Who’s Really Afraid? Adventist Publishing House in Brazil Sues to Remove Books from Shelves
A few months ago, Brazilian book publisher Boitempo was surprised when the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s publishing ministry in Brazil filed a lawsuit demanding a recall of their Portuguese edition of queer feminist philosopher Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender?
The book, published in March 2024 in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing, according to Slate magazine, offers a critical “analysis of contemporary political and cultural battles over the mutability and potential for radical social change contained in the category of gender, along with the right of women and all queer, gender-nonconforming, and trans people to live freely and safely in the world.”
Established about 20 years ago, Boitempo is named after the title of a book of poetry by Carlos Drummond de Andrade. According to the International Alliance of Independent Publishers, “Boitempo has made its mark as a quality publisher, both in the choice of publications, and in the printing and presentation of the works. It focuses on social science, literature, and historical and contemporary essays. With a focus on Marxism, Boitempo has received funding from the Ford Foundation. For example, about ten years ago it was granted $90,000 for work to update and translate the Contemporary Encyclopedia of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
The central issue in the lawsuit brought by the Adventist Church’s Brazil Publishing House (Casa Publicadora Brasileira) (CPB) against Boitempo was the use—on the inside cover, and in a low contrast, black and white enlargement on the front cover—of a photograph which includes several images, including the character “Quico” from the Adventist Church’s “Turma Nosso Amiguinho” (“Our Little Friends Crew”) which appears in a variety of denominational media. The CPB contends that any association of the cartoon boy with the book’s subject matter would be “completely alien to the original philosophy of the character Quico.”
Boitempo told the independent Adventism-focused Brazilian publication Zelota that its losses related to the book’s removal from shelves have not been completely accounted for, but they have already recalled 1,500 copies from bookstores, and 461 more copies remain boxed in Boitempo headquarters. “In addition to the loss of sales in the middle of a release campaign, we had to cover recall costs, make changes on the website and social media, reprint the book, and there are still the expenses associated with the lawsuit, which will apparently take a long time.” The publisher also stated that “the problem was just on the cover, but CPB demanded removal of the whole book.”
Boitempo issued a public statement on July 18, lamenting the actions of the Adventists, which “could have contacted us asking that we take the character off the cover […] a request we would have readily accepted.” Boitempo said that, since the beginning of the lawsuit, CPB stated there could be no communication between the publishers. In addition to the book recall, CPB also demands financial compensation from Boitempo. The lawsuit is underway in Tatuí, where the CPB is based.
The contentious image is actually a copyright-free photo taken at a demonstration against Judith Butler during her November, 2017 visit to Brazil. A demonstrator held a sign with a collage of images—including the “Quico” character—and “anti-gender” jargon. The photo “was featured in many articles at the time, from big to independent news outlets, with no action taken by the publisher as far as we know,” Boitempo told Zelota.
Speaking to the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, CPB said that the lawsuit is about copyrights and branding, and noted, “The case is being conducted in private, as judicially determined. Any information apart from that could compromise the secrecy of information.” They added: “The publisher requests the understanding of all parties involved and the media in order to respect the legal stipulations during the conduction of the case.”
Beneath the ostensible copyright concerns, there are indicators of a broader objective. CPB editor Michelson Borges regularly publishes opinions denouncing “gender ideology”—a conspiracy theory that sees feminists and others as working to confound the sexuality of children. Judith Butler is a frequent target.
Borges defends a “biblical” model of binary sex division, and quotes scientific material in defense of heterosexuality as the divine standard for gender norms. Borges’ content aligns with the philosophy of CPB, which grants him freedom to share his views from inside the publisher’s office.
In its official media channels, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brazil also criticizes and demonizes “gender ideology,” pitting it against biblical teachings. The Adventist News Network website in Brazil named Judith Butler as a theoretical reference for the promotion of ideologies that “reverse” the thought of children regarding sexuality. She was also mentioned by Rodrigo Silva, curator for the Museum of Biblical Archaeology (MAB) at the Adventist University Center of São Paulo (UNASP), as someone who “wants to eliminate any division of roles for women.”
According to South American Division (SAD) communication director Felipe Lemos, the public affirmation of the church’s beliefs is part of an image and reputation management strategy. It is an evangelistic tool to proclaim “what the church is and does,” in order to lend its message credibility. And therefore, disassociating the church from Butler’s work would be useful in order to maintain the coherence of the church’s image and its preaching against “gender ideology.”
Quico the Cartoon Character
Quico is one of the main characters of the “Our Little Friends” crew featured in Nosso Amiguinho magazine, first published in July, 1953. Since the 1970s, the publication has starred six young protagonists: Noguinho, Luísa, Sabino, Quico, Cazuza and Gina. Quico is depicted as a goofy “hillbilly,” distracted, talkative, and clumsy. He represents the German ethnicity, likes to play soccer and has an autistic cousin named Davi.
