called a heretic by his peers, the church pastor and theologian Bethesda Ceará Ricardo Gondim, 57, recently gave a controversial interview to Carta Capital criticizing the neo-Pentecostal movement in Brazil. He said this move expands as a power project and the imposition of values. He also states that he is a direct child of American fundamentalism, which is growing alarmingly in a wave of religious irrationalism. Read the interview.
" God forbid one of Brazil evangelical "
Ricardo Gondim
Carta Capital : Evangelicals played a major role in recent elections. Brazil is becoming a country more influenced by the discourse of this movement?
Ricardo Gondim : Yes, because it is noticeably growing number of evangelicals. But it is important to make a qualitative weighting. The more it grows, the more evangelical movement also is influenced. The doctrinal rigor and typical values \u200b\u200bare dispersed in small groups, and evangelicals are closer to the religious profile of typical Brazilian.
CC: How do you define this profile?
RG: extremely eclectic and ecumenical. For the first time, we evangelicals who belong also the Catholic communities or spiritualists. There is talk of a "popular evangelicalism," along the lines of popular Catholicism, evangelical and non-practicing, what did not exist until recently. The movement grows, but loses strength. And so it has to choose some themes affording him an identity. In the United States, the church clings to three issues: abortion, homosexuality and Islamic influence in the world. In Brazil, it is no different. There is an extreme conservatism in these areas, but a relaxation in others. There are huge ethical aberrations.
CC: You wrote an article entitled " God in Brazil a Free Evangelical " . Why would an evangelical pastor says so?
RG: Because this project requires not only spirituality but the whole culture, aesthetics, and worldview of the evangelical world, which is not in any way desirable. It would be the Talibanization of Brazil. We need the cultural and religious diversity. The evangelical movement expands the proposal to be the majority, increasingly able to define the path of elections and, perhaps, choose the president. It becomes very clear in the design of the Universal Church. The purpose of having the pastor in Congress in positions of power, is to facilitate the expansion of the church. In this sense, the movement is Machiavellian. If it is to save Brazil from destruction, the end justifies the means.
DC: The American movement is a great inspiration to evangelicals in Brazil?
RG: The Brazilian movement is the son of American fundamentalism. The United States exports its American way of life many ways, and the evangelical church is one of the key. The leaders here basically read American authors and seek them all his spirituality, theology and standardization behavior. The American church is pragmatic, managerial, which is very characteristic of that culture. Works like a full-service agency religious, healing, deliverance, financial prosperity. In a country like Brazil, where almost everyone is born a Catholic, evangelical church needs to be extremely agile, pragmatic, and provide results to prevail. It is a logic of individualism and unethical. A very common teaching in the churches is that God opens the ports of employment for the faithful. I teach my community to extricate themselves from this language. We rebel when we hear some politician has opened a door to the protégé. Why would it be different with God?
CC: You say that the Brazilian Evangelical church is in decline, but the movement continues to grow.
RG: A church that, to sustain itself, needs ever more outlandish campaigns, a discourse increasingly histrionic and increasingly absurd promises is in decline. Where to get your membership values \u200b\u200bI need to appeal to more primitive and sensory and produce fear in the world of magic, transcendental, are my message is fragile.
CC: can say the same of the North American movement?
RG : Many say yes, despite the numbers. There is a growing enthusiasm of these, but a rejection of those who increasingly are outside. Today, the United States, a person who has not been created in the middle and has a minimum of critical thinking will never come close to this church, associated with Bush, intolerance in all directions, the Tea Party to war.
CC: Are you in favor of civil unions between homosexuals?
RG: I'm in favor. Brazil is a secular country. My faith convictions can not influence, nor run over the right others. We must respect the needs and aspirations that arise from other social reality. The gay community strives for stable relationships legally. The nation has to consider this demand. And the church must understand that not all homosexuals are promiscuous relations. I have my views against promiscuity, which I feel bad for human relationships, but this has a close relationship with homosexuality or heterosexuality.
CC: You faces much opposition from his peers?
RG: A lot! I was elected because of the heretic. Among other things, because I advocate the thesis that the theology of God a puppet, controller of history no longer fits. It may have fit in medieval times, but not today. The God I believe in does not control, but love. It is incompatible to the existence of a God with human freedom controller. If God is omnipotent and good, and bad things happen, then something is wrong with that assumption. My answer is that God is in control. The favela, polluted stream, tragedy, war, have nothing to do with God. Quite agree with Simone Weil, a Jewish convert to Catholicism during the Second World War, when he says the world is only possible by the absence of God. We live like if God did not exist, because only then we become responsible citizens, humanize ourselves, fight for life, for good. The vision of God as an all-powerful father, who will protect me, save, and help open doors of life is childish.
CC: But the Christian movements have always been in the opposite direction.
RG: Not necessarily. For some authors, the decay of Protestantism in Europe is not truly a decline, but the accomplishment of its objectives: empty churches and citizens more and more citizens are more concerned with the issue of human rights, good deal of life and the environment.
Source: Capital Letter No. 643, pp. 70-71
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