Pentecostalidad

Pentecostal pastors try to discourage women from carrying their independence too far with regard to their spouses and homes. One respondent told us that she became so involved in missionary work that she took her youngest children and moved close to the area of the mission, leaving her house and older children behind. When her pastor found out, he ordered her to return home, saying, "In order for the woman to do the work of the Lord, she must be united with her family." Many women mentioned that their pastors reminded them not to forget their duties as wives and mothers. M. S., a thirty-six-year-old seamstress, commented on her pastor's concern with "women who, because they became believers, don't want their husbands anymore " According to M. S., her pastor said, "You are wives, and you must fulfill your duties as wives."

Another interviewee commented that "in the family cult (corrente da familia) we hear that the women should treat their husbands with tenderness and faith ... and must be able to forgive and have patience; forgiveness is fundamental" Female believers cannot forget to respect and care for their husbands and children. L. R. also stressed that women must believe in their husbands: "After Jesus came into my heart, I became more responsible and came to love my husband more. I take care of him with more affection and love. I think I learned to become a good housewife, you know? I started listening to him more. When he asks me to do something, I do it." In order to avoid more tension in the family, Pentecostal women learn that it is their duty to follow their husbands even if they are not a believer. M. J., the poor Pentecostal quoted earlier, said, "I don't drink, but if my husband asks me to accompany him to a bar, I go because he likes his beer.... I drink my fruit juice." Likewise, M. N., from the middle class, explained "You have to have a balance. For example, if your husband goes to a dinner at work, as a Christian woman you also go to the dinner.... You don't have to drink or dance, but you go to honor your husband." G. A., a middle-class woman from the Igreja Nova Vida (New Life church), adopted a similar attitude in attending Catholic mass with her husband; she believed that she should go with him even though she did not share his religious beliefs. Going along with the husband was often a matter of tolerance rather than submission. Sometimes women saw it as a strategy aimed at bringing their spouses to visit their own churches, where perhaps their hearts would be touched. The dearest hope of a Pentecostal woman is to convert her husband and her entire family.

Men as Victims Rather Than Oppressors

Slootweg believes that if the husband does not convert, marital conflict intensifies,20 but most women we interviewed said that their husbands' opposition decreased over time even when they did not convert. Although this type of assertion may be interpreted as part of a concocted discourse whose aim is ultimately to justify conversion, it is possible to suppose that there is, in fact, a decline in family conflict at some point after the woman's conversion to Pentecostalism. Machado suggests that most husbands cease to oppose their wives' religiosity when they discover that, most of the time, they appear more obedient.21 As Pentecostal women learn to ease the tension of marital arguments, conflict may, in fact, decrease.22

For example, the conversion of N. R., twenty-five, provoked an extremely violent reaction from her husband, who even threatened her with a knife to make her leave the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus. Her reaction was to stop attending church temporarily, instead listening to the pastor's sermons on the radio. After some time, she was able to attend church again while her husband was away at work. Our respondents confirmed that Pentecostals tend to react calmly to aggression, partly to avoid hostility and partly to attract family members to church. The church teaches women that the best strategy for attracting people to church is to be tolerant toward them, respect their wishes, and avoid being too insistent about inviting them to join. D. S., whose problems with her daughter we have mentioned earlier, reported, "After entering the true church, I stopped talking, because in the church we learn to accept people the way they are, and to convert someone we need to know how to talk about God without being insistent.... If a person doesn't want to go, if she/he has a hard heart, nobody can do anything." Once again, Pentecostal emphasis on individual will reflects a new conception of the individual. Thus conversion changes not only believers' attitudes toward themselves but also their attitudes toward others. Pentecostal tolerance in response to aggression is also based on a new conception of the individual relationship with good and evil.

After conversion, women "discover" . that if their husbands get drunk or mistreat them they are not acting of their own free will; rather, the devil has taken possession of them. People are seen as easy prey for the devil, who makes them act aggressively, selfishly, and destructively. Pentecostals adopt a tolerant attitude toward a person whose behavior is wrong and negative because, as D. O., a college student, age twenty-six, from the Assembly of God church put it, "He doesn't do wrong because he wants to, he's being used.... These people are being used, and they're unhappy." Consequently, all oppressors are seen as being oppressed by the devil and as victims for whom one should pray. The women see their aggressive husbands as victims, too, and therefore tend to adopt a more tolerant attitude toward them and try to handle marital conflicts more calmly. By symbolically inverting the relation of power and oppression, the women often do not consider the interests of their spouses as opposing theirs; consequently, they interpret marital conflicts not as conflicts of interest but rather as the result of one of the parties' being possessed by evil and therefore not guilty of their misdeeds. Because they are alienated from their own free will, confronting them is meaningless; they need to be liberated from the devil.

