A FLUID DEMONOLOGY: AN ADAPTABLE AND PLURAL EVIL

As previously mentioned, Mariz observed that religions fall into two distinctive extremes with respect to their relationships with institutions. The first extreme, as the French sociologist Danièle Hervieu-Lèger (2008) and Christopher Partridge (2005) suggested, understands religion as something related to the self. For both authors, religious movements today have a more individualistic approach, and people can separate what they believe from what they do not, making their religious affiliation less institutional and more idiosyncratic. The other extreme is when individuals are fully devoted to a group or an institution, sometimes with a denial of modern values (Rodrigues, 2005: 221). There are affiliations between these extremes: people with formal religious affiliations and points of view that conflict with the institution, people with no formal religion but with a very conservative religious point of view and people in transit between one institution and another92_.

The UCKG in Madrid probably has similar in-between cases, but members are usually influenced by both extremes. The second extreme is the most obvious, being the most visible characteristic of the church: a highly controlled and controlling hierarchical institution that regulates practices, preaching and campaigns. The first point of view, as the numerous testimonials and institutional message indicate, is related to a fluid understanding of evil, characterised not only by named national entities, but also by

91 _{On page 114.}

92 _{There are even people with a bricolage religion in the Brazilian case, such as, for example, a woman}

who took Catholicism as her cultural basis and after an accident complemented her faith by participating in the services of the UCKG without a rupture from her affiliation (Rumstain and Almeida, 2009: 42-43). In Madrid, although there are probably cases like this one, members who mix their religions are not well regarded by the more committed members.

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causes that become manifest in a member’s life. Wyk (2014: 56) observed that the

demons are not well described, which means that there is huge scope for imagining what a demonic force actually is. She observed some sort of fluidity in the practices of the UCKG, but she drew on authors who analysed the incorporation of practices from other

religions such as Catholicism and traditional Brazilian religiosity (Wyk, 2014: 55)93_.

However, my concern here is more with the fluidity of the UCKG’s demonology. Bishop Macedo, for example, discusses ten signs of demonic possessions, and all of them have a very diffuse form and can fit almost every problem of an individual:

1- Jitters 2- Headaches 3- Insomnia 4- Fear 5- Constant Fainting 6- Suicidal Wishes

7- Diseases for which doctors have not found the cause 8- Visions of figures or hearing voices

9- Addiction 10- Depression

(Macedo, 1987: 35)

These symptoms are very open to interpretation, scattered and possibly confusing to members, especially as Macedo observes that not everyone who has these conditions is possessed, although most of them are (Macedo, 1987: 35), and that these are far from the only signs of possession. Pastor Maximiliano told me after a service (18/10/2016) that a person with an addiction to drugs or alcohol can search for help in psychiatry. Nevertheless, if no one finds and delivers the person from the diabolic entity manifesting this disease, the secular cure will only work for a short time until the evil entity becomes manifest again. Maximiliano also explained succinctly, during one of his sermons, what constitutes a diabolical action in a member’s life, and what does not. According to him, every person has difficulties and struggles in life. Nonetheless, if the pain and obstacles persist for too long, the probability that it is the work of an evil entity is high.

93 _{Wyk cites Birman and Lehmann (1999) and Freston (2005), probably because these are both academic}

works written in English. In Portuguese, there are many other authors who have analysed the

incorporation of older religious practices by the UCKG (Almeida, 2009; Mafra, 2002; Mariano, 2007 and 2012; Silva, 2007 and 2015: 200)

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At the beginning of many of the services, the first prayer is usually for spiritual cleansing.

