Millions of Brazilians are adopting a hybrid Pentecostalism that is transforming local culture. As Brazil votes on October 2, an up-close view of a fast-rising evangelical community.
Brazilians have infused evangelical Christianity with local folk traditions Image: Ian Cheibub
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Brazil: Loud praying, big emotions
Trance, exorcism, mass baptisms —evangelical congregations and Pentecostal churches are changing society and politics in what is still the world's largest Catholic country. Soon they will be the majority.
Image: Ian Cheibub
Beating drums for Jesus
Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother prayed to the Afro-Brazilian gods, the Orixas. But after 30 years as a priestess in a Candomble temple, Norma, a Brazilian, joined a Pentecostal church and became a pastor. She draws strength for her difficult life from her faith. For the service, she practices with her granddaughter on the bass drum and the pandeiro.
Image: Ian Cheibub
Prayer for dealers
Bible in hand, missionary Nilton Pereira, once one of the most wanted criminals in Rio's drug mafia, delivers a sermon to drug traffickers in a Rio de Janeiro favela. After serving a sentence for drug trafficking, he became an evangelical. He now works as a cleaner and is a pastor in his spare time.
Image: Ian Cheibub
Trance and exorcism
Members of the Jesus Christo missionary church on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro support the body of a teenager and hold his arms. They are firmly convinced that he is possessed by a demon. They want to free the boy from the evil spirit through an exorcism ritual.
Image: Ian Cheibub
Amazon baptism
David Bailey, a US missionary (second from left) came to Brazil with his parents in the 1970s to evangelize Indigenous people. They were so successful that today an indigenous pastor, Tiago Krikati (left), continues the mission. Here he is at a baptism ceremony in the Krikati reservation in the state of Maranhao.
Image: Ian Cheibub
Rhapsody in yellow
Teenage girls wearing festive yellow robes, one hand raised, pray at a dedication ceremony in the Krikati Indigenous settlement. The 15th birthday is a very special celebration in Brazil, heralding the transition to adulthood. The evangelicals have adopted this ceremony in their rituals.
Image: Ian Cheibub
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Golgotha is the place where Jesus was crucified, a place of death and redemption. Brazilian photographer Ian Cheibub borrows the name for his photo project documenting a rising religious movement which, he says, embodies the soul of Brazil.
With his camera, he portrays the evangelical world of Brazil — from Rio's favelas to Indigenous settlements in the Amazon.
Cheibub shows how believers are "Brazilianizing" the gospel. Pentecostal Christianity was brought to Brazil by US and European missionaries over a century ago, but has become a Brazilian denomination of its own that is especially distinct from the Catholic Church.
Brazilians are switching faiths
The photographer told DW that this is no fringe religion.
"We're talking about almost 70 million people, 31% of the Brazilian population," he said. According to surveys, the majority of the population in what has been the world's largest Catholic country is expected to be evangelical by 2030.
Turning 15 has long been a milestone in Brazil but now the ritual transition to adulthood is developing a Pentacostal flavorImage: Ian Cheibub
Pastor Norma is one of the millions of Brazilian women who have switched their faith. For 30 years she was a priestess in a temple for Candomble cults in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother already prayed to the Afro-Brazilian gods called Orixas.
At some point, Norma turned her back on the Orixas, converted and opened a church in her home.
"She can play all the instruments," said Cheibub. "She teaches her five-year-old granddaughter to play the little pandeiro drum to praise God."
When Cheibub talks about the music, his fingers find a rhythm gliding over the strings of an imaginary guitar and his voice rises to sing. "Evangelical music is a hypnotic blend of traditional Brazilian rhythms like forro and samba," he said.
It was in fact music that led the 23-year-old photographer to Brazil's Pentecostal churches and evangelical temples. In his award-winning Golgotha photo project, Cheibub shows conversions, baptismal rituals and church services from across the country.
Rio de Janeiro's famous Christ the Redeemer statue marks 90
Brazil's iconic Cristo Redentor statue was inaugurated in 1931 at the top of Corcovado hill above Rio de Janeiro. It's certainly the most famous statue of Christ in the world — but not the largest.
