Edir Macedo Bezerra is the presiding bishop of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God; UCKG) and the CEO of the Universal Holding Companies.

When he was 32 years old, Macedo’s father left his poor home in northeast Brazil, looking for a better life in the more prosperous south, where he met his wife, Eugênia Macedo Bezerra. Living in a small rural town, Macedo’s parents were nominal Catholics with some Spiritualist incursions before they moved to Rio de Janeiro. Some years later, Macedo joined the New…