One of the many corrupt churches in Brasil

Ok, so this is the backdrop, an interesting/disturbing fact about the Universal Kingdom of the Church of God. . . it is a corrupt, pentecostal, prosperity theology-teaching church, started
by a Brasilian man named Edir Macedo. The long and short of it is that the church targets the poor strata of society by constructing a huge building (with big-screen TVs, luxurious stained glass windows, and the like) in the middle of their neighborhood, luring them in, persuading them to start paying strict tithes, `serving` the church as custodians, and so on. They are promised good reward for they`re service, and many do come to have more faith, responsibility, and morals, but the question is where does their money go? It goes to Macedo and the other leaders who exploit it and build more expensive buildings to attract more and more people (not only the poor but the middle class too). They tell the people that their money is later burned (literally) as a sacrifice to God. Macedo had actually been arrested for exploiting people`s money like this, but the other leaders must have lead the people to think his imprisonment was a type of persecution for the work of God. The church continues to spread across the world, all the while setting up camp in poverty stricken areas. The website for the one in the US is in Spanish, which comes to show who they`re targeting.

I guess the story part of it is that Sid and I ended up visiting to this church, `cause it`s only 3 blocks from his apartment building. I had asked Sid to take me there to see this monstrosity. He agreed to take me on one condition: that he wouldn`t speak at all, and that I would have to answer anyone (in my broken Portuguese) who might come up to talk to us. He wanted them to think he was a foreigner, in case they tried to convert us, brainwash us, and steal our money. I was a bit nervous about this, but we went for it.

We arrived and went inside. The interior was a huge space, probably taking up a fourth of the block, if not more. They have their own giant parking garage. Hundreds of chairs, numerous services each day, we arrived at the end of one. Everyone was just mingling, talking, sitting quietly, etcetera. We weren`t there a full minute before 2 guys with huge smiles and nice clothes came up to talk to us, just like we had expected. We soon had them convinced that both of us were foreigners, and that I was the one to talk to, as opposed to Sid. They started speaking in English to us (though they weren`t very skilled), and asking where we were from, what we were doing in Porto Alegre, etcetera. Now I didn`t want this questionnaire to go too far, for fear that it might lead to talking about Sid`s native heritage, residence, and so on. They spoke good enough English for me to understand, but red flags had gone up, and I started pretending that their English sucked, that I couldn`t understand a word from them. In response, they started grabbing other smiling people who they knew would be competent enough to break the language barrier of which I had convinced them.

At this point Sid spoke up and said to the 2 men (in English), "Sorry, we don`t want
your money-washing. Peace," gave them the peace sign, grabbed my arm, and rushed out of the joint.

My last glimpse before we turned to leave was of a smiling lady`s face turning into a confused grimace. She didn`t know what to think, and she was probably a little disappointed she couldn`t practice her English on us. Haha, I felt a little bit bad at the time. but it`s quite hilarious now. I also thought Sid`s mannerisms--the curt remark, the peace sign--were funny.

"Sid, I don`t know if money-washing is a real term," I told him.

Sid and I walked back to his home, talking about the whole experience. We walked by several homeless people here and there who were passed out on the sidewalk with their faces smeared into the sun-hot concrete. Sid concluded our adventure with this thought: "You know, people do benefit from the church, have more faith, and improve their financial situation, but the saddest part is that they`re doing the right thing in the wrong place, the right kind of faith in a corrupt church."