Immigrant Evangelicalism in the COVID-19 Crisis: Reactions and Responses from Brazilian Evangelical Churches in Florida
- PDF / 351,697 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 0 Downloads / 152 Views
Immigrant Evangelicalism in the COVID-19 Crisis: Reactions and Responses from Brazilian Evangelical Churches in Florida Rodrigo Serrão 1
& João
Chaves 2
Received: 19 June 2020 / Accepted: 24 August 2020/ # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract This article seeks to analyze the reactions and responses of three churches of the Brazilian diaspora in Florida, United States, to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on sermons posted on YouTube and Facebook in March, April, and May, we argue that Brazilian immigrant churches in Florida reacted to the pandemic in civil, theological, practical ways. We begin by providing a general introduction to evangelicalism in the United States and its influence in Brazilian evangelical life to give a historically sound background to the study. We also present the story of Brazilian migration to the United States. Then, we analyze the content posted in social media by pastors and churches of the Brazilian diaspora in the United States and other church leaders to ascertain their position regarding the responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Results show the churches responded to the pandemic in three primary ways: they adhered to authorities’ guidelines, provided sermons with apocalyptic undertones, and organized food pantries and donations for members in need. Keywords Brazilian diaspora . Evangelical congregations . COVID-19 . Pandemic .
Reactions . Florida
* Rodrigo Serrão [email protected] João Chaves [email protected]
1
Department of Sociology and Social Work, Hope College, Van Zoeren Hall, 41 Graves Place, Room 261, Holland, MI 49423, USA
2
Hispanic Theological Initiative, 12 Library Place, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
International Journal of Latin American Religions
Introduction The United States and Brazil share similarities in how their leaders and population reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have been under heavy criticism from significant scientific community sectors, liberal media, academic establishment, and the general population for their responses to the global crisis created by COVID-19. Besides, both presidents received strong support from prominent evangelical leaders and significant sectors of the evangelical community. In the United States and Brazil, many evangelical churches rallied behind Trump and Bolsonaro. They supported their message of belittling the danger of the virus and emphasizing the need to open the economy as soon as possible. At the intersection of American and Brazilian religious life, however, lies a group of communities often overlooked in studies of Latin American religions, namely, the churches of Latin American immigrants who live in the United States. This piece will focus on three Brazilian churches in US soil to assess how they responded to the continuing COVID-19 crisis. More specifically, we are interested in the stance taken by pastors regarding the official positions of government officials, the theological meaning they ascribed to the pandemic, and the economic
Data Loading...
