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Most of the research on the growth of evangelical Christianity in Latin America and elsewhere has focused on the distinctive products that evangelicals bring to the “religious marketplace” and on other competitive advantages that evangelical churches have over their religious rivals. Alternatively, on the basis of research among evangelical Christians and practitioners of African‐derived Candomblé in northeastern Brazil, I examine the role of discourses about morality in encounters between two religions that, although often openly hostile to one another, draw adherents from similar socioeconomic circumstances. I argue that competing religious discourses play a central role in struggles for moral distinction in communities that are relatively homogeneous in terms of their social compositions. [Brazil, religion, Candomblé, Christianity, morality]

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RESUMEN Este artigo analisa a relação entre política e religião no Recôncavo Baiano, região do Nordeste brasileiro, a partir da observação da festa afro‐católica da Irmandade da Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte. No Brasil, religiões de origem africana têm sido consideradas exemplos idealizados de mistura cultural, especialmente quando combinadas às tradições européias. Entretanto, e mais recentemente, militantes que lutam contra desigualdades raciais têm tomado estas mesmas práticas religiosas como símbolos de resistência cultural. Enquanto os políticos da elite invocam a Irmandade como símbolo de mistura harmoniosa, militantes anti‐racista a interpretam como demonstração de resistência negra à dominação. Neste contexto, o artigo investiga de que modo as praticantes interpretam esta apropriação simbólica em torno de suas práticas religiosas. Especificamente, examino de que modo as irmãs da Boa Morte se utilizam destes dois discursos, o da mistura harmoniosa e o da resistência negra, para o benefício de seus próprios objetivos. This article focuses on the intersection of religion and politics in the Recôncavo region of the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil. African‐derived religions, particular practices that combine African and European traditions, have long been cited as examples of the Brazilian ideal of cultural mixture. More recently, however, activists struggling against racial inequality have sought to claim African‐derived religions as emblems of cultural defiance. Focusing on the Afro‐Catholic festival of the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Boa Morte in the state of Bahia, I investigate how elite politicians invoke this sisterhood as a symbol of harmonious cultural and racial mixture while antiracist activists simultaneously claim it as an emblem of black resistance. Against this backdrop, I explore how practitioners have responded to and engaged politicized representations of their religion. In particular, I examine how the sisters of Boa Morte negotiate the discourses of harmonious mixture and black resistance for their own purposes.

In this article the author explores the ways in which Catholic, evangelical, and Candomblé actors produce competing framings that shape encounters taking place in the city of Cachoeira in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The framing of Cachoeira as a site of heritage tourismone where local religious practices are read as part of the African heritage and attractions for African American 'roots tourists'obscures as much as it reveals. This is not to suggest that this framing is entirely inaccurate or to deny that many visitors themselves describe their trips to Bahia this way. But I contend that the 'heritage frame' masks key issues that complicate diasporic encounters in Cachoeira, particularly different understandings of heritage and religion and their relationship to black identity that African Americans and Afro-Brazilians bring to these encounters.