O projeto de poder : a atuação parlamentar da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (1991-1999)

Abstract

Over the last few decades it has been almost inevitable to come across an evangelical element in Brazil's public spaces. This religious segment is present in the most diverse environments, from the media to politics. In order to understand the public advance of evangelical churches and their ways of establishing themselves in politics, we investigated the trajectory of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG). Our work analyses the speeches of IURD deputies during the 49th and 50th legislatures in the Chamber of Deputies. Using complementary sources such as biographies and interviews with members of the church, we contrast the discursive analyses of the MPs with the narratives made by leaders of the UCKG with the aim of critically historicising the institution's political project. In doing so, we identified how the church achieved its recent political influence, what its agendas and flags were, its articulations and its understandings of the role of religion in society. Through the Critical Analysis of Parliamentary Speeches, we understand Brazilian neo-Pentecostalism as a constituent phenomenon of the New Republic and a challenge to Brazilian liberal democracy, given the Universal's actions aligned with physiological parties that reflect political practices marked by personalism, clientelism and patrimonialism.