The Religious Conflict Reflected in Brazil's Carnival



Brazil has to be one of the most fascinating countries in the world. It was invaded and taken over by white Portuguese. Some black slaves arrived from Africa but some came there who were slaves by in Portugal. In spite of efforts to force out of existence the gods worshipped in Africa, the gods came with the slaves. The slaves and later freed descendants Christian names to the African gods everything was OK. The new Christian "saints" loved the music and mythology from Africa. It's all still there in Brazil.

Christianity, being a religion of the hustle, adapted to the market by endorsing the new gods from Africa and the music these gods liked. Many of them became saints. Why not?

In Brazil there have always been and remain today Christian wagging their fingers at this adaptation. The "true faith" did not have the dancing swaying religious iconic street performers that meander down the street to music during Carnival. They shout shame on Carnival.

All of this makes the current "invasion" of Africa by denominations from the U. S. all the more interesting to contemplate. The Methodists, for example, had a big split a couple of years back. This happened because U.S. churches wanted to acknowledge and accept gay marriage and clergy. World-wide votes, however, found right wing U.S. Methodists teaming up with African Methodists to stop this. 

Conservatives created the "Global Methodist" denomination and about 1/4 of the U.S churches went to that group. That group now will have a majority of African churches. I predict elements of indigenous African worship will be strong in the Global Methodist denomination. Perhaps the complex mixture of beliefs now found the Brazil's Carnival will be a Global Methodist thing.    

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