“A gente chega lá!”: política e voto a partir da perspectiva de um grupo evangélico

Abstract

For some decades the expansion of the neo-Pentecostal churches in Brazil has drawing a upward line. Extrapolating the borders of the religious field, those churches increasingly play an active role in political parties and public space debates, raising questions about the electoral behavior of part of Brazilian population whose faith is identified as ‘evangelical’. At the same time, the diversity of representations and stigmas constantly associated with the evangelicals through the media, the common sense, and even the academy, makes it difficult to approach the real complexity of this process. Thus, the present dissertation elaborates a reflexion about the articulation between the faithful, churches, politicians and vote, through a fieldwork undertaken at the ‘Igreja Internacional da Graça de Deus’, in Rio de Janeiro, during the 'time of politics'. To understand the criteria potentially important in the definition of electoral behavior of the faithful, the description of the church, of the candidate supported by it and the speeches of the interlocutors are mixed with debates about culture, politics, trust relations and political representations.