Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Religions in the media polis: mediatization, Protestants and politics in Brazil 159 the culture of “normal life” combined with religion with a pres- ence in the media, fashion, artists, and celebrities, with insertion in the market and entertainment world. Besides, this religious segment is strengthened as a social parcel that has its demands and can elect its representatives to the spaces of public power. To these paradigmatic situations for the evangelical- political relationship is added a new and expressive element: the evangelical political activism, no longer restricted to election times, with the activity now focused on the selection of electoral links for candidates, in their respective churches. This activism took shape since 2010 with the involvement of religious and congregation leaders, both in electoral periods, predominantly (and interestingly) in opposition campaigns (so as not to vote for candidates fundamentally from the left), and in defense or opposition to issues like the support for minister Marco Felici- ano in 2013, when he was president of the CDHM; the project to reduce the age of criminal responsibility, led by evangelical senator Magno Malta, in 2015, or the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, in 2016 (CUNHA, 2017a). This activism has taken place in the streets, as in the annual March for Jesus, a mass event held by “Igreja Renascer em Cristo,” on the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi, in the city of São Paulo, with the presence of evangelical politicians or sup- ported by evangelical churches; or in demonstrations specifi - cally convoked by evangelical leaders, such as the March for the Traditional Family, held in Brasilia, in 2013, convened by the National Council of Pastors of Brazil, at the time chaired by Pas- tor Silas Malafaia; or even in public acts in strategic locations, like those carried out by the Evangelical Front for the Rule of Law, created in 2016, to oppose Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment process. Activists are also mobilized remotely, through multiple demonstrations on the internet, especially written posts, audios, and videos on digital media (websites, blogs, and social media), mainly Twitter and Facebook, as shown in the mapping conduct- ed by the author in 2016 (CUNHA, 2017a). This process of expansion of evangelical political activ- ism coincided with the period of strengthening of the evangeli- cal bench between 2002 and 2004, and with the intense cam- paign of conservative groups, in 2010, against the election of