Golgotha: the place where Jesus was crucified, place of death and redemption. For the Brazilian photographer Ian Cheibub, his photo project of the same name is both a metaphor and a declaration of love for his country. With his camera he portrays the evangelical world of Brazil – from the favela in Rio to the indigenous settlement in the Amazon.
Cheibub shows how believers “Brazilianize” the gospel. The variant of Christianity preached by US missionaries has become a separate Brazilian faith that clearly distinguishes itself from the Catholic Church.
Hypnotic Blend
“There is no such thing as ‘the evangelicals’,” the photographer told DW. “We’re talking about almost 70 million people here, that’s 31 percent of the Brazilian population.” According to surveys, the majority of the population in what has been the largest Catholic country in the world to date will be Evangelical by 2030.
Award-winning Brazilian photographer Ian Cheibub delved deep into the world of evangelicals for his project Calvary
Brazilian pastor Norma is among the millions of Brazilian women who have changed their faith. For 30 years she was a priestess in a temple for Candomblé cults in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Even her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother prayed to the Afro-Brazilian gods, called Orixás.
Eventually, Norma left the Orixás behind, converted, and opened a church in her home. “She can play all instruments,” says Ian Cheibub. “She teaches her five-year-old granddaughter to play the small pandeiro drum and thus praise God.”
As Cheibub talks about the music, his fingers slide rhythmically over the strings of an imaginary guitar and his voice rises in song. “Evangelical music is a hypnotic blend of traditional Brazilian rhythms like forró and samba,” he explains.
First a Candomblé priestess, now an evangelical pastor: the Afro-Brazilian Norma with her granddaughter in a church in Rio
It was music that led the 23-year-old photographer to Brazil’s Pentecostal and evangelical temples. In his award-winning photo project “Golgotha” Cheibub shows conversions, baptismal rituals and services, from the Amazon to Rio’s favelas.
“Brazilian” Gospel
Unlike the Brazilian intellectual elite, who fear that the increasing power and proselytization of evangelical churches could wipe out Brazilian culture, Cheibub argues the other way around: It is the believers in Brazil who are “Brazilianizing” the gospel.
For him, the photo project “Golgotha” is a declaration of love to the “brasilidade” – the soul of Brazil: “Evangelicals embody this brasilidade,” he says. Elements from Afro-Brazilian and indigenous cultures are integrated into the rituals without hesitation.
The indigenous Krikatí people of northeastern Brazil even adapted the Bible and hymns into their own language. “It’s an almost cannibalistic process: They devour the evangelical rites – and the result is something authentically Brazilian,” says Cheibub.
Cheibub, together with many Brazilian sociologists, has a simple explanation for the rapid rise of the evangelical churches: the churches are there where the state is not present.
The Church as a problem solver
“For pastors Tiago and Nilton, the evangelical congregations were the salvation,” he says. Pastor Nilton Pereira was one of the most wanted criminals in the Rios drug mafia before he became evangelical. At the age of 17 he got into the drug trade. Eventually he ended up in prison and converted. Today he preaches every Thursday in the favela where he was feared as a drug lord just a few years earlier.
The indigenous pastor Tiago Krikatí is also convinced that faith in Jesus saved his life. He was an alcoholic, unemployed and beat his wife. Today he works as a teacher, is a pastor and tries to convert his village. These resumes speak for themselves, says Cheibub. “How can you say: You’re brainwashed? It’s about survival here,” he says.
“March for Jesus”: In Camboriu, President Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle are campaigning for the votes of evangelical Christians
The lack of state presence has increased the power of evangelical churches in Brazil. President Jair Bolsonaro came to power in 2018 with the help of evangelical votes.
Brazil, a secular state?
In the forthcoming elections on October 2, this group could once again decide the outcome of the election. Evangelical politicians have long since infiltrated political institutions and occupy important political posts.
For photographer Ian Cheibub, religion is not the focus of the current election. “2018 was about morality. But if you’re hungry, you don’t think about morality. Hunger has returned to Brazil,” he says. It is not decisive for the election result who is evangelical and who is not. “This election will be decided by hunger.”
