Madrid, October 22nd, 2004 (ACPress.net).
The Federation of Spanish Evangelical Organisations (FEREDE) is happy with the government’s decision to give some public money to religious minorities, including them as the representative entity of Spanish Protestants. The FEREDE is also pleased that the decision does not affect the way the Catholic Church is financed by the state, but is rather a broadening of the scope of such religious financing to include Protestants, Jews and Muslims. The money cannot be spent on worship activities.

A FEREDE source said: “In our opinion, activities which may be subsidised should be in harmony with the aims outlined in the laws which regulate Trusts, which means they must be of some social benefit. The only limitation should come from the separation of church and state”, which means ­ in the FEREDE’s view - it is advisable not to fund worship or evangelistic activities. The FEREDE added that they did not know if the funding was a one-off payment covering 2005 or if this was to be the future pattern of state funding for religious minorities.

The FEREDE’s Executive Secretary, Mariano Blázquez, called the government’s decision “historic, brave and novel. It is a positive gesture towards the different religious confessions at a time when a fairer formula for economic assistance is being studied.” It is also a time when the government is pushing through a series of measures whose morality (or lack of it) clashes head-on with Christian belief and practice. Blázquez admitted that “most Protestants are against state funding for services or evangelism, which is why we share the philosophy of the Trust, which seeks to harmonise state neutrality with the principle of helping religious confessions covered by the Constitution.”

However, a notable aspect of the agreement is that it only applies to the three aforementioned groups. The fourth, the Roman Catholic Church, keeps its current privileged position. Quite why the FEREDE is pleased about this is hard to see, especially after years of complaining but perhaps it is a case of ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’. The Catholics keep their extremely favourable arrangements, and support government moves to subsidise Protestants. For their part, the Protestants say they are happy with the Catholic status quo and hold out their hands for their share. Blázquez put it like this: “That this measure does not mean any change for the Catholic Church (pleases us), because we would not like the improvement of our rights to be linked to the loss of those of other religious groups.”

Madrid, October 22nd, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
Government vice-Premier, María Teresa Fernández, said “there are already thousands of children in Spain who live with homosexual ‘parents’, and more than 50 reports coincide that the differences in (these) children are non-existent; there is no proof that homosexual fathers or mothers are worse or bring up their children worse.” One might question her grammar and also, it appears, her facts. Things are not quite as she claims.

One of the best-known pieces of research regarding adoption by homosexuals was carried out in 2002 by Seville University and the Psychologists’ College in Madrid. It concluded that the children they investigated were stable and fairly similar to the rest of their classmates. They followed a regular and healthy routine, were accepted by their peers and were clear about what men and women were, and their role in society. However, a well-known psychiatrist, Enrique Rojas, says the research is fatally flawed. While they admitted there were differences, for instance, that they accept homosexuals better and also had a more flexible view as compared to the stereotype of whether certain tools and appliances were more likely to be used by men or women, Rojas said there is another side to the issue. 

“The adoption of children by gays is an uncertain experiment...they haven’t got the two key reference points of human beings: masculinity and femininity.” Rojas also said they were more likely to turn out as homosexuals themselves. He added that the child was not able to give knowing consent to the experiment, he lacks information he needs for his life, and “it is an exploitation of the child who cannot defend himself against this situation.” Added to ethical considerations, Rojas said that personality problems related to affection (or the lack of it) had also been detected though he added that little research had been done into this matter.

Rojas lamented the fact that in this debate one only hears about the adoption ‘rights’ of homosexuals, but no one defends the interests of the children. He criticised the Seville research because the investigators chose middle class families (67% of the parents studied had been to university), and did not carry out a long enough study, nor did they use proper scientific methods.

In the USA, Golombok and Tasker published a report in 1995 in the «American Journal of Orthopsychiatry», and in 1996 in «Developmental Psychology», a rigorous study based on a sample of mothers and daughters over a period of 16 years. When the children were little there were no appreciable differences between those of lesbian mothers and those of heterosexual divorcees who lived alone, but 46 of the children were studied into adulthood, and a much higher incidence of homosexual relationships was found among those who had grown up with lesbian mothers (24%, as opposed to 0%). A similar report, published in the ‘Lancet’, investigated 75 young men aged between 17 and 43, whose fathers were homosexual or bisexual. The 9% rate of homosexuality among them was far above the average in society at large.

