Igreja Universal

I turned this in for an assignment, but then decided to post it on the blog.

After attending the Igreja Universal, I almost decided that I wanted to attend a Catholic mass instead in order to complete this assignment because my experience was so negative. However, the experience helped me learn quite a bit about Brazilian culture, and perhaps more importantly, culture outside of the Church. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Igreja Univeral) represents Brazil's strong religious movement away from Catholicism towards various protestant sects. Ironically, however, A Igreja Universal almost comes full circle back to many of the ideas and practices of the Catholic church. In fact, I noted in my journal that it seemed like the Catholic church on steroids. My own thoughts are that as Brazil moves away from the Catholic Church towards protestantism, many people still feel the need for ritual, and are uncomfortable in a church that focuses on teaching doctrine. A Igreja Universal fills that need, since it is heavy in ritual, and extremely light on doctrine. The church also mimics the Catholic church in its more ornate building, stained glass windows, and hierarchal organization.

As I participated in the services, I tried to participate with the other members of the congregation, but with my strong Mormon background, it was extremely difficult and uncomfortable. The meeting began with a sermon on overcoming our difficulties in life. The sermon was very general, and light on scripture, but the pastor was very excited as he spoke. He frequently said “Amen” or any of a variety of other phrases that invoked some kind of response from the congregation, normally a repetition of what he said. In my own opinion, these phrases came at relatively random points. I had to wonder if he was doing it to wake up any members of the congregation that may have been dozing off—which would have been hard since everyone was standing.

After the brief sermon, the pastor encouraged the congregation to give tithing, promising that if they did, they would receive blessings for their family. Upon saying this, between 30 and 50 helpers went out into the congregation to hand out envelopes. After some more words, those who had accepted envelopes put money in the envelopes and brought them to the front (for the whole world to see).

The prayer session followed. However, the prayer in this service was very different from an LDS prayer. The pastor lead the prayer, and the congregation chanted along with him. Instead of addressing God, the pastor addressed the Devil, for him to leave the church and the people that were there. He also prayed for the illnesses and other problems of the members of the congregation to leave. At different points during the prayer, at the pastor's indication, the members of the congregation would raise their hand in the air, or put them on top of their heads, or hold them close to their chest. Also as he prayed, several other pastors or workers went out into the congregation to lay their hands on their heads and bless them. During this time, several “endemoniados”—all women—were taken to the front of the congregation, onto the stage where several lower pastors were struggling with them, their hands held on the back of the possessed person's neck. Music was also playing in the background, and after a worker came by to personally invite me to close my eyes so that I “could feel the spirit of the Lord”, I began to experience what the other members of the congregation were probably also experiencing: sensory overload. There were so many sounds and so much commotion that I wanted to break down and cry, almost out of fear. This part of the meeting had all the energy of a rock concert. In fact, as the pastor and members of the congregation chanted “Sai! Sai! Sai!” for the cancer, demons, bad luck, etc. to leave, I felt like I was at basketball game in the moments before the team enters the court.

The prayer session lasted much longer than I was comfortable with, and at this point I may have left were it not for the nice young lady that invited us to sit with some other youth. I then noticed that the congregation had groups of youth grouped into different colors. Skyler and I were invited by Cathedral 4, which dresses in blue for these meetings, and we were even given some blue to wear with them. The youth were all extremely friendly and happy to see some new faces among them.

The meeting continued with members of the congregation pulling out their bags, books, pictures of family members, keys, and wallets to be blessed. As the people held these items high in the air, some of the workers and other pastors passed by with large bowls of water and what looked like olive branches. They passed through the aisles throwing this water on the congregation in order to bless their things. Shortly after, members of the congregation were invited to go forward and wash their hands in what I assume was some kind of holy water. One of the youth whisked me to the front in order to participate, and so I dipped my hands in the water, and left somewhat confused as to what to do with my now wet hands, and determined that I would just wait for them to dry.

During all this time the possessed people were still in the front struggling with the pastors. The head pastor then spoke to one of the devils, asking what he/she wanted with the body of the possessed woman, to which the woman responded “kill her and her family” in the best Golum impression I've heard in a long time. The pastor then took an opportunity to reinforce his invitation to come on Sunday by asking the possessed woman (or the demon inside of her) if she wanted the members of the congregation to come on Sunday. The possessed woman answer no, and as though the members of the congregation weren't following along very well, pointed out that if the devil wants us to not come, we should come. The pastor then asked the demon if it wanted to possess his body, and the possessed woman answered no, because it was full of the holy ghost.

The meeting continued in much the same manner, and ended with two more offerings, once again handing out envelopes to the congregation. The pastor first invited those with faith to donate 100 R$ to come forward, then those donating 50 R$, and so on until arriving at 5 R$. At some point after the offerings, the possessed women were simultaneously cured of their demons, and the congregation left.

