Marketing the ‘health and wealth gospel’ across national borders; evidence from Brazil and the United States

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Poetics 36 (2008) 404–420 www.elsevier.com/locate/poetic

Marketing the ‘health and wealth gospel’ across national borders; evidence from Brazil and the United States G. Cristina Mora * Department of Sociology, 125 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States Available online 26 July 2008

Abstract The idea that religious practice leads to material prosperity forms the basis of a branch of Pentecostalism that has spread rapidly across the globe. Known as the ‘‘health and wealth movement,’’ it has been popularized by multinational churches through mass broadcasting. However, little is known about how the health and wealth message might differ across countries. This paper examines the issue by analyzing the television programs produced by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, for Rio de Janeiro and New York City audiences. Comparing six months of programming, I find that shows in both cities share similar representations about the material and physical rewards that can be obtained through religious adherence, but communicate different causal narratives about how religious practice leads to prosperity. The Rio programs emphasize that prayer, the ritualistic use of sacred objects, and miracles bring about prosperity. In contrast, the NYC programs emphasize that prayer, in conjunction with perseverance and struggle, lead to such gains. The findings indicate the nuanced ways that global and local institutional contexts shape the diffusion of the health and wealth gospel, and suggest that multinational churches navigate these contexts by adapting key elements of their messages. # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The idea that religious practice can lead to material prosperity on earth forms the basis of one of the most high-profile and popular expressions of Pentecostalism around the globe (Hunt, 2000). Known as the ‘‘health and wealth gospel,’’1 it is espoused by Pentecostal preachers during * Tel.: +1 609 258 6913; fax: +1 609 258 2180. E-mail address: [email protected]. 1 Scholars have also referred to the ‘‘health and wealth gospel’’ as the ‘‘faith movement’’ (Coleman, 2000; Hunt, 2000; Robbins, 2004) and the ‘‘prosperity gospel’’ (Gifford, 2004) and still others have labeled Pentecostal groups ‘‘NeoPentecostal’’ (see Robbins, 2004). I use both ‘‘health and wealth gospel’’ and ‘‘prosperity gospel’’ in this text. 0304-422X/$ – see front matter # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2008.06.008

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services, but has largely achieved a mass, international following through mass broadcast, film and print media (Brouwer et al., 1996; Hoover, 1988). While traditional Pentecostal groups may associate God with the poor and humble and preach that salvation will come in the afterlife, health and wealth churches preach that prosperity is a divine right for believers and claim that spiritual rebirth can deliver humans from the ‘‘demons’’ of poverty and illness (Maxwell, 1998). Several case studies of health and wealth congregations find that religious leaders will frequently draw on institutionalized understandings of the nation, class and the market when creating religious broadcasts (Coleman, 2000; Gifford, 2004; Meyer, 2004). Taken together, these works suggest that there is some variance in the way that the prosperity gospel has been globally diffused. Yet, while a handful of works examine the broad ways in which the prosperity gospel has developed in different regions (see Hunt, 2000) there lack studies that systematically compare the interpretive frameworks that churches use to convey their messages across national contexts. This paper contributes to the literature by providing a comparative analysis of how one large transnational health and wealth church, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (hereafter UCKG), conveys the religion-prosperity link in its television programming to audiences in Rio de Janeiro and New York City. The UCKG programming in both cities comprises a series of conversion narratives told by its members. Analyzing a six-month sample of these programs, I find that the narratives in both cities provide similar representations about the types of material and physical rewards that can be obtained through religious adherence. Yet, the narratives also convey distinct messages about how religious practice leads to prosperity. The New York City narratives describe prayer as the mechanism behind the attainment of health and wealth, but only when it is coupled with perseverance, sacrifice and struggle. In contrast, the Rio de Janeiro narratives convey that prayer, the proper ritualistic use of religious objects, and miracles can confer prosperity. I posit that the findings indicate the nuanced ways that global and local contexts shape the diffusion of the prosperity gospel, and suggest that multinational churches navigate these contexts by adapting key parts of their messages. 2. The global health and wealth movement within local religious markets Labeled the ‘‘predominant global form of Christianity in the 21st Century’’ (Casanova, 2001), Pentecostalism has gained an astonishing five hundred million adherents within the last century (Barret and Johnson, 2002).2 While it began in the United States, most of the movement’s recent growth has occurred in Latin America and Africa (Jenkins, 2002; Martin, 2002). In general, Pentecostal churches emphasize the gifts of the Holy Sprit, such as speaking in tongues and divine healing (Martin, 1990; Poloma, 1989). These gifts are bestowed upon members through a process of spiritual rebirth, wherein they commit to maintaining a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit through prayer (Droogers, 2001). The ‘‘health and wealth gospel’’ is a popular expression of Pentecostalism. Brouwer et al. (1996) maintain that the movement stems from US ‘‘tent evangelists’’ who rearranged traditional Calvinist ideals concerning salvation and labor by preaching that God sanctioned hard work and the pursuit of material wealth. During the 1960s, preachers like Oral Roberts combined these ideas with the tenets of the Pentecostal movement and helped inspire the growth of US health and 2

Barrett and Johnson use a broad definition of ‘‘Pentecostalism’’ that includes both Pentecostals and Catholic Charismatics.

