The New Christian Militarism: Evangelical Base-Building With the Police in Brazil

This thesis investigates the impact of religious activism in the security sector in Brazil. Specifically, it analyses the role of nation-wide, Evangelical base-building projects with the police forces in the context of the dramatic political, economic, and social shifts the country has witnessed in the last decade - of which the election of a far-right government under Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 was its staunchest expression. I argue that powerful Evangelical actors in civil society have succeeded in constructing socially effective and politically consequential solidarity networks with many police organisations, in a process that merges faith-based, missionary activism with militarised police power. I call this merger the new Christian Militarism and empirically locate these base-building initiatives as one piece of a complex mosaic where Evangelical ideology and militarised social practices entwine in a wider strategy of social ordering. To understand this phenomenon, I conduct a qualitative historical analysis on the development of Christian Militarism in Brazil and an idiographic case study of Evangelical military chaplaincy organisations, which have grown exponentially in the last decade. Although fieldwork data draws from a wide range of military chaplaincies operating within police institutions, I provide an in-depth analysis of two specific organisations that are at the forefront of this expansion: PMs de Cristo (‘Officers of Christ’) and Ministérios Pão Diário (‘Our Daily Bread’). Employing analytical techniques such as thematic analysis, document analysis, literature review, and semi-structured interviews, I address the social base, ideology, and political project of those organisations and analyse their relationship to the contemporary far-right. This thesis contributes to current debates on far-right politics in the Global South and adds to the pool of knowledge on the intersections between religion and security in Brazil.