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(Brother from the Backland), produced by Line Records, owned by the UCKG (see Pin-
heiro 2002).
22. I refer especially to the strong reaction of the traditionally Catholic elite to the
eruption of the Universal Church on the national scene and in the media, emphasizing
how much this is against the Catholic hegemonic ethos (see Birman and Lehmann 1999).
The media’s “good-will” seems to be more akin to a “surrender,” deriving from the fact
that it is unable to ignore the political events in which social actors claiming to be “evan-
gelicals” participate.
23. Although I have no data to support my conjecture, I believe that the expansion
of the Universal Church has created a small labor market for its followers, above all for
pastors, preachers, and church attendants. Connections with a wide range of social wel-
fare projects, as well as association with the state and business enterprises, have produced
job opportunities for its members. The spread of the evangelical gospel was also based
on offering new opportunities for joining the labor market.

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