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wealth churches. In essence, Roberts blurred the connection between labor and wealth, by preaching that Pentecostals were entitled to riches by virtue of faith alone (Brouwer et al., 1996). It was not that Roberts advocated that Pentecostals become jobless or idle, rather he preached that adherents would reap greater material rewards for their labor through unexpected miracles. Thus, Roberts claimed that positive, often unanticipated, outcomes like promotions or monetary windfalls were blessings granted to the faithful. Later, Roberts’ successors, like Jimmy Swaggart, would encourage their membership to pray for opportunities to increase their material standing and ‘‘expect miracles’’ (Brouwer et al., 1996). Early on, Roberts and other Pentecostal preachers used media to popularize the health and wealth gospel in the United States and the developing world. The Assemblies of God Church translated Jimmy Swaggart’s Light of the World television program and exported it to several countries in Latin America (Brouwer et al., 1996; Stoll, 1990). In a similar fashion, Pat Robertson dubbed his own programming and distributed it throughout Asia and Africa3 (Lundby, 2002). In recent years, scholars have documented the rise of Pentecostal media produced by health and wealth churches in the developing world. Much of this programming conveys strong parallels with US programs. Thus, scholars find that African Pentecostal ministers insert sermons produced by American preachers into their own programming, and spend several hours watching shows produced by American televangelists in order to copy their rhetorical techniques (DeWitte, 2003; Gifford, 2004; Hackett, 1998). However, research on health and wealth churches in the developing world also stresses the importance of local context. This approach has developed in stark contrast to the traditional ‘‘hegemonic’’ approach which argues that the spread of the prosperity gospel is indicative of an imposition of American consumerist and moral values (see Coleman, 2000; Hunt, 2000). The alternative approach acknowledges the American roots of the prosperity gospel, but argues that religious leaders draw heavily on local institutions to construct particular versions of the message. Hence, Coleman (2000) examines the prosperity gospel in Sweden and argues that its message is imbued with ideas about Sweedish citizenship and nationalism (see also Maxwell, 1998). Additionally, Meyer (1998, 1999) finds that Ghanian, health and wealth preachers draw on post-colonial political discourse to convey the health and wealth gospel. In effect, the literature on health and wealth churches echoes much of what sociologists of culture and religion have contended about how organizations operate. Friedland and Alford (1991) claim that organizations, such as churches, develop practices which coincide with the institutionalized cultural schemas that pre-exist within their environments. Briefly, they argue that organizations exist within a context populated by institutions (like the state, the market and the family) which provide broad schemas and categories about how organizational practices should be executed (see also Berger and Luckmann, 1966; Douglas, 1986). Because some institutions have greater bearing on certain organizations than do others, and because the schemas and the categories they provide can often be contradictory, organizations will, to a certain extent, sift among them when developing their organizational routines.4 By doing 3

Unlike Roberts and Swaggart, Pat Robertson was a Catholic Pentecostal (Catholic Charismatic) who preached the virtues of the prosperity gospel through his television network (see Brouwer et al., 1996; Hoover, 1988). 4 An organization’s ability to sift and choose between the available schemas and categories for action is itself conditioned by other institutions that influence not only the means by which practices should be carried out, but also the ends which organizations seek to attain (Friedland and Alford, 1991). Douglas (1986) describes this as a ‘‘hold that institutions have on our process of classifying and recognizing.’’

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so, organizations distinguish themselves from one another and, at the same time, create niche products for their audiences, thus allowing them to compete with one another. According to Warner (1993, 2002) and Finke and Stark this type of niche-forming behavior contributes to the growth and vitality of religious markets. Thus, they argue that instead of attempting to attract a general mass following, religious organizations in unregulated religious markets will focus on creating specialized followings. Such organizational behaviors help to explain the construction of, for example, separate and distinct churches for Latino immigrants and African Americans. Given that individual churches reside within distinct institutional contexts, it is likely that multinational health and wealth churches will adapt their messages to suit audiences in different countries. However, because of a lack of systematic comparative data, it is not certain how this occurs. This paper addresses this issue by examining how the UCKG markets the prosperity gospel in different national contexts. I begin by briefly retracing the development of the UCKG in Brazil and the United States. Next, I present data on how the UCKG conveys the religion-prosperity link in its Rio de Janeiro and New York City television programming. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for understanding how global and local contexts shape the diffusion of health and wealth messages. 3. The UCKG in Brazil and the United States The UCKG was established in 1975 in Brazil by Edir Macedo, who for more than three decades has held the organization’s highest office. Like several other health and wealth churches based in the developing world, the UCKG mainly attracts a working-class population, yet it portrays middle-class aspirations by espousing the virtues of both corporate employment and entrepreneurship. Hence, most UCKG congregations across the globe provide regular entrepreneurship and investment courses, and many of its programs showcase the experiences of UCKG business owners (Kramer, 2001; Oro and Seman, 2000). To date, the UCKG claims to have more than eight million members and hundreds of churches worldwide (DeTemple, 2005). Its international ventures are facilitated by the fact that the UCKG maintains a rigid hierarchical structure wherein Edir Macedo and a small board of directors appoint bishops to establish congregations in specific global regions (Birman, 2005; Freston, 2001b). According to Freston (2001b), global expansion is conducted strategically The Church leadership first examines the demographic characteristics of the proposed country or region, and then creates a culturally relevant media marketing plan for its targeted audience. For example, in the United States, the UCKG establishes its churches mainly in Latino immigrant communities and purchases air time for its religious programming exclusively on Spanish language television. In England, however, the UCKG establishes churches in areas with high concentrations of Caribbean and African immigrants and creates marketing plans that target these groups in English. In Brazil, the UCKG draws most of its members from urban cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (Kramer, 2001). Although it is the third largest Pentecostal church in the country, scholars and social commentators alike agree that it is one of Brazil’s most visible and powerful churches (see Birman and Lehmann, 1999; DeTemple, 2005). Much of this visibility derives from the economic and political capital that the church garners through its ownership of several

