Reaching Souls, Liberating Lands: Cross-cultural Evangelical Missions and Bolsonaro’s Government

This article examines the activities of cross-cultural evangelical missions among indigenous peoples in Brazil and explores how these activities fit into the policies of Jair Bolsonaro’s government. The aim is to show how these missions relate to three federal government policies that are currently threatening the existence of indigenous peoples – policies that are expressed in the moral, anti-environmental, and national security agendas. This article argues that the element connecting these different sets of interests is a notion of individual freedom that directly opposes the idea of collective rights and, therefore, represents an expression of anti-democratic values.

ven before taking office, Jair Bolsonaro had already expressed the interest in removing indigenous peoples from their constitutionally guaranteed lands, repeatedly saying that "if I take office [as president], there will not be an extra square centimeter for indigenous land" (BOLSONARO, 2020). The culturally-based argument underpinning this political stance is the old and outdated notion of 'integration' into society, treated here as the indigenous peoples' desire to be 'like us'. Hence Bolsonaro's rough question: "why keep Indians on land reserves as if they were animals in zoos?" (WETERMAN, 2018). This argument is coupled with two others. First, an economic argument, which assumes that leaving to indigenous peoples the occupation of portions of the territory that could well be exploited by the mining and agriculture industries is unjustified. Secondly, a geopolitical argument, which is associated with the military paranoia regarding alleged international greed over the Amazon rainforest.
Once in office, the president has been working to turn these arguments into public policy. This is observed on three intertwined fronts. The first -led by minister Damares Alves (from the MMFDH -Ministry of Women, Family, and Human Rights) -attempts to impose a moral agenda that is intolerant to the values and practicessuch as the indigenous cosmologies and epistemologies -that are deemed unfit according to Christian moral codes. The second front, which involves the deconstruction of socioenvironmental protection policies, is led by the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, and supported by the FUNAI (Nation Indian Foundation), the Brazilian agency responsible for protecting indigenous people, which is currently presided over by a Federal Police Chief. The third front is formed by members of the military who have taken strategic positions in Bolsonaro's government, from where they are implementing policies that are guided by outdated and inappropriate notions like the aforementioned 'integration'.
Standing out on this last front is the retired army general Augusto Heleno, who is the current chief minister of the Institutional Security Office. The political activities of the cross-cultural missions -the subject of this article -are linked to these three intertwined fronts, more directly to FUNAI but also to the MMFDH. As we will see, this context promotes a new (old) conservative, anti-democratic order that is based on a specific notion of freedom and is directly threatening the existence of the indigenous peoples. In order to make sense of the association between religious missions and an overtly anti-indigenous government policy. I will first identify the core participants in these three intertwined fronts, as well as in the crosscultural missions, exposing their motivations and their activities in the field. I will demonstrate that these missions' practices are aligned with the ideologies of the governments during the military regime in Brazil (1964Brazil ( -1985 -ideologies that are currently re-emerging. Our goal is to reach a deeper understanding of how these missions fit into Bolsonaro's government and what are the political and economic consequences associated with this movement that -although fundamentally religious -has an impact on other domains.

