Reaching Souls, Liberating Lands: Cross-cultural Evangelical Missions and Bolsonaro’s Government

Abstract

This article examines the activities of cross-cultural evangelical missions among indigenous peoples in Brazil and explores how these activities fit into the policies of Jair Bolsonaro’s government. The aim is to show how these missions relate to three federal government policies that are currently threatening the existence of indigenous peoples – policies that are expressed in the moral, anti-environmental, and national security agendas. This article argues that the element connecting these different sets of interests is a notion of individual freedom that directly opposes the idea of collective rights and, therefore, represents an expression of anti-democratic values.

Keywords

• bolsonaro government
• brazil
• evangelical missions
• indigenous people
• lands right
• military