Brazil

Report: Missionaries Using Bible-Preaching Devices to Secretly Evangelize Remote Amazon Tribes

Published JUL 28 2025

Story

Above: A group of Korubo people on Aug.17, 2022. Image credit: Rafael Vilela/The Washington Post/Getty Images

The Facts

The Guardian reported on Sunday that a joint investigation with Brazilian newspaper O Globo, supported by the Open Society Foundations and others, found audio devices reciting Biblical passages in Portuguese and Spanish among members of the Korubo people who live in Brazil's Javari Valley, near the border with Peru.
Daily Mail
guardian
Seven solar-powered phone-sized In Touch Ministries' Messenger audio devices have been discovered so far, according to locals, with photo and video evidence obtained for one of them — which features a message from Philippians 3:4.
Daily Mail
guardian
Since 1987, Brazil has had an official policy effectively prohibiting religious missionaries from initiating contact with isolated groups, including the Korubo, or entering reserves that are home to them.
guardian
Mongabay Environmental News
In Touch Ministries' Chief Operating Officer, Seth Grey, confirmed that the device is meant for Indigenous people and is loud enough to be heard for up to 20 people. While he said that his organization doesn't distribute them in restricted areas, Grey acknowledged that other missionary groups may have done that.
Daily Mail
guardian
This comes as evangelical missionaries have allegedly employed several methods to approach the recently contacted Korubo community in addition to the audio devices, including the use of airplanes and drones.
Rainforest Journalism Fund
guardian
Brazil's National Foundation for Indigenous People contacted the Korubo for the first time in 1996 in the wake of the killing of 25 non-indigenous people in their home territory in three decades. Though at least one group remains uncontacted, the others want electricity and internet connections.
guardian
guardian

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Missionaries contact isolated people — sometimes in good faith — under the guise of helping, but their work is actually harmful. Let alone the risk of spreading diseases, they promote white supremacy and colonization using tools of cultural imperialism that destroy Indigenous communities.

BBC News

Narrative B

Missionaries have long been the ones providing essential services and dignity to isolated and recently contacted communities. Given that the Korubo have access to other sources of information, including radio and the internet, it's not a big deal that missionaries have left Bible-preaching devices in their home territory.