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commercial enterprises (Kramer, 2001, 2005)5 and its close connection to powerful Brazilian elected officials (DeTemple, 2005; Freston, 2001a).6 Like other Brazilian health and wealth churches, the UCKG mainly seeks to convert the working-class. As such, some of its fiercest religious competitors are the Afro-Brazilian religious groups, particularly the Cadomble and Umbanda ones, who enjoy a historically institutionalized presence among this population (Chesnut, 2003; Freston, 1995). As a result, the UCKG focuses much of its efforts on creating media messages that highlight how its own rituals and religious objects can counteract the spells cast by Afro-Brazilian religious groups; the protective wristband, for example, is designed to protect believers from the spells cast on them by Afro-Brazilian priestesses (Kramer, 2001; Oro and Seman, 2000). In contrast to its prominent position in Brazil, the UCKG in the United States is relatively unknown (Freston, 2001b). Despite having been established in the United States over two decades ago, it presently does not manage any US-based commercial interests, nor does it have any direct linkages to US elected officials (DeTemple, 2005). There are also no discernible linkages between the UCKG in the United States and larger, mainstream US health and wealth churches or traditional Pentecostal organizations. Moreover, for the most part, the US UCKG leadership is accountable to Edir Macedo and the rest of the Brazilian leadership. While little research has been conducted on the UCKG in the United States, its decision to focus on US Latino immigrant audiences suggests much about its institutional context, and the message it develops for its audience. Like other immigrant groups, Latino immigrants are likely to turn to their churches for information and services about how to adjust to life in the United States (Ebaugh and Chafetz, 2000) and for opportunities to reproduce the ethnic practices and rituals of their home country. However, given that the Latino immigrant population in the United States is diverse, comprising Mexican, Central and South American, and Caribbean immigrants, it is not certain how the UCKG churches create a sense of community among the different Latino ethnic groups. 4. Data and methods The data for this study derive from UCKG’s Para de Sufrir [Stop Suffering] program aired in New York City (hereafter NYC) and Rio de Janeiro (hereafter Rio) media markets from July 2006 through December 2006. For each city, I sample the shows that aired on the first and third week of the month. This resulted in twelve 90-min long NYC shows and twelve Rio shows – three of which ran a full hour and nine of which ran just a half hour. The shows in NYC were broadcast in Spanish and the Rio shows in Portuguese.7 Para de Sufrir is mainly composed of conversion narratives wherein members describe how conversion into the UCKG has changed their life. The narratives are represented through 5

Birman and Lehmann (1999) estimated that the UCKG was worth about four hundred million 1999 US dollars. The move towards politics was intensified after government officials attempted to block UCKG’s ownership of Brazil’s Rede Record television network. During this time, Macedo formed coalitions with prominent politicians by contributing to their campaigns, providing them with TV Record airtime and formally backing them at the pulpit. Since then, the UCKG has become well known for its ability to influence local elections through strategic media use and membership mobilization (Freston, 2001a). 7 As a native Spanish-speaker I transcribed and analyzed all of the NYC programs in Spanish. However, with only a basic understanding of Portuguese, I resorted to watching all of the Rio shows in Portuguese and hired a research assistant to transcribe the Rio conversion narratives into English. 6

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interviews and through reenactments. The interview narratives are conducted by a clerical or lay leader who sits at a desk with UCKG members and asks them to ‘‘[speak] about how [their] life was before, and how it is now.’’ The interview questions thus lead to a before-andafter narrative structure that conveys stark changes in pre- and post-conversion lifestyles. The second way that the narratives are represented is through pre-recorded reenactments filmed in members’ homes. These reenactments include several scenes that signify the series of life events that led to conversion, the conversion experience itself, and the postconversion life changes. These reenactments generally last longer than the interview-style narratives. The six months of data collection yield 77 US conversion narratives and 85 Brazilian ones.8 For this project, I treat each conversion narrative as the unit of analysis. I use a deductive coding strategy to identify and code the main concepts from within the texts themselves. I code several concepts that capture the affective and temporal structure of the conversion experiences. The first set of concepts encapsulates the sources of pre-conversion difficulties. I group the sources under five main categories: poverty, family/romantic partner difficulties, self-destructive behavior, poor health and ‘‘bad luck’’.9 The second set of concepts capture the description of how lifestyle changes occurred. For the narratives in the interview format, I code responses to variations of the questions: ‘‘What happended that changed your life?’’ or ‘‘How did your life begin to change?’’ For the reenactments, I code the descriptions of how the pre-conversion difficulties stopped. Specifically, I code how members describe the religious actions that members took practiced in order to resolve their difficulties. I not only code the actions (i.e. prayer) but also code the descriptions of how actions were carried out (i.e. prayed for many days). The last set of concepts encapsulates the descriptions of the new, post-conversion lifestyles. This includes descriptions of changes in emotional states (i.e. narratives where members confess are now happier post-conversion) physical health, and material wellbeing (i.e. homes, cars, new jobs). The evidence of post-conversion change often related to the sources of preconversion stress. Thus, if members stated that they suffered from poor health, poverty and strained family relationships before they became members of the UCKG, they were likely to also state that they now enjoyed new material items (i.e. homes and cars) maintained healthy family relationships and had been cured from their physical ailments. 5. Narrative similarities Most of the NYC and Rio accounts share the same before-and-after narrative structure, which emphasizes the idea that conversion is a pivotal, life-changing turning point. For example, a 8

While the Pastors make no direct claims about the authenticity of the narratives, it is assumed that persons are UCKG members and not paid actors. However, during the six months that the programs were taped, there was at least one woman who appeared on the show twice, each time stating a different account of her conversion experience. This suggests that not only were UCKG programming producers involved in editing the content of members’ narratives, but that they also helped produce ideal conversion stories to communicate their message. 9 The bad luck category refers to those members that blamed their pre-conversion stress on a simple spell of misfortune. Except for this category, the sources of pre-conversion stress denoted some locus of individual agency. However, those that blamed bad luck did not place agency on any individual(s). For example, one NYC member noted that ‘‘[my] car kept crashing. . . I could never find food in the cupboards’’ and suggests that pre-conversion stress could not be explained by individual action.

