". From around 400 in 1989, there are now about 2,500 Brazilian Protestant missionaries, nearly 90 per cent of whom are sent by missionary societies resulting from Brazilian initiative. The receiving countries (over 70) cover all the continents."1 (35)
"The Brazilian missionary effort has not been accompanied by the dose of messianism of many Korean and some Ghanaian missionaries regarding the present or future role of their countries in the world ... Brazilians have wanted to believe that their cultural and racial mix equipped them perfectly for cross-cultural engagement. But ease in breaking barriers and mixing in new environments is not the same as cultural sensitivity; in fact, it may lead merely to quicker mistakes. While Brazil is a country of considerable racial inter-marriage, few people are used to regular contact with other languages and cultures."2 (35-36)
"While the historical churches (such as the Brazilian Presbyterians) prefer to work with sister-churches abroad, responding to requests for missionaries with specific qualifications (e.g. in church-planting, youth work, etc.), and many inter-denominational agencies seek to open new autochthonous denominations in the country of destination, allowing the group of new national believers to decide on their course of action, the UCKG and most other Brazilian Pentecostal denominations practise a model of direct ecclesiastical transplant, founding branches of their denomination around the globe and employing everywhere virtually the same techniques that have served them well in Brazil. "3
"This grassroots base is linked with institutional power because of hierarchical organization, political strength (over 20 members of the Brazilian congress), social impact (through its large social work founded in 1994), financial wealth and media empire (including TV Record, Brazil’s third largest television network, which the UCKG acquired in 1989). It is above all a religion of the large cities, both in Brazil and abroad."1 (37)
1980s and 1990s UCKG invested heavily in missions abroad: (1) bishops are disproportionately abroad, and leaders in Brazil have significant overseas experience. 2(37)
"Another indication is the care taken when starting work in new countries. A commission investigates the probabilities of success, studies relevant laws, devises the legal constitution of the church, evaluates the most appropriate discourse and the best locations for churches, besides carrying out rental or purchase of buildings " 3(37)
overseas mission of UCKG centrally planned 4(38) emphasis on obedience of ministers to institutional call rather than personal call 5(38)
"However, while it is reasonable to suppose that monetary calculations are always present, they rarely operate alone, and could scarcely be the deciding factor in the case of many African countries (there are indications that the church runs at a deficit in most of the continent....numerical success, so valued in Brazilian evangelical circles... In addition, in the case of a highly proselytistic church, its global expansion must have some connection with the romance of fulfilling the classic Christian missionary mandate."6 (38)
cultural proximity encourages the sending of missionaries to Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries. 7(38)
"Thus, while missions reflect the self-confidence generated by numerical growth in Brazil (and rivalry for a larger slice of the national religious field spills over into rivalry in missions), they also reflect an independent spirit, the capacity to see oneself not as the end of the process, or in biblical language as ‘the ends of the earth’, but rather as a new centre of Christianity from which the ends of the earth must be reached."8 (39)
doubts over whether UCKG went to America in 1980 or 1986, success only achieved when it switched to Spanish in 1991 9(39)
". Expansion into Spanish-speaking Latin America began in 1985, into Europe in 1989, Africa in 1991 and Asia in 1995. Its countries of greatest success (outside southern Africa) include Portugal, Argentina, Colombia and the US. While some church sources currently (October 2004) claim a presence in ‘over 85 countries’, a list of addresses names only 71, of which 29 are in Africa, 17 in Latin America, 15 in Europe, two in Anglophone North America, three in the Caribbean and five in Asia" 10(39)
"The devaluation of the Brazilian real in January 1999, after four years of near parity with the dollar, seems clearly related to the current difficulties of Brazilian missions in general. " 11(39)
"Although the UCKG has always tried to be ‘universally’ available, in various parts of the world it has become, in effect, an ‘ethnic church’, one of black immigrants in much of Europe, of Hispanics in the US and of Brazilian immigrants in Japan. However, in Portugal and Latin America, it has become established amongst the native population, and the same is true of Africa. Thus far, its transnationalization has depended largely on three cultural blocs: the Latin American (including Hispanics in the US), the Lusophone and the African (including the African diaspora in Europe). The Latin, Lusophone and African worlds, with their linguistic and/or cultural links with Brazil, account for perhaps 90 per cent of the UCKG’s international membershiP"12 (40)
o
". Key factors in this uniformity are its clericalism (pastors being necessary for the key function of exorcism) and its centralized control. Congregational participation in decisionmaking is eliminated and strong horizontal ties among members are de-emphasized. In addition, the lower clergy are transferred constantly to prevent the emergence of personal loyalties and local power bases." 13(41)
"While seeing itself as heir to the evangelical tradition, the church also has links with traditional Brazilian religiosity. In the phrase of one leader, ‘we do not follow a European or American evangelical tradition; we start from the religious practice of the people’. It appears to see itself as a Latin American Protestant reformation, that is, a Protestantism attuned to the religious traditions of the continent. In response to accusations of syncretism, it replies that one can be evangelical and still use popular religious traditions as a starting point. The result is a mix of Catholic organization and aspirations and acceptance of the reality (although not of the benign nature) of the worldview of the Afro-Brazilian religions, all filtered through a fervent, biblically inspired religiosity"14 (41)
"In general, however, the self-image of the UCKG is of a church which has come to do what other churches did not have the courage to do. " 15(42)
"Exorcism, healing and prosperity are the basis of the practical teaching of the UCKG." 16(42)
"The UCKG’s emphasis on prosperity theology includes not only constant appeals to donate ‘sacrificially’ to the church but also exhortations to become self-employed. Its publications often contain advice on opening various branches of business. The church’s message, therefore, may well reinforce the work ethic and petty entrepreneurial initiative in adverse contexts." 17(42)
