A política em nome de Deus: análise do discurso eleitoral iurdiano em 2018

Abstract

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) is a Brazilian religious institution that uses various communication vehicles to evangelize, inform, and position itself on different subjects before its membership. In addition, it is considered one of the most active churches in Brazilian institutional politics, increasingly electing parliamentarians to the National Congress, as well as celebrating agreements and occupying positions in government structures. During the 2018 elections, several pastors and religious denominations declared their support for presidential candidate Jair Messias Bolsonaro (PSL/RJ), including Edir Macedo, bishop of the IURD. It is based on the hypothesis that the Folha Universal newspaper, the church's official printed media, is the main channel through which an arsenal of symbolic goods is activated in order to obtain IURD political representation through the corporate vote of the faithful. Thus, the objective of this work is to verify if in that electoral year there was mobilization of contents in the newspaper with the intention of interfering in the vote of the church membership. Methodologically, opted for the preparation of small textual syntheses and the use of Discourse Analysis tools, against the backdrop of French school authors such as Michel Pêcheux and Michel Foucault. Results indicate that party-political agendas have permeated the newspaper since the first edition of that year, intensifying in the periods closest to the First and Second Round votes. Issues such as Fake-news, economic liberalism, defense of the family and the fight against gender ideology were recurrent in the editions studied. It is also possible to infer that the endorsement of Jair Bolsonaro's candidacy was achieved more by the conservative guidelines raised in the published articles, which converged with the candidate's ideological positions, than by the mention of his name or people belonging to his political group.