MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazilian catholic church loosing ground to evangelists, atheists and agnostics
The Brazilian Catholic Church continues to loose ground to the evangelists and those who declare to have no religion, according to the latest survey released by the Social policies centre from the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment ruleswe are the “” atheists “” have the majority in the world !
Sep 01st, 2011 - 07:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The article fails to recognise that Christianity in Brasil is strongly conditioned - especially in the huge North East - by African tribal 'religions'.
Sep 02nd, 2011 - 07:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0There is significant, on-the-ground recognition that Catholicism has to contain the spirit presence of the Candomble West African faiths, mutated into Voodoo in Haiti and Candomble in Brasil. God(s) and the saints have their parallels in the conjoined religion.
Big city catholicism may be more 'pure' as may be the faith in the more 'European' south of Brasil, but, where I live, much faith is practiced in the shadows, and Evangelic Christianity already dominates over Catholicism.
Candomble can be hunted out with the help of those of the faith but all most of us normally see is the residues of ceremonies, offerings etc scattered on the beach by the incoming tide - chicken heads and feet, flowers, candles, dismembered dolls, etc.
I personally know no one who engages in those African rituals. Of course I've heard of rumours about them, though. But the fact is that they are restricted to some subsects of the rabble. I can understand your impressions, though. African cults are most common in Bahia. But in the rest of the country, even in areas with large African presense - e.g., Rio and some other Northeastern states such as Pernambuco - the population for the most part sees them with strangement, fear, contempt or mockery (the Evangelicals and the Atheists being the most dismissive).
Sep 02nd, 2011 - 09:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0BTW, it should be said the FGV numbers on the non-religious population are underestimations if compared to those prduced by the IBGE.
When I was a kid, me and my playmates found those Macumba candles near the building we lived. Now, I have never, nor have I heard, of animal parts being found open in the air, specially at beaches. Where do you live, Geoff? I know it is in Bahia, but is it really in Salvador or is it in some really savage area?
Sep 02nd, 2011 - 09:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0ATHEISTS AND THEISTS ARE BOTH THE SAME, NUTS! THE THEISTS WANT THE WORLD TO BELIEVE IN A OLD MAN LIVING IN THE HEAVENS, AND THE ATHEISTS DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD, BUT SPEND ALL DAY THINKING OF GOD LOL AGNOSTICS AT LEAST ARE PEOPLE WHO KEEP SOME MENTAL SANITY.
Sep 03rd, 2011 - 03:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0I'M A PANTHEIST :)
Forgetit,
Sep 04th, 2011 - 11:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0these peope are NOT the rabble of Brasil or savages - as you put it.
They are ordinary people who have a different religious belief to you.
They are the maid, the caseiro, the carpenter, the fisherman on the beach, the acaraje-seller, the man who cleans the streets, perhaps the man who builds your house and the woman who owns the hairdressing salon.
Many have their religion intertwined with Catholicism and take the blood and body of Christ at the altar alongside you.
They are not the dalits of Brasilian society, however much you might prefer to think so.
They are, however, the descendents of the African people your parent's parents bought and sold as slaves.
The ancestors of mine that I've been able to track down, weren't in the country before the XX century. They didn't participate in the slave trade in any way. And I meant rabble in the neuterest sense - in the sense that they're economically worse-off. But how nice of you to take advantage at that single term to get all moralistic on me - specially when it's you who have a record of making revolting elitistic comments against Brazil's poor. As for my use of the 'savage' word, it was sarcastic - for I can't imagine animal sacrifices taking place at the beaches of Brazil's urban centers, specially in larger ones such as Salvador.
Sep 05th, 2011 - 10:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0Mmmm, you did rather leave yourself wide open ;-)
Sep 05th, 2011 - 10:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0'Savage' is everywhere, not just in the big city.
Eris, my partner's caseiro, was returning from his evangelical church yesterday, stopped at gun-to-the-head-point, and asked why he was not buying his drugs from their gang. His (our) bicycle was thieved from under him, but he escaped the bullets on foot when the two gangs clashed over 'the turf'.
Next door is buiding even higher walls with razor wire following a break-in with menaces.
The house opposite already has all this;
and we are electronically protected following one attempt that was fended off by the guard-dog.
These drug gangs are beyond christianity's sects/macumba-candomble;
they are feral animals fighting for dominance of the place we live.
And macumba (beach) rituals take place in the city as well as outside; it may hurt people at whom the ritual is directed, but, as you might expect, I am not informed of the outcomes.
Your caseiro is named after a Greek goddess, hahaha! :)
Sep 05th, 2011 - 11:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You are somewhat amusing;
Sep 06th, 2011 - 01:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0even our good-humoured, Evangelical, drug-despising Erisvaldo would think so.
So much so that he recommends ERIS to address the more anti-democratic behavious of our elected elite.
Ah, so Erisvaldo is his real name? I'm disappointed.
Sep 06th, 2011 - 07:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0. . . and do you really think my partner would let me have my own Greek goddess in the garden???
Sep 06th, 2011 - 10:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0;-)
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