Assemblies of God call not to ‘aggravate the social breach’ in Spain-Catalonia

Regional elections will be held in Catalonia on December 21.

This is one of the key decisions announced by the Spanish government after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy applied the article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, through which his government took control over the Catalan institutions.

Despite the initial doubts, all the Catalan political parties have announced they will take part in the elections.

“CITIZENS OF A KINGDOM INHERITED BY JESUS”

In this context, the Federation of the Assemblies of God of Spain (FADE in Spanish) has issued a statement regarding the political crisis in Catalonia and Spain, expressing its “concern” about the “growing tension and the destructive consequences of the conflict” that is “product of the apparently irreconcilable positions of those who conceive Catalonia and the rest of the Spain in different ways”.

Signed by the Executive Council together with the Permanent Commission, FADE want to distance itself from “those who radicalise and attack others verbally, physically or intellectually, causing injuries or aggravating the existing ones, due to a past not overcome because of lack of forgiveness and, therefore, reconciliation”.

“As Christians, we declare that we are citizens of a Kingdom inherited by Jesus, which moves us beyond any barrier of separation between persons and totally alien to fostering any phobia or discrimination based on race, sex, culture, language, religion or nation”, the statement continues.

“SOCIAL FRAGMENTATION IS MORE AND MORE SEVERE”

FADE expresses its “disapproval to those who call themselves evangelicals or Christians and in the exercise of their ministry, publicly act in a partisan way, contributing to aggravate in an irresponsible way the social fragmentation, which is already becoming more severe”.

“In fact, our knowledge of the kingdom of heaven, should lead us to be more interested in people and families, than in the ideals of what Spain or Catalonia should be”, FADE adds.

CALL TO PRAYER AND FORGIVENESS

The statement points out that the solution to the current conflict “does not exclusively lie in a police, judicial or political approach”.

“The current conflict lies in the soul of those who, regardless of whether they are Catalan or Spanish, have not been able to overcome the offenses of the most recent past, or even of the distant past that the new generations have inherited, due to the persistence of certain irreconcilable attitudes throughout history that affect centennial wounds not healed yet”.

That is why they see it as “a spiritual problem (...) only surmountable through a sincere reconciliation based on the practice of forgiveness in all its fullness”.

“INTERCEDE FOR THE AUTHORITIES”

The statement closes with a call to “intercede before God, praying for those in places of social influence, in positions of authority or spaces of government to work according to objective criteria and to contribute to peace, seeking justice, renouncing violence, practicing mercy, acting without resentment and dictating or applying laws based on piety, justice and fairness”.

“Let us intercede, so that our leaders humble themselves before God, imploring wisdom to achieve a new time in history that contributes to the health of our people, to a sustainable progress and to leave a healthy legacy and a better future for the new generations”, FADE says.

ASSEMBLIES OF GOD IN SPAIN

The Spanish Federation of Assemblies of God was officially established in Spain in 1963.

It currently has hundreds of places of worship throughout the Spanish geography and it is one of the fastest growing evangelical denominations in the country.