{"id":8765,"date":"2017-09-22T20:32:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T02:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8765"},"modified":"2017-09-22T21:01:25","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T03:01:25","slug":"christians-attacking-pagan-temples-now-its-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8765","title":{"rendered":"Christians Attacking Pagan Temples \u2014\u00a0Now It’s Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Pomba Gira, whose divine role in Candombl\u00e9 is something like Aphrodite’s (Wikipedia).<\/p><\/div>\n

Reading Galina Krasskova’s blog a few days ago, I was surprised to see the headlines “One can always expect a monotheist to behave according to type<\/a>,” and “A Candomble priest martyred for\u00a0Jesus<\/a>.”((Shouldn’t that read, “Martyred by Followers of Jesus”? But the text clarifies it: “\u00c1lisson stood fast in devotion to the Orixa and was butchered in the name of Jesus.”))<\/p>\n

Candombl\u00e9<\/a> is the most West African of the Spiritist religions in Brazil. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Brazil’s sugar plantations brought in more African slaves than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere. Because of the size of the plantations and the lax oversight by stretched-thin Catholic clergy, the Brazilian slaves more easily retained their traditions than did those in mostly Protestant North America.((Whereas a “big” American tobacco or cotton plantation might have had dozens of slaves, a big Brazilian sugar plantation might well have had hundreds.))<\/p>\n

Most of us might think of Brazil as a largely Catholic country with other interesting things going on: the vegetalista <\/em> churches organizes around ayahuasca\/hoasca,\u00a0<\/a>Candombl\u00e9 and its more Europeanized cousin Umbanda,<\/a>\u00a0 and even a fledgling Wiccan movement. But the growth of evangelical Protestant churches is changing the mix, as this Washington Post <\/em><\/a> story explains:<\/a><\/p>\n

Candombl\u00e9 survived centuries of slavery, but the quasi-respectability it has gained in recent decades is now under concentrated attack from radical Evangelical Christians, a growing force in Catholic Brazil, who regard it as the devil\u2019s work and its priests and priestesses as little more than neighborhood witches.<\/p>\n

Tactics range from propaganda blitzkriegs launched on blogs and YouTube videos to threats, violence and expulsions from drug gangs. Afro-Brazilian religious leaders and sympathizers are fighting back in court. A low-intensity war is being fought for Brazilian souls. . . .<\/p>\n

Last year, Rio prosecutors launched a civil action to require Google to remove videos attacking Afro-Brazilian religions from YouTube. A judge ruled against them, writing that Afro-Brazilian religions could not be considered true religions because they lack a written text, a hierarchical structure and a god.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This article (in Portuguese) explains how worshipers were attacked at one temple and how the priestess was forced to destroy images of the gods at gunpoint.<\/a> There is video at the link.<\/p>\n

This is 2017 Rio de Janeiro, not late 4th-century Alexandria or Antioch. But it’s all the same story. As Krasscova comments, “A monotheist is a monotheist wherever you go.”<\/p>\n

In the floating world of the Internet, Afro-Brazilian religion is more popular than ever. I sent the links above to a friend who has lived in Brazil (she has a PhD in Luso-Brazilian literature), who writes on the religion, and who herself is a Pagan Witch.<\/p>\n

She replied, “[This is] weird because so many more people here [USA] and elsewhere are getting involved in Candomble, etc. For example, now when I Google Pomba-Gira<\/a>, there are more than 5,000 sites dedicated to her. In my day, nobody had even heard of her around here.”<\/p>\n

Maybe there’s Tumblr Candombl\u00e9, and then there is the kind that brings Jesus-loving gangsters to your door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Galina Krasskova’s blog a few days ago, I was surprised to see the headlines “One can always expect a monotheist to behave according to type,” and “A Candomble priest martyred for\u00a0Jesus.”((Shouldn’t that read, “Martyred by Followers of Jesus”? But the text clarifies it: “\u00c1lisson stood fast in devotion to the Orixa and was butchered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[180,304,24,142,205],"class_list":["post-8765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brazil","tag-candomble","tag-christianity","tag-monotheism","tag-umbanda"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2hn","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=481","url_meta":{"origin":8765,"position":0},"title":"Ghost storyBoulder, Colo., Wiccan priestess\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Ghost storyBoulder, Colo., Wiccan priestess Morwyn has a piece in the current (August 2005) issue of Fate magazine, titled \"Exorcism Spanish Style,\" based on an incident that occurred to her in Santiago de Campostela in 1997.She owns Dunraven House, the latest incarnation of magical-supplies business that has occupied her since\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":814,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=814","url_meta":{"origin":8765,"position":1},"title":"Animal Sacrifice and Authenticity","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month Classics scholar Mary Beard suggested that contemporary Hellenic Pagans were not quite authentic because they omitted the centerpiece of ancient Paganism: animal sacrifice. (I discussed her critique here, and she responded.)Orthodox Christian blogger Rod Dreher's recent post--and especially the comments--pretty well illustrate just how squeamish today's population--even omnivores--are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1260","url_meta":{"origin":8765,"position":2},"title":"Pagan Studies Call for Papers, AAR 2010","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is for anyone who has not already seen the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group's call for papers for next year's AAR meeting in Atlanta posted on some e-list or other.For details on paper submission, see the AAR's page for that meeting. Note that some information will not be posted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"scholarship\"","block_context":{"text":"scholarship","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=scholarship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2436,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2436","url_meta":{"origin":8765,"position":3},"title":"Gallimaufry, But It’s a Secret","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Is your religion playing secrecy games? Anne Hill asks, \"Does Your Religion Pass the Briefcase Test?\" This concept was explored in the magical religion of Candombl\u00e9 in Paul Christopher Johnson's Secrets, Gossip, and Gods. Read Johnson's book and see how much seems familiar. \u2022 Sannion rants about bad ritual:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":689,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=689","url_meta":{"origin":8765,"position":4},"title":""Drawing down" at big festivals","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Dragonfest is the largest Pagan festival in Colorado (there is an SCA reference in the name, I think), set to begin August 6 this year. Usually the state's two main Pagan e-lists light up afterwards as people discuss what went right, what went wrong, whose behavior offended whom, who was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5289,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5289","url_meta":{"origin":8765,"position":5},"title":"Is Paganism Doomed?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"No, this is not the judgment of one of the usual (Pagan) suspects. It is a tangent spun off a column by Rod Dreher, who comments frequently on ecclesiastical matters. 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