Image: Carl De Souza/AFP
Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Construction of the statue began as early as 1922, according to plans by the Brazilian civil engineer Heitor da Silva Costa. Financing problems delayed its completion before it could be inaugurated on October 12, 1931. The 30-meter (98-foot)-tall statue in Art Deco style weighs more than 1,200 tons. Its base, roughly 8 meters high, is home to a chapel.
Image: Carl De Souza/AFP
Christ the King in Swiebodzin, Poland
The Christ the King statue (Polish: Pomnik Chrystusa Króla) is a monumental figure in Swiebodzin, western Poland. It was raised on a 16-meter-high mound in 2010 and measures 36 meters, making it the tallest Christ figure in the world and 6 meters higher than the statue in Rio de Janeiro.
Image: Monika Skolimowska/ZB/dpa/picture alliance
Cristo de la Concordia in Cochabamba, Bolivia
The statue, which is over 34 meters high, is the second tallest statue of Christ in the world after the Christ the King statue in Poland. It was modeled after the Rio monument and weighs more than 2,000 tons. The arms have a span of 32.87 meters (roughly 108 feet), and the top can be reached after climbing 1,399 steps. Construction work was completed on November 20, 1994.
Image: Julian Peters/Zoonar/picture alliance
Christ of Vung Tau, Vietnam
At 32 meters high, the Christ of Vung Tau (Vietnamese: Tuong Chua Kito Vua), standing in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, is the fourth tallest statue of Christ in the world and the largest of its kind in Asia. Construction began in 1974, while the Vietnam War was still raging, and was completed in 1993. This statue can also be climbed via a staircase inside.
Image: Christoph Mohr/dpa/picture alliance
Christ Blessing in Manado, Indonesia
The Christ Blessing (Indonesian: Kristus kase Berkat, Malaysian: Yesus Memberkati) is a 30-meter high statue of Christ. It has become the new landmark of the city of Manado, is made of 25 tons of steel wire and 35 tons of steel and was completed in 2007. Because of its 20-degree forward tilt, it is also called the "first and largest flying statue in the world."
Image: Garry Andrew Lotulung/Pacific Press/picture alliance
Christ the King in Almada, Portugal
With arms outstretched, the figure turns toward the city of Lisbon. It stands on a 75-meter-high plinth and measures 28 meters itself, making it the seventh largest statue of Christ in the world. Together with Fatima and Santiago de Compostela, it is one of the three most important places of pilgrimage on the Iberian Peninsula. It was completed in 1959.
Image: Hugo Felix/imago images
Cristo Redentore in Maratea, Italy
The Cristo Redentore was created between 1963 and 1965 by the Florentine sculptor Bruno Innocenti from a special mixture of cement and white Carrara marble. The statue, which stands in southern Italy, is 21.13 meters high and weighs around 400 tons. The span of the outstretched arms is around 19 meters.
Image: bodenseebilder/imago images
Cristo Rey in Guanajuato, Mexico
The Cristo Rey is a a good 20-meter high bronze statue built in the 1940s to replace an earlier statue of Christ destroyed during the Mexican Civil War. It is the world's largest bronze statue of Christ. At the foot of the figure is a modern globe-shaped basilica, which is one of the most visited pilgrimage churches in Mexico.
Image: Richard Ellis/ZUMA Wire/dpa/picture alliance
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A hybrid 'Brazilian' gospel
While many in Brazil fear the proselytizing power of evangelical churches and their growing influence on culture, Cheibub embraces a new "brazilianized" gospel.
The Golgotha project is his declaration of love to the "brasilidade" — the soul of Brazil. "Evangelicals embody this brasilidade," he says, by integrating elements from Afro-Brazilian and indigenous cultures into the rituals.
Ian Cheibub Image: Sarah Lemos
The indigenous Krikati people of northeastern Brazil even adapted the Bible and the hymns into their own language. "It's an almost cannibalistic process: They devour the evangelical rites, and come up with something authentically Brazilian," said Cheibub.
