“Between bibles and bullets”, Bolsonarist September 7 demonstration could be stronger than ever

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As some minor allies turn away, Jair Bolsonaro’s undoubtedly most important and influential “friends” remain faithful, praying for him in an unprecedented commitment to the September 7 protest march in the president’s favor.

Some of the country’s leading evangelical pastors have joined together in summoning believers to an act of support for the president, which will occupy Avenida Paulista in São Paulo.

They include Estevam Hernandes, creator of the March for Jesus; Samuel Câmara, pioneer of the Mother Church, the first of the Assemblies of God in Brazil founded a century ago in Belém; and Renê Terra Nova, one of the most influential pastoral voices of the North.

“We cannot be silent or cowardly in this decisive moment,” said in a video Assembly of God Victory in Christ leader Silas Malafaia, who launched the movement. “The Brazilian people are the supreme power, and God is the supreme judge.”

The pastors have never shunned Bolsonaro’s invitations in the past.

In 2019, Bishop Edir Macedo (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God) shared Bolsonaro’s presence with TV host Silvio Santos on the stage set up in Brasilia for the Independence Day parade.

However, everything is now different. In the past, religious leaders only showed up in a rendez-vous of vanities with the president at official events. Today, the country’s evangelical royalty demonstrate with and for the president.

The signal sent in Brazil and abroad could not be clearer. It amounts to a thunderclap – particularly as it falls on a date historically marked by a military procession.

“Between the bible and the bullet,” a pastor who will be present on September 7 said ironically. The armed forces and the evangelical clergy are the two main props for Bolsonaro’s support today.

“The planned presence on September 7 is unprecedented at this scale,” Malafaia said. “Evangelicals have always participated, albeit timidly. I have never seen such mobilization of evangelicals for an event in the history of Brazil. We have always kept to ourselves. This time there is a huge participation of leaders and people.”

The message is also clear.

In the information war between those who say that Jair Bolsonaro started the institutional crisis with an unjustified attack against the Federal Supreme Court and is to blame for everything, and those who claim the exact opposite, the powerful religious leaders are claiming the president right.

One of them says there is an attack on the Constitution promoted by those who should protect it, the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

César Augusto cites as one of the reasons for his trip to Avenida Paulista the need to defend “freedom of expression, the right to come and go, and freedom of religion, rights that I see subtly threatened at this moment.”

“Today it’s about freedom of expression, tomorrow it’s about freedom of religion. It’s about much more than Bolsonaro,” Malafaia says. “The Constitution is being torn apart by those who should honor it the most.”

The Rio de Janeiro pastor is among those invoking Article 142 of the Constitution, which governs the role of the armed forces in the republic, to justify potential military intervention.

In early August, Malafaia even said that Bolsonaro should summon the armed forces against the “toga dictatorship” that he says has taken the Federal Supreme Court by storm.