Page 80 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

Purity and the Devil 65

conditions in the dense urban spaces of the favelas put great emphasis on
questions of belonging and social identification.
Like radio, television was regarded as an instrument that has to be han-
dled with care. The telescape offers its evangelical spectators a visualiza-
tion of the spiritual battle between God and the devil, but the medium can
also seriously harm one through the programs and images that aim to
seduce people to partake in those worldly practices the Bible condemns
(Bakker 2007; Oosterbaan 2003, 2005). Consider the following quote of
Roberto, a young man who attends the Igreja Universal:

Like the Bispo said to us: the world is not what it used to be, meaning who
is ruling the world God or the devil? It is the devil, you understand, the
majority of the news (as noticias) is his, the bad news, understand? Lately
there has only been death, death, death, understand, in the whole world:
the guy who blew up the towers, countries entering into war with each
other, here a prisoner killed other prisoners. You think that is coming from
God? One feels evil stamped in one’s flesh twenty-four hours a day.

Television viewing involves a dynamic of attraction and rejection, which
for the evangélicos in the favela is related to Pentecostal bodily disciplines
and practices. Yet, attraction and rejection cannot be categorized simply
into evangelical programs that attract and controversial programs that
repel. Some people are attracted to watching immoral programs to identify
the work of the devil and to confirm the right or even righteous spectator
position (Oosterbaan 2003; Bakker 2007).
Especially with regard to the popular telenovelas and the mass medi-
ated violence the dialectic relation between the telescape and daily life
becomes obvious. Telenovelas are part of the popular cultural representa-
tions that can be considered common knowledge. They represent features
of contemporary Brazilian society, which many Pentecostals perceive as
sinful even though they often do watch them. For instance, when the
novelas portray adultery and erotic images the novelas are generally per-
ceived as channels of demonic seduction. Furthermore, the attraction and
rejection of certain images and narratives in telenovelas are not only related
to a symbolic reading of the message, but also to the physical and spiritual
experiences of evangelicals while viewing these telenovelas. As
Pentecostalism involves a complex interplay between evangelical doctrines
15
and embodied practices that are related to the charismata—the gifts of
Holy Spirit, such as faith healing and speaking in tongues (glossolalia)—
the bodily sensations induced or enforced by popular mass media become
thoroughly intertwined with religious experience, as Birgit Meyer has
forcefully argued throughout her work (Meyer 2005, 2006a, 2006b). To
many evangelicals, experiences of watching and hearing are directly related