Albacete, April 16th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Evangelicals have been in the forefront of the fight against drug abuse for many years in Spain, so it with some surprise that one reads that a centre in the south-eastern city of Albacete is losing customers through its policy of not offering substitutes.

'Potter's House' has been run by the local Baptist Church for 14 years but is now losing rehabilitation inmates because, unlike other agencies, it will not give administer alternative treatments to those trying to come off drugs. The two-pronged approach of the centre is to help addicts break the habit and re-insert them in society, through abstinence and God's Word. Not all evangelical rehab centres use this approach; some offer medication to offset the effects of 'cold turkey'.

A spokesman for 'Potter's House', Ginés Pedreño, said "when an inmate has cold turkey, there is a shadow behind him to make sure nothing happens." The centre firmly believes in abstinence, rather than methadone which local Councils give out, "because we believe the lads are going to rebuild their lives and the sooner they achieve that, the better. We believe the only person who can rehabilitate them is God."

'Potter's House' is located in a building used by the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, and offers 20  places to men desirous of breaking an addiction. However, currently only 9 places are filled, three of them by elderly alcoholics who have been rejected by their families and so live in the centre permanently. The remaining six are young men trying to come off drugs. Two of the places are subsidised by the local authorities, with the rest of the money coming from the Baptist Church and from odd-jobs done by the residents of the centre.

Madrid, April 16th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The Chairman of the Editorial Board of A.C.Press, Juan Antonio Monroy, says none of the democratically-elected governments since the transition from Franco's dictatorship in the 1970s has done much to undo the discrimination faced by non-Catholic religious minorities in Spain.

In 1978, a new Constitution removed the Roman Catholic Church as the official state religion, and Spain acquired a lay, or non-confessional, status. However, the wording - "a relationship of cooperation with the Catholic Church and other confessions" - has allowed successive governments to offer preferential treatment to the vassals of the Vatican. Monroy believes they have failed to keep the Constitution and should be arraigned before the international courts.

The Law of Religious Freedom, passed in 1980, was merely a nod to constitutional obligations, and not a concession to evangelicals, according to Monroy. After the centrist government of Adolfo Suárez, which oversaw the transition to democracy, came 14 years of Socialist rule under Felipe González. Yet conversations with evangelicals were drawn out, with the Socialist negotiators finding fault with virtually every evangelical proposal. Yet eventually, some Accords were signed in 1992.

Monroy says the Socialist Party gave evangelicals nothing, and only went as far as they did because the Constitution obliged them to. Monroy says that of their own volition they would not have lifted a finger to help evangelicals. However, they had earlier signed an important agreement with the Catholics, on most advantageous terms. Things would only get worse after the Popular Party, led by José María Aznar, came to power in 1996. They increased the state funds designated to the Catholic Church, and failed to keep similar promises made earlier to evangelicals.

As for the new government, Monroy says he hopes Rodríguez Zapatero will realise that Spanish evangelicals exist and take them into account.

Source: ProtestanteDigital. Editing: ACPress.netPositively the last word on 'The Passion', but not on the passion

Madrid, April 16th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Confused at the multiplicity of comments, often conflicting among themselves, about the film 'The Passion of the Christ'? Tired perhaps of reading them? This does not claim to be the last word in the sense of being authoritative, but in the sense of closing the issue in this bulletin by offering a sprinkling of comments from well-known Christian writers on the film. Taken together, they represent our view of the picture fairly accurately.

Manuel López, journalist and ACPress.netcontributer, says it is "a distressing exaltation of torture" and that the "blood factor" so dominant in the film does not occupy centre-stage in the Gospel accounts. The biblical Passion is not a bloody spectacle, but centres on the act of love which redeems us by 'the blood of the new covenant' (Matt 26:28)."

José de Segovia, theologian and pastor as well as a journalist, says in his column in Protestante Digital that it is surprising American evangelicals have taken so enthusiastically to the film given its clear portrayal of Catholic ideas. He cites as an example "the link between the sacrifice of the Cross and the sacrifice of the Mass, which a Protestant cannot understand fully." Referring to the film in general, Segovia adds "its militant Catholicism is apparent, especially, in its treatment of Mary." In fact, he says the film follows almost word for word the visions of a medieval nun, Ana Catalina Emmerich, in such scenes as when Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene mop up Jesus' blood with towels in the Praetorium. This was part of Emmerich's alleged vision.

The Gospels however present a very different picture, where the only sacrifice is made by Jesus, and where Mary does not have the co-starring role she is given in the film.