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typical member’s narrative in both cities would begin with the phrase ‘‘My life was a disaster. Before I came to the UCKG I had many problems. . .’’ and then provide a litany of preconversion difficulties the member has experienced. After describing the ‘‘disastrous’’ pre-conversion difficulties, the narratives then describe the member’s conversion and the religious acts that she performed to remedy her situation. The narratives typically conclude with a longer description of how members’ lives have changed after conversion. These changes are usually correlated with the descriptions of pre-conversion difficulties; thus if a given narrative mentions that a member was jobless and suffered from back aches before they joined the UCKG, it usually concludes with a description of the member’s new job and noted that she had been cured. Table 1 quantifies the different narrative characteristics of UCKG programming in both cities. It is clear that, for the most part, NYC and Rio narratives have remarkably similar accounts of pre- and post-conversion lifestyle descriptions. For example, the majority of narratives in both cities claim that their pre-conversion stress stems from strained family or romantic partner relationships: in these narratives, members typically mention that before coming to the UCKG their life was stressful because they lived in emotionally and/or physically abusive relationships. Moreover, there are almost no differences in the frequency of mention of other types of preconversion stress, poverty, poor health and simply bad luck, between the two sets of testimonials. The only exception is the more frequent mention of ‘‘self-destructive behavior’’ as a source of pre-conversion stress within the NYC sample. In addition to conveying similar pre-conversion stressors, both sets of testimonials also use strikingly similar evidence to demonstrate post-conversion change. For example, in most narratives, members state that their life is better now because their relationships with family members, spouses, partners are now healthy and/or non-abusive. Similarly, in a high percentage of narratives in both countries (60 percent in Rio and 66 percent in NYC) members report feeling healthier or having been cured by conversion. In addition, several UCKG members in both cities also mention that they have received material goods since joinin UCKG. For example, various members speak of the specific type of car, or fleet of cars, they have purchased since their conversion. A similar percentage of narratives in both cities (46 percent in Rio and 43 percent in NYC) also mention that members have become entrepreneurs or have achieved better working conditions after becoming members of the UCKG. Thus, even though NYC and Rio UCKG members reside in different countries, which likely hold distinct cultural institutions concerning market behavior and family, the UCKG conversion narratives in both cities convey remarkably similar representations of what post-conversion prosperity looks like. The stark contrasts between pre- and post-conversion lifestyles are often made explicit in the reenactments. For example, in one Rio narrative, Paulo, a middle-age man, describes the economic, familial and health ailments he suffered from before joining the UCKG. He states: I had a company that had started off well but was financially deteriorating very quickly. That financial strain brought adversity to my romantic life, and my wife and I started to argue. Our daughters would stay at home, suffering from some kind of panic syndrome and we didn’t know what they were afraid of. We owed money to the banks, and other debtors. . . As he speaks reenactments of Paulo and his wife arguing flash on the screen, and are followed by scenes of him sitting at a table facing a pile of bills. These scenes are shown in gray-scale and are accompanied by melancholic instrumental music. As Paulo continues with his conversion

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Table 1 Characteristics of UCKG NYC and Rio testimonials NYC (%)

Rio (%)

Sources of pre-conversion difficulties Poverty Family/partner difficulties Self-destructive behavior Poor health Bad luck

62.34 66.23 31.17 62.34 15.58

65.88 76.47 12.94 57.65 17.65

Characteristics of conversion process Participated in prayer chain ‘‘Oriented’’ by UCKG pastor Struggle and sacrifice Perseverance Use of religious objects Instant miracle

85.71 41.56 62.34 57.14 2.6 16.88

68.24 15.29 28.24 30.94 38.71 36.47

Post-conversion life changes New business/career New home New cars Attitudinal change Familial change Health change

42.86 32.47 36.36 33.77 76.6 66.2

45.88 35.29 32.35 30.59 77.65 60.00

N

77

85

narrative, he quickly notes that his life changed when he began to attend UCKG services. He states: At the UCKG we got our answer from God, and our lives changed. My wife and I got along better, and our daughters weren’t afraid of anything anymore. We moved to another city and reconstructed our lives in another place. God blessed our move, because there we built a new house and started a new company. Today our lives are re-established and today we are blessed, not only in our family, but also in our financial life. In stark contrast to the pre-conversion scenes, those that accompanied Paulo’s post-conversion life descriptions are in color and are set to Christian music. These scenes feature a tour of Paulo’s two-story home, including a segment where he lifts his garage door to reveal two new cars, and an exterior tour of Paulo’s new company. Also included in this portion of the narrative, are several camera shots of Paulo smiling and hugging his wife. Aside from the narrative structures and the accounts of pre- and post-conversion lifestyle descriptions, the visual representations of spiritual practice, exclusively prayer and witchcraft, form another major similarity between the Rio and NYC narratives. These visual representations are either pre-recorded scenes that are inserted between the narratives (as the phone number and the address of the nearest UCKG church flashes on the bottom of the screen) or they are included in the reenactments to signal the turning point between the period of pre-conversion stress and post-conversion prosperity. These scenes depict prayer as a spiritual/religious act performed inside a UCKG church during a religious service. Private prayers in ones’ home, workplace or even family prayers around the dinner table are never depicted in either city. Most of these prayer

