Pecado, salvação e cura: representações sociais da aids para líderes religiosos pentecostais

Abstract

The study objective of this thesis is on the social representations of AIDS developed by evangelical religious leaders and its general objective is to analyze the social representations of Pentecostal evangelical religious leaders about HIV / AIDS, in its interface with the representational constructs on sin and God. Yet it has the following objectives to describe the representational constructs of sin to God and Pentecostal evangelical leaders; to describe the content and structure of social representations of HIV / AIDS developed by Pentecostal religious leaders; and analyze the relationships between social representations of sin and God prepared by Pentecostal leaders with those that have HIV / AIDS. This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study based on the procedural and structural approaches to the theory of social representations. As scenarios, three Pentecostal evangelical churches of the same denomination were chosen, located in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Petrópolis, Brazil. In the first stage of this study, focused on the structural approach of social representations, 120 Evangelical religious leaders participated. In the second stage of data collection, based on the procedural approach of social representations, 30 evangelical leaders participated in the research. The data were collected through the technique of evocations free using the terms inductors, HIV/AIDS, God and Sin, and semi-structured interviews, guided by a script. The free evocations were analyzed by the technique of four houses, through the EVOC software, as well as the similarity analysis and interviews were subjected to thematic-categorical content analysis resulting in four categories. The leaders have incorporated elements of the reified universe through the AIDS representation as communicable disease caused by a virus and incurable. The image they have of AIDS is mainly death. The anchoring of AIDS for religious leaders is centered on the idea of sin, especially when related to syndrome with divine punishment and disobedience to God's laws. Divine healing, one of the central features of Pentecostalism, also appears in the speech of religious leaders associated with the salvation of the soul and should occur through the divine will, faith and repentance from sin. There is also a socio-institutional tension within the Church in the context of HIV/Aids: while the leaders perceive the Church as a protective factor for HIV infection, show that you're not prepared to deal with those who already have the virus. It is concluded that the negative assessment of AIDS and the images and attitudes in reference to have roots in understandings of the syndrome at the beginning of the epidemic. It is evident, also, the overlapping of the AIDS history regarding the history of salvation. Therefore, this study allows the nurse to understand the organization of the social thinking of Evangelical religion about AIDS for, from then on, working together with a person with HIV/AIDS, the acceptance of the disease, the daily experience with and adherence to drug therapy, without reinforcing the negative representations that religion has on AIDS and using positive representations as a strategy for living well with HIV/AIDS.