The Church, Evangelicalism and the Partido Popular.

The modern evangelical church can be something to see. Largely born from the Billy Graham variety of Worship, it can have an enormous impact on believers.

With few exceptions, it leans sharply towards The Right (despite the teachings of Jesus which might suggest otherwise). Donald Trump – despite his obvious flaws – could safely say that he was elected thanks to the overwhelming support of the Christian evangelicals.

We read that ‘Evangelicalism must have an unending supply of enemies’, such as Satan and of course the Democrats (‘Liberals’) as they ponder on the manifest evils of Wokism, inappropriate library-books, George Soros, guns, drag shows and abortion. 

However it may have come about (the evangelists often believe in things like The Rapture and White Pride and, for some reason, they appear to be ferociously against the ‘radically dangerous’ Covid vaccine), the movement is popular in Latin America.

So, by a circuitous route, we come to Spain.

Spain is of course a staunchly Catholic country – if in these times it can lay claim to any religion – and the Catholic influence (inevitably) is Conservative and broadly in line with the Partido Popular (or even Vox). There are some other strands of Christian worship here (all unkindly classed as sects) and the one that is growing the fastest is the evangelical movement (currently with some 4,200 temples mostly serving Barcelona and Madrid) – particularly noteworthy within the Latin American community. Indeed, one Church, called the Iglesia Cristo Viene (24,000 likes on Facebook) and based in Usera, Madrid, has a

strong link to the Partido Popular, reciprocated in kind, as the PP looks for the hispanoamericano vote – the objective being to "unite relations" with these religious groups "around the project and the program" of the party. A report this weekend speaks of ‘The evangelical pastor Yadira Maestre, the leading religious extremist of the PP who warns of pacts with The Devil and The Damned. The pastor has become an important ally of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Alberto Núñez Feijóo in the search to capture the Latino vote’. A video shows Yadira (a Columbian immigrant) in splendid form (Hallelujah!) as she assures the congregation that ‘When the country is finally ruled by The Just, then we shall have peace’.

Another clip shows her in full flow asking the crowd for the blessing of Feijóo.

A little rich perhaps, but after all, as Donald Trump himself would tell you, every vote counts.