A JUDGE in Miami sentenced two of Brazil's best-known evangelical church leaders on Friday to 10 months' confinement for using a Bible and their child's backpack to smuggle cash into the United States.

Estevam Hernandes and Sonia Moraes Hernandes, the husband-and-wife founders of the Reborn in Christ Church, pleaded guilty in exchange for leniency in sentencing to charges of smuggling $US56,000 ($A71,000) through a Miami airport.

"They were both given 10-month sentences split between house arrest and jail time," said a Florida law clerk.

REUTERS