School, secularity and the Republic in Brazil: history and challenges

Abstract

This article, based on documents and bibliography relevant to the subject, and after conceptualizing secularism and secularization as categories of analysis, aims to present a history of the relationship between schools, secularism, and the Republic in Brazil. Beginning with the confessional state during the Empire, the article presents the secular republican paradigm between 1889 and 1930. In this paradigm, the state separates itself from the churches and recognizes respect for the exercise of religious freedom and of worship in civil society. Public education becomes secular. Beginning in the 1930s, the recognition of the religious phenomenon, in addition to guaranteeing fundamental rights, relaxed secularism, including through the mandatory provision of religious education in public schools, with optional enrollment. This flexibility was not without controversy. Partnerships also emerged in other sectors through the concept of mutual cooperation in the collective interest. Beginning in the 1980s, there was significant growth in evangelical churches. Distributed among a few large churches and many small ones, they understand the importance of entering the political arena. Unlike the Catholic Church, which advises its religious to avoid direct political involvement, delegating such leadership to laypeople and acting through advocacy, evangelical churches take the opposite approach. This action is encouraged by elected leaders, supported by a broad presence in state-granted media outlets, and through intense use of social media, they begin to influence the faithful by pushing for a conservative agenda, including through projects that incorporate it into public schools. This situation places the theme of School, Republic, and Secularism at the heart of the struggle for democracy, the pillar and foundation of a society in which the struggle for secular freedoms raises burning questions in the relationship between Churches and State.