Brazil’s evangelicals say far-right presidential candidate is answer to their prayers

BRASILIA: On a visit to Israel two years ago, far-right Brazilian lawmaker Jair Bolsonaro leaned back into the River Jordan in a white robe to be baptized in the arms of a fellow congressman and evangelical pastor.

While still an avowed Catholic, Bolsonaro is riding a wave of support from Brazil’s evangelical Christians, who have helped make him the presidential front-runner heading into the first round of voting slated for Oct 7.

Evangelicals account for one of every four voters in the world’s largest Catholic country and more than 20 per cent of its federal lawmakers.

Many have been captivated by Bolsonaro’s eager embrace of the culture wars and his strident antigay rhetoric.

In a 2011 interview with Playboy Brazil, for example, the father of five said he would not be able to love a gay son.

“I would rather that my son died,” he said.

These voters now want the former Army captain to lead a conservative counter- attack against the progressive agenda of the leftist Workers Party ( PT), which led Brazil for most of the past 15 years.

These supporters view Bolsonaro’s election as critical to ending recognition by Brazil’s courts of same- sex civil unions and to stopping momentum towards gay marriage.

They also want to halt legislative efforts to legalize abortion, drugs, gambling and stem-cell research.

And they aim to block any attempts to penalize discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Above all, they want to see education on LGBT rights removed from public schools.

“The left went too far,” said Bishop Robson Rodovalho, founder of the Brasilia-based Sara Nossa Terra church, which has 1.6 million followers.

“Indoctrinating school children on sex revolted many parents. Today we are seeing a boiling over of reaction.”

Like many other evangelical leaders, he is calling on his followers to back Bolsonaro, whose middle name is Messias, Portuguese for ‘Messiah’.

Bolsonaro’s campaign managers say those votes will be decisive in securing victory.

They have met with religious leaders throughout the country to hear their vision for Brazil. Bolsonaro regularly attends prayer sessions held by evangelical pastors in their congressional offices in Brasilia. And the thricemarried candidate accompanies his evangelical wife to church on Sundays, aides said.

Evangelical volunteers have responded by distributing campaign flyers outside churches and talking up Bolsonaro to friends and neighbors. Such grassroots organising is critical to Bolsonaro’s low-budget campaign; he has no major political party behind him and very little ad time on radio and television. — Reuters