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depictions also show members either linking their arms, with arms up in the air and palms facing up, or with their hands clasped together against their chest. In some scenes, members are shown crying as they pray. In all of the prayer scenes members seem to be moving their lips as if in individual conversation with God. Often, these prayer scenes include Christian background music (with soft tempos and beats) and are framed with a multicolor border. In both cities, the actual content of prayer is inaudible or drowned-out by the soundtrack. Thus UCKG audiences in both cities are never privy to the content of individual prayers. The NYC and Rio narratives also have similar visual depictions of popular religion, what UCKG pastors refer to as ‘‘witchcraft.’’ Their descriptions of it mainly detail what they argue to be the illeffects of prayer directed towards ‘‘evil spirits’’ and ‘‘devils.’’ Unlike the depictions of UCKG religious prayer, these depictions tend to be accompanied by a drumming and high-pitchedchanting soundtrack, and are often displayed in gray-scale. These scenes are inserted into reenactments, especially during the parts where members mention visiting a shaman or priestess for help before arriving at the UCKG. For example, one NYC reenactment about Javier, a shop owner, notes that when his sales had slumped, he visited a priestess, or ‘‘witch’’, in hopes of receiving a positive spell that could turn his luck around. The scene that reenacts Javier’s experience with ‘‘witchcraft’’ depicts him standing in front of a camera in a dimly lit room. Awoman (who we would presume to be a priestess) stands in front of him, with her back turned towards the camera. The woman holds several long feathers together in the form of a duster, which she moves in a sweeping motion along Javier’s shoulders and on top of his head. After the process, the woman raises her hands as if in communication with a (non-Christian) spirit, but the content of her communication is drowned-out by the drumming soundtrack. During this process Javier is filmed standing still and looking into the camera expressionless. Ultimately, the similarities in the NYC and Rio narratives signal two important messages for UCKG audiences. First, they suggest that there is a stark contrast between pre- and post-conversion lifestyles. The gray-scale scenes that showcase misery stand out against the full-color scenes that depict members enjoying the fruits of their spiritual labor. Accordingly, the witchcraft scenes imply that popular religion is a secretive, dark, and private matter, and thus differs greatly from the UCKG prayer, which is depicted as a communal and public event. Second, the similarities also imply that UCKG members hold both common life experiences and similar expectations about the results of conversion. Among the sources of pre-conversion sources of stress, only ‘‘self-destructive behavior’’ is more likely to be shown in the NYC than in the Rio narratives. Moreover, there are few differences in the mention of different types of post-conversion lifestyle descriptions between the two sets of narratives. Given that the social context in both cities differs, we might have presumed that the narrative accounts and the descriptions of spiritual practice would have differed in more dramatic ways. Nonetheless, taken together, the similarities suggest that the UCKG creates programming in both cities that emphasizes the effectiveness of UCKG conversion and conveys a sense of transnational commonality among its members. 6. Narrative differences Despite having several striking similarities, the NYC and Rio narratives provide different representations of the causal link between religious practice and prosperity. The NYC narratives are more likely than the Rio narratives to describe conversion as a learned, gradual process that involves struggle and sacrifice. In contrast, the Rio programming is more likely to mention the use of ‘‘religious objects’’ and ‘‘miracles’’ as part of the process by which conversion leads to material prosperity.

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The narratives in both cities highlight prayer campaigns as the means by which members are able to achieve prosperity. Prayer campaigns are usually a set period of three or more weeks where members are instructed to pray about a specific set of goals.10 However, the NYC narratives are more likely than the Rio ones to couple the idea of the prayer campaigns with notions of learning and sacrifice. One NYC narrative illustrates this. Reverino, a middleaged Latin American immigrant recalls how his ‘‘constant muscle aches’’ were cured. He states: . . .little by little I began to give the church my all. The pastors helped me because they oriented me and taught me how to use my faith and how to struggle. I took part in the prayer campaigns and slowly my life changed. Then one day the pain went away. . ..and later I took part in the [prayer] campaign to Israel. That time I asked God for a better job and God answered my prayer. Since I’ve been here God always answers. Reverino claims that he now had a higher paying salary thanks to his participation in the prayer campaign to Israel. His narrative suggests that the UCKG can teach members how to pray effectively – in a way that God can answer back – and that this type of prayer is learned by attending UCKG services and by seeking the assistance of a UCKG pastor. However this type of learned prayer can be effective only if it is coupled with sacrifice and struggle. Thus, over 60 percent of NYC members (as opposed to less than 30 percent of Rio members) mention having to sacrifice and struggle in order to make their participation in the prayer campaign effective. Often, sacrifice and struggle are referred to only briefly in reference to how prayer is performed. Hence, several members simply mention that they have had to ‘‘sacrifice, struggle, pray, and learn to use [their] faith.’’ Although it was stated often, the ‘‘sacrifice’’ and ‘‘struggle’’ were never directly defined in the NYC narratives. Often, members simply stated that they ‘‘sacrificed and struggled.’’ Yet, some narratives corroborate with previous ethnographic research on UCKG services (Kramer, 2001; Oro and Seman, 2001) that indicate that these terms may be linked to tithing. For example, Claudio, a middle-aged Latino immigrant, begins his testimonial stating that he used to suffer from depression, migraines, and financial difficulties and had a strained relationship with his wife and kids. He notes, however, that all of that changed when he became a member of the UCKG and took part in the prayer campaigns. Specifically, Claudio states: ‘‘I learned to take part in the [prayer] campaigns and I struggled. Even when there was little money to pay the rent, I still sacrificed this rent [money] and struggled without because I had faith that God would provide for us.’’ From Claudio’s testimonial we can infer that the money that would have been used to pay the rent was contributed instead to the prayer campaign.11 Claudio’s belief that God would provide seems to have come to fruition for him, as the reenacted narrative concludes with a tour of his new two-story home and several shots of his new sports car and pick-up truck. Not only do the NYC narratives suggest that prayer should be accompanied by sacrifice and struggle, they also suggest that prayer has to be conducted frequently. Over half of NYC members

