Pastor Silas Malafaia delivers a sermon, transmitted live through social networks, inside the empty Assembly of God Victory in Christ Church, amid a lockdown to help contain the spread of the new coronavirus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, March 29, 2020. "Im asking, which is worse: coronavirus or social chaos? Malafaia, one of Brazils most prominent pastors who leads the Assembly of God Victory in Christ Church, told The Associated Press. I c…
March 30, 2020
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Brazilian pews become trenches in fight against quarantine
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Like every Sunday, Brazilian Pastor Silas Malafaia took the stage of his Pentecostal temple in a middle-class Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. But this week, he wore a T-shirt instead of a blazer and, behind the three cameras broadcasting to his legion of YouTube followers, were thousands of empty seats.