So the only two genuinely serious pieces of research carried out thus far show that children with homosexual parents are more likely to become homosexuals themselves. This is a risk which should not be taken. As Enrique Rojas puts it: “One cannot play with children’s lives.”

Seville, October 27th, 2004 (ACPress.net).
A book has just been published on ‘Pentecostal Gypsies’ by Manuela Cantón, a lecturer at Seville University, in which she analyses the conversion phenomenon of many thousands of gypsies to evangelical, Pentecostal Protestantism.

Cantón concentrates on the southern region of Andalusia but what she has to say could apply to most areas of Spain. While it is hard to quantify the movement, a high proportion of Spanish gypsies either belong to or sympathise with the ‘Philadelphia Church’, which is the evangelical gypsy denomination. The author has studied the movement for eight years and says her objective was to “make the first systematic contribution to the anthropological study of the Philadelphia Church”, calling it the “temple of gypsy Pentecostalism” and arguing that “Pentecostalism is the most widely extended branch of historic Protestantism and the most important within the gypsy community.”

Cantón says Seville, Malaga and Cadiz are the three provinces in Andalusia with the greatest number of Philadelphia churches, and one of its features which most interested the author is that the local churches are led and financed exclusively by gypsies. “The religious movement is organised hierarchically under the figure of a presidential leader, then area supervisors and then the pastors of the different churches, who are elected democratically by the Philadelphia National Council, which meets annually in Madrid.”

The book looks at the evangelical movement among gypsies from various angles, including its relationship to the gypsy economy, its teaching on drug addiction, and the relationship between Philadelphia and other evangelical denominations. “Gypsies are not racist, but distrust non-gypsies.” Pentecostalism stresses that “obedience goes far beyond the family, so the duty of helping one’s neighbour helps greatly in reducing violence and delinquency among gypsies.”

Cantón is critical of the way in which such religious movements are treated with suspicion and are seen as the equivalent of cults. She comments: “After 13 years studying Pentecostal churches in Latin America, I have seen that people who attend them do so freely, and with fairly clear ideas.”

Madrid, October 27th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
The government is not planning to remove the subsidies to confessional R.E. teachers, and certainly not to Catholic ones. The Education Minister will shell out over 100 million euros on such teachers in the current academic year, which is 4.62% up on the previous year.

The Catholic Church will receive 98.5% of this money. 9,016 teachers will be paid at the rate of 82 euros per hour. 95 of these teachers are Protestants and 40 Muslims. Both groups are calling for their numbers to be increased within a legal framework of religious equality. Pupil numbers tell the story: 3.1 million children receive Catholic R.E. lessons, while only 7,816 pupils attend Protestant classes, and 4,800 Muslim children learn about the Koran.

A government spokesman says: “Demand is scarce, that’s the truth. The government and regional authorities are willing to meet the demand and pay for it, so long as there is a minimum of 10 pupils per teacher as the 1995 Accords stipulate.” The 40,000-strong Jewish community prefers to operate outside state control, teaching its children at home or in synagogues. Protestant spokesman, Mariano Blázquez, said it was difficult to find groups of ten or more evangelical children in one school, and that some parents thought what they taught their children at home about their faith was enough. Plus Sunday School, presumably. However, he added: “There should be more teachers, especially in Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid and Galicia, areas where there are greater numbers of evangelicals. Next year we are going to write to all parents so that they know they have this option.”

In the past the option of evangelical R.E. has often only been theoretical, but some believe the current government is taking the issue more seriously than their predecessors. It is also true that evangelicals are split over this issue, with some believing it should not be taught in schools at all. Others feel it is too good an opportunity to throw up, as in some cases pupils from non-Christian families attend the classes, not to mention many gypsy children who might not receive any formal spiritual education elsewhere.

Rome, October 27th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
The Vatican has not minced its words in criticism of the Spanish goverment, accusing its most radical members of hostility towards religion, and of ‘lay fundamentalism’.

Cardinal Julián Herranz, the highest-placed Spanish cleric at the Vatican, denounced what he called “agnostic totalitarianism” in a speech to, among others, Spain’s Ambassadors to Italy and the Vatican. A broad gathering of the diplomatic corps was present to hear the Spanish government roundly criticised on its national day celebrating Hispanicism. Catholic speakers called on them to respect ethical values, in less conciliatory tones than those used by the Pope at his recent meeting with the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez. Herranz said ominously “no civic authority can legally limit” the moral authority of bishops. A winter of discontent is on the cards.

