How Pentecostal churches are changing Brazil

Golgotha is the place where Jesus was crucified, a place of death and redemption. Brazilian photographer Ian Cheibub borrows the name for his photo project documenting a rising religious movement which, he says, embodies the soul of Brazil.

With his camera, he portrays the evangelical world of Brazil — from Rio's favelas to Indigenous settlements in the Amazon.

Cheibub shows how believers are "Brazilianizing" the gospel. Pentecostal Christianity was brought to Brazil by US and European missionaries over a century ago, but has become a Brazilian denomination of its own that is especially distinct from the Catholic Church.

Brazilians are switching faiths

The photographer told DW that this is no fringe religion.

"We're talking about almost 70 million people, 31% of the Brazilian population," he said. According to surveys, the majority of the population in what has been the world's largest Catholic country is expected to be evangelical by 2030.

Pastor Norma is one of the millions of Brazilian women who have switched their faith. For 30 years she was a priestess in a temple for Candomble cults in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother already prayed to the Afro-Brazilian gods called Orixas.

At some point, Norma turned her back on the Orixas, converted and opened a church in her home.

"She can play all the instruments," said Cheibub. "She teaches her five-year-old granddaughter to play the little pandeiro drum to praise God."

When Cheibub talks about the music, his fingers find a rhythm gliding over the strings of an imaginary guitar and his voice rises to sing. "Evangelical music is a hypnotic blend of traditional Brazilian rhythms like forro and samba," he said.

It was in fact music that led the 23-year-old photographer to Brazil's Pentecostal churches and evangelical temples. In his award-winning Golgotha photo project, Cheibub shows conversions, baptismal rituals and church services from across the country.

A hybrid 'Brazilian' gospel

While many in Brazil fear the proselytizing power of evangelical churches and their growing influence on culture, Cheibub embraces a new "brazilianized" gospel.

The Golgotha project is his declaration of love to the "brasilidade" — the soul of Brazil. "Evangelicals embody this brasilidade," he says, by integrating elements from Afro-Brazilian and indigenous cultures into the rituals.

The indigenous Krikati people of northeastern Brazil even adapted the Bible and the hymns into their own language. "It's an almost cannibalistic process: They devour the evangelical rites, and come up with something authentically Brazilian," said Cheibub.

Cheibub as well as many Brazilian sociologists have a simple explanation for the rapid rise of the evangelical churches: They are there to help where the government is absent.

Churches can offer a way out 

Pastor Nilton Pereira was one of the most wanted criminals in Rio's drug mafia before he turned evangelical. He slid into the drug trade when he was 17. At some point, he went to jail and converted. Today, he preaches every Thursday in the favela where he was once feared as a drug lord.

The Indigenous pastor Tiago Krikatí is also convinced that faith in Jesus saved his life. He was an alcoholic, unemployed and he beat his wife. Today is a pastor, works as a teacher, and tries to convert his village.

The photographer says that these men were not simply brainwashed. "It's a matter of survival," he explained. "For pastors Tiago and Nilton, the evangelical churches were salvation."

'Hunger has returned to Brazil'

While the void left by the state has increased the power of evangelical churches in Brazil,President Jair Bolsonaro came to power in 2018 with the help of evangelical votes.

In the upcoming elections on October 2, this group could once again decide the outcome as Bolsonaro is challenged by left wing candidate Lula de Silva. Evangelical politicians have long since infiltrated political institutions and occupy important political posts.

But the current election is not about religion, Ian Cheibub believes. "2018 was about morality. But if you're hungry, you don't think about morality. Hunger has returned to Brazil," he said.

It doesn't matter who is evangelical and who is not for the outcome of the election, he adds. "Hunger will decide this election."

This article was originally written in German.