Evangelical Doctrine Reaches the Favela and Enters the Drug Trade
This entry is a translation of Doutrina evangélica sobe a favela e chega ao tráfico.
This entry is based on a review by Aline Salgado, inspired by Christina Vital da Cunha's book Prayer of a Trafficker.
Authorship: Compiled by the Marielle Franco Favela Dictionary Team using official sources[1].
Evangelical Doctrine Moves Up to the Slums and Reaches Drug Trafficking[editar | editar código-fonte]
By Aline Salgado
The academic guidelines of a doctoral thesis are barely noticeable in the rhythmic narrative, laced with suspense, told by researcher and associate professor in the Sociology Department at the Federal University of Fluminense (UFF), Christina Vital da Cunha, in her newly released book Oração de Traficante (Prayer of a Drug Dealer) (Garamond Universitária Publishing, 431 pages).
The work, which is the result of 13 years of study and observation in the Acari and Santa Marta favelas, located in the North and South Zones of Rio de Janeiro, respectively, describes the rise of Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal evangelical churches in impoverished communities and the strengthening of Christian doctrine among local drug dealers.
Defended in 2009, the doctoral thesis was turned into a book with the help of the Editing Assistance Fund (APQ 3) from FAPERJ, which was obtained in 2014. In the publication, Christina recounts how she built an extensive network of trust that allowed her to be seen by residents and, especially, by drug dealers as a trusted person, thus opening the doors for her ethnographic study. But even the friendships cultivated in the favelas were not enough to immunize her from the risks.
"Paranoia and gossip compose and simultaneously set a limit to local sociability. Although I was part of trust networks based on dense emotional bonds, I found myself in delicate situations," says Christina. According to the researcher, a photo of a puma—symbol of the local traffickers from the Third Pure Command (TCP)—painted on a wall in the favela, put her in an extreme situation. After a gossip spread, drug lookouts interrogated the professor, fearing how she might use the photos she had taken. Once again, the network of protection Christina had built over years of research in the communities helped her escape unscathed.
These and other risky situations, however, did not alter the course of the researcher’s work. On the contrary, they provided a stronger foundation to address a theme that challenges the understanding of many social scientists and policymakers: the seemingly conflicting relationship between drug dealers and evangelicals in Rio's favelas.
Consequences of the Void Left by the Catholic Church and the State[editar | editar código-fonte]
In the void left by the Catholic Church and the State, Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal evangelical churches grew and continue to grow in the suburbs and communities of Rio de Janeiro. Lacking basic services, opportunities, and protection, residents quickly identify with the doctrine. Among them are also drug dealers, who follow and help spread the religious message. Psalms and Bible verses began to dominate the walls of the favelas, especially in Acari. At the same time, requests for prayers from drug dealers to evangelicals, and even their participation in church services, increased.
"When I reached the absolute necessity of talking to the traffickers to understand this social dynamic and discuss their religiosity, no one wanted to bridge that gap. The fact that I had been in the communities for a few years helped. At the start of my research, more than 10 years ago, I took photos with young people, some as young as four, who today, at 17, have become drug dealers. This interaction made the approach easier, without prior mediation," says Christina. "I approached them and explained how I wanted to talk about the paintings in the favela and about their religiosity," she adds. "Talking about religion opened doors for me. Today, due to religious intolerance and attacks on practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions, it might not be so easy to talk about evangelicals in the favelas," she notes.
According to Christina, evangelization frees drug dealers from evil, but not entirely. "Informal conversations with residents and drug dealers showed that working in crime has, above all, a financial weight that is difficult to escape," the researcher explains. One of the passages in the book highlights the amount of money the drug trade generates: "The favelas in the Acari Complex—Acari/Coroado, Amarelinho, and Vila Esperança—were moving over R$ 90,000 a month."
One account obtained by the researcher shows the difficulty evangelized drug dealers have in leaving the life of crime: "(...) A person who spends from 13 to 30 years in the drug trade needs a psychologist to help them because the change is too abrupt for someone who earns, let's say, R$ 2,500 per week to later earn R$ 250 a week, if they earn anything. (...) You need the pastor there, speaking to them, but you also need psychological help. When someone like that converts, you see the difficulty they face, and how their family accepts this." (sic – excerpt from p. 406)
According to the researcher, the lack of "blame" of the individual could be one of the factors that make it easier for evangelicals, particularly Pentecostals, to reach and continue reaching the fringes of society through intense social actions and evangelization efforts that provide ways for these individuals—drug dealers, ex-criminals, and former prostitutes, etc.—to establish a connection with society.