"In Brazil, the church was for long the object of media denunciations, law-suits and investigations by the inland revenue and the federal police. These were partly due to its public exorcisms, its extravagant promises of prosperity and its aggressive posture toward Catholicism and Afro-Brazilian religions. But mainly they revolved around money: the wealth of the leaders and of the church itself, the origin of the resources to purchase TV Record and the abuse of its tax-exempt status for commercial activities. In Brazil, the scandals surrounding the church have receded in recent years, as it has become more and more lodged in the mainstream of public life"18 (44)
refers to the UCKGs practice of attacking national religions, which includes Anglicanism in Britain 19(45)
giving example of UCKG descriptions of Africans and even Luxembourg "Perhaps, in the last analysis (and in view of its considerable success in Africa and the multi-racial composition of its pastorate), the UCKG vision of the world owes more to ethnocentrism and lack of empathy with the host populations, whoever they may be."20 (47)
o
"it seems that the UCKG is prepared to use an immigrant group as a bridgehead, but then resists its consequent characterization as an ‘ethnic church’. Its ‘universality’ demands that it have the majority population as its target; but the pressure for results makes it sometimes opt to begin with an immigrant group, even in a foreign language."21 (48)
comments on the rare nature of links with American White Christianity 22(48)
refers to the practice of building "Cathedrals" (49)
"Just as Brazilian Universal pastors all imitate Edir Macedo’s Rio de Janeiro pronunciation, and Portuguese pastors learn to preach with a Brazilian accent and vocabulary, so UCKG pastors around the world are taught to ‘dream’ of seeing their church in all its magnificence in its native setting. "23 (50)
use of black South Africans as missionaries in England 24(50)
"Among the most common ways people become possessed by evil in Africa, says Crivella, are direct and indirect involvement with sangomas and nyangas, family heritage, witchcraft (all those who do not have the Holy Spirit are potential victims) and by eating food sacrificed to idols (at funerals). The result of deliverance from possession will be a victorious life; and a victorious life, for the UCKG, means one with no addictions or diseases, and where prosperity is something natural."25 (52)
"So far, South Africa is the UCKG’s only real success story operating outside the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking worlds, and in a country where Protestantism rather than Catholicism has traditionally been dominant" 26(54)
"In Lusophone Africa, the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus is a vehicle for Brazilianness (the linguistic characteristics reminiscent of the television soap-operas; the ways of being and behaving associated with the image of Brazil); and that Brazilianness has in turn been a vital constituent in the church’s rise."27 (58)
" since this once fiercely anti-leftist church has (since the mid-1990s) shifted considerably leftward in the Brazilian context, developing a nationalistic critique of multinationals and the IMF and describing globalization as ‘the fruit of an economic policy dictated by the developed countries to expand their markets . . . giving their citizens all the things they “steal” from ours’ 28(59-60)
"The UCKG, it should be noted, is well-known for promoting family planning, and the fertility rate of its Brazilian members is significantly lower than the average of their social class."29 (61)
o
"Globally speaking, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is almost exclusively a phenomenon of Christian poverty. Where Christians are not poor, or the poor are not Christian, it fares badly" 30(62)
"But much will also depend on a continuing impetus to geographical expansion from the Brazilian homeland. Brazilian evangelical religion could have an important role in the global future of Christianity, since in ethnic, cultural and economic terms it is a bridge between the First and Third Worlds. However, the Folha Universal comments in 2000 that ‘after taking the gospel to the four corners of the earth, the UCKG has entered the so-called Era of Cathedrals’. The exhaustive coverage of its international activities has waned. It is as if the era of reaching the ‘ends of the earth’ is now considered closed, and the priority has changed to deepening the church’s visibility and influence in the territories already ‘reached’. Cathedrals and missions have often had a tense relationship; the supreme era of cathedrals, the Middle Ages, was certainly not the most missionary era of Christianity."31
1P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 37.
2P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 37.
3P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 37.
4P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 38.
5P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 38.
6P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 38.
7P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 38.
8P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 39.
9P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 39.
10P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 39.
11P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 39.
12P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 40.
13P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 41.
14P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 41.
15P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 42.
16P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 42.
17P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 42.
18P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 44.
19P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 45.
20P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 47.
21P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 48.
22P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 48.
23P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 50.
24P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 50.
25P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 52.
26P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 54.
27P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 58.
28P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 59–60.
29P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 61.
30P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 62.
31P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 63.
1P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 35.
2P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 35–36.
3P Freston ' The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa',Journal of Religion in Africa 35:1 (2005), 33–65, 36–37.
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