The so many pastors who exalted Bolsonaro President will be next to Bolsonaro Defendant and, if convicted by the Supreme Court in the trial that began on Tuesday (2), Bolsonaro prisoner?
So far, the willingness to publicly defend the former Mandanician has been shy. Of course, the always vocal at the spearhead of Bolsonarist Evangelicalism-the pastor funded Bolsonarist acts, attacked Minister Alexandre de Moraes and ended that Bolsonaro investigates the court.
Behind the scenes, this class admits some tiredness with the process, even if they are affectionate by the former president. What they see as an inevitable condemnation has also cooled spirits.
A thermometer: The Alliance, a WhatsApp group with influential leaders in the churches, such as Malafaia, Renê Terra Nova, Abner Ferreira and Estevam Hernandes. Today, the content that circulates there almost limited to videos fired by Malafaia.
One of the most recent propagands act on September 7. Leaders appear in it such as Claudio Duarte, known for their humorous language to speak of sex among Christians, the creator of the march to Jesus, and, owner of Virulent Rhetoric Anti-LGBTQIA+.
They are, however, mainly diluted scores for a generic “freedom of expression and religious”. In general, more direct contestations to the trial that can put Bolsonaro behind bars come from Malafaia.
One of these pastors, who prefers to preserve anonymity, evokes passages from the New Testament in which disciples of Jesus, taken by fear, see the boat shaken by the waves and wonder if he will resist the storm.
This is the metaphor that, for him, better translates the moment lived today by pastors who supported Bolsonaro in 2018 and 2022: some paddle with force alongside the former president, others prefer to wait to see if the hooved hunter or if it will be necessary to jump out.
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, one of the driving springs of evangelical ascension in politics, has little spoken about the case. A pragmatic muteness, in the evaluation of interlocutors, which signals prudence while the former president’s political future is still open.
When provoked, many leaders choose to declare nothing. Others stress that, in their opinion, the judgment is unfair. “Time is the Lord of history,” says Bishop Robson Rodovalho, from the Sara Our Land Church.
It is echoed by the apostle César Augusto, from the source of life, who sees “a very, very bad climate” with “this ideological war” in Brazil. “I hope we can have common sense and not light the match in the gunpowder,” says César Augusto, to whom the right has good paintings to replace Bolsonaro in the 2026 election if the conviction is confirmed. It does not rule out Malafaia as a candidate, including.
Between the noisy defense and the calculated silence, there were those who were under pressure to support Malafaia, who had a passport, cell phone and notebook seized by the Federal Police in operation last month.
Among those who posted solidarity content to the pastor is Claudio Duarte. “Silas is just the messenger,” he said after the police approach at the airport. “The target is all of us,” who “speak truths that should not be said,” he continued.
The action against Malafaia caused a greater stir between evangelical leadership than the imminent, and the pastor himself called for public support manifestations, according to colleagues.
The Cimeb (Interdenominational Council of Evangelical Ministers of Brazil) issued a critical note to the inclusion of the carioca pastor in the list of investigated-the entity, it is said, was founded by Malafaia himself.
There was a displeasure of a stranger name to the root pockets. Reverend Augustus Nicodemus Lopes, with theological authority in the segment, shared with 1.4 million followers on Instagram video in which he says he is “knowledge of all” his divergences with Malafaia.
Nothing that prevented him from criticizing “harassment against a religious leader.” “Being stopped, having a passport and cell phone taken, and hollow audios can not become ‘normal’, as there is no opinion crime.”
Baptist pastor Yago Martins, from two theology fingers, a popular YouTube channel, is a minority among conservative peers. Openly averse to pockets, he defines Malafaia as “Rasputin do Bolsonaro”, a reference to the Russian tsar counselor with strong religious appeal.
“What will be crazy indeed,” he said, when they find out that the pastor in the sights of the STF “is not a Bolsonaro: he has more courage, more strength, more power, more preparation and less ethical.”
The dissemination of messages between Malafaia and Bolsonaro exposes a faded. He says Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro is “an asshole” and sent “an audio to him to break into”. And also: “The knife and the cheese is in your hand, a club!” The word displeased colleagues from pulpit.
If the figure of Malafaia messes the evangelical bandstand, Bolsonaro’s has already electrified the churches. Although the sympathy for the politician remains, it is no longer enough to mobilize large flocks in its defense. The streets no longer fill as in pockets, and the prayer circles have spaced.
Research reveals that Bolsonaro’s evangelical base is still robust. It’s just not so excited to buy the fight for it. There is a certain discursive fatigue.
For Vinicius do Valle, a political scientist and field researcher, you can not predict the movement of the Bolsonarist tides in the evangelical summit. One pastor or another is still more explicitly in favor of the former president, “but much of the leadership is quiet, seeing what will happen to know where to jump and the time to jump on which boat is.”
Valle also sees a mismatch between the digital militancy of the leaders and the daily life of the faithful. “It hasn’t become the big subject yet. Maybe that starts to change now.”
