New religious movements in Brazil

Brazil has traditionally been a Catholic country because it was colonized by Portugal. In fact, Brazil has been ranked as the largest Catholic country in the world, but that is somewhat deceptive. Brazil is also home to thriving new religious movements. For a century or more people in Brazil have developed new religions built on African roots called Afro-Brazilian religions. More recently, in the last 50 years, PENTECOSTALISM has grown extremely rapidly there. Since the 1990s, the Catholic Church has been responding especially to the growth of Pentecostalism through media-friendly "show masses." Europeans were not the only people who came to Brazil after the discoveries of Columbus. People of African ancestry came, too, often, of course, against their will. Although slaveowners tried to make Africans Christian, Africans also maintained their earlier beliefs. In particular, the Yoruba people from Nigeria managed to preserve their traditional beliefs and practices. As a result, Afro-Brazilian religions often use Yoruba gods and names. There are many different Afro-Brazilian religions. Candomble is the oldest. It is also the most African. It identifi es Yoruba spirits, called orisha, with Catholic saints. Traditionally, its leaders have been women, called maes de santo, that is, mothers of the saint. They perform RITUALS such as animal SACRIFICE. They also supervise people who are "ridden" or possessed by various spirits. Catimbo is another Afro-Brazilian religion. Unlike Candomble, it calls upon supernatural beings that the native peoples of Brazil worshipped. Like native religions, it also uses an intoxicant to induce visions. Yet another new Afro-Brazilian religion is Umbanda. It has elements from Christianity, African religions, and native Brazilian religions. To them it adds ideas from a 19th-century French spiritualist, Allan Kardec (1804–69), who taught that people had many lives (see REINCARNATION). Pentecostal churches are rather different from Afro-Brazilian religions. In fact, Pentecostal churches deliberately attack the beliefs and practices of Afro-Brazilian religions as "demon-worship." Those who practice Afro-Brazilian religions often complain that Pentecostals harass and discriminate against them. Pentecostal churches attribute the violence and drug traffi cking in Brazil's cities to demons. To address these problems, they perform public exorcisms. Like Pentecostals elsewhere, they emphasize a strict lifestyle and various gifts of the spirit. The largest Pentecostal church in Brazil is the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, the Universal Church of God's Kingdom or IURD for short. A self-appointed bishop, Edir Macedo (b. 1945), founded the IURD in 1976. Within 10 years it had grown to 3 million members. It now runs television and radio stations and boasts churches in Portugal, South Africa, Great Britain, and the United States. During the late 20th century, the future of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil looked bleak. People who practiced the Afro-Brazilian religions had often practiced Catholicism, too, but members of the new Pentecostal churches insisted that their members belong only to them. Tens of millions of people left the Catholic Church.