10 These campaigns are often labeled in a manner that references significant events in the Old Testament of the Bible. For example, popular names include ‘‘the campaign to Israel’’ or the ‘‘holy bonfire campaign’’; the latter is in reference to Moses’ experience with the burning bush. 11 Indeed, Kramer (2001) describes these campaigns as periodic ‘‘prayer’’ sessions stretched over periods of weeks where members are asked to pledge money, focus on specific bible passages, and conduct specific rituals in exchange for the fulfillment of a given utilitarian need. Hence, the UCKG often creates specific campaigns that focus on particular needs like the purchase of a new home or small business.

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speak of persevering, or not giving up, and taking part in several prayer campaigns. These ideas are often coupled with the notion that religion is not magic and the UCKG is not a quick fix. One interview-style narrative conveys these ideas. Pastor: Now tell me, was it that you simply walked into the church and your life was suddenly better? Because some people might just think that.

Elvia: No, it was after a lot of struggle and prayer and being there with God. It’s not like one day to the next, just like you said right now. It’s not like when people come to the United States and they believe that the doors will open. Well, no, you have to stay and persevere. You can’t believe that God is a magician. Like one day you wake up and God has taken your asthma away and you’ll get the job and you’ll have your residency card. The whole world wants it quickly . . . faith is like a baby that you nurture and watch grow. Prayer, the link between religion and prosperity, then, is described as a faith that is learned, that includes sacrifice, and that requires perseverance. In contrast, the, Rio narratives are more likely than NYC narratives to describe conversion and the process of prosperity attainment as involving miracles and the use of religious objects. The miracles, however, have common properties. Hence, one interview-style narrative conveys the following: Pastor: And what was your worst moment, the moment when you decided to change? Member: It was when my son got really sick and the doctors said he was going to die. . .that was when a young [UCKG] lady evangelized me, she spoke about Jesus and I participated with her in the prayer campaign. On the next day, when I got to the hospital, a miracle happened. God had cured my son and the doctors said he could go home. . .today I have a healthy son. Here the member speaks about an immediate, almost unbelievable turn of events. In a matter of 24 hours the son who had been characterized as ‘‘dying’’ was suddenly cured. This miracle, of course, happened through the intervention of a UCKG lay member. Thus, it was not that God simply decided to bestow this act on the woman’s son, but rather that the miracle was facilitated through both evangelization and participation in the prayer campaign. Yet, what is most interesting is what the testimonial lacks. The miracle did not occur because God, an angel, or a spirit manifested itself to the woman and touched her son thus changing his situation. Rather, the turn of events was mysterious, immediate and could only be presumed to be the work of God. Like this narrative, none of the other testimonials mention that miracles are performed directly by a sacred entity that appears, and all of the testimonials mention miracles occurring with the help of prayer. Rio narratives are also more likely than NYC narratives to mention the use of religious objects, despite the fact that UCKG services in both cities distribute religious objects, which are supposed to protect members and bring about prosperity. The ‘‘Mystic Rose,’’ the ‘‘Key to Victory,’’ or the ‘‘Protective Wristband’’ are all objects that all UCKG pastors distribute during the service (see also Kramer, 2001). However, Rio narratives are more likely to highlight how the objects become effective if they are used correctly. For example, one Rio woman, answers the following in her testimonial interview:

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Pastor- What happened when you used your faith through the mystic rose? Member- My daughter was completely crazy, there was a ‘‘thing’’ in her head. She’d say she was going to faint in the street. If I had known it was evil, I would have done something. I took her to receive all kinds of [medical] exams, and the results wouldn’t show anything. So I took the rose and touched her all over with it, one week in her house, and then one week in my house. It worked and now, thanks to God, my daughter is cured. Other members also report using their religious objects in specific ways. Some, for example claim that they wear certain religious objects on specific parts of their bodies for a set period of time as they pray or as they perform specific rituals. It is important to note that even though the Rio narratives are more likely to mention miracles and the use of religious objects, they are only slightly less likely than NYC narratives to describe participation in prayer campaigns as the mechanism behind the changes in their life situations. Indeed, about 68 percent of the Rio narratives mentioned participation in prayer campaigns (or prayer currents) as opposed to 85 percent of NYC ones. Yet, while the idea of a prayer campaign constitutes an important part of the Rio narrative, it is not for the same reasons expressed in the NYC narratives. In fact, while the NYC narratives couple the idea of taking part in a prayer campaign with struggle and learning, the Rio narratives simply emphasize the idea of participating in a prayer campaign as the reason for change. For example, Denise, a small business entrepreneur describes the way that participation in the prayer campaign led to life event changes. She states: We did have income but it was very little and my husband used the money to pay his debt at the bar. So then, completely defeated, I began to participate in the church, and with my regular participation in the prayer campaign, God heard me and changed my life completely. Today my life is restored; I don’t have problems in my marriage. . .and I, who used to live in a tiny house where the rain fell more inside than outside, now own an excellent house, and my business has its own establishment. My husband became a blessing, a man of God and he doesn’t drink anymore. I don’t suffer from panic attacks, I am not afraid anymore. God has changed my life completely. Denise’s testimony is much different from the testimony described by Claudio or Reverino, the NYC members who also participated in the prayer campaigns. Instead of saying that participation in the campaign included sacrifice and struggle, she notes that she simply participated regularly and her life was changed. 7. Discussion and conclusion Given the different Rio and NYC contexts, we might have expected to find narrative differences between cities, but we would be unsure about how these differences would be patterned. Thus, while the narratives in each city have different descriptions of how religious practice leads to prosperity, and common descriptions of pre- and post-conversion life experiences, we could have easily inferred the opposite. For example, the fact that Brazil and the United States have different social and economic contexts, could have led us to infer that pre- and post-conversion lifestyle depictions would have differed, and that the depictions of how religion leads to prosperity would have remained similar. Yet, the UCKG programs convey that, despite the contextual differences, Brazilians and Latino immigrants turn to the UCKG for similar reasons, and seek common post-conversion material rewards.

