Enunciados imagéticos de lideranças neopentecostais brasileiras no Instagram: discurso, política e fé

Abstract

The intersection between religion and politics has been reconfigured in contemporary times using images found in posts on the digital social network Instagram. This study, grounded both theoretically and methodologically in Foucaultian Discourse Studies, explores the relationships among religion, politics, and media. The overall objective is to analyze how the imagetic enunciations present in Instagram posts by neopentecostal leaders objectify both the pastors and the faithful, particularly in relation to politics, in the context of the 2022 Brazilian presidential elections. In this way, the study aims to show how the imagetic enunciation operates and is constituted within the digital social network Instagram; to historicize the emergence and presence of neopentecostal discourse in Brazilian society; to identify the conditions of possibility - historical, discursive, and related to power - that enable the entrance of religion into digital media; and to discuss religious, media, and political discursivities through an archaeology of images, evaluating the verbal component as a functional element that delimits networks of meaning and reading practices. The research focuses on revealing how subjects are objectified by the posts through three thematic paths, constituted after a preliminary discursive reading of over 500 posts made by the leaders in October 2022, and later narrowed down to 143 posts published during the final week of the second round of that year's Brazilian presidential elections: the “Spiritual Subject,” the “Neoliberal Subject,” and the “Political Subject.” Posts by seven neopentecostal leaders are analyzed: Edir Macedo, R.R. Soares, Sônia Hernandes, Robson Rodovalho, Valdemiro Santiago, Agenor Duque and Silas Malafaia. The analyses reveal that the posts advocate salvation and divine blessing, tied to the public sphere - specifically to political decisions. The publications consist of images, verbal texts, and other visual elements that produce truth effects, shape social practices, and influence the governance of the faithful's conduct, ultimately consolidating mechanisms of subjection that position believers to support the then-candidate Jair Bolsonaro as the ideal representative of values upheld by neopentecostalism. The thesis established is the following: by operating in a field in which religion, politics, and media are intertwined, the leaders' enunciations materialize the Neopentecostal Religious Discourse in Digital Media (DIRNEOMID), which reinforces political preferences, mobilizes affections, beliefs, and practices around a project of power and conduct governance. The power exercised by neopentecostal leaders not only guides voting decisions but also constitutes a historical, political, spiritual, and social subjectivity for the faithful.