Madrid, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
While the expected ethical fall-out from the Socialist victory in March continues to undermine the moral fibre of the nation, the Federation of Evangelical Organisations (FEREDE) are happy that the party they wanted in power seem more willing than their predecessors to do business with them.

Justice Minister Juan Fernando López said they are not going to remove the reference to the Catholic Church from the Spanish constitution, but will do so as regards European legislation, references to the Senate and the succession to the throne. The extremely, and exclusively, Catholic wedding of heir to the throne, Prince Felipe, left a bad taste in the mouth of Spanish evangelicals. López made these comments soon after meeting FEREDE representatives to whom he said he was willing to improve relations.

The constitutional reference to Rome is seen by Prime Minister Zapatero as an untouchable part of the Spanish ‘Magna Carta.’ Yet the government is willing to put the 1992 Accords signed with the FEREDE into practice. These cover such areas as Army, hospital and prison chaplains, better National Insurance cover for evangelical ministers, adequate fiscal measures for church buildings and the offer of evangelical R.E. in state schools. The FEREDE calls for equality of treatment for all religions, the ending of privileges for Catholics, and religious neutrality in the appointment of public officials. The next major issue on the agenda is the fraught one of public funding for evangelical activity.

Barcelona, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Hans Küng, the Swiss Catholic theologian who is the most widely-read from his stable despite falling foul of the Vatican (or perhaps because of it), has called for a pact between religions to usher in ‘a new world order’ of peaceful co-existence.

Küng, a heretic in Rome’s eyes, sees European cooperation as a model to emulate, criticises American unilateralism and insists on the need to seek peace with Muslims. Küng says the convictions shared by the major world religions need to be emphasised as they could contribute a lot to a new era of international relations. To turn this dream into reality, Küng adds that “Jewish rabbis must revolt” over what is happening in Palestine, whilst “Muslim leaders must say that killing innocent people is not what the Koran requires.”

At the same meeting in Barcelona, Catholic leaders expressed concern over the failing relationship between their church and Spanish youth, which one speaker put down to the superficiality of society, outmoded ecclesiastical practices and the fact that many parents do not mind whether their children receive Religious Education or not.

Barcelona, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Muslim women who want to wear the headscarf (hiyab) are fighting back. One of them said at the recent Forum meeting in Barcelona: “Obliging us to wear the Islamic veil is just as much an oppression as obliging us to take it off against our will.”

Merve Kavacki lectures at George Washington University in the USA and was elected as an MP in her native Turkey, but could not take the parliamentary oath for refusing to take off her headscarf. Turkish law does not allow those holding public office to wear religious clothing. She commends Turkey for promoting women’s education much more than the rest of the Muslim world, but condemns what she calls its “lay fundamentalism.” Most Western observers would happily settle for this rather than the other, Islamic, fundamentalism which has wrought such havoc in countries such as Turkey. 70% of Turkish women, according to Kavacki, wear the headscarf while 60% support an MP’s right to wear one if they wish.

Another speaker was Mehrezia Labidi-Mazia, a French translator, who argued that in France the law banning religious symbols in schools was based on Revolutionary ideals curbing the power of the Catholic Church. She thinks that Muslims, who see things differently, need to talk to teachers to help them understand why many Muslim women want to wear headscarves. She claims the ‘hiyab’ symbolises “a voluntary act of submission to God, not to men.”  The Koran says both men and women should “look down and preserve their modesty.” In the case of women, this means covering their faces and “reserving their beauty” for their families. Men should be covered to the knee ­ male calves are clearly not considered a thing of beauty ­ and refrain from wearing gold jewellery.

Madrid, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The world has definitively gone mad. Socialist MP, Javier Gómez, has criticised the education authorities in Madrid for contracting a “confessional organisation which defends sexual abstinence, to give sex education in schools this year”, as if this were the worst possible scenario one could imagine.

Gómez claims the previous Ministry of Education paid the group FSH the sum of 120,000 euros and that it was the only group contracted to the work. He adds that educational policy should be in the hands of professionals, “not those of a married couple who operate a NGO without any type of training.” Then he seems to contradict himself by accusing the previous government of failing in its policy given that unwanted pregnancies in girls aged between 15 and 19 have increased by 50% since 1995.

