About 1.5 million evangelical Christians joined Brazil’s annual “March for Jesus” on Monday, an event sponsored by a church whose leaders recently returned after being imprisoned in the US for money smuggling.
Now in its 17th year, the march unites faithful from hundreds of evangelical churches and attracts dozens of Christian bands, preachers and local celebrities.
It is organized by the powerful Reborn in Christ Church, whose leaders said they had hoped to draw 5 million people to gather around a central Sao Paulo plaza where the main stage was located.
Hundreds of thousands followed Estevam Hernandes Filho and his wife, Sonia Haddad Moraes Hernandes, along the 4km route of the march, and still more gathered at the plaza. Police estimated that around 1.5 million people turned out for the event.
The couple returned to Brazil in August after serving five months in prison, five months under house arrest in Florida and two months of probation for not declaring US$56,000 in cash they were carrying on a flight from Sao Paulo to Miami. The money was hidden a child’s backpack and a Bible case, among other bags.
Filho said the theme of this year’s gathering — “March to Topple Giants” — refers to evangelicals’ battle against “discrimination, misunderstanding and mainly the stereotypes” in Brazil.
Brazil is home to more Roman Catholics than any other country, but has seen a steady increase in the number of evangelicals in recent decades.
According to the 2000 census, 74 percent of Brazilians identify as Catholics, down from 84 percent in 1990. Fifteen percent classified themselves as evangelical Protestants, up from 9 percent in 1990.
Andrea Pazin, a 33-year-old human resources manger, bundled her two young children and husband into a car and drove 240km from interior Sao Paulo state for the march.
“It’s one giant party for Jesus,” she said, standing among a noisy throng of revelers.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS