By Arkady Petrov
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – This Thursday, June 20th, around 3:00 PM, when he appears on the stage set up in the Praça Heróis da Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB) in São Paulo, Jair Bolsonaro will be the first President of the Republic to appear at the March for Jesus, the most important evangelical gathering in the country.
The event, which started abroad in the 1980s, was quickly brought to Brazil. It has taken place in São Paulo for the past 27 years and draws thousands of people from different denominations.
It’s another sign of Bolsonaro’s commitment to religious groups, which already make up around 30 percent of the country’s population or 60 million people, the largest evangelical community in the world.
Last year, while still a pre-candidate to the presidency, Bolsonaro attended the march for the first time in São Paulo, accompanied by then-senator – and, until that time, his faithful ally – Magno Malta, an evangelical pastor.
He said it was an opportunity to preach “family values and to fight against abortion, against drugs, and for the respecting of children in the classroom.”
And he promised that, if elected president, he would return. This was confirmed in March of this year, when he received evangelical leaders in the Palácio do Planalto, among them Apostle Estevam Hernandes, a member of the Renascer em Cristo Church, the organizer of the March for Jesus.
Today, Bolsonaro will appear on stage alongside deputy Marco Feliciano (Podemos-SP), pastor of the Catedral do Avivamento who became one of the president’s most important organizers within the evangelical caucus in Congress.
He will also be accompanied by the PSL leader in the Senate, Major Olimpio (SP). He is expected to attend one of the gospel presentations planned for the day and give a speech to the public. More than 100,000 people are expected to attend.
The idea for Bolsonaro’s participation in the event is that it allows him an opportunity, as president, to connect with his base and strengthen his campaign commitment towards defending Christian values.
Some evangelical leaders in the House will not be present this time around: Silas Câmara, president of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front, and Sóstenes Cavalcante, of the Vitória em Cristo Church.