Page 69 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

As a direct result of this overall process, images of Pentecostalism are nego-
tiated with the media as a function of the social, economic, and political power
these religious groups have acquired. To understand how this new political-
religious role was created, we need to recognize—aside from the work of the
media—how the “evangelicals” have continually presented themselves as those
who bring Good in contrast to other social groups that operate diabolically
through the use of violence. The association of Good and Peace against Vio-
lence was exploited to an extreme in media terms by an evangelical segment
that opposed the Universal Church and joined the “civil religion” movement
organized by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) against violence in the
city. 11
The inclusion of prayers has become a standard and expected feature of pub-
lic events, such as meetings or political manifestations. What these contexts
have in common is the assertion of religious language as a means of expression
and interaction in public encounters. Catholicism’s loss of status as the natural
expression of religion in Brazil, and the concomitant loss of a widely shared
sense of religious belonging, has therefore had the effect, among other things,
of proliferating identity-based demands for a space to be seen and heard in the
public sphere. The Word, testimony, and exorcism transform individuals and
the interactions between them: religious language is being disseminated as a
form of changing the world by acting positively within social circles. This ex-
plains a sharp increase in the number of religiously inclined individuals and
organizations that, based on an evangelical identity, appear in public to propa-
gate their faith. Athletes of Christ, one of the oldest, is an association of soc-
cer players, while other groups have been formed by prisoners, congressmen,
businessmen, women, union members, youth groups, and various sporting
groups who turn faith and its propagation into a means of raising their pro¤le
in society.
A recent example of the importance of media impact involved the kidnap-
ping of the daughter of a television mogul. An enormous spectacle was created
around an event broadcast live on national TV—indeed, the moment the young
woman was freed by her captors and returned to the family home achieved in-
credible audience ratings. The importance this spectacle attained was not only
owing to the emotional moment when she was reunited with her family and its
sentimental exploitation by the TV cameras. Another important aspect was the
young woman’s declaration that the happy ending to this violent episode was
entirely owing to her faith in God: the Holy Spirit had given her the means to
communicate with the bandits and alter their behavior. Her faith had modi¤ed
their interaction to such an extent that they treated her well and called her
“princess.” In her later interviews she not only spoke about the importance of
her love of Christ, she also blamed her kidnapping on an unjust social system.
Thus her liberation was presented live as testimony of the moral and pragmatic
value of faith, capable of interfering in social affairs, altering the course of a
violent situation by moving even the most hardened criminal, a product of both
a lack of faith and an unfair social system. Quoted below is a front-page report

58 Patricia Birman