This three-part reflection explores the historical connections between the US Black Church and Latin American Christians. In the first part, the author introduced the concept of constructing a hemispheric Afro-descendant Christianity through the examination of the points of contact between the US Black Church and Brazilian Protestantism. The second part focused on the impact of Southern Baptist missionaries on Brazilian life, and the myth of racial democracy that helped shape Brazilian identity. The author argued that the very myth of racial democracy that facilitated the tendency of many Brazilians to de-emphasize their African heritage was informed by Southern missionaries. The third part will focus on the US Black Church’s impact on Latin American Christianity, particularly in the case of liberation theology. Throughout the three-part reflection, the author highlights the importance of recognizing the historical connections and overlaps between the US Black Church and Latin American Christians to foster a stronger sense of solidarity between Afro-descendant Christians across the hemisphere.
Hemispheric Histories for Racial and Ethnic Solidarity, Part II.
In the previous article, it was discussed that the histories of the U.S. Black Church and Brazilian Protestantism had similarities that could help in creating a hemispheric Afro-descendant Christianity. These similarities can be discovered in two ways. Firstly, through the stories of Black religiously motivated resistance in Latin America that resemble moments in the histories of the U.S. Black Church. Secondly, by revealing the overlap between the religiously motivated White supremacies that connect religious communities across the hemisphere.
One instance of the first possibility is that of Brazilian Protestant preacher Agostinho José Pereira, also known as the “Black Luther,” in the 1840s. The Church of the Divine Master, which Pereira founded in 1841, confronted the Portuguese empire and its White Roman Catholic establishment. Pereira’s church attracted free Black men and women, hundreds of poor people, and even native Brazilians. When he was arrested in 1846 along with other members of the church, he was accused of being a schismatic for starting a Protestant church and forming a community that aimed to organize a slave rebellion. The province police found a Bible in the house of one of Pereira’s church members that had underlined anti-slavery passages and a text praising the Haitian rebellion. Eventually, Pereira and the members of the Church of the Divine Master who were arrested were released. However, little is known about what happened to them after their release. Stories such as this one highlight similarities between Black Christianity in slaveholding Brazil and the United States, which can be further explored to promote a stronger sense of solidarity between the US Black Church and Afro-descendant Christians in Latin America.
It is essential to note that the Church of the Divine Master (Divino Mestre) and the story of Agostinho José Pereira were reported by Brazilian newspapers.
Overlaps of Religiously-Informed White Supremacies in the US Black Church and Latin American Christians
There are overlaps between the religiously-informed White supremacies that affect the US Black Church and Latin American Christians. An example of this is the Southern Baptist missions in Brazil, which may seem counterintuitive but provides another thread in the tapestry of historical connections that could continue to be traced.
Southern Baptist missions in Brazil began in a colony of Confederate exiles who were attracted to Brazil after the US Civil War partially because Brazil remained a slaveholding country. These missions disseminated White Christian nationalism via periodicals and sermons and praised “Confederate heroes” like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson up to the second half of the 20th century in both English and Portuguese. They also supported the military coup in the 1960s and the dictatorship that lasted until 1985, and the leaders of the Brazilian Baptist Convention, whose leadership still follows the general dispositions of the SBC, have enthusiastically praised Jair Bolsonaro.
This impact was informed by things the US Black Church has consistently confronted but many times remained largely unnoticed by Brazilian Protestants: missionary commitment to Lost Cause Mythology, segregationist anxieties, and a theopolitical imagination that aligned itself firmly with Southern-flavored fundamentalism and US evangelicalism.
It is worth noting that there is a Confederate party in one of the former Confederate colonies in Brazil.
Southern Missionaries and the Myth of Racial Democracy in Brazil
The myth of racial democracy that helped shape Brazilian identity and led to the de-emphasis of African heritage was facilitated by Southern missionaries. These missionaries helped Gilberto Freyre, who would become one of the most influential intellectuals in Brazilian history, study at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. However, the violence Freyre witnessed in the South and the connection he noticed between Southern violence and the White Southern religion of the missionaries he once appreciated were the main reasons why Freyre left Baptist life. He then started imagining Brazil as a place with a strong potential for racial harmony via miscegenation.
Freyre argued that national, racial divisions in Brazil had been largely overcome by the miscegenation of African slaves, Portuguese colonizers, and the indigenous population. This myth of racial democracy, along with other understandings of mestizaje present throughout Latin American and Latinx communities, often provides avenues for the ideological dilution of the African heritage while providing little remedy for the hard fact that the social structures and meanings of White supremacy offer little respect for these ideological convictions.
It is worth noting that the myth of racial democracy in Brazil was partially influenced by Southern missionaries who helped shape Brazilian identity. The Southern Baptist Missionaries’ influence on Brazilian history, especially Brazilian Protestantism, was traced in the book, The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South: Southern Baptist Missionaries and the Shaping of Latin American Evangelicalism.
In the concluding part of this three-part reflection next month, more will be said about Freyre’s influence on the myth of racial democracy in Brazil.
The Influence of White Evangelicalism on US Religious History
Many publications in the field of US religious history identify White evangelicalism with characteristics of White supremacy, racism, and discrimination. The works of Anthea Butler, Robert P. Jones, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Matthew Avery Sutton, Charles Reagan Wilson, and Paul Harvey, among others, highlight the political and moral implications of these characteristics.
The Myth of Racial Democracy in Brazil and its Southern Missionary Roots
Gilberto Freyre’s The Masters and the Slaves was one of the strongest factors in the intellectual dissemination of the idea of Brazil as a racial democracy. Freyre’s views were partially influenced by Southern missionaries who helped him study at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. However, Freyre’s observation of Southern violence and the connection he noticed between Southern violence and the White Southern religion of the missionaries he once appreciated led him to leave Baptist life. Freyre then started imagining Brazil as a place with a strong potential for racial harmony via miscegenation. Freyre argued that the national, racial divisions in Brazil had been largely overcome by the miscegenation of African slaves, Portuguese colonizers, and the indigenous population.
While Freyre’s myth of racial democracy provided avenues for the ideological dilution of the African heritage, it offered little remedy for the hard fact that the social structures and meanings of White supremacy offered little respect for these ideological convictions. Moreover, Freyre’s legacy and the myth of racial democracy have been discouraged in Brazil due to the legal and political discouragement of using racial categories to diagnose social problems.
For a public audience treatment that touches on the relationship between Freyre’s legacy and Baylor University, one may read Joao Chaves’s “Schools’ Lessons on Racism Often Knows No Global Boundaries”.
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