IF you are reading this: congratulations. You made it through 2023 and crossed over to the new year. I wish I were being melodramatic, but last year was tough, and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. The year 2023 brought me more than my fair…
(RNS) On the day before Easter Sunday, Kassio Nunes Marques, Brazil’s newest Supreme Federal Court justice, appointed just months before by President Jair Bolsonaro, allowed houses of worship across the COVID-19-ravaged country to hold worship services indoors, claiming the bans put in place by mayors and governors on religious celebrations violated the “fundamental right to religious freedom.”
The next day, April 4, evangelical Christian churches were packed with Easter worshippers, an immediate payoff for one of Bolsonaro’s key constituencies and a sign for many Brazilians their president’s politics take precedence over the realities of the pandemic, which has killed more than 437,000 Brazilians to date.