The issue of secularism in Brazil: mosaic of configurations and sand of controversies

Abstract

This text aims to present the relations between religions and the State in Brazil avoiding a teleological and normative framework, where a universal model serves as a paradigm. To this end, it seeks to construct a mosaic of differentiated configurations between them that express situations of unequal secularity, but living together. It aims, then, to present the very notion of secularism, as it was appropriate in the country, as a process involving conflicts, negotiations and agreements in marches and counter-marches. This is done through the interaction of social actors, whether they are religious cadres of the Catholic Church, evangelicals and Pentecostals and Afro-Brazilian religions, or organized civil society sectors (feminists, LGBTs) and state agents of the political and juridical system. The controversies in which these religious and lay social actors are involved cover a range of issues, ranging from those that foreshadow a retraction of religion such as: decriminalization of abortion, civil union of homosexuals, inclusion of sexual and reproductive rights in the role of Human Rights, to those that imply in their promotion as, the religious teaching in the public school and the presence of religious symbols in state offices and forums. Finally, since there is no pre-existing normative definition of what is secularity, what the text postulates is that because of the polysemic character it acquired in Brazil, this notion is always invoked by the disputed segments - secular and religious - according to their conceptions and interests.