I want to defend democracy with the Bible, says deputy pastor – 06/08/2023 – Politics

Let’s talk about Jesus Christ: the image we have of a white man with light eyes has no historical or social ballast, says pastor and deputy Henrique Vieira (PSOL-RJ).

The Christian messiah, according to the founder of the Baptist Church of the Way, today “assumes the black condition”, part of an oppressed people like a Jew in Palestine in the 1st century.

Author of “O Jesus Negro”, a book recently released by Planeta, Vieira defends that the progressive field does not alienate the churches, at the risk of throwing them into the lap of religious fundamentalism and Bolsonarism.

There is no “popular project in Brazil with the capacity to win by treating the Christian faith as an enemy”, he says. “I want to be in left field, I want to defend democracy, and it’s going to be with the Bible under my arm and my knee on the ground.”

“If Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew in Palestine in the 1st century, then he is black in Brazil in the 21st century.” This sentence is a good summary of his book. Can you explain it? The Jew was part of a people exploited by the Roman Empire. In Brazil, after almost four centuries of slavery, an inconclusive abolition… The insurgent Christ continues to appear on the face of the oppressed and assumes the black condition.

Does the Bible say anything about what Jesus looked like? There is no reference to objective characteristics. What we know from historiography is that a Jewish man in Palestine was not white. White Jesus is a convenient historical production to explain the process of colonization and enslavement. It would be an embarrassment for this Eurocentric morality to have Jesus the color of the enslaved.

There are ancient representations of Jesus that run away from this eurocentrism? Hegemonic Christianity has this colonizing trait, but there are multiple interpretations. In Africa, the image of Christ is black. Many images of Nossa Senhora Aparecida herself, in dialogue with Catholic culture, are black.

Mr. denounces violence against religions of African origin. Why do so many evangelicals demonize them? If you take Brazilian Protestantism, part of it comes from the slave-owning south of the USA. It is a theology that is born from where black people were treated as sub-human. Many people may think that racism is just a moral issue. ‘I’m not racist, are you saying I’m a bad character?’ Racism is silent. People often don’t even realize that they are reproducing a racist theology. I’ll set my example, may I?

Please. He was 16 years old, a cool kid, in love with Jesus, with peace. If he passed in front of a Catholic church, I would just follow. If I passed by an offering, I felt afraid, I said in my heart: you are rebuked in the name of Jesus. I wasn’t part of a Nazi group, I wasn’t a perverse teenager, but I was formed in a theology that made me think that religious experience was against me. With Afro-based religions, everything gains this characterization of exotic, primitive, evil.

Well, if you believe that the main commandment is to love God and your neighbor, let’s put our finger on the wound. To use an expression [evangélica]: a brokenness of heart, so that our faith may not be an instrument of violence or indifference.

The evangelical average is black, female and poor, an electorate initially inclined towards Lula. Why were these minorities in the churches seduced by Bolsonarism? There is an organic rapprochement between the extreme right and religious fundamentalism. It has political, media power. Seriously, you can never disregard this. If you turn on the TV now, you’ll see evangelical programs with the same fundamentalist logic. Obviously it will influence mass behavior, and we pay the price for that. Now, there are thousands of pastors who do not subscribe to this fascistization of the faith.

Does the left understand evangelicals? There is the left that does not want to understand, and I am calm enough to recognize this and criticize it. But there is another willing to dialogue.

In the 2022 election, which of these lefts prevailed? I believe that it was the majority that understands that religions can strengthen the secular state. Incidentally, there is no popular project possible in Brazil disregarding the religious element. And for a simple reason: a significant part of the exploited and working people has faith.

Pastors like Silas Malafaia say that progressive leadership is inexpressive in temples, that you don’t speak for the evangelical mass. It is not correct to make only a quantitative comparison. They have empires, we have our voices. Did most of the evangelical electorate vote for Bolsonaro? Least doubt about it. But that was what, 90% [dos crentes pró-Bolsonaro]? No, surveys indicated somewhere around 70%, 60%. So okay, let’s put it in numbers. We have between 30% and 40% who voted for Lula. Is it a minority? AND. Overwhelming? No way. If we imagine a Maracanã, there are fans on both sides.

But I don’t want to reproduce this polarization in numerical terms. Not every Bolsonaro voter is a fascist. I am fully convinced of that. I don’t want to create a war atmosphere. Who does this is the extreme right. Many [cristãos de esquerda] were expelled from the church. Now, in this conservative mass there are gradations. Not everyone has the theology of Malafaia or Edir Macedo in mind. Even with the power they have, they did not dominate the field and lost the election.

Mr. he said, even before taking office, that he would not participate in the evangelical bench, which has members on the left, such as Benedita da Silva (PT). Why? I respect those who choose to participate, I will not stigmatize. But I wouldn’t feel comfortable. The bench looks like a religious lobby to me. I prefer the line of defense to the secular state. Another element is theological: my faith is not fulfilled by defending the church, but when I defend workers, indigenous people, quilombolas.

Mr. he is a defender of identity causes, with very little traction in the churches. Is it possible to reverse this ill will? I work for it. It is my way, my hope and my prophecy. I call causes related to human dignity and in defense of life.

The current drug policy, for example, does not reduce self-destructive use and results in a logic that industrially kills peripheral youth.

Has current legislation reduced the number of abortions? No. Many unassisted women do it underground and end up dying. Decriminalizing is not romanticizing, it is not treating this woman as a criminal. When a woman arrives saying that she had an abortion, her brother will welcome her, not hand her over to a police station. And if he does, he agrees with me.

I want a faith capable of crying with those who are crying, of forgiving those who are making mistakes, who know how to repent and ask for forgiveness. Because otherwise it keeps saving isolated biblical text and killing people.

Part of the left medievalizes believers. How to converse with this worldview? I’ll be careful: I deeply respect the pain and resentment of people mistreated by religious fundamentalism. I don’t want to pass cloth to him.

At the same time, it is a religion experienced by the majority of the people. I need to say to the left that there is no popular project in Brazil with the capacity to win by treating the Christian faith as an enemy. It is necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff, create a connection with the faith that inhabits the heart of the maid, the doorman, the app driver, the street sweeper. [Vieira chora]

When I was a child, I used to sing three little words with my mother: “God is love”. I will not give up the Gospel. I want to be in left field, I want to defend democracy, and it will be with the Bible under my arm and my knee on the ground.

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X-ray | Henrique Vieira, 36

He is a pastor at Igreja Batista do Caminho and is in his first term as a federal deputy, for PSOL-RJ. Before that, he was councilor for Niterói, the city where he was born, between 2013 and 2016. He played a friar in “Marighella”, a film by Wagner Moura, and launches his fifth book, “O Jesus Negro” in June.