Evangelicals are surprised and angered by Brazilian President Bolsonaro's Supreme Court pick, Kassio Nunes

Not exactly sure why the URL has sports in it.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday nominated a judge with a record of flexible rulings to the country’s Supreme Court, frustrating evangelical members of his conservative base who had been promised one of their own for the opening.

Bolsonaro announced his nomination of Kassio Marques on Thursday during a live broadcast on Facebook and submitted his name to the country’s official gazette on Friday. Marques, 48, was little known by political heavyweights in the capital Brasilia and requires confirmation by Brazil’s Senate.

Career judge Marques would replace Celso de Mello, who will retire this month as he nears the court's age limit of 75 years. De Mello is widely regarded as a non-partisan scholar and has sat on Brazil's 11-member top court since 1989.

Bolsonaro's pledge to promote traditional values in Brazil, as well as his opposition to abortion and what he refers to as “gender ideology,” helped him secure support from one of the world's largest evangelical populations. He has repeated that while the state is secular, his government is Christian, and many expected him to tap a conservative ideologue for the top court despite risks of exacerbating conflict with moderates in other government branches.