By ÉRICO ANDRADE*

When Christians choose to condemn a ten-year-old child, they not only throw the first stone, but also reserve the monopoly of hypocrisy for themselves.

There is only one word to describe the attitude of the evangelical fundamentalists in the far-right act held at the CISAM hospital in Recife: violence. Screaming at the top of your lungs that a child brutally abused for years is a murderer for deciding to terminate a pregnancy, which was violently imposed on her, is yet another sign that there is no longer common ground among people in Brazil.

And who removed this soil was the right side of Christianity. Not just Protestants. Catholics roared and cursed against the girl. The belief that the Christian truth is above everyone and, above all, everyone governs these people towards a radicality that tears Brazil apart. This is a conception of truth that refuses the validity of any context. It is therefore absolute.

From this absolute character of truth follows an argumentative structure whose structure is false symmetry. From this perspective, this type of sectarian Christianity understands that the fetus would have the same level of rights as the abused child; as if they were symmetrical, equal positions. Therefore, the child should be obliged, even if there is a risk of death, to give birth to the materiality of the violence he suffered. This posture, because it does not admit exceptions, does not conform to a democratic environment because it is not willing to negotiate.

However, the radical nature of this sectarian position does not exempt the moralists who support it from making mistakes. In fact, fallibility is a constituent of the human being, according to Christianity itself. Then the error will happen. And, therefore, forgiveness was created as a fundamental theological category to deal with our faults, but also to prevent moral condemnation from being a way of discriminating against people as if some of them were essentially bad and, therefore, could be condemned. definitively with death by stoning.

When they choose to condemn a ten-year-old child, Christians not only throw the first stone, but reserve for themselves the monopoly of hypocrisy, because far from fighting private abortion clinics (which are still operated by Catholics), they reserve for themselves the right to destroy lives. weakened by the violence – often practiced in the Church itself – of rape.

*Erico Andrade is professor of philosophy at the Federal University of Pernambuco.