Protestantism in Brazil

Protestantism in Brazil began in the 19th century, and grew in the 20th century after restrictions against Protestants were abolished throughout Latin America. The 2010 Census reported that 22.2% of the Brazilian population is Protestant, about 44 million people, making it one of the world's largest concentration of Protestants.

Brazilian Protestantism is primarily represented by Evangelical Protestant and Pentecostal churches, and a smaller proportion of Baptists. The remainder is made up of Lutherans, Adventists, Presbyterians and other mainline Protestant traditions.

Protestantism was first practiced by Huguenot travelers in attempts to colonize the country while it was under the Portuguese colonial rule. These attempts, however, would not persist. A French mission sent by John Calvin was established in 1557, in one of the islands of Guanabara Bay, where the France Antarctique was founded. On March 10 of the same year, these Calvinists held the first Protestant service in Brazil and, according to some accounts, the first in all the New World.

Protestant religions were often introduced by immigrants from Europe but over the last three decades, the number of Neo Pentecostal churches such as the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God have grown a lot. One of Brazilian public personalities to speak out against them was the famous actress Hebe Camargo, who said “Sometimes I ask myself how these evangelical churches can brainwash so many people. Their believers get so obsessed and don’t understand they are only making their pastors richer and richer with this “demoniac decime””; commenting the fact that Edir Macedo, the founder of UCKG, and many other pastors have become very rich: Edir Macedo is actually on the Forbes list being worth over 1.1 billion US$ mainly from money raised in donations. Edir Macedo has official charges of fraud and money laundering against him in many countries such as the US, Brazil and Venezuela.

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