The cross-cultural missionary practice
Cross-cultural missions are evocative of certain issues associated with the history of Christian missions in Brazil. For centuries, religious orders within the Catholic Church have played a major role in the colonization process by the association of religious conversion with the notion of civilization. In the second half of the 20th century, however, with the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church adopted a more critical stance towards this role and has since then sought to make religion more adaptable to indigenous cultures through the theology of inculturation, by which fundamental Christian values -such as love, fraternity, solidarity, and justice -are identified in indigenous cultures (ALMEIDA, 2006, p. 283); at the same time, the Catholic Church adopted a social and political agenda in support of indigenous rights, moving slightly away from a purely salvationist language. Although time passes and agents change, certain practices and meanings persist. As Ronaldo de Almeida (2006) points out, cross-cultural missions in the last decades have been practicing Salvationism, as did the Jesuits during the colonial period.
In short, cross-cultural missions are interdenominational evangelical organizations whose goal is to spread out the Christian doctrine and culture to non-Christian societies. The NTM's (New Tribes Mission) profile by Rubem César Fernandes (1980) provides a general understanding of the motivations behind these missions. According to Fernandes (1980), the NTM originated from a confessional network that was created following the schism in major religious where the core of the religious doctrine that guides these missions is found: the eschatological perspective of the world and the notion that life after death could be reached with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Yet, for this to occur, they believe they must fulfill the 'Great Commission', which they see as a command in some of the Gospels, particularly in chapter 28, verses 18-20 of Matthew's Gospel.
In this chapter, a teleological premise to humanity is asserted, encouraging missionaries to 'reach' all the peoples of the planet, with the understanding that each language corresponds to a people. The term 'to reach' has a profound meaning, as it These theological foundations also partially explain another facet of these missions, one that is less heroic and more mundane, and that unabashedly leads them, not into the woods, but into political alliances with local governments. In doing so, they cannibalize science by strategically misusing anthropological and linguistic methodologies and conceptualizations, that is, they use them in a technical manner and "under the religious code" (ALMEIDA, 2006, p. 282). This is a pragmatic, tactical, and political appropriation because, as we will further see, it will be used to bypass law restrictions on religious proselytism among indigenous peoples. In fact, the principles of non-intervention and respect for indigenous diversity and selfdetermination are being subverted by these missions, principles that make up the ethics of research within these same scientific fields. The Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa's account of the activities of the NTM among his people reveals the violence caused by this subversion: The people of Teosi [the missionaries] focused their anger on those who continued to make the xapiri dance despite it all. They kept telling these shamans that they were evil and that their chests were dirty. They called them ignorant. They threatened them: "Stop making your forest spirits dance, it is evil! They are demons whom Teosi [God] has rejected! Do not call them, they belong to Satanasi! [Satan].
[…] These evil words, repeated unceasingly, finally frightened all the shamans, and they no longer dared to drink the yakoana or even sing during the night. They only asked themselves who this Teosi could be to mistreat them so!" (KOPENAWA and ALBERT, 2013, pp. 188-189).
Because of the theology and the behavioral ethos involved, these crosscultural missions are becoming agents of a depoliticized action, a form of action that is opposite to a democratic political action aimed at some sort of collective social transformation (BROWN, 2019). They have little interest in mundane issues, such as defending the right to land demarcation; on the contrary, their strategic political action focuses on the spiritual and transcendent world. To do so, they resort to a dual identity strategy.
As an example of this pattern of missionary practice, I mention here two of in Portuguese, 'Sociedade Internacional de Linguística'. The latter is divided into two organizations, one of which, the WBT (Wycliffe Bible Translators), is the public missionary face of SIL (BARROS, 2004;STOLL, 1982).
In general 2 , these organizations are established as multinational corporations, with their organizational charts and audited financial statements.
Both organizations have a large number of people on the mission field and apply a considerable quantity of resources: SIL is involved in approximately 1,350 active ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Their name was changed after a decade of pedophilia scandals involving NTM missionaries. The fact that these scandals were poorly handled by the organization suggests that this rebranding may well have been a means to clean up its reputation. Information about the scandals is available at ˂https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/ungodly -abuse-lasti ng-torment-newtribes-missi ona ry-ki ds-n967191˃ and at ˂https:/ / a ma zoni a re a l.c om. br/ e xmi ssi ona ri o-c onde na do-nos-e ua -tra ba lhou -c o m -i ndi os-do-a c re /˃. 2 The following data are available at ˂https://www.sil.org/˃ and ˂https://ethnos360.org/˃. In short, for the military dictatorship, the cooperation agreement with SIL was instrumental to complying with Art. 50 of Law 6001/73, which determines education as the means to assist in the process -deemed inevitable -of integrating the indigenous population into the Brazilian society. And here the idea of emancipation fits in, acting as a harbinger of the integration process. The potential threat to national sovereignty posed by the suspicious activities of the missionaries undermined the relationship between the missionary organizations and the government; however, this case shows that both sides share certain ideas, interests, and practices, all of which have contributed to opposing legally recognized collective social rights. As we will see, this situation persists to this day.

