Research On Religion » Brazil

Andrew Johnson on Pentecostals in Prison in Brazil

tonygill — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 09:00:37 +0000

How does religion shape and affect the lives of prisoners and other marginalized people in Brazil? Dr. Andrew Johnson, a research associate with the Center for Religion and Civil Culture at the University of Southern California, visits with us and details his amazing study of Pentecostalism in Brazilian prisons, a study that actually had him living as an “inmate” in a Rio de Janeiro prison for several weeks. This study not only became the basis for his dissertation and subsequent publications, but is also part of a documentary film designed to take scholarship to a broader audience.

After a wee bit of banter about Super Bowl 50 and Andrew’s woes about the Minnesota Vikings, Prof. Johnson discusses how he came to study the role of religion in prisons. He recounts his time as a basketball coach for inner city youth and how some of the kids he knew ended up in the penal system. We then spend some time going over the religious landscape of Brazil, his primary country of study. Although the largest Catholic nation on Earth, Brazil has witnessed a significant increase in Protestantism in recent decades with a majority of those Protestants being of the Pentecostal faith. Andrew documents how Pentecostalism is a very appealing faith to individuals within the poor, marginalized neighborhoods of Brazilian cities known as favelas. These are also areas where criminal gangs run the neighborhoods, but interestingly these gangs have a very symbiotic relationship with the Pentecostal churches. It is this interesting relationship that then translates into prison, which is often a concentrated microcosm of life within the favelas.

We then spend a significant amount of time discussing Dr. Johnson’s dissertation project as it represents one of the more intense forms of immersive fieldwork that you would see scholars doing. Andrew actually spent several weeks living within a prison in Rio de Janeiro to develop a greater sense of what the world of prisoners was like. We cover the various difficulties in getting this type of study off the ground, as well as Andrew’s own reflections going into, living within, and then coming out of this very dangerous and difficult environment. Brazilian prisons are very different from those found in the United States, and Dr. Johnson talks about the crowded conditions and how prison guards have little to do with the prisoners in the cell blocks, which means prisoners are creating their own societies within this environment.

Our conversation then turns to how religious faith and organization plays out in prison. We start this conversation with a story about a pastor who was well known for helping to mediate prison riots. Andrew notes that the police and SWAT teams in Brazil are frequently brutal in putting down such riots, often killing dozens or hundreds of prisoners, and how the inmates often see Pentecostal ministers as being a trusted source to bring about negotiated settlements. The government also finds these religious pastors helpful for helping to calm situations down. This leads us to a further discussion of how religion functions within the prison walls, with Andrew pointing out that it is not just visiting pastors and religious volunteers that bring religious services into the jail, but rather it is the prisoners themselves who often establish and run their own ministries. We talk about different roles played out by the inmates, including the position of secretary of the prison church — a person who records the visitors, attendees, and controls the finances. Many of these churches have distinct clothing made for them and purchase musical instruments for worship services. Andrew stresses the role of “authenticity” with respect to these churches. Whereas members of these Pentecostal churches are often a protected group with the prison environment, it must be shown that the members who join are really “living the life” or “walking the talk.” Whereas Dr. Johnson is not in a position to evaluate the true depth of belief of any individual, he does note how this plays out in a broader social context.

We finish the conversation with some observations about Andrew’s use of documentary filmmaking to bring his research to a broader audience. He talks about the process of doing the film and how it creates a different view of his work amongst different audiences. He also shares with us a number of the surprises he found throughout the process of conducting this research. He notes the importance of human dignity and the role that religion plays even amongst the most violent of individuals in society. Recorded: February 7, 2016.

Brian Grim on Religious Liberty & Business

tonygill — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 08:00:28 +0000

Is religious liberty good for business? Can business people be enticed into caring about the rights of conscience? Brian Grim, president and founder of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, explains why such matters should be of concern to entrepreneurs and how commercial leaders can be motivated to promote such a basic human right.

Our conversation starts out with penguins but quickly moves towards the rationale behind Brian’s new venture, his foundation promoting religious freedom via an outreach to business enterprises. Tony asks about where the idea came from and how Brian went about setting it up. He details some of the steps and lays out a couple of the initial ventures that his organization has been undertaking. We also explore Brian’s deep background, finding out how a kid who wanted to be an astronaut and was on the waiting list at the US Air Force Academy ends up traveling the world promoting religious freedom.

