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Evangelical
vote shifts to the right
Madrid, January 12th, 2005
(ACPress.net).
Ten months on from the
election and the previously unthinkable is happening; the evangelical
vote in Spain has shifted perceptibly to the right.
In a recent survey at ProtestanteDigital.com visitors were asked
who they would vote for if there were an election today: 51%
said for the centre-right Popular Party, while the Left-wing
parties - the traditional hunting-ground for Spanish Protestants
after the long years of Franco associated the Right in their
minds with repression - only gaining a paltry 26%. This latter
figure breaks down into 22% for the governing Socialist Party,
and 4% for the more radical United Left party. Nationalist parties
gained 14% of the vote, while 10% said they would not vote for
anyone. Virtually everybody knew what they would do at an election;
only 1% said they did not know for whom to cast their vote.
Historically, Spanish evangelicals have tended to vote for the
Left as the Right has been associated with Franco's 'National
Catholicism.' As in the recent American election, moral issues
figure strongly in the current survey results. Gay marriage
and adoption of children by homosexual couples, the legalisation
of abortion and the easing of the divorce law have drawn evangelical
voters closer to the traditional Catholic position.
Opinion polls show that support for the government is dropping
across the country, even though they still enjoy a lead over
all other parties. A national radio station canvassed people
to see if they were happy with Zapatero's legislature, and 46%
said they were satisfied, against 35% unsatisfied.
Source & Editing: ACPress
New edition of part of first Spanish
Bible published
Madrid, January 12th, 2005
(ACPress.net).
In 1569, the so-called
'Bear's Bible' was published, the first ever translation of
the Bible into Spanish. Translated by Reformer and ex-monk Casiodoro
de Reina, its nickname came from the fact that there was a bear
engraved on the book's cover.
A publishing house, 'Círculo de Lectores & Galaxia Gutenberg',
have now brought out a special Bear's Bible edition of Genesis
and Exodus, including more than 200 illustrations and three
pull-outs, by the contemporary artist, Eduardo Arroyo. He has
used a variety of methods, but not oils. Water-colours, crayon,
charcoal, collage and photographs are all used. "The first question
for me regarding this project was which materials I should use
to decorate the Bible text so that it looked good and said something"
(sic). Arroyo was undoubtedly unaware of the irony of this last
comment; Christians have found for centuries that God's Word
says rather more than 'something'.
Arroyo expressed his delight at the finished product, of which
20,000 copies will be published in Spanish (including some copies
to be sold in Mexico), 8,000 in French, and later in other languages
such as English. Arroyo describes himself as "a belligerent
atheist" yet claims that his illustrations are neither "grotesque
nor derisive", and that he has avoided "caricatures, criticism
and contempt." He said that reading the Bible had not made him
believe even a little, but that he recognised it was a formidable
piece of literature. "It is a magnificent text, full of poetry
and very well translated, although it is also a cruel text,
bathed in blood, the reading of which often sent shivers down
my spine."
Arroyo was born in Madrid during the Civil War. In the 1960s
he moved among the exiled artistic community in Spain and produced
work for an exhibition giving a violent portrait of Spanish
history. His pictures included paintings of Franco, Hitler and
Mussolini and provoked an official complaint from Spanish diplomats.
In 1973, he was deported from Spain and only returned in 1976,
a year after Franco's death. In 1982, he won a national art
prize and exhibited in the National Library in Madrid.
Source: EL UNIVERSAL. Editing:
ACPress
Protestant cemetery given official blessing after 8-year
struggle
Santander, January 12th, 2005
(ACPress.net).
An eight-year battle
to have the Protestant cemetery in Santander officially recognised
and protected has been won .
The history of the cemetery is certainly interesting. Land was
first requested from the Council in 1831, finally purchased
in 1862 and the cemetery was built in different stages. A archive
in Santander Library shows that some English citizens first
asked for a Protestant burial ground but the story goes even
further back: 'On July 22nd, 1779, an English subject, who had
died on board a steamship with an English flag, was thrown into
the water near Santander. A fisherman, hearing of this, told
his companions and the next day noone wanted to go out fishing
in case the body carried the plague and the fish had been contaminated.
The body had to be taken out of the water, and with great fear,
was wrapped in a cloth, covered in lime and buried in a corner
of San Francisco convent garden, which served as the town cemetery,
but well away from the rest of the graves. Some while later,
someone placed a rough wooden cross on top of the grave...'
