Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the political (non)response of Pentecostals from Rio de Janeiro's Western Subúrbios during the Brazilian 2016 political crisis.

Paper long abstract:

While the 'slow coup' was engulfing daily political talk through much of 2016 in Brazil, many citizens took to social media to express opinions. Interestingly, the community of people who I conducted ethnographic fieldwork with for over three years - Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostals located in Rio's Western subúrbios - were silent on the issue, despite using social media daily for other reasons. These Pentecostals explain that they align themselves, first and foremost, with Jesus. Their Pentecostal faith, they say, allows them to imagine the possibility of life beside-the-state. For many, this is a way of sidestepping the state, as opposed to attempting to reform it to serve their communities better. For many Pentecostals in Rio's subúrbios the state is seen as a violent actor and any suggestion that we might work towards a fairer redistribution of power or services is often met with shrugs. I argue that these shrugs are not just about what they perceive as embedded corruption and impenetrable bureaucracies, but also a dismissal of the state-making project itself. In the midst of this silence on these issues, however, one social media post on the political crisis was widely shared: a photo of a banner hung over their community's pedestrian bridge reading: "Batan for Lula". Lula, of course, is the former President who was being hunted on corruption charges. This paper will consider the possibility of 'life beside-the-state', and consider why Lula is incorporated into this logic, while Pentecostal politicians - who supported the 'slow coup' - were ignored or treated ambiguously.