A representação dos males na Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus: uma abordagem sociológica sobre a construção de inimigos

Abstract

This thesis aims to understand the structure of discourses related to the construction process of "enemies" within the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Alagoas State, recorded in six performances of Our Time television show. This process exists when individuals, social groups, peoples, states, ideologies and cultural and religious practices are socially represented from a dualistic and dichotomous division of the world. Characteristic of this process is that the "other" is always given a negative label, while the image itself is positively valued. In this sense, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God represents the universe as a corollary of two spiritual forces in which the character "evil" one of them is associated with minority groups, especially the religiosity of african descent, which contributes in this way to legitimize exclusionary practices of democracy and inhibitors listed in the historical formation of Brazil and to keep the audience a receptor blockade on the ability of analysis of social structure. This process constitutes a dialectical relation that links the exclusion and inclusion. On the one hand, the "enemies" are addressed because they constitute a real or imagined threat to the excluder. On the other, the latter make use of some symbols of "enemies," giving new meaning to them so positively valued. Hence, the negativization religiosity of african descent by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has the function of attracting the faithful who have an identification with the strong appeal of religion and magic ecstatic, enjoying themselves so paradoxical legitimadade social Christianity in and the national social imaginary which exploits the religious experience of african descent.