Entrevista DW

How Pentecostal churches are changing Brazil?

Millions of Brazilians are adopting a hybrid Pentecostalism that is transforming local culture. As Brazil votes on October 2, an up-close view of a fast-rising evangelical community.

Golgotha is the place where Jesus was crucified, a place of death and redemption. Brazilian photographer Ian Cheibub borrows the name for his photo project documenting a rising religious movement which, he says, embodies the soul of Brazil.

With his camera, he portrays the evangelical world of Brazil — from Rio's favelas to Indigenous settlements in the Amazon.

Cheibub shows how believers are "Brazilianizing" the gospel. Pentecostal Christianity was brought to Brazil by US and European missionaries over a century ago, but has become a Brazilian denomination of its own that is especially distinct from the Catholic Church.

Brazilians are switching faiths

The photographer told DW that this is no fringe religion.

"We're talking about almost 70 million people, 31% of the Brazilian population," he said. According to surveys, the majority of the population in what has been the world's largest Catholic country is expected to be evangelical by 2030.

Pastor Norma is one of the millions of Brazilian women who have switched their faith. For 30 years she was a priestess in a temple for Candomble cults in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother already prayed to the Afro-Brazilian gods called Orixas.

At some point, Norma turned her back on the Orixas, converted and opened a church in her home.

"She can play all the instruments," said Cheibub. "She teaches her five-year-old granddaughter to play the little pandeiro drum to praise God."

When Cheibub talks about the music, his fingers find a rhythm gliding over the strings of an imaginary guitar and his voice rises to sing. "Evangelical music is a hypnotic blend of traditional Brazilian rhythms like forro and samba," he said.

It was in fact music that led the 23-year-old photographer to Brazil's Pentecostal churches and evangelical temples. In his award-winning Golgotha photo project, Cheibub shows conversions, baptismal rituals and church services from across the country.