In the last two blogs, I described major traits of an emerging Christianity. I talked about how believers were finding ways to live out their faith outside prescribed boundaries of institution and tradition. Yet, the best way to describe this movement is by showing how it is being lived out in action. I was elated to learn how a recent developments in my native Brazil do exactly that. In this blog, I want to show how Pastor Henrique Viera’s participation in this year’s Carnaval (Fat Tuesday celebration) best illustrate this emerging Christianity. It also comes to show that this is not confined to the centers of the West in North America and Europe but is finding creative outlets in the Christian South.
Carnival as an Act of Decolonial Subversion
For the English reader unfamiliar with Carnaval, let me introduce you to its origins. Imagine you are a member of the First Nations living in the Americas for centuries when European colonizers arrive. They slowly take over your land. Yet not satisfied with that, they also decide to impose their culture on you. Eventually they bring African slaves, people steeped in their own culture themselves, that now are forced into a new land through lifelong servitude.
They start teaching you their religion through imposed holidays. They introduce to you the concept of Lent, which is a 40 day (roughly six weeks) period of penitence in preparation for Easter. Supposedly Easter, is a great celebration worth waiting for. Yet, given Europeans poor ability to celebrate and master skills on guiltying, you quickly realize this was more of a ploy for social control than a true celebration.
One day, they talk about Fat Tuesday. That is, in the day before the Catholic church reminds you of your eventual death, they offer you a brief period of respite where you can indulge yourself. Understanding that Lent is an extended period of self-denial, the church recognizes the need to temporarily let you be free to do whatever you want. The native American look to the African slave and say: that’s our chance!
They flip the script on the whole religious celebration and decide to focus on that Tuesday. In that day, for a brief moment, they could be free. They decide that the short indulgence should be the focus. In the absence of of truly festive Easter, they will take the license to “sin” and do it in great style. Eventually the Tuesday becomes a 5 day event where people parade in the streets and as the poets would say, happiness reigns. The colonized flipped the script on the colonizer, appropriate a brief pause before penitence and transform it into weeklong all-out celebration. Hence, you get Carnaval.
Protestants Opt Out of This Party
Protestants are late-comers to this party. They come to Brazil in the mid-19th century and take a modest foothold. It isn’t until the 20th century that Protestantism, through Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, would transform Brazilian religious environment. In the positive side, they came mostly free of the colonial baggage. Instead, Brazilians perceive them as an alternative to Catholicism.
Yet, North American evangelical missionaries with Puritan roots were quickly scandalized by Carnaval. The amount of skin shown was too tempting to these North American, mostly male, missionaries who quickly condemned the feast. Even as Evangelicalism indigenized, this initial rejection took hold. This is where they started the custom to disengage and skip the whole thing altogether.
By taking this approach, most churches and protestant theologians would rarely engage with the celebration and its decolonial roots. Instead, they considered it exhibit “A” evidence of a fallen world brimming with sin. In other words, it represented everything Christianity wanted you to stay away from. If anything, it only reinforced a other-wordly, personal morality-focused theology imported from North America. In rejecting the celebration altogether, evangelicals also missed the opportunity to influence it towards an alternative that could curb its sexualized excesses while still affirming its joyful components.
Preaching the Gospel in Mangueira’s Parade
The last two sections gives a brief context of the magnitude of what happened this year. When Pr. Henrique Viera paraded in the Mangueira’s parade, he consciously challenged the dominant long-lasting narrative of Carnaval being a celebration off-limits to faithful Christians. While I am emphasizing the pastor’s participation here, none of that would have happened without the inspired and prophetic theme song of Mangueira’s parade this year.
The main event of Carnaval is a yearly parade where samba schools from poor areas of the city compete for that year’s title in the Sapucai. Each school develops an original theme song, floats, costumes and a lot of samba choreographies to go with it. This year, Mangueira chose to center their parade on “the Jesus of the people.” In their own words, they wanted to show a Christ who had “a woman’s body and native American blood.”
This was not a thoughtless attempt to offend religious sensibilities through perverting Christianity’s main symbols. Instead, it was a political statement. Following along liberation theology roots, they wanted to show how Christ is present in the victimized of our age. It was an act of protest against the forces that have robbed the Brazilian nation of an equitable future. Hence, they shockingly declare that these were the same forces that killed the Nazarene 2,000 years ago.
This is why the pastor’s act was so significant. The Protestant new comer, inspired by Catholic liberation theology, participated in the Pagan feast of Carnaval in order to highlight a central aspect of the Christian message. The parade symbolizes a bridge between Catholic, Evangelical and the colonized joining in to speak out for justice. This to me is a great example of an emerging Christianity, one that is willing to stand in solidarity with the oppressed outside the gates of institutional boundaries while still proclaiming the essential truths of the gospel.