The whole experience opened my eyes to some of the ideas about religion in this country. Religious views are diverse in Brazil, and it was interesting to see the services in Brazil's fastest growing church, and coincidentally the largest church that began in Brazil. The church reflects Brazil's sometimes tumultuous struggle between a desire to become independent of the Catholic church and a yearning for ritual.

More Bahia

Bahia pics

Bahia!!!!

This week has certainly been interesting. Monday morning we left real early in th emorning to head down to Bahia. We drove most of the day, and then we stayed in some podunk town in Pernambuco. It was interesting to see the difference in the highways between states. We knew exactly when we left Ceará and entered Pernambuco because suddenly the streets weren't full of potholes. Speaking of which, I really thought that Brazil's highways would be better than they are, but apparently that's taken care of by the individual states, and Ceara for some reason is way behind. We hit several large potholes that basically had the same effect as going over a speed bump at 70 mph.

Anyway, we got to Bahia, and we thought we were going to stay in Feira de Santana, and travel to Salvador everyday, but as it turns out, there weren't any rooms available in any reasonable hotel in Feira because of some conference they were having, so we ended up staying in a hotel that overlooks the beach in Salvador (I know my life sucks). We taught the workshop in the afternoon in Salvador, then got in the car to rush out to Feira to teach the workshop there. Both were definitely different experiences. We only started with 9 people in Salvador, and we ended with 7, so that was a REALLY small group for us, but I really liked teaching the small group because we could focus more individual time with them. All but 1 were members of the church, which really helps. I don't know if I've written this yet, but serving in the church really helps people get jobs because it gives experience they wouldn't otherwise have. Also, I'm not sure why, but members of the church just get it easier. They understand what's going on and aren't afraid to make mistakes in the workshop. Anyway, that group was a ton of fun and I think they learned really well. The group in Feira started with 19 and ended with I think 12, and all were members of the church. I felt bad because we arrived late everyday, so someone else always started teaching for that day and we picked up where they left off, so I didn't feel like we got to know them really well, but they were really prepared and just got everything the first time we explained it.

We didn't have a lot of time to go out and see the city until today, but today was a ton of fun. First, we went to the Farol da Barra/Forte de Santo Antonio which was the first lighthouse in the Americas or the first in South America depending on if you read the English version or Portuguese version of the info sheet. In any event, it's a really old lighthouse and also Brazil's first fort. Outside I bought a berinbau (an instrument used in Capoeira) and learned to play with this guy they call "O Mestre" (The Master). Then we headed downtown and saw the Cathedral of Sao Francisco. It was honestly kind of sad to see they way the Catholic church looks at Christ (always sad, suffering, or dead), and to see the ridiculous amount of gold that was thrown into that cathedral. Then we just kind of walked around and ate some typical Bahian food. It was a ton of fun. I love Bahia. If I marry a girl whose rich parents want to fund my honeymoon, I think I'll come here.

We're headed back up to Fort tomorrow, but we won't get there til Monday. Amo todos voces! Sejam felizes e não façam nada que eu não faria, ta?

Going to Bahia!

Hey, so tomorrow morning at 6 am, that is, in 7 hours, we're leaving to go to Bahia. It'll take us a while to get there, but it'll be awesome. Salvador (the capital of Bahia) is a really historic city with lots of old buildings and stuff, so it should be fun.

This week was a lot of fun. We went to the beach and hung out all day on Tuesday--by all day I really mean all afternoon, since it was after the CASP. I felt like a tourist on vacation, because we spent a lot of money on a little bit of food that wasn't very good (it was all right), just because it was right on the beach. Then I did something I haven't done since I was a kid: I made tunnels in the sand. It was really cool. There's something about the beach that's just relaxing. It might just be that I've lived my whole life without it that it being something new is cool.

Yesterday we hiked the highest peak in the area, which would have been a relatively quick and easy hike were it not for the girls complaining the whole way. We should have just continued with the 4 guys and left the 3 girls behind (see, sometimes I hang out with groups of more guys than girls) but we put up with it. Anyway, it was an incredible view from the top, to see the whole city and the ocean on one side, and Brazil just going on and on on the other side. The area was also pretty much jungle, so that was an awesome experience.

This last group that we taught was pretty large, but they participated well. It's always disappointing to teach a principle, practice with them, see how well they CAN do it, and then in the final interview at the end they just fall into old habits. Oh well. I guess it requires more practice than just a week can provide. I have a lot of hope for a middle-aged mom, member of the church, who just really got into everything. If she puts into practice the stuff she's learned in her job search, she could get a really nice job even though she doesn't have a lot of professional experience. I'm also excited to see if my new Argentine friend Guillermo, middle-aged Jehovah's Witness, gets the job he wants--spanish teacher. He's the first Jehovah's Witness I ever met and really liked.

Well, I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures in Bahia and post them here. Peace.