The first proper burial took place in 1864, of a 44-year-old
English railway engineer. The various stages of construction
were paid for by English Christians and even various foreign
dignitaries, such as the King of Prussia (who gave the considerable
sum equivalent to 345 pesetas, which was more than half the
cost of the land). Some statutes were drawn up in 1894 allowing
any Protestants who died in the area to be buried there, whatever
their nationality, on the condition that funeral costs of 25
pesetas were paid. A group of Consuls formed the supervisory
committee. The cemetery is now operated under the auspices of
the Anglican Church in Spain.
Source: FEREDE. Editing: ACPress
Recalling a promise kept for 460 years
Vitoria, January 12th, 2005
(ACPress.net).
The northern city of
Vitoria kept a promise to the Jewish community for 460 years,
having expelled them in 1492. The promise to respect their dead
was given as the Jews gave up the cemetery on the condition
that it was used as pasture land. In 1952, the city was freed
from its obligation.
In 1492, among the Jews living in Vitoria were Mosseh Balid,
Ismael Moratans, Samuel Benjamin, Aliatar Tello, Yuce Faral,
and Samuel de Mijancas. They paid their taxes like everyone
else and contributed to the prosperity of the city. But they
carried a stigma and had to wear coloured scarves which identified
them as Jews. Their life was misery until they were expelled.
Some stayed and 'converted' but paid with their lives as the
end of a period of persecution carried out by the Catholic authorities
and Church, and not a few neighbours keen to get their hands
on the Jews' wealth.
However, when the Jews were finally expelled from Vitoria after
a presence lasting 300 years, one final agreement was reached.
That their cemetery would not be ploughed over, as a mark of
respect to the Jews who had died and been buried there. The
chief magistrate of Vitoria at the time, Juan Martínez de Olabe,
swore to keep the promise on June 27th, 1492. Exactly 460 years
later, a Jewish 'council' meeting in Bayonne freed Vitoria from
its promise, thanking them for the respect they had shown the
Jews buried in that cemetery. An Israeli Embassy spokesman said
at a recent commemorative act recalling the incident that he
knew of no parallel in the whole of Europe.
Noone present, including the Israeli Ambassador to Spain, knew
if there are any Jews living in Vitoria today, although there
are almost certainly descendants of those Jews who chose to
stay and convert to Catholicism in 1492. No archaeological vestiges
of the Jewish presence remain in the city, although historians
agree as to the location of the old synagogue, in a street which
now boasts two mosques and a Catholic hermitage.
Source: Diario de Álava. Editing:
ACPress
Survey suggests people are against Catholic criticism
of government
Madrid, January 12th, 2005 (ACPress.net).
According to a recent
survey, most Spaniards disagree with the approach of the Catholic
Church to the ethics legislation of the current government.
Although 80% of those interviewed claim to be Catholic, two-thirds
of them are against the campaign being waged by the Church in
the face of political proposals to dismantle the Christian moral
base of Spain.
They believe the Catholic Church was wrong to consider organising
street demonstrations (which, in fact, never took place) and
some even think it is politically motivated. Almost 70% of those
interviewed think the Catholic hierarchy is out of touch with
modern society. The proportion of those interviewed who called
themselves practising Catholics was 43%, yet over half the overall
population send their children to confessional R.E. classes.
Source: C. SER. Editing: ACPress
Decoding Da Vinci
Madrid, January 12th, 2005
(ACPress.net).
Several books have now
been published in Spain pointing out the errors and limitations
of the best-seller, 'The Da Vinci Code'.
Many people seem to have taken the novel as much more than a
story, even as some kind of 'revelation'. Suddenly thousands
think that a sensationalist and strained novel has let them
in on the best-kept secret in history: that Christianity is
the invention of people like Emperor Constantine, and that Jesus
would not have claimed to be God without having a romance with
the beautiful Magdalene. As G.K.Chesterton well said: 'When
a man stops believing in God, he doesn't believe in nothing,
he believes in anything.'
American Christians were the first to respond to what Ullate
calls a "complete re-writing" of Christianity in the book's
attacks on the Christian faith. Others tried to cash in on the
novel's success by adding to the turbulence in the waters swirling
around the Da Vinci Code and by offering more 'information'
about the Templars, Mary Magdalene and the so-called holy grail.
Christian apologetics on the issue arrived in Spain last autumn,
dealing with the esoteric and enigmatic ideas in the novel and
in the literature building on the back of Dan Brown's novel.
This is especially relevant given the apparent thirst for such
weird literature in our society.
