In 2013, Bishop Robson Rodovalho, 70, told Sheet that it would be “very natural” to have a president at the head of Brazil one day. “I still totally think so,” he says now.
Until that time arrives, your prayer will be focused on the Catholic (), says the leader of the Sara Nossa Terra church. Rodovalho was released by the minister of the (Federal Supreme Court) to provide “religious assistance” to the former president.
Rodovalho and Bolsonaro are old allies. They met when the bishop held his only parliamentary term, as deputy for the DEM (party incorporated into União Brasil), from 2007 to 2011. “We created the Family Front, and he participated. From then on, it was [uma relação] always very close.”
Nothing that stopped him from supporting at the time. In the interview he gave to the newspaper 12 years ago, Rodovalho said that he endorsed the PT’s election “because the country has been run by the right all my life”, and he thought it would be good to give the left a chance.
Today he thinks differently. “In that election, Dilma committed to preserving Christian values and principles.”
The scenario has changed a bit since then. If he previously saw “pragmatism” in a left-wing government, the bishop says that this relationship has “soured” in the last decade.
He marched in 2018 and 2022 with Bolsonaro, the friend married to the evangelical and father of believing children. There is traffic in Brasília, where he lives.
Passing through the Chamber helped with his proximity to power. At the time, he presented projects requesting the creation of Firefighter’s Day and the prohibition of the use of psychographed documents as judicial evidence.
Outside of office, he consolidated himself as one of the evangelical organizers in the political game.
He joined the evangelical faith after a turbulent adolescence, “of lost people, without guidance”, as he said years ago. I consumed a little bit of everything. “Marijuana, lots of alcohol… We used to make mushroom tea.” He even carried a revolver on his waist.
At age 15, he joined a Presbyterian church. “The only thing I knew was that it was very good to read the Bible and very good to pray. Oh, I didn’t need drugs, drinks, anything.”
In 1992, Rodovalho opened his . Sara became known in the early 2000s for having celebrities such as Baby do Brasil, Monique Evans and Rodolfo, former lead singer of the band Raimundos, in her services. Gretchen celebrated one of several weddings there.
Like other national leaders, the bishop went beyond preaching from the pulpit. He recorded albums and published dozens of books, such as “Senhor, Ajuda me a Crer” and “O Dinheiro e Você”, in which he promises to reveal “the spiritual, emotional and practical secrets to acquiring wealth”.
Rodovalho is seen as a supporter of conservative agendas and right-wing politicians, but without the belligerent tone that marked the public actions of leaders such as . It usually works behind the scenes, privileging institutional dialogue, which allows it to move with less stress between different spheres of power and maintain political influence without resorting to permanent confrontational rhetoric.
He praised, for example, the choice of the president () by the attorney general of the Union, the Baptist, for the STF — still pending approval by the Senate. The bishop was also enthusiastic about the arrival of another evangelical to the court, the Presbyterian André Mendonça, appointed by Bolsonaro in 2021.
He says that his greatest role today “is to help unite Christians and work towards our values.” The is part of this package. “The idea is to give him emotional and spiritual strength to win this battle in his mind. This all passes.”
