SOCIAL SUPPORT SERVICES

Social support is one of the most important things for the UCKG, and one of the best forms of propaganda, so that members can donate their money to ‘a good cause’ and spread God’s work. The social service occurs in many Pentecostal churches in Brazil, and the most famous pastors, like Silas Malafaia from the Brazilian Assemblies of God,

use social work to bargain with politicians. According to him60_{, the churches work for the}

Brazilian government, since they do not receive any support for saving people from drug

addiction61_{. The income and number of members in Brazilian Pentecostal churches give}

their leaders numerous possibilities for doing something big related to social work. For example, in the city of Irecê, in Bahia, Brazil, the UCKG has a 500-hectare farm called

Nova Canaã (New Canaan). The idea came, according to the UCKG’s website62 _{, when}

59 _{In: http://madrilanea.com/2013/03/01/una-iglesia-que-cambia-de-nombre-y-cobra-con-tarjeta/.} 60 _{In: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myb0yUHdi14. Accessed: 27/12/2017.}

61 _{He strategically omits the absence of taxes with regard to the churches in Brazil, which is the way that}

the State aids them financially.

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Bishop Macedo saw a television programme, on his own TV channel in Brazil, about poor children who were starving because of the absence of rain. Today the project assists more than seven hundred children with its schools. It also gives both adults and children health care, including access to dentistry and doctors, and offers adults the opportunity to work.

There are fewer options for social engagement in Madrid than in Brazil. The church has less money, because it has fewer members, who are its real financial supporters. No New Canaan is possible in Madrid. The most common kind of social services are donations of non-perishable food, for people who need it, and the fight against drug and alcohol addiction. The members themselves are usually the beneficiaries of these services, but there are people from outside as well. In front of the church, there is a box where any passers-by can leave non-perishable food to be donated to people in need. This social support service, besides helping people in general, also illustrates the best means of interaction between members of the church and outsiders, or at least it used for this purpose. I saw members from other religions in those services. There is more discussion of the interaction between the church and other religions later, in the seventh chapter. Services on Sunday afternoons for people who have addiction problems are another way of collaborating with social services in the community. Sometimes people attending other church services are specifically invited to attend this meeting. Bishop Gilberto Santana, for example, invited a man in a crowded Sunday morning service to deal with his struggle with addiction to alcohol in the service later that day. In the bishop’s words, his father was an alcoholic as well, and the same God that saved his father was going to save that man. For full salvation from drug addiction, the man needed to be present in the specific service

for the cura de las addicciones, or cure of addictions. This service has the characteristic

of healing by prayer and participation. The testimonials about the life of a member with

an addiction, and how the struggle against this ‘devil’ is difficult, is reminiscent of

Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, though the latter has characteristics that are more secular. The pastor’s coordination, miracles and occasional exorcisms of evil entities that cause the addiction are not present in A. A. meetings. Nonetheless, sharing their problems and helping others by telling their experience is a similar strategy in the treatment of the religious group therapy of the UCKG.

The hard-core treatment of addicts occurs at the altar. I saw a few of these live, but after an empty afternoon service a young aspiring pastor named Michael showed me the most interesting one. I was walking away from the service when he called me, holding out his cell phone, and asking me to watch it. On the video, another aspiring pastor, Carlos, had

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cocaine in a small bag and was interviewing a middle-aged man, asking him about his feelings about the drug. The man said that he wanted to take a dose of the drug very much. After a strong prayer, casting out the evil of addiction, the man was declared free of his addiction. Carlos gave the small bag of cocaine to the man, who refused it in disgust. Afterwards, the aspiring pastor asked the man if he wanted to take more drugs, to which the latter replied: ‘not now’. Carlos corrected the man: ‘no, you are never going to take drugs again’, making the man repeat this phrase loudly. The emphasis on the man’s total cure differs from the A.A. way of talking about the cure, but has a similar systematic treatment. Continual meetings with other addicts and testimonials about past and new lives operate as a form of therapy for people who have had addictions in the past, both in the UCKG and in A.A. The life-long treatment is their presence in the church and the correct way of behaving, which includes avoiding social relationships that have alcohol or any other drugs involved. To become free from addiction in A.A. is to take one day at a time, while in the UCKG it is to spend every day at church. What is different is the spiritual cause of addiction and especially its symbolic disruption by exorcism, which casts out the demonic forces responsible for the addiction.