rallies which started in D.C. 20 years ago. The latest “Send” rally was in Kansas City this past summer.
But two years ago, “The Send” held a rally in Brazil. And Bolsanaro spoke there, according to Fox News:
More than 140,000 people attended the 12-hour event at three different stadiums – Brasilia Nacional Stadium, and Morumbi Stadium and Allianz Parque Stadium in Sao Paulo – with 1.7 million watching on the Portuguese livestream and more than 560,000 on the English one.
Appeals to religious sentiment (and not just to evangelicals) were a big part of how Bolsonaro got elected in the first place in 2018. And Christian practice in Brazil is changing, from a more institutional Catholic style to a more informal, emotional evangelical style.
From the Wall Street Journal:
The number of evangelicals is expected to overtake the number of Catholics and become the biggest religious bloc in Brazil over the next decade. Low-income Brazilians, who polls show are more likely to be evangelical, voted en masse for Mr. Bolsonaro in 2018, creating a new pool of conservative voters.
So I’ve wondered in the last year or two: how much were Christian leaders from the U.S. supporting Bolsonaro, and how much were Brazilian Christian leaders doing so?
We know that right wing political anarchists like Steve Bannon were heavily involved in trying to overturn the 2020 election in the U.S., and that Bannon has spread lies about the Brazilian election and also cheered on the lawlessness and rioting in Brazil. There has also been some consultation between Bannon and Bolsonaro, according to news reports.
We also know that some overtly Christian nationalist leaders from the U.S. have suppported Bolsonaro in the past, like Jim Garlow, who promoted the lies about the 2020 election and held calls about how the election results might be reversed with several big names among the Trump movement such as Mike Flynn, Doug Mastriano, Eric Metaxas, Bannon, and others.
But did Brazilian Christian leaders amplify and repeat Bolsonaro’s lies about a stolen election, the same way Christian leaders like Engle and many others in the U.S. did for Trump? I just don’t know. I plan to look further into this.
Others are wondering the same thing:
It’s good that Brazilian pastor Teo Hayashi, who helped start “The Send” with Engle, is condemning the violence in Brazil.
But to me, one of the biggest questions is this: Is there any self-reflection going on among Christian leaders who have supported Trump and Bolsonaro? Twice now, political leaders who were elected in no small part because of evangelicals have refused to acknowledge their losses, and their supporters have waged violent assaults on their country’s own government, law enforcement, and journalists. Is there any self-assessment inside evangelicalism among the many Christian leaders whose support enabled both these men to get elected and to nearly topple their respective democracies?
It’s quite likely that some evangelicals in the U.S. and Brazil will conclude that they are on to some really wild conspiracy about elections that transcend borders (a nutty theory with no evidence, but one that some will undoubtedly attribute to demons and the people controlled by evil spirits).
The other possibility is that something is rotten in the state of American and global evangelicalism, one which makes its followers highly susceptible to manipulation and exploitation by political demagogues.
My book will try to explain how this community, in which I was raised, came to the point where there is a widespread crisis of discernment and a failure of discipleship in exercising public virtue (a concept I’ll expand on later).
Testimony is out April 18. You can pre-order it here for 40% off from the publisher, or here from Amazon.
