“O Brasil é laico?” Debating Religious Intolerance and Secularism in Brazil

• In Event: Transformacion Religiosa, Secularizarion Y Pluralismo en el Encuentro con los Otros

Abstract

The exponential growth of Evangelical Christianity in Brazil in recent years has pushed discussions on the character of Brazilian secularism (laicismo) to the center of public debates. Some of the most vocal proponents of secularism in these conversations have been practitioners of the African diasporic religion Candomblé. Frustrated by the rise of Evangelical Christian intolerance and attacks against their religious practices and beliefs, Candomblé practitioners have called on the state to live up to its secular ideals and protect their religious liberties. The state’s response to this has been mixed. Some government representatives, especially ones affiliated with departments concerned with Afro-Brazilian affairs, have positioned themselves on the side of Candomblé practitioners. Others, including a number of state judges, have belittled or even dismissed the latters’ claims to religious persecution arguing that Candomblé does not constitute a real religion.

In this paper I examine these debates on how to interpret Evangelical Christian attacks against Candomblé, and on state institutions’ responsibility to address them. Building on Hussein Agrama’s understanding of secularism as a “discursive problem space”, I train my attention on how the frame of secularism both constrains and enables different actors’ diverging arguments on the character of “religion” and its proper place in and in relationship to the Brazilian political public sphere. In so doing, I suggest, these debates have come to constitute a privileged arena for not only discussing but also establishing a new public consensus on the appropriate balance between religion and politics in an increasingly Evangelical Christian Brazil.

Author

• Elina I Hartikainen, University of Chicago