Aloha! An Overwatch player in Brazil, Mateus Mognon, creates the Church of Hanzo in protest at the ease of creating cults in Brazil with the primary goal of tax evasion.
Curiosities - The church of Hanzo is founded in Brazil
An Overwatch player has founded a church in Brazil dedicated to Hanzo, one of the heroes that make up the Overwatch cast. And although it seems like a joke, it is totally true but has a true intention "hidden": The main reason for the creation was not to worship the hero himself, but to criticize the impressive ease of creating a religion in the country and being able to evade taxes.
Mateus Mognon, the person in charge of this initiative, has pointed out that it is a way to show how easy it is to create a religion in the country. In a letter explaining all the legal processes and the reason why I created that Church.
In fact, the only thing you needed to get the project started was:
- A physical address
- 5 adept people
- The signature of a lawyer
- A written statute
- Pay some fees
Hanzo's character pick in particular is another way to show how easy the process is, even when it comes to one of Overwatch's most hated characters. By the way, in the writings of this particular church, it is forbidden to use the words "Hanzo Main"An insult that has already cost someone a punishment at school.
By the way and by way of curiosity 😛 the motto of his Church is "Hanzo is my shepherd, I will not miss arrows."
Below we show you a small excerpt from Mateus Mognon's own declaration of how he created the Church and what are the small requirements that are needed to create a cult. I recommend you read it in full, you have no loss.
I will summarize the work that I did during the last months and if I told you without presenting evidence you would probably laugh in my face. I have put the Brazilian legal system to the test and have been able to officially register the National Church of Hanzo: a religion to worship the most hated character in the hit first-person shooter video game Overwatch. Likewise, we are the owners of the first church for Overwatch recognized in the office. Hanzo is my shepherd, arrows will not be lacking.
My initial objective was to verify if it is difficult to register a religious institution to request the tax immunity that is given for "temples of any cult". To guarantee religious freedom in Brazil, the Federal Constitution grants freedom to pay fees such as IPTU, IPVA and taxes on services and products, as long as they are linked to the dissemination of belief.
Since 2010, 67.951 entities have been registered as religious organizations in the Federal Register, which already indicated that my mission to open a church on paper would not be as arduous. And at the end of the day, I realized that it is so simple to found an institution of this type in Brazil that I ended up creating an entire religion: the National Church of Hanzo, a trend to worship the murderous Overwatch archer.
Despite tax benefits like tax immunity, when we look at the bureaucracy required to found a church, the process is simpler than starting a private company, for example. The Aurelio dictionary defines "Church" as a "building dedicated to the worship of any Christian confession", but to register a religious organization in Brazil it is enough to have a fixed address with proof of residence.
In addition to an address, to open a church you need five friends to be your partners in the institution, the signature of a lawyer and a monetary amount to register your name. With the ingredients, it is enough to write a statute and an act, collect the necessary signatures, make some copies and take the papers to the nearest notary's office. Then it is possible to request tax immunity.
If I were a person dedicated to committing a crime, I could have done all of this in a week. With a simple search on the Internet, you find model minutes and statutes to start your religious institution. You just have to download and fill in the blank fields. Then, it is only to obtain the signature of the partners to assume the minimum number of positions of the board of directors, and to look for a lawyer to place their name and OAB number at the end of the statute, a necessary measure for the registration of any “non-profit institution profit". Finally, it is only taking five dollars, but you are going to spend less than that, register the signature with your signature and go to the notary with the papers, they take several days to examine them.
With the approved documentation, it is necessary to make a registration with the town hall, go to the Federal Register and request the tax exemption provided for in the Constitution. Since 1946, the Greater Law of Brazil grants immunity from taxes for the patrimony and income of "temples of any cult", which includes institutions such as churches, philosophical centers and Masonic houses. With this, the institutions are free from paying essential taxes for the functioning of the cult, such as IPTU (Property Tax and Urban Territorial Tax), IPVA (Tax on the Property of Motor Vehicles), income tax and sale of products and services. The measure aims to protect religious freedom, but it can easily be attacked by malicious people for the execution of crimes such as money laundering.
To make my own religion, I have misled a statute_de_igreja.pdf on the Internet and I have used my creativity to conceive the most peculiar belief possible, but following the patterns of Brazilian law. Thanks to my contacts in the area of technology journalism in the three years of university and the passion for electronic games, the theme of the institution was already decided: video games. According to Neil Gaiman's book American Gods, gods are only as powerful as the number of followers who believe in them. With this in mind, I chose Overwatch to be the core of my belief.
As of May 2016, Blizzard's multiplayer shooter won the Game of the Year award at the game awards, the Oscars for video games, and has more than 30 million players worldwide. In addition to the success of the public and critics, Overwatch has charismatic characters and large groups of fans on the Internet, perfect factors for the creation of a Messiah.
The Blizzard game has in its cast the beloved Brazilian character Lucio and religious figures like the omnic monk Zenyatta or the angelic Mercy, but since our motto is "boldness and joy," I adopted the controversial mercenary Hanzo as an icon of faith.