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I posit that the narrative similarities are indicative of the global consumer culture with which Pentecostalism attempts to reconcile. Ritzer (2004) argues that this consumer culture is a global phenomenon reproduced by cultural institutions. Accordingly, several scholars argue that health and wealth churches are religious organizations that endorse this perspective about consumption, by, for example, renaming material goods as ‘‘material rewards’’ and embedding the attainment of such rewards in a narrative of personal healing (Coleman, 2000; Gifford, 2004; Maxwell, 1998). Yet, while legitimizing consumer products, they concurrently limit and regulate consumption practices. Hence, health and wealth churches will often deem certain consumer behaviors as valid, such as the purchase of a new business or home, and others illegitimate, such as spending on alcohol, and non-Christian media (Gifford, 2004; Meyer, 1999). I also suggest that many of the similarities in the UCKG narratives are indicative of how prosperity gospel churches accommodate the spread of global consumer culture. The idea that social mobility should be displayed through consumption resonates among US Latino immigrants seeking to attain the ‘‘American Dream’’ (Davila, 2001) and the Brazilian working class who often seek material goods that can symbolically distance them from the poor (O’Dougherty, 2002). Thus, narratives in both cities provide similar accounts of how their preconversion stress was resolved through the acquisition of consumer goods or the attainment of health (which facilitates the attainment of more goods). Additionally, members also provide extremely similar descriptions of what type of consumer products they receive, and in effect signal that only certain kinds of goods are legitimate material rewards. If the narrative similarities can be, at least in part, explained by a global consumer culture that health and wealth churches conditionally endorse, why would the description of the causal process that leads to prosperity differ? Because churches provide meaningful frameworks for understanding how life experiences are connected, and seek to create a sense of community among its followers, we might have inferred that the description of how religious practice leads to prosperity would have been similar in both cities. Moreover, given that the UCKG has a rigid hierarchical structure and that international expansion is strategically controlled from the top (Birman and Lehmann, 1999; Kramer, 2001), we could have also conjectured that the UCKG leadership edits the narratives to reflect a common message about the causal link between religion and prosperity. The fact that the narratives differ in their descriptions of causality, however, suggests that local context also influences the prosperity gospel. Indeed, researchers note that health and wealth churches operate within local religious markets, and must thus draw on the institutionalized metaphors, and schemas that are found among their audience niche (Coleman, 2000; Maxwell, 1998). Moreover, although the global consumer culture promotes the idea of consumption, it does not provide a blueprint for achieving the capital to consume (Ritzer, 2004). As a result, it is probable that individual churches will draw from the stock of institutionalized schemas, concerning religious practice and social mobility, to fashion their own messages about how religious practice leads to prosperity. Thus, it is likely that Afro-Brazilian religious rituals and practices, which have been institutionalized among many of the Brazilian working class, influence the way the UCKG conveys the prosperity gospel in Rio. Indeed, by emphasizing religious objects and miracles, the Brazilian UCKG draws on readily available schemas that its targeted audience holds about how spirits, devils and prayer operate (see also Oro and Seman, 2001). Thus, the ‘‘Mystic Rose’’ and the ‘‘Protective Wristband,’’ are two UCKG counterparts to the various objects that are often provided by AfroBrazilian cults for protection or for healing. Similarly, the UCKG’s tenet that miracles performed by God can bring prosperity and health to believers is a counterpart to the Afro Brazilian religious notion that spells cast by spirits can bring immediate material gains and healing.