The Education authorities commented that FSH have in fact completed their contract of 240 classes. “They won the contract in an open competition to give sex education, not classes in sexual abstinence, and that is what they have done.” One cannot help thinking that Gómez would not have made his criticisms had FSH taught that teenagers should experiment sexually as they please. Yet if abstinence is not taught ­ at the very least as an option ­ how does he think unwanted pregnancies are going to be reduced?

Madrid, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).  
The Fliedner Trust, an evangelical group founded by 19th century German missionaries in Madrid, produces a listing of evangelical churches and organisations in Spain each year.

The guide, called the ‘Evangelical Vademecum’, seeks to help people locate churches when they call or visit other areas in Spain. It lists all the churches and para-church movements who send in their details, so depends to a large extent upon people keeping their information updated. The guide is now a hundred years old and the Fliedner Trust is to be congratulated on performing such a useful service to the Protestant community for so many years.

Seville, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The evangelical television programme ‘Bread from heaven’ has just celebrated its 300th edition on the main channel for the southern region of Andalusia, ‘Canal Sur’.

The programme has been running for 6 years and goes out after the late news at about 1.45am on Tuesday nights/Wednesday mornings. The special edition recalled some of the highlights of six years’ broadcasting in which the programme’s producers hope they have touched many people’s lives with the Gospel.

Madrid, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
George Verwer, founder and coordinator of Operation Mobilisation ­ one of the biggest mission groups with more than 3,500 workers in over 90 countries ­ is to be the speaker at a Missions Conference in Seville in September.

Operation Mobilisation also has two ships ­ Logos II and Doulos ­ which tour the world promoting the Gospel, distributing Christian literature, holding meetings and making contacts in the many ports they visit. A third ship is on the way. They also take humanitarian aid to the needy. The Conference is organised by Vicente Galán, a pastor and missionary who has been working in Spain for more than 30 years. The founder of 10 churches, he runs ‘Essence of life’, a literature, drama and music ministry. His particular concern is to reach Muslims for Christ. The Conference will be held in Seville’s main Exhibition Centre.

Berlin, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The German Evangelical Church wants to continue to look after its members whilst they are on holiday and to this end sends out 200 pastors to various tourist destinations. However, although Spain remains one of Germans’ most popular holiday spots, the Church considers it already has enough spiritual ‘cover’ there because there are ex-pat German communities who live there all year round.

57 holiday destinations are covered in this pastoral programme, in places such as Austria, Scandinavia, Portugal, France and Italy. There is even a pastoral delegation on the Greek island of Kos who, as with all the others, is ready to help any parishioners who might need spiritual assistance. In Spain though there is an on-the-ground German presence all year, so pastoral needs are covered by resident ministers.

Madrid, July 20th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
Civilised society might not like to admit it, but what a difference a bomb or two makes. Not only did the March terrorist attack in Madrid have a significant impact upon the general election held just 3 days later, but the Socialist government brought in by the bomb, theoretically the upholders of church-state separation, are now preparing to finance Muslim clerics in Spain.

While the basis for the arrangement are the Accords ­ signed in 1992 but never fully implemented ­ between the state and the three recognised religious minorities, the current government is now prepared to pay the salaries of imams so as to minimise the influence of more radical Islamic states who are pouring money into Spain. The government will also facilitate the teaching of Islamic R.E. in schools.

The proposal is for an Islamic Commission to contract imams who are full-time clerics and who come under the mainstream National Insurance scheme rather than being self-employed. This would bring them into line with around 1,000 evangelical ministers who are already using this scheme. It would also give the government some leverage to control more radical elements. If an imam is appointed by his own people and paid by the government, Madrid believes it can insist on moderation as to the content of his teaching.

Islam in Spain is a chaotic sector, with 233 registered mosques and a further 200 clandestine meeting-places. The government recognises it has much to do as it does not even know how many imams there are in Spain at present, nor how much training they have had. The Socialist government wants to bring some order to the appointment of Muslim clerics. One method is to insist they learn Spanish, as presently there are imams who hardly come out of their own communities or mosques and only speak Arabic and/or their own native tongue.

As for teaching Islamic R.E., the government hopes to be able to offer it wherever there are more than 10 pupils who want it in any given school, at least in the areas of greatest demand. This is already happening in the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Despite all these measures, the new Director of Religious Affairs, Mercedes Rico, stresses her agnosticism and her government’s determination to make the separation between religion and state ever clearer. This seems hard to square with current policy, at least as far as the Muslim community is concerned.