Entre a Farda e a Bíblia: O Conservadorismo nas Escolas Militarizadas de Goiás

Abstract

It investigates the intersection between the militarization of public civilian schools and the expansion of “neopentecostal” churches in Brazil. The focus is on the State Military Police Schools of Goiás (CEPMG) and the activities of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD). The study adopts a qualitative approach based on documentary and critical analysis, grounded in Critical Theory of Society, emphasizing the concepts of culture industry, instrumental rationality, and symbolic domination as developed by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. The methodology includes the analysis of six reports from Folha Universal, the official IURD publication, and a historical study of the relationship between religion and militarism in Brazil from the colonial period to the contemporary context. The presence of the IURD in the CEPMG constitutes a complex articulation among religion, education, and public security, whose ideology promotes moral and political discipline reinforcing conservative values, authority, and obedience. The discourse of religious neutrality, adopted by the Universal in the Police Forces program (UFP), legitimizes the church’s presence in public institutions, while Folha Universal disseminates a conservative Christian morality aligned with the far-right agenda. Moreover, school militarization, combined with the “neopentecostal” strengthening, acts as a mechanism of social control, offering symbolic stability in vulnerable contexts but restricting freedoms and standardizing behaviors. It is concluded that this confluence between religion and militarization in public education configures a conservative political agenda that challenges the democratic and pedagogical principles of public schooling, establishing an authoritarian management based on discipline, hierarchy, and homogenization of subjectivities. The study highlights the importance of critical reflection on the social and educational impacts of this phenomenon, especially regarding civic formation and the reproduction of inequalities