Thanks for weighing in to disparage official government statistics. Is Brazil a secular or non secular country? Given the huge disparity of income in Brazil can you see a time when the have nots will take down the haves and their army?

@FrayedBear religion is the least of problems in Brazil. To answer your question, the government is secular in the constitution only. Most of the country is highly influenced by the Roman Catholic church, while some states are more in line with evangelicals. Rio de Janeiro for instance, is governed by a licensed Pentecostal bishop and the state is bankrupt -- the same denomination rules for at least 6 years.

But the biggest problems are corruption (5% of the GDP) and education (25-65% of functional illiteracy, depending on the definition and source)

@hlfsousa It sounds horrific. I'm no longer disapointed that I wasn't offered work there 40 years ago ... LOL I don't think I could have put up with it.

@FrayedBear me neither, I have just moved to Europe

@hlfsousa Lots of lovely Fado in Lisbon. Here's an oldie.

That was from off field. Care to elaborate @gater?

@FrayedBear Surely you've heard of "opiate of the masses" - along the same lines - let them believe whatever they want as long as it keeps them peaceful.

Brazilian crime rates are as high as they can be. Even the gangs are evangelical Christians. The motto for one of them is "Jesus owns this place" (no, that's not the name of the gang leader).

So no, the God belief does not in any way lower crime.

@gater lol

@hlfsousa Ghastly! So much for the good book. Thanks for sharing.

@hlfsousa You can't make that claim. You have no idea what the rate would be without their beliefs.

@gater Here are the claims I am making:

1. The most violent state in the country, Rio de Janeiro, is being governed by an evangelical priest -- his predecessor was also a prominent evangelical Christian. The capital, same name, has had parts occupied by the army due to crime and the war on drugs several times since at least a decade ago. Its mayors have also been prominent evangelicals for the past several years too. Violence is not scaling down and the state is bankrupt.
2. Criminals and their organizations have been increasingly adopted evangelical Christian confessions. Now, they are also attacking people on religious basis (destroying Umbanda temples, for instance).
3. This turn to religious confessions was motivated directly by evangelical Christians sending missionaries to the slums. They converted the criminals, but that did not turn them away from criminal activity.

So yeah, this backs up my general claim that making all spheres of the state more Christian did not make crime rates go down nor improved the government. I am not going to carefully cite research because I have too much work to do and all of this is pretty much common knowledge in Brazil.

No just wish to share the world with non-slaves.

You don't see the issue with that?

@ThereisnoDog Exactly but as I don't believe in the Christian doctrine of "turn the other cheek" give back what is given ... and a lot of give back is required to redress what has happened in the last 2000 years with regard to Christianity, longer for Judaism.

The article additionally admits to :
• Protestant
• Methodist
• Episcopal
• Pentecostal
• Lutheran
• Baptist