News, October, 2007

Education for Citizenship, the new official doctrine

'Throughout history, the communists have been the victims of repression, like homosexuals or Jews'. Poor Stalin! 'We fall in love with people independently of their sex'. 'During the 20th century (women's) rights were consolidated and extended to reach aspects of thier private life, such as the right to abort'. 'We have wanted to stress from the beginning our concern to change attitudes'. These are just some of the phrases to be found in a text book on 'Citizenship', the new subject at school, this book aimed at 14 year olds. Evangelicals (most), Catholics and many others are outraged at the way in which a subject, which should help people of differing opinions to live together, has been turned into pure indoctrination for one way of looking at the world.

This new school subject has caused a great deal of excitement and anger in many circles. It is clearly seen by the government as a way of consolidating the changes in the law which have been introduced over the period of the current parliament -elected in the wake of the Madrid bombings in March 2004- in order to ensure their acceptance among younger people and therefore longevity. It is only natural that those who hold other ethical systems, particularly those who hold to the divinely inspired judeo-christain values. The book describes this 'model' as 'repressive'. It then explicity suggests that the pupil must accept a different model. On the other hand, it must be admitted that since many children do not opt for religious education, which is voluntary, there has for a number of years been a vacumm in the teaching of social ethics. This includes many issues on which all must surely agree in a democracy: behaviour on the street, tolerance, respect, concern for the suffering, etc.. The majority of the curriculum is not debated, but it is the confusion of personal and social values which causes division.

Due to the devolution of responsibility for education to the regions, those regions which are controlled by the right wing Partido Popular (also closely linked with conservative elements of the Roman Catholic Church), have decided not to offer this subject in school. But other regions have made it a compulsory subject, even for children who attend a religious education class at another time. (Religious Education classes in Spain are 'confessional', so in most cases children attend Catholic classes, but in some schools Evangelicals also offer classes for their children. The Muslims are also now preparing teachers for their confessional RE.)

For evangelicals, it is often hard to find themselves allied with the Catholic Church, since they have tended to find themselves on opposite sides of the political spectrum. 'The Church' in Spain has historically been associated with the right wing and the status quo, while evangelicals have always been considered outsiders. The Inquisition persecuted them, but they also suffered until 1967 under the Franco regime. Part of the Spanish Catholic Church's 20th century dislike of evangelicals arose due to the emphasis evangelicals placed on education, starting many schools at the end of the 19th century. All but one of these were closed by Franco.

The battle for the minds and hearts of the younger generation is stronger than ever.

Split opinions are typical in Evangelical circles, as Protestante Digital shows!

Survy results of Spanish evangelicals from Protestante Digital.