The missions and Bolsonaro's government
With the transition to democracy in Brazil, public policies for indigenous peoples have undergone important transformations. This transition involved the For details about the public policies and conflicts regarding indigenous rights during the transition to democracy, cf. BONILLA and CAPIBERIBE (2021, in press). 6 They are named that way because it is understood that they want to be left isolated. 7 Their tactics were exposed by a leaked recording of the ministerial meeting held on 03 May 2020, in which the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, used an expression ("to pass the cattle") that suggested taking advantage of media distraction due to the COVID-19 pandemic to change normsvia decrees -and soften environmental protection laws. and Humanitarian Aid) -which operates within Congress -released a public statement supporting Dias' appointment, accusing NGOs and the media of promoting a smear campaign against the 'good reputation of the researcher', and denouncing the MPF's 'veiled religious discrimination'.
The statement also alleged that Dias had been disconnected from field activities in the last ten years, thus suggesting that he was no longer engaged in missionary activity. Dias himself had given this same information in his defense in the few statements he gave to the media; however, this is far from the truth. Throughout his time as coordinator of the division of isolated Indians (from March to November 2020), Dias faced a series of complaints that seem to corroborate the arguments against him taking office that were presented by the MPF, the indigenous movement, and the Brazilian Association of Anthropology 15 ; these complaints also revealed how deteriorated the sector's policies had become. The complaints ranged from negligence and government takeover by partisan interest to misuse of public resources. The allegations of negligence refer to the growing pressure on isolated peoples due to increased invasions, deforestation, and fires around their lands 16 . Complaints of moral harassment have also been filed, especially regarding civil servants at FUNAI's Ethno-environmental Protection Bases who are directly involved in monitoring the ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 14 Ava i la ble at ˂http://www. funai.gov. br/i nde x.php/c omunica cao/ noticia s/ 6281e ntre vi sta-e specia l-ri ca rdo-lopes-dia s˃. 15 C f . publi c sta te me nts at ˂https://apiboficial. org/2020/01/31/ nota -de-repudi ocontr-a-nomeacao-de-missionario-da-mntb-pa ra-the-isolated-sector-in-funai/˃ and at ˂http://www.portal.abant.org.br/2020/02/03/nota-de-denuncia-about-the-risk-of-imminentgenocide-and-ethnocide-of-isolated-indigenous-peoples-in-Brazil /˃. 16 The tragic death of the 'sertanista' (indigenous expert) Rieli Franciscato, in September 2020, is emblematic. He was struck by an arrow when approaching a group of the indigenous people known as 'isolated of Cautário'. This people is under the pressure of poachers and gold miners who often invade the territories where they circulate. Article available at ˂https://noticias.uol.com.br/colunas/rubens-valente/2020/09/10/funai-eindigenistas-tentam-entender-acao-dos-isolated-in-ro.htm>. For more information on the escalation of invasions and deterioration of the environment see: ˂https://univaja.com/atividadesde-garimpeiros-avancam-no-am-e-ameacam-povos-indigenas-isolados-do-vale-do-javari/˃ and ˂https://cimi.org.br/2020/09/incendio-ilha-do-bananal-coloca-em-risco-indigenas-isolated/˃. To protect the indigenous people against this harassment, UNIVAJA filed an ACP Scheduled to start in October 2020, the course did not take place. The Brazilian Association of Anthropology issued a warning against this course 24 , but, most significantly, an investigation by the MPF showed that, according to the ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 22 Article available at ˂https://g1.globo.com/politica/blog/matheus-leitao/post/2019/12/02/assessor-da-funai-jaatuou-contra-criacao-de-novas-terras-indigenas.ghtml˃. 23 For more information about this documentary and the consequences of Barreto Miranda's legal strategy of resorting to human rights to advocate for the criminalization of the so-called indigenous infanticide cf. Holanda (2018). 24 Available at ˂http://www.portal.abant.org.br/2020/08/24/alerta-da-aba-curso-lato-sensu-emantropologia-proposto-pela-funai/˃. Ruralists, security forces, and evangelical Christians are now firmly installed in the federal executive. One can say, from an anthropological perspective, that they form correlated terms, that is, they make up a system. The intertwining of these three fronts creates such a complex fabric of schemes and events that it is difficult to fully address it. A summarized elaboration of this strategic, concerted action is provided by a famous character in this charade of dual identities, Edward Mantoanelli Luz, who has deep links with the missionaries and is the most famous of the 'anthropologists of the ruralists'. When celebrating Dias' appointment as coordinator of the division of isolated Indians, Luz explained that Dias's name had been suggested by a group that he "represents, which includes 'sections of the military, Christians (Catholics and Protestants alike), and rural producers affected by the demarcation of indigenous lands'" (TOLEDO, 2020).

Conclusions
It is in the interest of Bolsonaro's government to ignore the indigenous epistemic-ontological difference -as it was in the case of the Brazilian governments under military rule  -because, on the one hand, this government does not understand this difference, an ignorance that allows them to say that 'the Indians want what we want', that is, 'to be integrated' and follow our methods of land exploitation, to become consumers, Christians, etc. On the other hand, this ignorance could be intentional, as it conveniently downplays the very difference that guarantees the right to indigenous land. Underlying the government's actions towards indigenous people there appears to be a political project that denies indigenous rights and the indigenous existence itself. The depoliticized action of cross-cultural missions -along with the use of theologyconverges with this political project and contributes to its viability as it instills among indigenous people new customs (such as sedentarism and monogamous marriage) and needs (eating new food items, wearing clothes, and building churches, for instance). These changes tend to reinforce one another and lead the converted indigenous people into a process of increasing economic dependence; they also provide the opportunity for challenging the very need for indigenous land.
When confronted with accusations of intrusion and disrespect for indigenous self-determination due to religious proselytization, cross-cultural missions Indians as cultural specimens, like animals in a zoo, rather than helping them adjust to change as SIL says it does" (STOLL, 1982, p. 16). Any resemblance to President Bolsonaro's rhetoric is not a coincidence.
The sense that individual freedom must surpass collective freedom exposes these missions as emissaries of what Wendy Brown explains to be the result of the 'neoliberal antipolitics' (BROWN, 2019, p. 74). In this case, the freedom to 'accept the word of God' -proposed by missionaries to peoples who are completely unaware of their intentions -directly contradicts the political equality that is essential to democracy, an equality that is legally guaranteed, based on social rights that -if secured by the state -should protect indigenous peoples against the interference from religious, rural, or military groups. By reaching souls, missionary action is undermining indigenous rights. As a consequence, their depoliticized -or anti-political -action exceeds the religious sphere and, paradoxically, turns into an anti-democratic political action.