Even on days when there are no exorcisms (most days); the shout of sai94 _{(get out) at the}

end of the prayer is directed at evil entities that may be around the members. Therefore, the Devil’s forces may attack any aspect of someone’s life, since all an evil entity wants is to make someone’s life a living hell. The possibilities of infestation by demons are even broader for all the preachers in the church; entities can even come from past relatives, like a father or a grandfather. During my visits to Madrid, I saw almost every pastor and bishop talk about how a family member who had made an evil pact in past generations can be the cause of all the trouble. Pastor Lenin tied demons to the destruction of families (23/10/2015) and to the witchery of other family members, which may affect everyone in the family (19/11/2015). Pastor Richard explained during a night service (17/06/2016), forming a line close to the altar with four assistants, how demons affected many generations. The first assistant in the line represented the great-grandfather, the second the grandfather, the third the father and the fourth the UCKG member. As he grabbed the first assistant in the line, Richard explained that here are examples of great-grandfathers making pacts with the Devil and the evil spirit then tormenting the family from that

generation right down to the member’s generation. As usual, pastors adhered to the

official church discourse of a diabolic heritage. Inheriting demonic presence can remove blame from the person tormented by wrong actions in his/her past, creating a friendlier environment for those who feel guilty about their own situation of despair. This also helps to construct the need to save the whole family. Most couples in the UCKG in Madrid usually start coming to the church separately; the conversion of one is the trigger for the conversion of all other family members.

A fluid demonology with a huge capacity for adaptation within a belligerent spiritual discourse is easier when almost every problem with regard to health, wealth and relationships is seen as the work of satanic forces. Therefore, the openness of the church’s demonology in these kinds of situations provides a broader range of possibilities of dialogue with the pre-existing cultural environment. Nonetheless, this openness also regards aspects of the individual’s life. Since any disease or financial problem can be seen as the work of the Devil, almost every person in a globalised world can fit into the message of the church. The appeal of this kind of discourse is that it can be made to

match an ‘other’ in almost any social structure that contains a belief in supernatural

religious or spiritual activities.

94 _{The most interesting thing is that the word is in Portuguese. Even Spanish pastors often scream the}

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Demons are never completely absent from the services of the UCKG. The manifested entities are never fully cast out. A demonic presence is not only a way of materializing

what a demon can do to a person; it is also a spiritual belief, as noted by Wariboko95_.God

is the only one able to achieve complete victory in the apocalypse. Empowerment given by the Holy Spirit only allows a person to expel the evil from the church temporarily, but

it always returns. There is similar reasoning about the role of the exús in many Brazilian

Pentecostal services (Silva, 2015): they are cast out, but they are ‘guests’96 _{who always}

return. Winning a battle does not mean being free; every time an evil is overcome another one emerges in a different form (Bradnick, 2015: 160).

Hence, the demonology of the UCKG is fluid with regard to the action of the Devil’s entities in the world. It has four main characteristics. First, anything that goes wrong mentally or physically in the lives of a member, such as with respect to wealth, relationships, family or even any kind of failure to achieve a goal, may be a symptom of evil. Second, as a global religious enterprise, the UCKG needs to adapt its demons to each location; they must be comprehensible to the religious clientele of the church. Third, the inheritance of, or unwitting contact with, a demonic presence makes it possible for a member to overcome a family life of wrongdoing, which also removes most of his/her responsibility for ‘mistaken’ actions and practices – since the demons are inherited. Fourth, even after demons have been expelled, they can, and usually do, return, so it is not only important but also necessary to maintain a constant vigilance in social relationships and behaviours. This fluid demonology gives the UCKG the characteristic of a religious panacea. Since every bad aspect of life is considered demonic, there is a sort of spiritual pathologisation of any aspect of life in which someone is unsuccessful. The UCKG transforms everything seen as bad in an individual’s life, especially poverty, which becomes a spiritual disease, into something that comes from a world infested by demons. Since the borders between the spiritual and material realms in the UCKG discourse are blurry, the spiritual panacea of the church expands its ability to cure all aspects of an individual’s life. If everything is pathological (demonic), then one must need a panacea capable of curing everything. The fluidity of the church’s demonology also works dialectically with the fluidity of the cures it provides.