Mass mediating the spiritual battle: Pentecostal appropriations of mass mediated violence in Rio De Janeiro

In this paper I discuss several visual representations of a Brazilian neo-Pentecostal Church that has become involved in national politics. I argue that the Church employs representations of urban violence to enforce a Pentecostal imagination of the spiritual battle between God and the devil. The Church has been able to put forward this compelling Pentecostal interpretation of Brazilian society because its message is framed against the background of spectacular urban violence. Many Brazilians experience acts of violence directly and it is also a popular media topic that features in newspapers, on the television and in popular Brazilian magazines. One of the consequences of the recurring representation of violence is the formation of the image of a society divided between "the good" and "the bad." Such a categorization leaves ample room for the Pentecostal Churches to seize and adopt the images and narratives of urban violence and to transform the dichotomy of "the good" versus "the bad" into the Pentecostal dualism of "God" versus the "devil." Subsequently the Church posits its pastors as powerful mediators that can save the nation from violence. The political success that partly stems from such representations urges us to rethink the relation between religion and mass media in contemporary democracies characterized by high social inequality.