The Catholic Church is furious at legislation on abortion, divorce, homosexual marriage and confessional R.E. and says the bishops’ criticism is not just for religious reasons, but for the general good of society. A major street demonstration is planned by Catholic grassroots members, and although the Episcopate in Spain says it has not organised the march, its rhetoric has clearly encouraged the rank and file to act. It is time for the government to reflect, says the Catholic Church, and time for the Church to move. Meanwhile, a Colombian Cardinal, Alfonso López, who heads up the Vatican’s Family Commission, says the move to legalise homosexual marriage is a “sad step”, especially in a country like Spain with a low birth rate, and whose family policies have never been generous towards married couples with children.

Madrid, October 27th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
A radio survey shows that most Spaniards think churches should be financially self-supporting, and not dependent upon the state. It also reveals that a majority of Spaniards approve of the government’s legislation allowing homosexual marriage and making divorce easier.

After 6 months of this Socialist government, the radio station ‘Cadena Ser’ asked its listeners to rate the performance of the ruling party under the leadership of Zapatero. 72% said they thought the Catholic Church should finance itself, and even a majority of those who voted for the centre-right Popular Party agreed with this. 61% are in favour of allowing homosexual marriage, though 30% are against. However, more people were against allowing homosexuals to adopt children than were in favour, 48% to 42%. On divorce, there was greater unity with 72% of those asked saying they approved of new legislation which speeds up the process considerably.

A large majority (70% to 23%) agree that R.E. should neither be compulsory nor examined as part of the school certificate curriculum. As for Catholic plans to take to the streets and protest, only 24% consider this a wise move, and 60% say they will not participate.

Seville, October 28th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
One of the longest-serving pastors in Spain retired recently, as Manuel Salvador stepped down from his responsibility in the Church of Christ, Seville after 40 years’ ministry there, and in neighbouring Dos Hermanas.

Salvador’s ministry was honoured at a special commemorative service held at the church. He now becomes its Pastor Emeritus, and will help the new pastor, Antonio Cruz. Cruz and the President of the Church of Christ in Spain, Juan Antonio Monroy, both spoke in the service, which proved an emotional time for Manuel Salvador. Monroy spoke about Salvador’s work in Seville, and gave him as a present ­ in magazine form ­ a compilation of all published articles and other writings which referred to Salvador.

Antonio Cruz paid homage to the ministry of Salvador in the church, mentioning how he had helped each of the members throughout his career as a pastor and preacher. An audiovisual presentation put together by his children and some of the church members recalled the minister’s life in photos, from his infancy to the present day. Finally, Manuel and his wife, Pepa Cosa, were invited up to the pulpit and received various presents.

Madrid, October 28th, 2004 (ACPress.net).  
Following this bulletin’s extensive report on the ‘Lima 2004 Festival’ held earlier this month in the Peruvian capital, news has reached us that Spanish Christian flamenco also played a part.

The guitarrist and composer Juan Ramón Jiménez, who lives in Madrid, was invited to join other artists at the Festival, which was headed up by Luis Palau as the main speaker at the evangelistic event. Other participants at the Festival included José Luis Rodriguez, Yuri, Rodrigo Espinoza, Miguel Cejas and the Banda Imperial, the Argentinian group Rescate, and national groups such as Kerygma and Allpa Yuraq.

Madrid, October 28th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
In an innovative and surprising move, the Spanish Christian Union student movement (GBU), has appointed a singer, Sylvia Santoro, as an ‘Artistic Staffworker’, whose job will be to offer concerts and promote witness events of an artistic nature.

Santoro has contributed to the work of GBU for several years and has performed at various universities. She first came to be known as a singer with a group from her home church in Mallorca, called ‘In His name’. She participated in the recording of ‘Our hymns’ (1994), performed at the National Evangelical Congress (1997), and has sung with groups such as Errata and Dea. She also sang at the European Student Congress in Germany. She has brought out a record, entitled ‘If the stones talked’.

As well as a singer, Santoro is an expert in Spanish dance, but says herself that the most important thing in life is to serve Jesus with the gifts He has given her.