The Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE) has said the social and political situation of tension and confrontation needs to be addressed, and for this it invites to a “truce” that requires an exercise of joint reflection.

In a statement, the evangelical organisation refers to the latest controversy surrounding Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who on 24 April opened a five-day personal reflection on whether he should resign after what he described as “fake news” and “mudd” attacks against his wife, Begoña Gómez. A judge had just agreed to open an investigation against Sánchez’s wife following a complaint about corruption by a right-wing activist group.

The Prime Minister finally announced he would continue leading the government, in a speech in which he called “the whole of society to stop, reflect and decide clearly where we want to go as a society”.

Without going into whether the President of the Government was pursuing other political aims, as the opposition has said, the Spanish Evangelical Alliance accepts the need to take a break to make an assessment of the social and political situation in the country.

A different way of doing politics

The evangelical organisation, founded in 1877, argues that much of the tension has been fuelled by political action. “In recent legislatures, we have seen the level of parliamentary debate drop to become a permanent exchange of disqualifications, with few people listening, and few building consensus between opposing sides”, laments the AEE. “But this atmosphere is also reflected in society in general. Where everything becomes self-referential, and tension replaces understanding, the quality of social relations and the democratic mood recede”.

Today “few build consensus between opposites”, regrets the Alliance. The evangelical body therefore invites the political groups to open a “period of truce for reflection” to facilitate the agreement of rules of the game “in which insults are replaced by free debate, manipulation by truth and tension by calm. We must begin to build basic mutual trust, which at the moment is non-existent”.

For the AEE, this construction can take place in a private context where political parties are “not forced to defend their castle”.

“As an Alliance, we confirm that it is possible to do so, and we say this from the experience of the different dialogue roundtables we have promoted, in which it has been possible to see representatives of different (and opposing) groups listening to each other and debating constructively”.

This rapprochement between people and entities with different ideas is not intended to make anyone “renounce their proposals”, but it does make it clear that it is “essential to build relationships and points of union in those aspects that are common to us, without this meaning renouncing our own identity or appearing to be traitors”.

Building respectful relationships

The Evangelical Alliance adds that, as a society, reflection has to start from self-criticism. For this reason, it invites everyone to “ask themselves whether this environment of tension and closed-mindedness has not permeated” other environments.

“We call for a full stop and ask ourselves whether this is the kind of society and the kind of human relations we want to leave our children. We call to free ourselves from dogmatism, from the denial of bread and salt to the contrary, we call to open our hearts, ears and minds to those who do not think as we do”, the document says.

Self-criticism among Christians

In the last point of the communiqué, the evangelical organisation, encourages evangelical Christians in Spain to exercise “our function as salt, not by disdainfully disowning the imperfect society that surrounds us, but by mixing with it, participating despite our weaknesses, and offering a renewed model of human relations”.

In this active participation, the Spanish Evangelical Alliance considers it necessary “to take the beam out of our own eye by cleansing ourselves of all dogmatism and intolerance, giving way to dialogue and opening ourselves to learn from one another, demonstrating how the Protestant tradition of unity within diversity is a good model to have as a reference”.

The text ends with the quotation from Romans 12:18: “As far as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone”.