Our trip around the world begins in Brazil. The parallels between what’s happening in the US and what’s happening in Brazil are striking. In both places, you have powerful Christian movements that have become politically active over the last decade, aligning themselves with certain right-wing populist political figures and policy priorities that have challenged democracy. In both places, you had attempted insurrections staged at the legislature at which these movements – and their Christian symbols and narratives – were highly visible. In both places, a former president supported by these movements has faced prosecution. These parallels are not coincidental. Political and religious leaders in both countries have visited one another, advocated for each other, strategized together. But here’s where things diverge. In Brazil, former president Bolsonaro has not been able to reclaim power. In the US, of course, President Trump has. Has Brazil succeeded where the US hasn’t in containing an authoritarian president and the Christian nationalist movement that supports him? If so, how was this achieved? To help Matt and Susie answer those questions, they are joined by two Brazilian scholars of religion based in the U.S.: Raimundo Barreto and João Chaves. 

Additional Resources

Barreto, Raimundo, and João B. Chaves. “Christian Nationalism Is Thriving in Bolsonaro’s Brazil.” The Christian Century, 1 Dec. 2021, www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/christian-nationalism-thriving-bolsonaro-s-brazil.

Barreto, Raimundo, and João B. Chaves. “The Shared Religious Roots of Twin Insurrections in the U.S. and Brazil.” The Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/01/18/brazil-insurrection-evangelical-christianity/.

Costa, Petra, director. Apocalypse in the Tropics. 2024, Netflix, 14 July 2025. https://www.netflix.com/title/81989009

Chaves, João B. The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South: Southern Baptist Missionaries and the Shaping of Latin American Evangelicalism. Mercer University Press, 2022.

Dr. Matthew D. Taylor is the senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, where he specializes in American Christianity, American Islam, Christian extremism, and religious politics. His book, The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement that is Threatening Our Democracy (Broadleaf, 2024), tracks how a loose network of charismatic Christian leaders called the New Apostolic Reformation was a major instigating force for the January 6th Insurrection and is currently reshaping the culture of the religious right in the U.S. Taylor is also the creator of the audio docuseries Charismatic Revival Fury: The New Apostolic Reformation.

Rev. Susan Hayward: was until recently the lead on the US Institute of Peace’s efforts to understand religious dimensions of conflict and advance efforts engaging religious actors and organizations in peacebuilding. She has conducted political asylum and refugee work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Advocates for Human Rights. Rev. Hayward studied Buddhism in Nepal and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

www.axismundi.us

Executive Producer: Dr. Bradley Onishi

Producer: Andrew Gill

Original Music and Mixing: Scott Okamoto

Production Assistance: Kari Onishi

Funded through generous contributions from ICJS, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the ICRD.

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