Word: macedo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Combative hostility toward competing faiths characterizes Brazil's fastest- growing Pentecostal group, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Its authoritarian bishop, Edir Macedo de Bezerra, 45, began preaching in 1977 to a dozen curiosity seekers in a rented room above a funeral parlor; today his flock is 2 million strong. The movement filled a 150,000-seat Rio stadium twice last year, opens one new church a week, and has added a $45 million Sao Paulo TV channel to its 14 radio stations...
...Macedo, a former Catholic and spirit cultist, says Catholics "cause all the suffering and misery in the country" and accuses the spirit cults of devil worship and the sacrifice of children and animals. Striking back, the national body of Afro-Brazilian cults filed criminal charges in 1988 against the Universal Church for fraud and slander of other faiths. Police in four states are investigating the church. Macedo laughs off the inquiries: "If I'm really making them poor and am bad for them, why do the people keep giving and coming back...