07/22/2013
Low Restrictions
Among the 25 most populous countries,
only four have low government restrictions on religion, with Brazil having the
lowest of all (see chart). Brazil has lower restrictions, in fact, than the United States,
where restrictions have been rising.
Religious freedom, however, is highly
valued in Brazil. For instance, when Brazilians were asked in a 2006 Pew
Research survey
whether it was important to live in a country where there is freedom of
religion for religions other than their own, nearly the same percentage of
people indicated that this was important (95%) as indicated that it was
important to live in a country where they can practice their own religion
freely (96%).
An expression of such support for
religious freedom occurred this spring when the government of São Paulo -
Brazil's commercial center and the western hemisphere's most populous city at
20 million - declared that henceforth May 25th will be "religious freedom
day." This declaration coincided with a multi-faith religious
freedom festival that drew nearly 30,000
participants, including the participation of the Catholic
archdiocese, leading politicians and celebrities.
Low religious restrictions and support
for religious freedom are notable in a country that is undergoing what is
perhaps one of the most dynamic religious shifts in the world today.
Religious Shifts
Since the Portuguese colonized Brazil in
the 16th century, it has been overwhelmingly Catholic. And today Brazil has
more Roman Catholics than any other country in the world – an estimated 123
million. But a recent Pew Research
analysis finds that the share of Brazil’s overall population that
identifies as Catholic has been dropping steadily in recent decades, while the
percentage of Brazilians who belong to Protestant churches has been rising.
Indeed, much of the religious shift has been from Roman Catholicism to
Pentecostal and Protestant denominations. For a historical overview of
Pentecostalism in Brazil, see the Pew Research report Spirit and Power.
Smaller but increasing shares of Brazilians also identify with other religions or
with no religion at all.
The Pew Research analysis notes that
from 2000 to 2010, both the absolute number and the percentage of Catholics
declined; Brazil’s Catholic population fell slightly from 125 million in 2000
to 123 million a decade later, dropping from 74% to 65% of the country’s total
population. The number of Brazilian Protestants (including Pentecostals), on
the other hand, continued to grow in the most recent decade, rising from 26
million (15%) in 2000 to 42 million (22%) in 2010.
In addition, the number of Brazilians
belonging to other religions – including Afro-Brazilian faiths such as
Candomblé and Umbanda – has been climbing. In 2000, adherents of religions
other than Catholicism and Protestantism numbered about 6 million (4% of Brazil’s
population), and as of 2010, the group had grown to 10 million (5%). Finally,
the number of Brazilians with no religious affiliation, including agnostics and
atheists, numbered 12 million (7%) in 2000 and 15 million (8%) according to
Brazil’s 2010 census.
Given the level of religious switching
in Brazil, it is particularly notable that a separate Pew Research study finds
that there have been no reported incidents of hostility over conversions or
proselytism.
A History of Religious
Deregulation
Brazil was not always known for
religious tolerance. For instance, the persecution of Brazilian Jews in
the 1600s sent the first group of
Jews to New York in 1654. But writing in 1923, University of Texas
legal expert Herman G. James
noted that “It is safe to say that there is no other country in the world where
the Roman Catholic faith is the traditional and prevailing faith of the
inhabitants, where there is a more complete separation of Church and State, or
where there is greater freedom of conscience and worship.”
As the twentieth century progressed,
however, laws were passed making proselytizing more difficult for new religious
groups and, in the 1940s, the government stopped issuing visas for Protestant
missionaries. These limits were short lived. After a period of military rule
that ended in 1985, politically active Protestant denominations and minority
religions worked to ensure that religious freedom became a defining
characteristic of church-state relations. For more details, see The Price of
Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century.
Brazil is among the 76% of countries
recently identified in a recent Pew Research study with
initiatives to lower religious restrictions and hostilities. For instance, on
January 15, 2012, President Dilma
Rousseff approved an agreement to include the Holocaust,
anti-Semitism, and other Jewish-related subjects, as well as racism,
xenophobia, and intolerance, in the curricula of some schools, universities and
other educational institutions.
Source: Weekly Number Blog
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