Essay written for the course "Soul Beliefs: Causes and Consequences" at Rutgers - New Jersey State University taken at Coursera.

1. The interference of religious beliefs in the progress of brazilian society
Luiz Guilherme Leite AMARAL1
The “bancada evangélica”, which can be best translated as the “protestant
wing” on the House of Deputies in Brazil, is striving to make their case the only case.
Christianity in Brazil is a powerful tool to make people embrace your thoughts by
using the “same ol’” pattern: if you’re not with us, you’re against us, and that is going
to cost you a lot.
There is, although, a resounding dichotomy here: not many bills of their
interest have passed because even thought the majority of the population is Christian,
they, too, have sympathy for humanitarian causes, such as gay marriage or prohibiting
laboratories do use animals for cosmetic research. One might say that this last one is
cruel regardless of the belief system but, you’d better believe this article, there are a
lot of people who think otherwise.
Let us take the first example of that list: gay marriage. It is legal in Brazil
since 2011 – a lot earlier that the United States, for that matter! The protestant wing,
though, claim that it is against God’s will because it is written on the Bible.
Something that is wise to account is the fact that religious beliefs don’t fit modern
societies anymore because we have evolved to such a structure that is a lot more
intricate than when we started gathering ourselves. It means that God’s laws may not
be the moral brake it used to be in the beginning of societies. One argument is that
more than 75% of prisoners in Brazil are Christians.
This article <http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2015/06/1640504-bancada-
evangelica-faz-manifestacao-contra-parada-gay-e-reza-pai-nosso-no-plenario-da-
camara.shtml> from Universo Online, a brazilian website that is linked to the Folha
de São Paulo newspaper, shows that the protestant wing is fighting against the
brazilian Gay Parade with the argument that what happens during this event is
harassing the foundation of family. They exposed banners with gay pornography,
transsexuals nailed to a cross and other types of expressions of the cause while
shouting words like “family” and “respect”. There is also a bill on criminalizing the
“profanity of religious symbols”, which is called by the defendants “christphobia”,
Protestant deputies often pray during sessions, and Brazil has no official
religion. They fear that religious symbols are on a path of trivialization and mislead
interpretations. In one hand, they don’t want anybody else to mess with their religion,
but, on the other hand, they believe it is in their power to shut up anyone who is
against them. It is quite clear that religions are some sort of dictatorship – one God
that rules everything and punishes whoever disagrees with him --, and it is even
clearer that this protestant wing is using the same tool.
1
Regular
student
on
the
Master’s
in
Communication
and
Culture
Program
at
University
of
Sorocaba,
Brazil.
Ministry
of
Education
CAPES
scholarship
granted
in
March
2015.