Many books on the subject simply muddy the waters even further,
but three which deal with the falsehoods in Brown's novel are
'The truth about the Da Vinci Code' by José Antonio Ullate,
'Decoding Da Vinci' by Amy Wellborn, and 'The Gospel Code' by
Ben Witherington. The first author is a Spanish thinker, the
second an American journalist, and the third an evangelical
Christian. Wellborn's book dismantles the errors prevalent in
Brown and does this thoroughly. Ullate's work goes even further
and shows the Gnostic influence in Brown's work. A Protestant
response, already reviewed in this bulletin, comes in the form
of a translation of Ben Witherington's work, 'The Gospel Code'.
It deals with the historicity and faithful transmission of the
Gospels, the truth about Mary Magdalene, and the Gnostic foundations
of Brown's book. Spanish readers now have the chance to understand
what really lurks beneath the surface of 'The Da Vinci Code'.
Source: LA RAZÓN. Editing:
ACPress
Where are all the pastors going?
Barcelona, January 12th, 2005
(ACPress.net).
There is an acute pastoral
crisis in the Spanish evangelical church. Added to the lack
of new candidates for the ministry in recent years is the increasing
number of pastors who are leaving their jobs. This is why the
Theology Commission of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance is organising
a conference to study the reasons why many pastors leave the
ministry.
The dual aim is prevention, by studying the causes, and encouragement,
by offering ministers new motivation to enjoy the privilege
of serving the Lord in this capacity. Many of the problems have
to do with wrong views of Christian ministry which is why the
conference will begin by examining what the Bible has to say
about pastoral ministry, its priorities and goals. This is crucial
in helping ministers avoid burn-out.
Ministers can often spend a lot of time doing things which have
little to do with pastoral work. Another aim of the conference
will be to allow pastors to share their needs and concerns,
and perhaps even their fears. The conference is due to be held
near Barcelona in early May.
Source: AEE. Editing: ACPress.net
Borges' love for the Bible came from his English grandmother
Mallorca, January 12th, 2005
(ACPress.net).
The Bible and the figure
of Jesus Christ are two of the leading topics in the work of
Argentinian writer, José Luis Borges, according to his widow,
María Kodama, who said the recurrence of these themes in his
writing was due to the influence of his paternal grandmother.
Kodama was talking to journalists on the Spanish island of Mallorca
and explaining some of Borges' favourite images, such as the
mirror, the laberinth or the tiger. However, others which have
been studied less, include references to the Bible and Christianity.
The mother of Borges' father was an English Protestant who knew
much of the Bible by heart and recited him fragments of both
the Old and New Testaments. She exercised considerable influence
upon Borges, and recited English poems to him.
Kodama encouraged scholars to do more research into this area,
rather than others which have been more thoroughly investigated,
like the mirror. Borges' fascination for this object stemmed
from a childhood terror at finding a mirror opposite his bed
which deformed and multiplied his image. The laberinth dates
from the time his father showed him the Minotaur in an encyclopaedia.
She added that Borges despised the Nobel Prize, which he never
won, considering that such awards were meaningless.
Borges did not like sitting down in front of a blank piece of
paper when it came to writing, but preferred to have an idea
already worked out in his mind. He often found his subjects
in dreams. "He dreamt every night and had the advantage of being
able to remember them."
Source: EFE. Editing: ACPress
Protestants are the number two religion
in Catalonia
Barcelona, January 12th, 2005
(ACPress.net).
Evangelicalism holds
second place in the list of religions in the north-eastern region
of Catalonia. There are 2,400 Catholic places of worship, followed
by 341 Protestant churches.
Twelve religious minorities have a total of 722 places of worship,
with Protestants far and away the largest of these groups. They
are present in 38 of Catalonia's 41 local districts. After them
come the Jehovah's Witnesses (141), Muslims (139), Buddhists
(28), Hindus (16), Mormons (13), Seventh-day Adventists (12),
Bahai (12), Orthodox (8), Taoists (5) and Sikhs (5). It is the
first time an official study has been done into the religious
'map' of a region in Spain.
Research shows that in an apparently secularised state, alternatives
to Catholicism appear all the time despite the historical weight
which still lies behind the Roman edifice. Immigration has obviously
affected the religious composition of Catalonia, particularly
relevant in the growth of the number of mosques and other Islamic
centres. However, the study also points out the significance
of the arrival of a Jewish community from Argentina, and of
Protestant Christians from South America and Asia. The study's
authors are not merely collating statistics but want their data
to help the acceptance of non-Catholic groups and give legitimacy
to other religious confessions. Although Protestantism is clearly
the second largest group, it tends to be concentrated in three
areas: around Barcelona, in central Catalonia and in Girona.
They are almost entirely absent from areas in the Pyrenees,
although Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims can be found there.
Source: Jordi Torrents. Editing:
ACPress
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