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The UCKG’s ability to convey these counterparts not only allows it to compete with these Afro-Brazilian religions, but it also helps to legitimize itself as a religious practice. For example, the use of religious objects provides an opportunity to retain a sense of what McDannell (1995) calls ‘‘private religion’’, the feeling of a close, personal connection to God. Hence, in as much as a string necklace with a ‘‘Key to Victory’’ charm allows UCKG believers to feel a close connection to the Holy Spirit, the UCKG can, to a certain extent, replicate in its followers the feeling that a Cadomble or Umbanda believer experiences when her priestess gives her a beaded necklace that can unite her with a Spirit. Furthermore, by providing these more Christian equivalents, the UCKG offers the working class an opportunity to experience a spiritual change, which can deliver material riches, and, at the same time, remain in a faith that is cognitively familiar. Why would the Rio UCKG not provide audiences with a message of sacrifice and struggle instead? Without more insight into the production process, we can at best hypothesize some of these reasons. Perhaps, given that Brazil is one of the most unequal societies in the world (see Skidmore, 2004; Telles, 2004) with little possibility of upward social mobility, it is likely that a religious message embedded in a narrative of hard work and sacrifice would not necessarily suffice. By framing the prosperity gospel and conversion in a manner that emphasizes religious objects and miracles, the UCKG taps into pre-existing institutionalized schemas about religion and then uses them to convey a new message about how mobility can be achieved. More comparative research on how Brazilian health and wealth churches present the causal link between religion and mobility, however, is needed to understand whether this message is particular to UCKG programming, or whether it also pertains to other churches. In contrast, the NYC programming embeds the prosperity gospel within a ‘‘bootstrap’’ frame that emphasizes individual hard work as the key to social mobility. Instead of relying on miracles or religious objects, followers must struggle and sacrifice to achieve material rewards. Yet, the NYC UCKG programming also expresses that there is a proper way to struggle and sacrifice, and thus, members like Reverino note that one must not only learn the proper way to conduct religious practice, but that one must also learn how to persevere at it. At the same time, the NYC UCKG creates parallels between this message and the immigrant adaptation narrative; the long and arduous struggle toward achieving the religion-prosperity link becomes akin to the long process of immigrant adaptation. This ‘‘bootstrap’’ message reflects the prominent discourse on immigrant social mobility that is often reproduced in several mainstream and immigrant cultural institutions. This is not surprising when we consider that the US UCKG’s targets the Latino immigrant working class. Yet, it is not certain why the UCKG would use this frame at the expense of one that emphasizes miracles and religious objects, or why both frames would not simply co-exist in NYC UCKG programming. Once again, without production data we can only infer why this occurs. One possible explanation could be that the Latino immigrant community’s heterogeneity. In NYC, the Latino immigrant population is diverse and includes immigrant groups of various nationalities (see Ricourt and Danta, 2002). As such, it could be difficult to create a religious marketing message that uses the schemas provided by popular religion because these differ drastically across Mexican, Puerto Rican and other Latino groups (Stevens-Arroyo and Diaz-Stevens, 1994). As a result, it is unlikely that one single institutionalized cultural understanding about popular religion exists. Thus, the UCKG cannot draw on a shared understanding to convey how religion and prayer should work. Given this, it seems likely that the US UCKG will instead use a broader frame of immigrant adaptation to attract more Latino immigrants. Nonetheless, more research on the UCKG and other US health and wealth churches are necessary to understand if this type of framing is widespread, and used among other non-Latino immigrant health and wealth churches.

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In all, these findings help to show how context can shape the diffusion of the health and wealth messages. Once again, more comparative research, both within and among countries, that examines the actual production process, especially the decisions about how certain messages are crafted, edited and disseminated, is needed to understand how different contexts are managed by multi-national health and wealth churches. Ultimately, the evidence in this study suggests that the UCKG is segmenting its various audiences by embedding their message within local institutional frameworks. However, the similarities within the narratives also suggest that a global consumer culture bridges these divides. Acknowledgements I would like to thank members of the Cognitive and Textual Methods Seminar at Princeton University, Paul DiMaggio and King-to Yeung for their constructive advice on earlier drafts. I am also grateful to Luciane Castilho and Karen Soares for their research assistance. References Barret, David B., Johnson, Todd, 2002. Global statistics. In: Burgess, Stanley, van der Mass, Eduard (Eds.), The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, pp. 283– 292. Berger, Peter L., Luckmann, Thomas, 1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Doubleday, Garden City, New York. Birman, Patricia, 2005. Future in the mirror: media evangelicals and politics in Rio de Janeiro. In: Meyer, Birgit, Moors, Annelies (Eds.), Religion, Media and the Public Sphere. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, pp. 52–72. Birman, Patricia, Lehmann, David, 1999. Religion and the media in the battle for ideological hegemony: the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and TV Globo in Brazil. Bulletin of Latin American Research 18, 145–164. Brouwer, Steve, Gifford, Paul, Rose, Susan D., 1996. Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian Fundamentalism. Routeledge Press, New York, New York. Casanova, Jose, 2001. Religion, the new millennium and globalization. Sociology of Religion 62, 415–441. Chesnut, R. Andrew, 1997. Born Again in Brazil: the Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty. University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas. Chesnut, R. Andrew, 2003. Competitive Spirits: Latin America’s New Religious Economy. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Coleman, Simon, 2000. Globalization of Charismatic Christianity: Spreading the Gospel of Prosperity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Davila, Arlene, 2001. Latinos Inc: The Making and Marketing of a People. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. DeTemple, Jill, 2005. Chains of liberation: poverty and social action in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. In: Espinosa, Gaston, Elizondo, Virgilio, Miranda, Jesse (Eds.), Latino Religions Civic Activism in the United States. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 219–231. DeWitte, Marleen, 2003. Altar media’s living world: televised charismatic Christianity in Ghana. Journal of Religion in Africa 33, 172–202. Douglas, Mary, 1986. How Institutions Think. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York. Droogers, Andre, 2001. Globalisation and Pentecosal success. In: Corten, Andre, Marshall-Fratani, Ruth (Eds.), Between Babel and Pentecost: Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, pp. 41–61. Ebaugh, Helen R., Chafetz, Janet, 2000. Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations. Rowman & Littlefield, New York, New York. Freston, Paul, 1995. Pentecostalism in Brazil: a brief history. Religion 25, 119–133. Freston, Paul, 2001a. Evangelicals and Politics in Asia Africa and Latin America. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

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Warner, R. Stephen, 2002. More progress on the new paradigm. In: Jelen, Ted (Ed.), Sacred Markets, Sacred Canopy: Essays on Religious Markets and Religious Pluralism. Rowman and Littlefield, New York, New York. G. Cristina Mora is a PhD candidate in the Sociology department at Princeton University. Her dissertation examines the historical institutionalization of Latino panethnicity in US media and politics. She has previously published on religion in US Latino immigrant communities.