We then dive into the topic of religious liberty more generally and Brian lays out why this particular freedom is important to believers and businesses. As a demographer of religion, Brian speaks to the various trends and changes that have been taking place across the world’s spiritual landscape. He notes that it is not just that religion is expanding via conversion, but changes can also be traced to fertility demographics. The religions that are also growing tend to be faiths that “ask something of their members,” an observation that is congruent with last week’s podcast guest, Larry Iannaccone. Brian peppers his general observations with remarks about the Uyghurs and Buddhists in western China. We also spend some time discussing Brazil, a country that ranks as being more religiously free than the United States and that has seen a renaissance of religious activity in recent decades. Brian shares his discussions with the vice president of Brazil and makes a few observations that are consistent with Tony’s research from two decades ago.

The second half of our interview investigates the role that businesses can (and do) play in promoting religious freedom. Brian illustrates his argument that commercial enterprises are a vital link in the struggle for religious liberty with various stories, including what has been happening in Indonesia. In that country, which requires citizens to be a member of a religion, businesses have been instrumental in promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding, including initiatives that allow inter-faith companies get married. This prompts Tony to wonder why businesses in the US try to stay out of such potentially controversial subjects, noting that businesses that do wear their faith openly (e.g., Hobby Lobby, Chick-fil-A) have been under public scrutiny and derision in some quarters. Brian offers his thoughts on the topic noting how religious freedom has become highly politicized in the US where the “separation of church and state” has been asserted in many different venues — both public and private.

Brian offers more examples of how the blending of religious and the freedom to express one’s conscience has very positive effects for business. He uses Kellogg’s, Ford, and Abercrombie & Fitch as examples. He also discusses how he “sells” the idea of religious freedom to a variety of commercial interests around the globe. We finish with Brian’s thoughts about where this all is heading. Are there reasons to be optimistic about religious human rights in the near future? Brian comes down as an optimist. Recorded: September 23, 2014.

Daniel Philpott on Religious Resurgence & Democratization

tonygill — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:00:21 +0000

Over the past four decades, there have been two global trends that have caught the attention of social scientists — the public resurgence of global religiosity and the increasing movement towards democratic governance. Daniel Philpott — associate professor of political science at Notre Dame and fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies — discusses both of these trends and his latest book, God’s Century (co-authored with Monica Duffy Toft and Timothy Samuel Shah). We begin the interview with a historical survey of how church-state relations have changed over the past two or three millenia, a broad sweep of history indeed, but one that is crucial to understanding why religion has made such a strong comeback in recent decades. Prof. Philpott shows how early in human history religious and secular authority split apart and how both types of leadership existed in a situation of mutual dependence — secular leaders required the legitimating endorsement of religious leaders, whereas religious leaders relied upon the material support of secular rulers. During the early modern period (c. 1450-1750) this mutual balance began to tip in favor of secular rulers who exercised greater control over religious groups in a paternalistic manner. Interestingly, this was a global trend. Beginning in the late 1700s, particularly with the French Revolution, we witness a global trend where religion is subjugated (and sometimes decimated) by secular rulers, particular in communist and socialist nations. Ironically, this subjugation gave religious organizations a greater degree of independence from secular government in some parts of the world that allowed new political theologies to develop and the institutional ability to organize against secular rulers. We discuss the formation, nature and influence of these political theologies, from the ideas promoted at Vatican Council II to Hindu and Buddhist nationalism to Islamic fundamentalism. In some areas such as Latin America, Indonesia, and parts of Asia these new political theologies and resurgent religious organizations helped to promote democracy, whereas in other parts of the world (e.g., the Middle East) it has led to less sanguine outcomes. Our discussion also touches upon the role of ideas in motivating human events, and we finish the discussion with some thoughts on the 2011 “Arab Spring” and whether or not that this will result in more democratic nations. This is the first part of a discussion of the book God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics. We will be focusing on the issue of religious violence with one of the other authors of the book in an upcoming episode. Stay tuned. Recorded: July 7, 2011.