Cheibub as well as many Brazilian sociologists have a simple explanation for the rapid rise of the evangelical churches: They are there to help where the government is absent.
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Churches can offer a way out
Pastor Nilton Pereira was one of the most wanted criminals in Rio's drug mafia before he turned evangelical. He slid into the drug trade when he was 17. At some point, he went to jail and converted. Today, he preaches every Thursday in the favela where he was once feared as a drug lord.
The Indigenous pastor Tiago Krikatí is also convinced that faith in Jesus saved his life. He was an alcoholic, unemployed and he beat his wife. Today is a pastor, works as a teacher, and tries to convert his village.
Pentacostal priests attempt to 'exorcise' the devil froma young manImage: Ian Cheibub
The photographer says that these men were not simply brainwashed. "It's a matter of survival," he explained. "For pastors Tiago and Nilton, the evangelical churches were salvation."
'Hunger has returned to Brazil'
While the void left by the state has increased the power of evangelical churches in Brazil,President Jair Bolsonaro came to power in 2018 with the help of evangelical votes.
In the upcoming elections on October 2, this group could once again decide the outcome as Bolsonaro is challenged by left wing candidate Lula de Silva. Evangelical politicians have long since infiltrated political institutions and occupy important political posts.
But the current election is not about religion, Ian Cheibub believes. "2018 was about morality. But if you're hungry, you don't think about morality. Hunger has returned to Brazil," he said.
It doesn't matter who is evangelical and who is not for the outcome of the election, he adds. "Hunger will decide this election."
Finally, Carnival returns to Rio de Janeiro
After the pandemic forced a break, floats and dancers once again parade through the Sambodrome. Many samba schools pay tribute to the African heritage of samba and thereby criticize Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro.
Image: Buda Mendes/Getty Images
From end to end, the Sambodrome is full of people
The Grandstand Street Sambodrome, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the 1980s, housed homeless people and a vaccination center during the pandemic. Just last year, Brazil's health care system had collapsed under the number of COVID-19 infections. Now, with a 76 percent vaccination rate, the country is slowly returning to normal and the Sambodrome belongs to dancers again.
Image: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images
Respect for life and the dead
"Only those who are samba dancers know how important it is for us to tread this sacred ground again," Rafaela Teodoro, from the Imperatriz samba school tells the ARD correspondent in Rio de Janeiro. She also remembers those who died from COVID: "With respect for all the lives we have lost in these two years, for all of them, today we give everything."
Image: Buda Mendes/Getty Images
Banishing the ghosts of the pandemic
After the USA, Brazil suffered the most COVID deaths. In addition, the economy of the carnival metropolis suffered from the cancellation of the parades - up to 45,000 jobs depend on them. Now the country sees itself on the road to recovery. According to the hotel association, 78% of the hotels in Rio de Janeiro are occupied again during this year's carnival season.
Image: Amanda Perobelli/REUTERS
Creative and political - the samba artist
Martinho da Vila, one of the foremost representatives of samba, and honorary president of the Vila Isabel Samba School, rides as guest of honor on the school's float. The 84-year-old musician has composed numerous sambas. In his articles and columns, he has distinguished himself as a spokesman for the Afro-Brazilian community and critic of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
Image: Buda Mendes/Getty Images
Racism in history and the present
Motifs of slavery are a thematic thread that runs through this carnival. It is also about the struggle of Afro-Brazilians to preserve their culture, history and religions. As in 2019 and 2020, the schools are taking a critical stance against the Bolsonaro government, whose racist statements fuel hatred and intolerance.
Image: Amanda Perobelli/REUTERS
Carnival - the pure joy of life
In addition to all the social criticism, this year the joy of carnival is back. Its forms, colors and sounds are once again ovrewhelming the senses. Moved, samba dancer Ana Paula Varca tells the German Press Agency, "This joy: it's terrible without carnival." But things have changed, she added: "Even this carnival now is not the one we know."
