Brazil in His Book, Looking

Brazil

In his book, Looking for God in Brazil, John Burdick addresses the issue of the Catholic Church in the country, how it manifests, and the fact that it is slowly but surely losing against Pentecostal churches in the country, represented most prominently by the Assembly of God church. Burdick's premise in the book is to search for reasons for the increasing popularity of Pentecostal churches in Brazil, as opposed to the waning membership experienced by Catholicism. Two of the most important reasons include factors associated with migration, plurality, and the psychological and social needs of the Brazilian population.

According to Burdick (vii), the most prominent manifestation of the Catholic Church, and also the basis of its former power, was in the form of Christian Base Communities (CEBs). These communities used their faith and the Bible mainly for political purposes. This is a direct reaction to the political oppression experienced by the majority of Brazilian citizens. Discrimination is experienced not only by the poor, but also on the basis of race, class, gender and age, as Burdick describes in Chapters 4-6 of his book. This leaves a need in the majority of the Brazilian population to find a basis of power from which they can both liberate themselves and that they can use for a sense of meaning in their lives.

According to Burdick, one manifestation of an attempt to fill this need is CEBs reading the Bible as a "progressive political manifesto" (Burdick vii). This means that priests viewed their role as community leaders as including uplifting them from their poverty and oppression by encouraging a political struggle against the force perpetrating such oppression. In this, the Catholic Church positioned itself as a beneficent authority figure to replace the hostile governmental forces of the government. Burdick notes that the basis for this position was that the Church operated from a higher social position than that of its members. The Church provided help and charity for the benefit of priests in terms of eternal rewards. In other words, the tendency was for priests to see themselves as both superior and separate from the congregation that they are helping to uplift. The focus was to provide help for their own benefit, although the rewards will only manifest after their death.

Burdick goes on to note that the Catholic community in Brazil at his time of investigation was in fact in the minority (Burdick viii). Indeed, there were many religious options in the country besides Catholicism. In most of the towns the author visited, the Pentecostal sector was represented by a far more numerous membership than the Catholic church.

In finding reasons for these, Burdick examines the specific religious solutions offered by both the Catholic and Pentecostal churches. Burdick ascribes the popularity of the latter largely to the fact that Pentecostal churches were able to provide people with something that Catholicism did not (Burdick 4).

One important factor here is that the Pentecostal churches offered a less rigid form of religion than Catholicism. In many ways, Catholicism perpetuated oppression. It did this in the form of religious ideals such as its views on abortion and birth control. These are two of the main forms of female oppression: unwanted pregnancy was not allowed to be terminated, and women within marriage were not allowed to use birth control. These issues play a significant role in the migration of the religious away from Catholicism and towards Pentecostal churches, where there were no oppressive religious rules.

Also, Pentecostal churches were not as hierarchical as the Catholic Churches. In many ways, the oppressive nature of Catholicism and the rigidity of its rules were simply a replacement for or at least reminiscent of an equally oppressive government. Pentecostal churches tend to be much more part of the struggle than assuming a role above it, with religious leaders helping with the struggle rather than being part of it. Pentecostal churches therefore meet a social and psychological need in their adherents that Catholic Churches in Brazil do not.

Another important factor that Burdick mentions in his book is the fact of religious migration (Burdick 7). Many migrants bring with them a variety of religious persuasions. Furthermore, the complicate the matter by also entering the religious groups they find at their destinations. These migrants tend to adhere to these different groups not only in succession, but also at the same time, creating a type of hybrid religion. Similar social characteristics therefore do not necessarily mean an adherence to similar religious groups.