Protestant missionaries arrived in Brazil during the nineteenth century. Lutheran pastors accompanied the first waves of German immigrants. Anglican ministers came to serve the English community. Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist missionaries ventured forth preaching the Bible, despite legal restrictions on them. The separation between Church and State, following the proclamation of the Republic, facilitated the entry of new missions. Swedish missionaries and Italian immigrants formed the earliest membership of the Assembléia de Deus (Assembly of God) and the Congregação Cristã do Brasil (Christian Congregation of Brazil).
It was in the 1920s, however, that the movement gained impetus. A conference of American missionaries held in Panama in 1916 had formally decided that Latin America should be evangelized. The Protestant churches of Europe concentrated on Africa and Asia, considering that Latin America was already Catholic and therefore Christian, and did not need the efforts of missionaries. The Americans disagreed. Catholicism, according to them, had distorted the message of the Bible so much that a new process of evangelization was necessary. So they came in considerable numbers, found fertile territory, and the number of converts multiplied.
A new increase took place in the 1950s, following evangelist crusades which gave birth to new pentecostal denominations with names like “Brazil for Christ”, “God is Love”, “New Life” etc. In the 1980s, evangelical and pentecostal growth became a phenomenon of national importance, resulting now from internal factors rather than missionary influence.
The evangelicals preach a radical break with the religious traditions of Brazil. According to them, the images of the saints are idolatrous objects and the orixás of Candomblé and the guides of Umbanda are frankly demonic. One must leave them behind, empty oneself of their influence and allow oneself to be guided solely by Jesus Christ. Conversion represents a “new birth”, with profound changes to one’s behaviour. One must distance oneself from the festive, carnival character of the traditional culture and adopt a more universal ethic, marked by coherent principles.
Commitment to family, work and Church distinguishes the evangelicals, who follow an extremely puritanical life style. They gather together in local congregations, which develop a social feeling among the faithful. They attend church regularly, more than once a week, and assume different responsibilities for its functioning. This happens at all levels of society, but numerically they are more successful among the poorer classes.
There are many strands of belief among the evangelicals, which are organized into Denominations. These differ in their origins, their style of worship, their forms of community organization and their ecclesiastical structure. It is a mistake to lump them all under the same label. What is certain, however, is that pentecostal trends are the most important. The presence of the Holy Spirit, with its charismatic manifestations, puts the evangelicals on a collision course with the many spiritual manifestations of traditional religiosity.