Between charity and conquest. Humanitarian action, policing, and neo-Pentecostals in a Portuguese women’s prison

Abstract

Based on my ethnographic research, this article explores current relations between a state security institution in a European democratic country and neo-Pentecostals during the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses the growing presence and positioning of the powerful Brazilian Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD) in a Portuguese women’s prison, shedding light on the creation of its proselytising apparatus. This article shows how the pandemic created a window of altered conditions in which humanitarian and religious discourses could flourish to the benefit of the IURD and its ‘conquest’ agenda, while collaborating to ensure the provision of security and order of the institution. Accordingly, this work shows how emergent religions challenge secularism and become embedded in state institutions such as prisons.