Método de los Elementos Finitos (MEF)

The Brazilian sociologist Antônio Flávio Pierucci analysed the growth of Brazilian Pentecostalism and the impact of its changes in that country. He understands the movement as a religion that has the character of individual salvation (Pierucci: 2006, 122). This is not new, since R. H. Tawney (1971) observed something similar about earlier phases of Protestantism. However, Pierucci uses recent data and focuses on Pentecostalism, something that Tawney’s book, originally released in 1926, does not. From Pierucci’s perspective, religion can transform individuals, removing them from their former lives and routinised communities. He follows Max Weber, who observed religion as a possible tool for social transformation. Nevertheless, if religion provides a path towards social mobility, there is a need to change an individual’s mentality; personal change will be the first step to social transformation.

The UCKG’s fluid demonology is its most obvious and most efficient discourse to induce newcomers to acknowledge their own deviance. The transformation of members’ lives, therefore, works in a dialectic with their past. The application of this idea of a misguided past without God, is present at the beginning of every testimonial inside the church. It is difficult to choose a specific testimonial as an example of the general idea of a dialectic between a misguided past and a prosperous future with the UCKG, because they are so numerous and so standardised that we have an excess of options. I am using the testimonial of Bishop Gilberto Santana, for two main reasons. First, because I went to many services preached by him, in which he often said things about his past life before his full conversion to the church. Furthermore, there is a publicly available video on

YouTube103 _{that tells his life history before and after his conversion. Another reason is}

that, according to his story, at the beginning of his conversion he shared with other church

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members an initial lack of motivation to abide by the strict rules of the church. Gilberto Santana, like many other members, first came to the church and then left it for a brief period, though he returned later.

His biographical video asserts that he came from a broken family with an alcoholic father and a hopelessly sick brother. Gilberto suffered from fears and visions. Then his family came to the UCKG and was rebuilt by their connection with the word of God. Nonetheless, after a romantic disappointment, Gilberto left the church for three years, while his family members were still active and faithful. The video says that the bishop-to-be became acquainted with vicious practices and nightclubs, deviating even further from the church’s guidelines, which made him depressed and lonely. During a church TV show on a Saturday afternoon, Gilberto got in touch with the religious message again, and received the Holy Spirit after six months. He became a missionary pastor, preaching the gospel worldwide, and also meeting his wife on one of his trips abroad. The video does not

explain, however, the dramatic tone of Santana’s family conversion. In one service

(01/11/2015) he preached, while he was making his theological assumptions about the full devotion of a member to God, he used his mother as an example. She was the first in his family to convert, was threatened with death by the bishop’s father, but was still able to persuade everyone in the family to join the church after a while. With a broken family, a misguided everyday behaviour and a sick brother, Gilberto had every reason to see his life as a failure from every angle.

The bishop’s biography confirms Pierucci’s assertion that the UCKG is also a universal religion of individual salvation. The whole family converted altogether, curing and rebuilding their bonds, but Gilberto was a rebel who left the church even after being blessed. The example of falling again into mundane temptations is important, because the church still bears a stigma about providing miracles in emergencies. Full salvation and receiving the Holy Spirit are also personal achievements. Hence, Santana had to understand that his life was deviant not once, but twice. His biography serves as an example for people who leave the church after receiving what they want; a member should recognise his or her past as a sinful and deviant path and remain in the church, even in good times. Members should also remain constantly vigilant, with the mediation of the church, since the threat of the return of demons is always present.

Unlike many other testimonials, Gilberto’s video does not display his prosperity. The most important testimonial for a preacher is the transformation from a sinful past to a future empowered by the Holy Spirit. Leaders set an example, but advertising the prosperity of leaders as individuals is avoided; only the regular members reveal the miracle of money

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and material blessings. To show pastors and bishops living a life of luxury – and not all pastors do – could be seen as an exploitation of members who live in poverty and are persuaded to donate money. However, the prosperity of pastors and bishops is implicit in their sermons and testimonials of change. In one afternoon service (01/11/2016), Pastor Maximiliano said that when he first arrived at the church his family did not have any money to pay the tithes and sacrifices. This provoked shame, according to him, but his

empowerment – spiritual and material – through the payment of tithes is implicit in his

preaching, since he now works for the church and helps other members to receive blessings as well.

Examples of testimonials that focus on the prosperity of members occur in every meeting regarding financial recovery; it is almost impossible to get through an entire week of going to church without seeing one. The principle of sacrifice – giving first to receive in turn – is always present. It happens in different ways. The most common testimonials come from the people from the Atocha temple itself, and via videos made by people worldwide. These videos are usually from Brazil (which require subtitles) or other countries in Latin

America104_{. The importance of testimonials is huge for church purposes; it is the main}

marketing approach to make those who have benefited from the Holy Spirit visible among other members and newcomers. Conversations among members after the services always use the experience of older members and assistants in order to teach beginners how to become more committed to the church’s activities and theology.

Another example is the Spanish assistant Ro. (14/06/2016), who asked me if I was a new member. I replied that I was a researcher who was studying the church for doctoral purposes. She simply did not care and said that I should be in the service on Sunday, which would be good for me – and implicitly for my salvation. I had previously scheduled to go at another time on that Sunday. She wanted me to come to the afternoon service, while I wanted to be in the morning one, which was the most crowded. When I was reluctant to accept her invitation, Ro appealed to her own experience, saying: ‘at first, I was like you; I did not commit myself totally to the church. I was a partial member and I lived a partial life’. Her past, seen as misguided, worked in her testimonial to exemplify how the micro propaganda of the UCKG’s discourse works, with a ‘before’ of deviation and an ‘after’ of glory. She asked for my cell phone number and my name, in case I did not show up at the service, so that she could pray vicariously for me. Nonetheless, despite

104 _{Sometimes the videos can come from other places in Europe as well. Bishop Carlos Rocha played one}

from his home country, Portugal (16/11/2016), in which a couple talked about how their business was ruined and how, after joining the church, they owned countless apartments in that country. The bishop had to translate the general idea from the video, which did not have subtitles.

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prayers on others’ behalf, salvation must come from a personal choice to be at services; to be fully there, not partially.

The experiences of Ro. and Gilberto apply to almost every member who sometimes doubts the real benefits of the church. Changes must be visible and acknowledged by the person who joins, which may be used later as a testimonial to be shared with all the other members of the church. However, individual salvation needs an important self-

understanding of one’s deviant life before conversion. In the next section, I will further

discuss the process that I call self-othering, trying to find some patterns in this logic of using the past as an example of a bad thing in the discourses of church members.