On May 8th, the Humanitas360 Institute held the 11th installment of the Difficult Conversations series, driven by the provocation: “When God endorses the candidate, does the believer still have a choice?” Moderated by anthropologist Juliano Spyer, the debate brought together at the CIVI-CO auditorium federal judge William Douglas (TRF2 – RJ/ES), journalist and digital movements researcher Madeleine Lacsko, and federal judge Renato Câmara Nigro (TRF3 – Campinas), a specialist in secularism and religious freedom.
Renato Câmara Nigro, who coordinated the CNJ Working Group responsible for drafting the National Policy for the Promotion of Religious Freedom and Combat of Intolerance in the Judiciary, assessed that Brazil has “gone down a few steps” in its level of laicity — the principle that guarantees the separation between religion and the State. Madeleine Lacsko, in turn, argued that a distinction must be made between undue political-religious preaching and the legitimate expression of interests by religious groups in the public sphere. Finally, William Douglas — one of the most respected evangelical legal scholars in the country — insisted on the centrality of respect for religious freedom as a value to be preserved in democratic debate.
The event was streamed live on the H360 YouTube channel, where it can be watched in full. Watch it here:
