Yesterday we saw how politicians who pass laws which go against Christian social teaching and then promise that of course we will still be free to express disagreement are not to be trusted. They are incapable of keeping that promise.
Today I want to show further where this is leading. I have been suggesting for some time that the acceptance of different social teachings to those Christian ones upon which our society has been built – would soon result in the Christian teachings being banned. This was always vehemently denied. Now – as we saw yesterday this is well under way.
A few years ago I did a debate on Revelation TV with Peter Tatchell. When we travelled to Malaga to do the debate I wondered why they were based out there. Part of the reason was the way that things were going in the UK meant that they foresaw being banned or fined by the government for daring to express Christian viewpoints on social issues. So they moved to Catholic Spain. Well now that has caught up with them. I received this report yesterday from the Christian Post
Spanish television authorities have fined the U.K. Christian broadcasting channel Revelation TV amid claims of “homophobia,” because an evangelical pastor advised that parents of children struggling with gender identity issues not fall prey to social engineering.
Evangelical Focus reported on Thursday that Spain’s National Commission of Markets and Competition, or CNMC, found that a broadcast of Revelation TV in September 2017 “could be considered threatening to the dignity of the homosexual and transgender group, although there was no manifest incitation to hate against these groups by the channel that owns the program.”
The fine imposed on Revelation TV was around $7,000.
Gordon Pettie, director of Revelation TV, told Spanish site Protestante Digital that the comments in question stemmed from a discussion on whether Christians should move their children from schools that allow young pupils to identify as transgender.
He continued: “Christians have to wake up and say: listen, we are going to create a political party or join a party to change this madness. We are going to have to do this, because if we don’t, we will have Sodom and Gomorrah at our doorsteps, where they are going to tell you: we want to get hold of those men in there and we want to sleep with them and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
CNMC argued that there was clear homophobia in the statement, and said that linking homosexual and transsexual groups with Sodom and Gomorrah “is degrading for those groups.” It warned that such content “can generate a state of alarm in the Christian community and prompt rejection of these groups, with negative connotations, openly opposed to the needed respect for human dignity.”
This is astonishing. It does not matter whether the comment from the pastor was offensive or even wrong. It matters that the State has banned such an opinion even being expressed because it was ‘homophobic’. There are significant parts of the Bible that could now be banned – on a Christian TV station!
The irony is that it was on that same station that Peter Tatchell and I had this debate which I now post here – because I suspect that the Spanish authorities would not permit us to have that debate now on the grounds that my views about SSM could be considered ‘degrading’ for some! Peter – I wonder if this is what you were campaigning for? The silencing of those who oppose your views. I don’t believe it is…but this is where you have led us – as you were warned. If you want to watch this debate I suggest you do so soon – before it too gets banned on Youtube!
And the Q and A
I thought Spain might have more sense than a post-Christian place like the UK. If Spain were as Catholic as one might hope, the ban complained of would not have happened; a ban on public debate of a topic likely to undermine public morals would have been more likely.
Formerly Catholic countries in Europe have been hit hard by secular liberalism; of which this is a small part. The intolerance of secular liberalism towards Christianity – Catholic and Protestant alike – is well-known. We can expect a lot more of it. (Maybe the qualifier “secular” is redundant.)
Reblogged this on The love of God and commented:
We can discuss this all we like. In the end, if we say we have fellowship with the Lord, we had better be careful about ALL sin. Not just this one, which is a sin against your own body, but all sin. We have to turn away from it. Read John’s letters.
The persecution against the truth is real and is reaching out everywhere. Christians need to be more aware of what is happening; censorship is real! Thank you for sharing.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Anyone who thinks that by moving to Spain they might be safe to express Christian viewpoints on social issues hasn’t paid much attention to Spanish history or even recent Spanish politics. Moreover. ‘Catholic’ Spain is about as dead as ‘Catholic’ Ireland and has been for some time. Two factors help to explain this. Firstly there is the force of secular political parties and movements which are deeply hostile to the Catholic Church. This is nothing new in Spain. Secondly, there is the decline in practice of the Catholic faith. So Spain is no more a Catholic country than the UK is a Protestant country. Catholic France and Catholic Italy are equally dead. For an article on the relationship between the Catholic Church in Spain and the appointment of the latest government in Spain, see:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2018/06/13/spains-new-atheist-prime-minister-spells-trouble-for-the-church/
Thanks Mike17. It is good to get some more ‘factual’ evidence to back up what seems to be the case. I understand what you mean. Probably though, we don’t hear the voice of the over 80’s Catholics and Protestants. There are plenty them still alive in Ireland, Italy, U.K. Spain. They don’t often have a voice though because they don’t communicate on and through the ‘web’. I think we need to seek them out, ask their opinions because usually they have a lot of wisdom and experience and their grasp anduse of language, spoken and written, is sooooooooo much better than subsequent generations.
Throughout that debate Peter Tatchell describes traditional marriage in the most awful terms; patriarchal; fathers selling their young daughters; polygamous; just about the ownership of property;and more. He claims that opposite sex marriage has a high divorce rate and has a significant incidence of violence and child abuse within it. Why did he ever want then, to be part of such an institution?
Martha,
It seems as though it was a pragmatic change of strategy, towards normalisation.
@ Geoff ” It seems as though it was a pragmatic change of strategy, towards normalisation.”
Yet, Peter Tatchell claims he is/was driven to fight for the right of same sex couples to marry, on the basis of “love”. His argument doesn’t stand up.
He constantly switches premise, moves the goal posts and relies on conjurer’s ‘tricks’ to make his case.
Spain is very secular these days, in fact it has caught up with the UK very quickly. Spanish children are now very spoiled, unruly and rude, every one from a young age glued to a phone. Grandparents are at a loss as to why!
