Our coherence determines the character of new generations

Despite practicing a Protestant confessionality and claiming the appropriation of hope, the ideas and considerations of individuals connected to different religious denominations provoke constant synapses. Such conflicts of conscience prove to be uncontrollable. Not in the sense of domination, but of the impossibility of avoiding its construction. It seems that the brain has a propensity to shape the images and sounds around it in an uncontrolled way, paving the way for questions and doubts, goals and fears, a positive world view or obstinate nihilism. Solomon made this warning clear, because “there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.” (Prov 14:12 NIV). The way in which embodied thoughts are worked can determine success or failure, progress or setbacks, life or death.

The religious exclusivism, similar to pharisaism, appropriated hope. There is no question about the reason for hope, but the way in which faith in a future event provokes a burst of vanity. Such a manifestation, whether it is in the heart or just in aesthetic superficiality, clashes with self-interested, selfish attitudes. Hence the criticism of vanity, pride whose genesis is explained through educational formation and a supposed exclusivist heritage. The Brazilian society after the Lusitanian conquest transitioned between rigid and flexible patriarchy, and then to liberal. However, during this phase there were two intervals: the dictatorships of the Getulist New State (1930-45) and the military regime (1964-85). In both cases, the repercussions of their style of government were felt in public and private institutions, schools, churches and, most notably, families.

The figure of the father as the main provider of the family and leader in domestic decisions assumed the earthly reference of maximum religious or faith representation. His positioning in actions, prescriptions and sentences, symbolically connected him to Divinity. I call the Brazilians who experienced their childhood and adolescence during the years of the military regime, between 1964 and 1985, “Generation 64”. So, the first dilemma of Generation 64 – children of families involved in some Protestant denomination – indicated the father, the teacher, the religious leader – pastor or presbyter –, the politician, the judge, the police officer as powerful individuals, centralizers and holders of power, whose scope of attributions became unlimited. In view of this repressive constellation, a sense of fear emerged within the conscious, fear of severity as a consequence of inevitable punishments. The catholic cultural background, the origin of many Protestants in Latin America, also shaped the characters of this generation. Fear, the need for punishment, mystical allegories, unbridled authoritarianism and philosophical conflicts transcended the worldview passed on by Protestantism. In the opposite direction of the current, Jean Delumeau states that fear “allows the organism to temporarily escape death,” as a reflex act to guarantee survival in the face of an unexpected and tense situation. (Continued in Part 2)

Ruben Dargã Holdorf, Comm.Se.D