Jonathan Dawson, pastor and journalist, concludes that although the final scene gives just a tiny glimpse of the Resurrection, the film leaves the viewer with a Christ who has made a noble sacrifice but without any clear idea as to why He has done so. There is little sense of victory, nor even the certainty of having achieved His purposes. Yet he believes the film offers an excellent starting-point for conversations, and the Christian community is in Gibson's debt for once again putting the death of Christ in the headlines.

"It is undoubtedly positive that people are speaking about what the Lord suffered out of love, even though - in this aspect, at least - Gibson's representation differs considerably from the version related by the four Evangelists. They give few gory details of what, after all, was a normal punishment in those days. Instead, they emphasise the attitude and words of Jesus, and what is an adequate response to Him."

-Historian César Vidal responds to the accusations of anti-Semitism by pointing out that Gibson, "almost certainly without meaning to, has made one of the most Jewish films in the history of cinema. He begins with a text from the fourth Servant Song from Isaiah 52-53. In other words, Jesus is only comprehensible within his Jewishness." The Gentiles are portrayed as evil or inconsequential, as when a soldier prevents a Jewish girl from giving Jesus some water, or when another insults Simon of Cyrene by calling him a 'Jew'.

Vidal adds that even the Jewish 'baddies' such as Annas and Caiaphas fit in perfectly, as "for centuries, (the Jews) did not hesitate to oppress their own people or persecute prophets like Ezequiel, Amos or Jeremiah." The film ends with the hope that salvation is found in the Messiah; "it would be hard to think of a more Jewish ending."

Source: ProtestanteDigital.com. Editing: ACPress.net
Inter-religious memorial act at Madrid railway station

Madrid, April 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Muslim, Catholic and Greek Orthodox representatives held a memorial act at Atocha railway station in Madrid, just yards from the scene of one of the March bombings. About 2,000 people joined together in a symbolic gesture to show that religious belief should unite rather than be used to further terrorist aims.

The memorial was organised by the Catholic group, 'San Egidio', under the motto 'Peace is the name of God: religious groups remember the victims and call for peace.' One of those who attended said the mixture of cultures and religions represented there reflected the reality of Spain today. They held a minute's silence, then read out the names - one by one - of the 190 who died, and read out a statement: "Religions never justify hate nor violence, and fundamentalism is the childish disease of religions."

The imam of Madrid's central mosque said that the massacre could only be the work of "the devil's allies, and they should know that we are strong and united against them. All religions are in the same boat in this mission. Islam is not annhiliation nor destructio, but mercy." A group of Muslim women broke down in tears and one of them, the mother of a 13-year-old Moroccan girl who died in the bombings, said "Please don't confuse Islam with terror and death, because Islam rejects terrorism and calls for peace."

No Protestants were invited to take part in the act.

Madrid, April 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The Association of Moroccan Immigrant Workers (ATIME) is to call on the new Spanish government to set up a democratically-elected Islamic council which would supervise mosques and appoint imams in an attempt to eradicate extremist elements.

Seventeen of the twenty-five people so far implicated in the March bombings are Moroccan. There are over 330,000 Moroccans living legally in Spain, plus around another 200,000 who do not have the requisite papers (residence and work permits). ATIME has considerable moral authority among Moroccans as it is active wherever there are Moroccans working in Spain, helping them with paperwork, accommodation and court cases or police hearings.

Although ATIME is a lay organisation, it is concerned to supervise the development of Islam in Spain. "90% of Muslims in Spain are Moroccan", says a spokesman. "We are Sunny (Muslims), which means our religious activity is neither radical nor aggressive. What is the sense, therefore, in the fact that most of the imams are Wahhabis, adoctrinated in and paid for by countries in the Persian Gulf?"

The next largest Muslim communities are Algerian and Pakistani, but at 23,000 and 17,000 respectively, are far behind the Moroccans in number. However, most of the 45 mosques in Spain are financed by Saudi Arabia, who export a strict version of Islam, the Wahhabi sect. Friday sermons are also preached from a thousand other buildings, and the authorities exercise no control over these activities. aTIME believes that if the goverment were to help these communities and thereby exercise a measure of control over them, the imams would moderate their statements. The organisation complains that some of the imams have been advocating the use of violence.

Yet ATIME's proposal has not been well received by all Muslims. The angriest is the Islamic Commission, which was set up to negotiate with the state on behalf of their community in 1991.

"Tenemos que ganarnos de los españoles cierta confianza que en las últimas semanas se ha perdido", asume El Mirabet. "Noss negamos a dar la impresión de que los marroquíes estamos haciendo daño a la sociedad de acogida. El futuro de los españoles es nuestro futuro". One of its leaders, Riay Tatary, said: "Muslims are perfectly organised with regard to cooperation with the Spanish state...it is the best in Europe...and its work has helped integration greatly."