Under the last PSOE led government with Zapatero, he quickly introduced homosexual marriage and the start of the LGBT (I call it the A-Z) rights. A Spanish group in the north of the country has already fallen foul of the intolerant by having the cheek to have a bus promoting male is male and female is female and born one or other, not so graciously said mind.
TV is appalling promoting sex, homosexuality, every hour of the day and be carefull what you watch in the evenings. In fact I no longer watch Spanish TV after about 7pm because you just don’t know what is going to be advertised next, children stand no chance.
In Rajoy’s favour he tried to wind back to abortion laws a few years ago (he’s a conservative) but the demonstrations and ourage was too much for the politicians and they let it go, watch it fast forward under Sanchez and his mostly female/feminist government who seek to cause more mayhem under the guise of ‘progression’. May God hold back the damage this man and his government will do in less than 2 short years. He reminds me of Vardakar in Eire, same spirit.
Maybe Pedro Sanchez with his hatred of the church would end these horrendous antisocial mix of RC/Pagan/secular fiestas than go on all year round, he would be doing everyone a favour.
Spain is not a Christian nation. Divorce rate very high. More children born through IVF to single mothers and de facto relationships. Promiscuity rife as is drug taking. The busy N332 road here always, every day is lined with prostitutes, not forgetting the ‘live sex’ clubs situated on main roads. Plus they are more into all things New Age than Christianity proven by the explosion of tattooed bodies everywhere. No, Spain is not Christian in any sense of the word. Ask my pastor who has lived here for over 40 years and has services/bible study groups in multilanguages.
The Spanish people though ‘nice’ are essentially very corrupt in every day life and don’t know what telling ‘the truth’ means. That is the one of the major differences between ‘protestant Britain’ and ‘catholic Spain’.
The Spanish judgement against Revelation TV does not surprise me.
The irony for me. It was watching Howard on Revelation TV one night here in Spain 14 years ago that the Lord brought me out of the kingdom of darkness into His Kingdom of Light. Jesus is the only way to God (I was in the New Age then). Oh the mysterious ways of God.
@ Jacqueline, sister! I rejoice with you that God brought you out of the kingdom of darkness into His wonderful light and into the family of God.
Thank you for taking the time to outline the spiritual and political ‘atmosphere’ in Spain, in a nutshell. It is good to be informed and I grieve for the young people and the children in Spain. You are perceptive and write well and I hope you find more use for your gifts, and more time to develop them, for God’s service.
My husband and I trained with CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) in Switzerland in 2013. One half of the class was Spanish so all the lectures were given in English and translated simultaneously into Spanish. The work of CEF started in Spain 1967 and continues to this day and a new Spanish Children’s Ministry Leadership Course has been organised. CEF is not a perfect ministry, none are, but it is an excellent ministry. It is encouraging to see where God is at work because when we see how our societies are disintegrating into sexual depravity, violence lies and greed, we can really get upset and feel defeated.
But God is in control and until He brings the curtain down, we must continue to pray and reach children and others with the gospel. It is not illegal to evangelise yet so we must continue the work. Hope I don’t sound too ‘preachy’!
John9:4 “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”
Thank you Martha, not preachy at all. I am a Glaswegian and have always been perceptive, now more so which annoys my heathen husband.
I live on the Costa Blanca where there is little in the way of true Bliblical Christianity. Most ‘christian’ churches/fellowships here are middle aged and middle class social clubs with Jesus as an optional estra or made in each image. Granted they do good works locally. They don’t care much for the likes of me, I am too zealous, too biblical! That is why I like my new group, it’s Jesus of the Word all the way.
Although I haven’t counted, I would say there are more devilish ‘spiritulist churches’ than those of Jesus. Why would the CoE here in Gandia hold services in a depressing Jesuit chapel and call it lovely? Spain is spiritually dark/dry. Why did the Lord call me out here? Only He knows.
@ Jacqueline . I am Irish living in Glasgow. Ireland was a very ‘religious’ country but also a lot of ‘God fearing’ people. It tries to cast off its ‘backward’ reputation by embracing all things ‘progressive’, to its ruination. I (and my husband) am the fruit of Billy Graham Crusade Glasgow 1991 so I have a deep burden for Scotland; to give something back to the country of my spiritual birth and home.
I hope (and pray) your group stays strong, and remains on and in the Word. I think it is good to have a ‘big vision’ borne out of fervent prayer; carried forward by prayer; and realized by obedience to God in tiny steps, as His path will inevitably unfold for you and your fellow Christians. Perhaps it might be worth contacting CEF in Spain as they do training in Bible Clubs (Good News Clubs) and Holiday Clubs (on beaches or anywhere children can meet. They are unusually ‘Word’ based and don’t compromise unlike most other ministries (eventually).
I have never been to Costa Blanca, just Barcelona and Madrid, many years ago. The European countries had/have such rich and diverse and beautiful cultures but culture cannot be sustained for its own sake nor on its own merit. Europe enjoyed a blessing borne out of Christianisation, (less so I think in Roman Catholic colonies). We never seem to learn that! Hence ‘British Values’! Our British values may well return us to pre-Christian barbarism, or so it looks just now.
We will pray for the conversion of your husband who will now be known as ‘Jacqueline’s husband in Costa Blanca’. My husband has an extremely long prayer list, and never ceases to amaze me with his perseverance, and I am always seeing the answer to his prayers.
Pray for whatever burdens you, and God will turn your burdens into a ministry.
Much love
Martha
Revelation tv should be closed down
Never watched a more racist homophobic programme ever.
And Jesus wept
Could you give one example of either racism or homophobia?