Significant sectors of Latin American Christianity have strengthened populist conservative political movements in the Américas. Contemporary examples of right-wing ideologies that align with Christian Nationalist sentiments and projects in the region abound. Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, leaned heavily on Christian Zionist sensibilities and culture war politics throughout his political career, sometimes framing Salvadoran politics in terms of spiritual warfare. In Argentina, President Javier Milei reflects the tendency of other right-wing populists to instrumentalize religion in attaining ultraconservative goals. Guatemala elected Jimmy Morales in 2015 and Alejandro Giammatei in 2019 as presidents—both with far-right agendas and relationships with ultraconservative Christian leaders. Among Latinos (and, presumably, Latin American immigrants) in the United States, Christian Nationalism and support for Trump is on the rise. Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, is where one of the most powerful iterations of Christian Nationalism takes place, especially when considering the role of Brazil in the transnational networks that invest in Christian Nationalist projects.
The overlapping Christian Nationalist influences in Brazil and the US can be noticed in the Christian imagery in their “sister insurrections.” These nationalist groups strongly oppose policies that promote social justice and inclusion, often sharing strikingly similar language and resources across borders. The significant Christian participation in the attacks against democratic institutions committed in the US and Brazilian insurrections suggests the need for greater scholarly attention to this transnational religious phenomenon and the challenges it raises to the relationship between religion and democracy. Our current research addresses this need, exploring the long history of transnational cross-pollination between evangelicals worldwide, which resulted in shared theologies and social imaginaries driving right-wing authoritarian impulses worldwide.
The recent advance of ultraconservative projects in Brazil involves the alignment of several distinct groups, including Catholics, non-Pentecostal Protestants, people of different religions, and people without religious affiliations. However, because such an advance strongly correlates with the growth in the number of Pentecostals and Charismatics in the country and the significant presence of Pentecostal elected officials, it is essential to understand Pentecostalism in the context of Brazilian history and politics. This paper will begin by providing a brief context and highlighting salient points concerning the growing power of Pentecostalism in Brazil. From there, we will shift our attention to groups that are central to our broader research: the Ministério Internacional da Restauração (International Ministry of Restoration, MIR) and the Frente Parlamentar Evangélica (Evangelical Parliamentary Front, FPE), discussing the operative theopolitics of ultraconservative Christians in Brazil. Focusing on MIR and FPE will allow us to give greater specificity to a complex and diffuse Brazilian far right. MIR is, at present, one of the more under-researched movements in the Brazilian evangelical scene. Its headquarters are in Manaus, Amazonas, a region that is not easily accessible and gets scant attention from national news networks. While Brazilian Pentecostalism, in general, has received considerable scholarly attention, MIR has not been the specific focus of any sustained academic study. Yet, some more studied groups and individuals have popularized concepts and ideologies they learned via their connection with MIR.
In describing the theopolitical commitments of MIR and FPE, we highlight theological emphases, multidirectional strategies, and transnational political influences currently shaping transnational conservative theopolitical networks based in Brazil. Using these Brazilian theopolitical networks as a starting point, we show how they implement ideologies and practices across faith communities and political arenas, strengthening complex national, transnational, and multinational coalitions. These coalitions rely on faith communities as essential local bases and position elected representatives in Brazilian federal politics to advance their agenda. They also recruit businesspeople, military personnel, and artists into a multilayered strategy to establish what they refer to as a “government of the just.”
In other words, these networks coalesce around the aspiration to exercise broad dominion over what they consider spiritual, cultural, geographical, and political territories. We also underscore MIR’s and FPE’s multidirectional relationships with groups and movements in the United States. Therefore, we outline connections and exchanges between Brazilian and U.S. Christian Nationalists, particularly recent connections among transnational networks, which have established border-crossing relationships with multidirectional influences. While these specific cases cannot fully canvass the breadth of Christian Nationalism in Brazil, they are sufficient to reveal this moment’s operative theopolitics and transnational coalitions.
This paper examines Brazilian Christian Nationalist networks and their role in shaping ideological and practical engagements across faith communities and political landscapes. These networks establish complex national, transnational, and multinational coalitions that leverage faith communities as local bases while positioning representatives in federal politics. However, their strategy extends beyond politics, incorporating business leaders, military personnel, and artists to promote a vision of governance called “government of the just.” This movement aspires to dominate spiritual, cultural, economic, and political spheres. Additionally, the paper highlights the multidirectional relationships between Brazilian and U.S. Christian Nationalist networks. It uncovers evolving border-crossing alliances with reciprocal influences by mapping transnational exchanges, illuminating the operative theopolitics and strategies of transnational coalitions in contemporary contexts.