The reaction of evangelical churches to the new Civil Code

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the reaction of evangelic churches to the new Brazilian civil code, which searched to enlarge the State legal control over religious groups, by establishing new rules for the activities of religious organizations in the country. The implementation of these rules would promote important changes in the religious organizations, mainly in those which statutes and effective activities were not coherent with the dispositions included in the new rules, as the Pentecostals churches, for instance. Fearing the payment of penalties, the imprisonment of pastors and prosecutions because of norm regardless, ecclesiastic leaders and evangelic members of the parliament organized mobilization in the whole country, politically enforced their religious identity and articulated a powerful and well-succeeded lobby in the National Congress. Doing so, they achieved the alteration of the Civil Code, making them not obliged to promote the legal changes that were initially foresee by the new juridical norm. Key words: Evangelicals, Civil Code, Frente Parlamentar Evangélica.