"One of my challenges in the research, which I discuss in the first chapter of the book, concerns the very revelation of the intense, in some cases, relationships between drug dealers and evangelicals in the favelas. This is because the Christian religious identity was commonly activated by favela residents as a kind of 'pass,' as a moral cleansing when interacting with broader society. Several interviewees spoke about how presenting this religious identity was important, for example, in the job market," says Christina. "I try to show the complexity, the tensions involved in the approaches, relationships, and attempts to distance between these extremes that seemed not to touch: evangelicals and criminals," she adds.
The First Academic Work Investigating the Relationship Between Drug Dealers and Evangelical Religion[editar | editar código-fonte]
The professor emphasizes that this was the first academic work to investigate the relationship between drug dealers and their connection with evangelical religion. For many years, according to Christina, society, the academic world, and literature thought about the relationship of drug dealers only with African-derived religions. But the current scenario is different.
"Although the academy may be reflective, it sometimes absorbed Christian morality in its object selection, in the way of looking at them. In this sense, the existing morality and the lack of field research made it difficult to understand this relationship," says Christina, adding that her study created a dialogue with the specialized literature on religion and its interfaces with violence in the city.
Another intriguing reflection raised by the researcher in her thesis concerns the practical results of the evangelical spiritual work. In their mission to socially recompose certain social actors, such as gays, prostitutes, and criminals, the evangelical church takes in drug dealers, offering them not only protection from crime through prayers but also control over their violent actions and impulses, along with a sense of purpose for the future.
"The connection with evangelicals makes the transient life in the drug trade possible, the transition to another path. This contact points to a perspective, a new direction. This is how drug dealers make gradual investments for a life outside of crime. In fact, some drug dealers have moved on to new lives, as gas station owners, or owners of produce stores. But many others stayed," emphasizes Christina.
The researcher stresses that the connection between drug dealers and evangelical churches, their participation in services and campaigns of local churches, should not be questioned as either true or false. "What would be a real adherence to churches? Are there gradations in this connection? Is this specific to drug dealers, or could we think that these levels of engagement apply to anyone?" she asks.
Christina points out that people identify as belonging to a particular religion for cultural, emotional, traditional, or familial reasons. But different types of religious choices, of adherence, involve calculations, and that doesn’t invalidate them or make them a second-tier affiliation. "In this sense, it is true that the figure of the 'evangelical drug dealer' causes controversy within the religious group itself, as some view this close relationship as an important strategy for the evangelization of criminals, while others see it as producing what they call 'bad testimony.' It’s a boundary of tension, as researcher Gabriel Feltran would say," concludes the researcher.
About Christina Vital da Cunha[editar | editar código-fonte]
Christina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Methodology of Social Sciences and the Graduate Program in Sociology (PPGS) at the Federal University of Fluminense. She holds a degree in Social Sciences from the Federal University of Fluminense, a master's degree in Anthropology and Sociology from the Federal University of Rio (PPGSA/IFCS), and a PhD in Social Sciences from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), with doctoral research at the Centre de Recherche sur le Brèsil Contemporain at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
She is a productivity fellow at CNPq, coordinates the LePar Laboratory of Socio-Anthropological Studies in Politics, Art, and Religion, is involved in the EXTREMOS research group coordinated by Michel Gherman (UFRJ), and the Luso-Brazilian Network of Researchers in Arts and Urban Interventions, coordinated by Glória Diógenes (UFC) and Ricardo Campos (Universidade Nova de Lisboa).
She, along with Ronaldo Almeida (UNICAMP), initiated and coordinated the Secularism and Democracy Committee of the Brazilian Anthropology Association from 2019 to 2022 and is currently a regular member.
She is the author of the book Oração de Traficante: Uma Etnografia (Garamond; FAPERJ, 2015) and co-author of Religião e Política: Medos Sociais, Extremismo Religioso e as Eleições de 2014 (2017), Religião e Conflito (Prismas, 2016), Religião e Política: Uma Análise da Participação de Parlamentares Evangélicos sobre os Direitos das Mulheres e LGBTs no Brasil (2012), among other books and articles in national and international journals.
She is also an editor of the scientific journal Religião Sociedade (Qualis Capes A) and an ad hoc collaborator for the Institute for the Study of Religion (ISER) since 2002. She has experience in Sociology and Anthropology of Religion and Urban Studies, with an emphasis on the following themes: religion, politics and demands for rights; religions in the judiciary; urban art and religion; and religion and violent crime in favelas and peripheral areas.
