“Evangelicals will be majority in Brazil in 10 years”: STF nominee Mendonça in May 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – André Mendonça, President Jair Bolsonaro’s nominee for a seat on the STF (Federal Supreme Court), who will be voted on by the Senate on Wednesday (1), once said he sees Brazil as the “granary of evangelicals in the world” and understands that the country is in a “conversion process” in which this religious current will be the majority in ten years.

The statements were made in May 2021 during an event at the Gethsemani Baptist Church in Minas Gerais, which was part of a tour that the former minister kept throughout his mandate in services of different evangelical denominations.

Mendonça, a pastor of the Esperança Presbyterian Church, was chosen by Bolsonaro to fulfill a promise to appoint someone “terribly evangelical” to a vacancy on the STF.

“I believe that this country is going to be the great granary of evangelical people in the world. I believe that. My brothers and sisters: in ten years, we will already be a majority in this country. In ten years. It is not because it is a process of domination. It is a restoration process. It is a process of conversion,” said Mendonça on that occasion.

The speech occurred in a context in which the former Federal Solicitor General and former Minister of Justice addressed religious education activities for children when he mentioned the need to “save the future generations” of the country.

Pn the advance of the evangelical population, he stated: “It is a process to give dignity to the human being. It is a process to reconcile man with our God. It is a process, so that… even if it is a joke, to say that the Brazilian lives on cachaça and little heart, the Brazilian will live on the blood of Jesus. And the power of the Holy Spirit.”

He also stated that there is no way to “conform with certain prophecies.” “We have to be indignant with a people who sometimes do not walk at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the history of the IBGE Census, in 1980, Catholics were 89.9% of the population, and evangelicals 6.6%. In the most recent survey, in 2010, the ratio was 64.6% to 22.2%.

Mendonça has waited for almost five months for Senator Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP) to schedule his hearing and questioning by the Senate Constitution and Justice Committee, which occurred yesterday (30).

During this period, evangelical leaders mobilized and pressured the congressman to move forward with the process.

Before his nomination to the Supreme Court, the former minister has said that he is committed to the secular state. He reaffirmed this on his profile in a social network in September, while his nomination was blocked in the Senate.

In an interview with Folha and UOL in 2019, when he was Federal Solicitor General, he said that the defense of someone evangelical for the court was just “a slogan” of the president.

He spoke that faith, of whatever religion, cannot be a factor in influencing decision-making in the sphere of professional performance. “I have had this stance for 20 years at the AGU, and it would be no different outside.”

In his visits to churches around the country, various topics, such as measures of the Bolsonaro government and his professional experience, are also usually part of his speeches. In 2019, he gave a lecture, for example, analyzing “corruption from theology.”

The health crisis resulting from the coronavirus was also a subject with some frequency in his participation in religious meetings. In April this year, when the pandemic was at its peak in the country, Mendonça said that the situation was a “calamity worthy of biblical records” and asked for reflections, saying that it is a disease that “equals rich and poor”.

In May, in another church, he criticized those who think “that the answers come only from science in speaking of the pandemic.” “The great truth is that science is not able to answer the countless challenges experienced by our society. Many still want to idolize science.”

UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS OF NOMINATIONS IN THE SENATE

The first evaluation of the nominee is done by the CCJ (Commission of Constitution and Justice). To start the process, the president of the Senate must read the announcement of the nomination in a plenary session, which has already been done.

The first step in the commission is to have a hearing about the candidate. After the interview, the CCJ prepares an opinion on the nomination and sends the analysis to the full Senate.

The decision on the nomination is made in a plenary session of the Senate. Approval of the nomination only occurs if a majority is obtained – at least 41 of the 81 senators.

After approval by the Senate, the president publishes the appointment, and the nominee may take office.

With information from Folha