A verdade (des)construída: a inserção da homossexualidade na comunidade cristã Nova Esperança, em Natal

The religious plurality has been increasingly intense in Brazil, while it has served as an object of study in various fields of knowledge. In this context, this paper aims to point out the general heterogeneity among experienced growth of Protestant and evangelical denominations, especially those who claim to be inclusive by attending to human diversity, seeking to understand the relationship between religion and homosexuality. Specific objectives aim to understand the functioning and speeches produced by Comunidade Cristã Nova Esperança in Natal. The theoretical framework was seated in the works of Bento (2008), Lima (2009), Goffman (2001), Natividade (2008), Musskopf (2008), Helminiak (1998), Foucault (1997), among others. We tried to discuss the trajectory and how is the process of organization of the Comunidade Cristã Nova Esperança in Natal, the social advances that have reached homosexuals in our country, how this institution has contributed to the shift in paradigm in Christianity in respect to matters pertaining to religion and homosexuality, and the meaning of being a homosexual christian from the viewpoint perceived by social subjects living this experience

Microcrédito emancipatório no nordeste do Brasil? : estudo de caso do Crediamigo Comunidade nos municípios de Caucaia-Ce e Maranguape-Ce

This piece of work consists in a study case of Crediamigo Comunidade, a product from the portfolio of Crediamigo Program of Banco do Nordeste, that uses the methodology of the Comunitary Banks in the concession of low amount loan to poor communities. The main question consists to understand how the Crediamigo Comunidade is characterized faced to the conflict of emancipatory versus liberal paradigms, that exists in the microcredit area. The main objective will analyze how the mechanisms: social capital, empowerment, formation to credit education and better conditions for economic and social issues promoted in the specific objectives of this product, before the dipute between these paradigms. The method adopted analyzed, in a longitudinal perspective, the three years of the product s existence (jun/2005 to jul 2008). Primary and secondary data made possible to identify qualitatively, emancipatory and non emancipatory attributes in the actions and results of Crediamigo Comunidade. It is concluded that the Crediamigo Comunidade works in a liberal logic of the Crediamigo Program, consequently, his focus is not in the emancipation of the poorest clients. The empowerment is individual and not communitary or Freiriano ; the social capital relations enlarges itself in its bounding and bridging ties, but not in its linkage ties, to have access to politic actors and consequently communitary strengthen. All the formation in the Crediamigo is strictly commercial. These characteristics happen by the liberal paradigm in the Crediamigo management and of all of its products, including the Crediamigo Comunidade

Gênero e relações de poder no Pentecostalismo: estudo comparativo entre a Igreja de Cristo no Brasil e a Comunidade Evangélica Sara Nossa Terra

Based on the empirical comparative study between two churches from Pentecostal guidance - both located in Parnamirim/RN - and supported on a dialogic interaction between my interlocutors and theoretical references, I proposed me to reflect about how this protestant segment represents and articulates questions such as gender and power relationships, and the daily impact of that in their followers life. In other words, this dissertation aims to understand the reason of the asymmetry attributed to male and female, especially in what concerns the distribution of ecclesiastic works and the authority given to male, as well as the implication of this reality in the reconfiguration of morality and religious praxis in daily life of individuals and involved groups. From this perspective, this work was divided in three chapters, in which I investigate the tension/relationship between faith and secularism, for from this question on concessions and/or prohibitions related to the limits and involvement of the followers with the world and with the very Pentecostal ethos arise. I also analyze here aspects concerning to both ecclesiastic hierarchy and power, with the objective of elucidating how it occurs, what kind of criteria and implications they consider as well as about the nature of the religious labor division between men and women and, finally, I try to understand how the conversion/adhesion of members is reflected in the redefinitions of gender and its relationship between the ecclesiastical and domestic spaces. The diligence and energy spent in this work is in the hope that its fruits can corroborate in the expansion of anthropological knowledge which, in this particular case, involves the Brazilian Pentecostal phenomenon