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Purity and the Devil 59

Spatial and Bodily Purifications

The practice of mass expulsion of demons is not confined to the temples
of the Igreja Universal. Pastor Marcos, for example, takes the practice of
spiritual purification to the places where it is supposedly most needed: the
favelas of Rio de Janeiro. During the open-air service, sketched in the
introduction, members of this congregation linked the presence of
the drug gang members (traficantes) to the general misery of the favela,
while interpreting both as signs of demonic presence. Subsequently, the
pastor is able to present a solution for both the individual youngsters
involved in the tráfico (drug trade) and the favela as a whole. In an emo-
tional sermon he asserted that only the Holy Spirit—mediated through
the pastor—can cleanse individual traficantes who want to give up their
life of crime and thus deliver the favela of its perils.
The rhetoric that should convince the audiences that the Holy Spirit
can and will purify the favela, rests on the homology between the individ-
ual body and the space of the favela as sites where both good and evil can
reside. This strategy is similar to the practices of the charismatic bispos
(bishops) of the Igreja Universal who also represent the violence in the
favelas of Rio de Janeiro as signs of the spiritual battle between God and
the devil. Especially in their newspaper, the Folha Universal, bispos pro-
claim that an ultimate end of city-violence is possible only with the help of
the Lord (Oosterbaan 2005). Occasionally, the charismatic bispos of the
Igreja Universal also visit favelas in Rio de Janeiro. Shortly before pastor
Marcos’s visit, bispo Marcelo Crivella, the singing pastor who became a
senator in Brasilia, had also visited the favela. He too had exorcized a num-
ber of traficantes in the context of a small, though mass mediated prayer
meeting with local pastors and youths of the favela. He too linked the pos-
sibility of the well-being of the comunidade (the favela community) to the
spiritual purification of its inhabitants.
These examples indicate that both the pastor and the bispo approach
the youngsters involved in the drug trade not merely as perpetrators of
violent crimes but also as victims of the demons that haunt them. As such,

the lives of the young men can generate popular examples to demonstrate
the ferociousness of the spiritual battle and the proof of the power of the
Holy Spirit to pacify where all other measures have failed. In small con-
gregations of the Assembléia de Deus in the favela of my research, the
presence and testimonies of former traficantes who had converted were
often regarded as the proof of the powers of the Holy Spirit to purify
both the individuals and the space of the congregation, within the favela.