Lonely planet

"Catholicism retains its status as Brazil's official religion, but is declining in popularity. Many people now merely turn up to church for the basics: baptism, marriage and burial. Evangelical Christianity, however, is booming. All over Brazil, especially in poorer communities where people are most desperate, you will come across simple, recently built churches full of worshipers. Sometimes there will be two or three rival evangelical churches on the same street... In one, worshipers may be moaning and speaking in tongues, in another they'll simply be listening to the stern words of a preacher."

Such a dismal view of Christianity! Misses the point and meaning of faith entirely, although I admit I used to think this way. Unfortunately, there seems to be some justification for the cynicism as I've learned that evangelicals in Latin America have often preached that faith is a matter of church and family - rather than action in the world, redemption is to be found in the afterlife - rather than on earth, and that difficulties in life are due to one's sins - rather than to injustices perpetrated by an economic system which should be resisted out of love for one's fellow human beings and the earth. Also heard from a friend in Ecuador that a friend of his who joined an evangelical church became more business-minded and materialistic (bought a fancy car) and less interested in helping the community, apparently because community organizations were not specifically Christian.

One of the implications of the above seems to be that desperate people turn to Christianity because reality is too difficult to bear - thus they accept an illusion that is more tolerable or pleasing. While this could be the case in some instances, I think the result would be a shallow faith. For myself desperation may have been necessary, but also a realization that the illusion is not in faith in God but in faith in the world and those human beings who belong to it. By the "world" I mean the global system of selfish exploitation and greed all around us. From my experience, I could see that believing in the world's promises ultimately leads to desperation - for oneself and for others. Then in addition, there had to be a willingness to trust in something - God - that can be known, although not by the intellect.

The attitude of the Lonely Planet guides and most of the single independent travelers I've met seems to be that traveling is about having fun and having fun is about adventures but also about partying, getting drunk and maybe hooking up for casual affairs they know won't last. Not very inspiring and I've been feeling this more lately since staying in closer quarters with the group at the hostel.

written by  cjones on April 23, 2008 from Brasilia, Brazil
from the travel blog: so-journ
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