“IF I COULD, I WOULD KILL THEM ALL AND START ANEW”: POINT OF VIEW AND PUBLIC CONTROVERSY ABOUT HOMOAFFECTIVITY IN A RELIGIOUS SERMON

Abstract

This work proposes an analysis of the point of view and public controversy raised regarding God's relationship with homosexuals in a sermon given by the minister André Valadão at the Lagoinha Baptist Church, in Belo Horizonte (MG). Relying on the assumptions from the Analysis of Argumentation in Discourse (Amossy, 2008, 2017, 2018) and the enunciative-interactional approach from the point of view (Rabatel, 2016a, 2016b, 2017), this study seeks to investigate which features of the controversy emerge in the aforementioned sermon and how the construction of points of view is linked to polemical argumentation. The results of the analysis corroborate the construction of a rhetoric of dissent and verbal violence by the proponent, in which the function of calling for action (supplanting a certain social group, homosexuals), and the attempt to impose non-universal values on the group of evangelicals and those who do not belong to this religion. The proponent discursively stages a polarization of “us” against “them” so radically that it suggests the annihilation of homosexuals, in the name of God, by resuming the supposed speech of the Lord and expressing the posture of co-enunciation. Different linguistic marks identified in the text of the sermon (verbs, adverbs, types of speech representation, evaluative lexemes) signal a revolution that, ultimately, places a “god” forged in the image of the proponent at the center of power, subjugating the godless society. The analysis exposes the tensions in the religious sphere and highlights the need for other works that deepen the examination of the discourses produced within the scope of the sacred.