Pentecostal Christian Leads Effort to Impeach Brazilian President

 

 

A Pentecostal Christian is leading the effort to impeach Brazil’s left-leaning Workers’ Party president, leading some to take note of the growing influence evangelicals have in the country.

 

CBN News reports that Eduardo Cunha, a Pentecostal Christian, is leading the effort to impeach President Dilma Rousseff who is accused of mismanaging finances and spending government funds recklessly in order to maintain support.

 

Although Rousseff has defended such measures as standard conduct for Brazilian government, Cunha and others believe she should be impeached.

 

Although Brazil is a traditionally Catholic country, the power Cunha has been able to amass shows that evangelicals are becoming more of a presence in the country.

 

Brazilian historian Karina Bellotti told the Christian Science Monitor that "during the last roll call vote for the continuation of the process of impeachment in the lower house, several politicians dedicated their vote 'for God.'" 

 

"Some of them were Catholic, but most were evangelical, from the Pentecostal churches," she added.

 

Brazil is estimated to have about 45 million Pentecostals.

 

"Brazil is at the vanguard of the global trend of the Pentecostalization of Christianity," as well as "the epicenter of world Christianity, with the largest Pentecostal population," Andrew Chesnut, author of Born Again in Brazil, told