Nosso Amiguinho magazine, the most widely-read Adventist children’s publication in Brazil, has never had a proselytizing approach. However, since its debut in the 1950s, the magazine has featured resolutely conservative discourse, aligned with the traditional pedagogical approaches of the times, as Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) history professor Karina Kosicki Bellotti has demonstrated.
Thiago Cezimbra Padilha, a master’s candidate in communication at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), identified something similar in his analysis of 12 Nosso Amiguinho collected volumes published in 2023. Padilha noted to Zelota that while not classifying the magazine in a conservative vs. progressive framework, he understood the magazine to be intent upon conveying ideas of “morality, family, and homeland.”
Character building is central to those aims: “for an interaction between characters, one needs differences in viewpoints,” Padilha explained. “Each character provides a depiction of children in the church’s view.” But superseding all else, he concluded, “every story seeks to encourage values that are deemed positive by the church, relating to morality, citizenship and family.”
Since the magazine presumably reaches many homes outside Adventist institutions, Nosso Amiguinho presents religious themes in a more neutral manner. In an interview with the magazine’s editors, Padilha was told that no subject is forbidden for the elaboration of content. However, sexuality and gender identity are not addressed directly, because they could prove problematic, he said.
Despite its clear editorial alignment with the institution’s philosophy, Nosso Amiguinho sometimes reflects the cultural and ideological trends of its time. For instance, in times past, the magazine’s editors published pictures that might shock current readers: some characters were shown bearing firearms, holding alcoholic beverages, going to the movie theater or even smoking. Despite the fact that such pictures are not aligned with the church’s philosophy, their use did not hinder the material’s publication.
Additionally, the magazine has at times failed to mask its publisher’s racist ideologies, as designer and theologian Jônathas Sant’Ana Luz has noted. In addition to portraying Black people using comedic tropes, between the 1950s and 1970s the magazine inserted Black characters as subalterns or entertainers. Given the Adventist church’s opposition to racism, it is likely that Nosso Amiguinho just reflected the racist culture of the society into which it was inserted.
Moves in a Culture War?
In a July 29 opinion column at Folha de São Paulo, anthropologist Juliano Spyer asked whether it was fair to say that Judith Butler’s book being taken out of bookstores amounted to persecution from CPB. He contended that the reality is more complex than the claim some have made that the evangelical [Adventist] publisher brought the lawsuit simply to impede the circulation of the book; he concluded that progressives make up crusades against enemies they do not know.
Spyer claimed that the Adventist church is charmed by the possibility of occupying the Brazilian state in order to Christianize it, and that internally it persecutes employees that resist its purposes. But the anthropologist downplayed the idea that CPB’s lawsuit might be attributed to moves in a culture war.
While talking about Nosso Amiguinho, Spyer mentioned Jônatas Luz (mentioned above) to state that the magazine has a leaning that is “more educational than religious,” exemplified by tutorials for playing popular Brazilian music. Spyer’s source may have been a 2022 tweet by Luz when the Adventist church censored the video of an Adventist music group that featured samba—a Brazilian music genre historically demonized by the church under racist, anticommunist pretenses.
Spyer may or may not have read Luz’s tweet, but it is clear that he is not familiar with the troubling context that enabled the publication of the study he cited.
In 2021, the Adventist University Press (UNASPRESS) was preparing a scholarly book, Adventismo e quadrinhos (“Adventism and Comics”), which featured a chapter by Jônathas Luz titled “Cazuza never says no: a reflection on the portrayal of Black people in Nosso Amiguinho magazine.” The text provided images of the magazine to bolster the analysis, which was focused at racist depictions of the Black character Cazuza.
According to a former UNASPRESS administrator who wished to remain anonymous, CPB’s legal department vetoed the usage of Nosso Amiguinho pictures in Luz’s article due to copyright restrictions. They claim to have taken part in the “ruckus” involving the publication of the book, and to have especially managed the problems involving the chapter by Luz: “instead of showing the pictures from the Nosso Amiguinho magazine, we had to get someone to describe that picture, because it belonged to CPB, which didn’t give us authorization.”
The work was part of an effort by the Adventist Faculty of Theology (FAT) at UNASP, alongside UNASPRESS, to obtain accreditation for a master’s program in theology from the government’s Ministry of Education (MEC). To fulfill that purpose, FAT’s faculty needed to publish their research through different publishers, not just those linked to the church. Despite setbacks, the book was published in partnership between UNASPRESS and Pluralidades.
Zelota contacted CPB through conventional contact information available to the public and through the publisher’s marketing department, but received no response. Beyond the issues of gender and copyright, questions remain about how the public witness of Adventism in Brazil is best served through this one-sided, lawsuit-first approach toward publishers and scholars.
This article was translated from its original Portuguese by André Kanasiro.
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