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 It must be hard to be a religious fundamentalist in Salvador, Bahia, in the Brazilian Northeast. The complexity of local religious expression has to infuriate those who like their cosmology absolutist - served up in ready-made categories of right and wrong, believer and unbeliever, and Jesus and Satan.
On Thursday, January 12th, a travesty occurred in Salvador, at least from the point of few of a Christian fundamentalist. The city practically stopped to observe a multi-faith religious festival called "A Lavagem do Bonfim", or "The Washing of the Church of Bonfim" The festival is primarily Christian/Catholic in nature. A Christ figure is carried in a procession to the Bonfim Church, accompanied during the 8-kilometer trip by priests, nuns, and the faithful. To prepare the church for the figure's arrival, groups of women wash the step leading to the entrance with soap, water, and perfume. Besides the explicit Catholicism, the "lavagem do Bonfim" has historically displayed an undercurrent of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, and many of those gathered were there to celebrate the power of an African deity called Oxalá. During the lavagem, Catholics, followers of Candomblé, and those with some combination of the two religions all intermingled, and not a fundamentalist protest was heard. Behind the religions procession, there was a massive "secular" procession devoted to the consumption of alcohol and mass street partying. The lavagem do Bonfim is so universally celebrated in Salvador that is easy to forget that not everyone wants in that way. In the days before this past Christmas, last minute shoppers, including this author, encountered a peculiar holiday greeting when they used the public payphones at the city's largest mall. The plastic covering of the phone had been pried open, and someone had inserted a slip of paper with the following message: God IS God... Jesus is Jesus
You can bank on it.
Did you know that?
The Senhor do Bomfim is a demon
A trickster named Oxalá or the Devil
Do not use the wristbands of Bomfim
Do not go to the festival of Bomfim
Considering that an estimated 1.2 million people attended lavagem, it seems that the payphone warning was largely ignored. The little slip of paper did, however, get media coverage, as daily newspaper A Tarde covered it a since removed web article with the headline, "Message of Religious Intolerance on Payphone" There is little doubt as to who was the ultimate source behind the pamphlet. There is only one church with an earned reputation for spreading this brand of religious hatred in Brazil: The Universal Church of The Kingdom of God The Universal Church, which in print is referred to as IURD for its Portuguese acronym (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus), made habit of labeling Candomblé a form of devil worship until the practice got it into legal trouble. As unpopular as these ideological attacks have been with the media, they do have their propaganda uses. In ancient times and in ours, governments have used the possibility of foreign attack to inspire loyalty and sacrifice from their citizens. The more dangerous the enemy and the more continuous the threat, the more effective this technique becomes. For those drawn into IURD's orbit, Satan represents an active and visible threat - the leader of the barbarians waiting to storm the kingdom of God. In IURD teachings, the devil is directly responsible for all suffering, pain, and desperation. The only way to seek protection is to give time and money to IURD, which church members do in abundance. But if the threat of Satan is to be truly felt, he must be given a face. Derived from the religious practices of the Yoruba and Bantu tribes, Candomblé became the dominant faith of Brazil's African slaves during colonial times. Catholic missionaries saw Candomblé as a product of "savage" Africa, and associated it with devil worship. IURD uses the colonial image of Candomblé, and through sermons and telecasts, (and now, phone pamphlets) depicts Candomblé followers as sinister manipulators of Satan's powers. Candomblé is a minority religion in Salvador, but the symbols, festivals, and community leaders associated with the religion are a source of local identity and "Bahian pride". For some, Candomblé is also a point of reference for Afro-Brazilian identity and the anti-racism struggle. The result is that when IURD demonizes Candomblé, it becomes the target of vehement criticism from a press that is quick to denounce attacks on local culture. At the lavagem, there were no reported sign of fundamentalist protest. At this point, they wouldn't dare publicly denounce such a mainstay of local culture. But IURD is already the largest and most influential Pentecostal church in Brazil, and its numbers are growing. The day is coming when they will feel confident enough to more directly challenge the cultural status quo, and this is one case were on hopes that the status quo will be strong enough to push back. Jared Goyette scrapes by as a freelance writer in Salvador, Bahia Brazil. He can be reached at jaredmgo [at] gmail [dot] com
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