Brazil: A New Front in the Culture Wars?

It turns out that culturally conservative Protestants in Brazil (mostly Pentecostals, I suspect, though the author of this article calls them evangelicals) have forced the newly elected president, Catholic (and former Marxist guerilla) Dilma Rousseff, to move sharply rightward in her positions on abortion and same-sex marriage.  By supporting a Protestant Green candidate in the first round, they deprived Rousseff of the majority she needed to win, forcing her into a run-off where both she and her opponent walked back their pro-abortion positions.

This time, a grass-roots campaign of sermons, Internet videos and DVDs distributed mainly by evangelical pastors thrust moral questions like abortion and gay marriage abruptly onto the political agenda and forced Ms. Rousseff and Mr. Serra to declare positions. Joined by some conservative Catholic bishops, the evangelicals mobilized at least partly in response to the government’s approval last year of a broad social plan supported by Ms. Rousseff’s party that included calling for greater gay rights and abortion rights.

In order to shore up support among religious conservatives, both Ms. Rousseff and her rival, Mr. Serra, added opposition to legal abortion to their campaign platforms. That meant a big move to the right for Ms. Rousseff, an ex-Marxist guerrilla who has supported legalizing abortion in the past.

“We’ve written a new chapter in the history of our nation,” said Silas Malafaia, a popular Brazilian televangelist who mailed more than 300,000 DVDs in September admonishing followers not to vote for candidates who would decriminalize abortion or extend more legal protections to gays.