Madrid, April 21st, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Departed Prime Minister, José María Aznar, has got a new job. A Catholic university in the United States has offered him a part-time contract to lecture on European politics.

Aznar will give seminars at Georgetown University, Washington, in the USA. His subject will be contemporary European politics and transatlantic relations. The future of the ex-government leader has been the source of much speculation in the Spanish press, since he announced his decision not to seek re-election in last month's vote. However, after 8 years at the top, Aznar will remain in the corridors of power at Popular Party headquarters, under the leadership of Mariano Rajoy, now Leader of the Opposition in the Spanish Parliament.

Georgetown University's website said it was a "privilege" that Aznar was soon to be a member of staff. The heir to the Spanish throne, Prince Felipe, studied there between 1993 and 1995, and the university received financial help from the Spanish government under Aznar, which makes it sound like an inside job. Georgetown University is one of the most important Catholic institutions in the USA, where of course Protestant and lay education are both much more widespread. It was founded in 1789 by the Jesuits.

Source: AP. Editing: ACPress.net
ACPress.net getting wired for sound

Madrid, April 21st, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A.C.Press's web 'sister', the magazine 'Protestante Digital', received more than 25,000 hits in March. This brings the total up to 74,000 for the year so far, and 120,000 since the launch last September.

Given that there were 8,900 visitors in its first month, in six months the number has trebled. 'Protestante Digital' is part of a wider media project called 'REDimir' ('Redeem'), whose initials stand for Image, Media, Internet and Radio. It also includes this news agency, A.C.Press.

The latest project is to add sound to the website, through a new branch called 'e-mision.org', which will include interviews, thoughts for the day, music and short debates ( between 3 and 15 minutes in duration). It will be possible to listen on-line, or download to listen at one's leisure. The technical complexity means it will be several months before this programme is up and running, but it is hoped to have it in service by the end of the summer.

La Coruña, April 21st, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The Evangelical Council of Galicia has written a letter of protest to the regional newspaper, 'La Voz de Galicia', after it published an article entitled: 'Juan Luis Guerra, member of an evangelical sect, dedicates a record to Jesus Christ.'>

Guerra is a well-known Christian singer from the Dominican Republic, and the Council expressed the frustration felt by many evangelicals in Spain at the refusal of the Spanish secular press to recognise what is, after all, the majority religion in much of northern Europe, the USA and other parts of the world - Protestantism. It continues to imitate Vatican rhetoric, especially when talking about Latin America, where Rome feels very threatened at the advance of evangelicalism and the decline of Catholicism.

The Council's letter said that while it understood public ignorance regarding evangelicalism, it was lamentable that a paper such as 'La Voz' should use as unacceptable an expression as 'evangelical sect.' "You should know that the same profession of faith is made by Jimmy Carter, President Bush, Tony Blair, Lionel Jospin, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, J.S. Bach, Isaac Newton, the founder of the Red Cross and, closer to home, (footballers) like Silvinho, Donato and Valerón."

The letter reminded the newspaper "that Europe, America and many political, scientific and artistic advances cannot be understood without what you clumsily call 'evangelical sects', and you should know are really called 'Protestants' or 'evangelicals'. The Council then changed tack, lest anyone should think that fame gives respectability to faith. "Even if noone famous were Protestant, and Protestantism were only professed by a small, humble minority, your paper should respect it and renounce offensive terms such as 'sect' which just goes to deepen the social stigma suffered by evangelicals in this country."

"Would you dare to use the term 'Catholic sect'? The letter closed by expressing the hope that the article had only been written thus through ignorance of the facts, and it encouraged the paper to listen to the songs of Juan Luis Guerra to discover what evangelicals believe.

Barcelona, April 21st, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Campus Crusade and the Roman Catholic Archbishopric of Barcelona, among others, have joined forces to publish a guide which seeks to respond to the most commonly asked questions after seeing Mel Gibson's film, 'The Passion of the Christ'.

Cooperation between various religious groups has enabled them to print 400,000 copies of the guide, in magazine format, entitled 'The Passion of the Christ: yes or no?' It has been distributed in churches, schools and other institutions all over Spain, and can be found in both Spanish and Catalan. It contains 9 questions and answers about the person of Jesus Christ and the meaning of His death, such as 'Did Jesus really live?', 'Can we trust the Gospels?', 'What is sin?', 'How does Christ's death solve the problem of sin?' and 'What hope does Jesus offer the world?'

The guide also includes a short review of the film, plus quotes from people like Augustine, Einstein and Spanish author Miguel Delibes, about their personal experiences regarding the questions formulated, a short guide on how to know God personally, and pictures from the film.