Most of the Pentecostal conversion accounts (of both men and women) that we have analyzed describe a redefinition of what is evil and how it relates to individuals. Converts come to believe that all the bad things in the world (sin, conflict, illness) have only one source, the devil, and they see only one solution, God. Thus they cannot blame others for their problems or expect them to solve those problems. Only God can give and help. This conception of evil reinforces individual autonomy, tolerance toward others, and self-criticism.

Both the sick and the sinner, the depressed and the aggressor are possessed by the devil. Therefore, whatever the problem, first of all they must be delivered. In their conversion testimony, most Pentecostals refer first to their personal libertaç ~o (deliverance). The women interviewed, for instance, spoke of their own deliverance from things that ranged from Afro-Brazilian Spiritualist practices and beliefs to depression, irritability, and illness. They adopted a self-critical attitude, acknowledging they had had evil with them, but because they had not known it they did not feel guilt. The word "repentance" rarely appears in their conversion accounts. After deliverance, individuals become conscious of the power of God's word. Knowing the Truth, they now have the responsibility for their own happiness in this world and their salvation in the next. Converts also pray for and try to save those near them; female believers often refer to God's biblical promise to save the faithful's households as well. Many women embrace Pentecostalism with this hope. An earlier study about men who had quit drinking because of Pentecostalism pointed out that, in most cases, the conversion of those men's wives or mothers had preceded their own.23

The responsibility that women believers take upon themselves regarding the spiritual well-being of their families seems to be greater than that of men believers because women mediate between God and their families. The woman not only brings her relatives into the church but also helps them in the process of deliverance. Bishop Edir Macedo, the head of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, offers examples of men who were freed from evil through the deliverance of their mothers.24

Machado observes the important role that women play in the process of deliverance of other members of their families, particularly their husbands and children, in this church. In her interpretation, the fact that almost all cases of demon possession involve women does not mean that the latter are more vulnerable to evil than men; rather, it indicates that the forces of evil that act on their spouses and children also manifest themselves in women in the deliverance sessions. In other words, women serve as channels of liberation for other family members.25 In addition to praying for and proselytizing them, through deliverance sessions women can also bring their family members to God. Because they feel spiritually stronger and recognize the fragility of nonbelievers, Pentecostal women do not hold their spouses and loved ones responsible for their families' difficulties.

Pentecostal women's sense of responsibility extends to material concerns as well. They do not view men as the sole breadwinners; they too feel responsible for the material achievement of their families. Denominations that embrace a "gospel of prosperity" encourage women not only to help their husbands financially but also to try independently to achieve more. When the husband is a nonbeliever, the woman, as a believer, is held even more responsible than her spouse for the couple's prosperity. In contrast to the Marianist Catholic tradition, whereby the indicator of female spiritual superiorPentecostalism and Women in Brazil 49 ity is women's ability to suffer and to endure pain, in Pentecostalism, especially where influenced by the "theology of prosperity," this female superiority must make women more active and more capable of material achievement than nonbelieving men. Even in those churches in which prosperity is less emphasized, as in the case of the Assembly of God, women assume a greater sense of responsibility for material concerns. For example, C. P., from a favela in Rio de Janeiro, decided to build a house for her family in spite of her spouse's initial opposition to the project. Pentecostalism helps women to be more assertive and confident in their ability to act accordingly.

Pentecostal groups also attribute greater moral and ethical responsibility to women when they allow them to occupy official positions of leadership. Although in most Brazilian Pentecostal churches women cannot be pastors (one exception is the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, which has ordained women pastors since 1993), many of them allow women to preside at services. In the traditional Assembly of God church as well as in other smaller churches, such as the Igreja Evangelica Senhor de Tempo Fim (Evangelical Church of the Eternal Lord), these women, known as "missionaries"; preach, heal, and perform nearly all of the functions of pastors. Missionary women also serve as intermediaries between the pastor and church members. In addition, women play very strong extraofficial leadership roles as pastors' wives and prophets. Some of our interviewees, for instance, mentioned their conversations with the pastor's wife, particularly about sexuality and family life.

More Duties, Not More Rights

After conversion, men and women do not seek more rights; instead they accept more restrictions and add duties to their lives. In Brazil, Protestant churches have been characterized by strict practices and repression of the body and all the festivities of Brazilian culture.26 Traditional Pentecostalism has continually reaffirmed these puritan values. The literature on Pentecostalism and gender has interpreted the puritan restriction of masculine behavior as a victory for women and an extension of their rights. The official discourse does not encourage converts to fight for either their individual rights or the rights of their category or gender. The extension of feminine rights is, therefore, an unintentional consequence of an increase in male duties. Feminist researchers such as Gouveia27 have interpreted this female self-limitation as a sign of Pentecostal women's alienation.   Cont...