A trajetória da assistência na Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD): configurações e significados - um olhar sobre a Associação Beneficente Cristã (ABC) do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

In Brazil, important connections between the themes Religion and Assistance are widely observed in specialized literature. Throughout the evolution of social policies in the Country, the Catholic Church has played an important role in the field of assistance. However, Spiritists, Protestants and Pentecostals also work in this area – indicating that, in Brazil, assistance transits in sacred territory since the beginning of our history. In the specific case of this study, our interest is in investigating the role of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) in the field of assistance in Brazil. Our goal is to identify, understand and analyze the elements that constitute its trajectory: its initial composition, the mutations that occurred and how things are today – with particular emphasis to the role played by the Christian Beneficent Association (ABC) from Rio de Janeiro. For this purpose, it is vital to reflect, for example, on the following aspects: how are themes such as social mobilization, civil society, rights, and citizenship being incorporated into the social practices developed by this denomination? What is the conception of poverty (causes, consequences, meaning – and, consequently, how it is dealt with) behind these actions? Around which values are these practices organized – solidarity, fraternity, citizenship, participation? Our analysis of these questions aims to reach a wider understanding of the proposals and interventions that form Iurdian universe of assistance: charity, philanthropy, citizenship, or the superposition of these models of social legitimization? The study is divided into three chapters. The first deals with the process by which social assistance has been constructed in Brazil, and seeks to identify the existing connections between religion and assistance along this path. The second seeks to contextualize the Iurdian Neopentecostal universe, as well as the kind of assistance it offers. The third and last chapter presents an approximate profile of ABC, through which it will be possible to identify new and/or older configurations in the institutional scope of ABC and IURD.