What we evangelical Protestants can offer Europe in the next decade

The EU has gained in economic and financial consistency, but its role as a reference entity in the world has been diluted. This process will continue over the next ten years unless there is a turnaround, which at present does not seem foreseeable.

The cause of this decline is the liquidation of the values derived from the Christian worldview, most notably Protestant, which for so long has nurtured Europe. A culture that loses its values may be very advanced economically or technologically, but it inevitably goes into decline.

Europe has been on the road to decline since it replaced the Christian worldview with almost nothing but the fight against climate change and gender ideology. But both are too little to constitute a reference model.

Many Europeans complain about Donald Trump’s return. I am not going to get into my own reticence and expectations. But those critical of him should consider that he certainly has a defined project, clearly defined goals and paths, which respond to a clear worldview. Turmp’s motto is objectively clear: ‘Make American Great Again’. Europeans may, no doubt, have other programmes, goals and paths, but they lack the clarity shown by Trump and his decision to take the lead in a project that decides not only to convince, but to create enthusiasm. Europe does not offer a comparable alternative in these terms.

Trump’s isolationism policies could be an opportunity for Europe to build a path of its own, but a path cannot be charted if there is no shared, well-defined and exciting common goal.

[destacate] A path for Europe cannot be charted if there is no shared, well-defined and exciting common goal[/destacate]The initial model conceived by the creators of the EU (Schumann, De Gasperi, Monnet) understood the EU as a global project in which the economy was only one element. It is true that the constitution of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, the seed of the EU) was made with the economy in mind, but the model was more comprehensive. And, above all, it was built on the basis of the Christian culture that was a reference for Europe.

Christians do not have to demand respect for biblical values as a collective in extinction would do. We have to offer the biblical worldview as the basis of hope for the revitalisation of Europe and for the recovery of its role in the world.

We must call Europe to make a critical evaluation of the results of its policy of renouncing the biblical worldview. Evangelicals are challenged to explain once again what separation of state and religion really means and to show its resounding difference with aggressive secularism, an imposition of a new dogma. Evangelicals have to explain it, because Catholicism has been as imposing in the past as the current secularism now.

[destacate] We evangelical Protestants must re-explain what tolerance means, because Europe is becoming increasingly intolerant of dissent[/destacate]We evangelical Protestants have the challenge of explaining how to build unity from diversity, because this has been one of our marks of identity, the Europe of the future must address this issue, because its survival depends on it. We must also bring to the Europe of the next ten years our view of the place of minorities in the life of society.

We evangelical Protestants must re-explain what tolerance means, because Europe is becoming increasingly intolerant of dissent. And we must reclaim that tolerance is based on firm convictions and mutual respect, not on relativism and secular dogmatism.

We must explain once again that future European economic development must not be an end in itself but must put human beings in the middle. Economic growth is not the same as human development: it is human development that marks the true progress of a society.

And, without doubt, in this respect for the person and his or her dignity, we evangelicals are going to demand respect for life in the face of policies promoting abortion and euthanasia. A society that kills the unborn and the elderly is anything but progressive.

We Protestants were the pioneers in shaping the Western democratic system and we did so from the Bible, emphasising, for example, accountabililty - as a consequence of our understanding of the integral corruption of the human being. The depth of democracy in Europe is receding and we see how the accountability of its institutions is increasingly deficient; it needs a return to its foundations, and Protestants have the moral authority to guide this process of rule.

We were responsible for defending national identities in Europe against the concentration of power, assimilationism and homogenisation. Europe has to deal effectively and thoroughly with the question of national identities and especially that of stateless nations.

[destacate]We must develop a model that helps to articulate Europe on the basis of respect for national identities and fruitful coexistence[/destacate]Many complain about the advance of populisms based on a national sentiment, but fail to realise that it shows a gap in the construction of the European multinational model. The new populisms have been able to identify this gap and give it their own response, the rest of the European political groups have not been able to do so. We Protestants have the resources to respond to this crucial issue for the Europe of the next ten years. We must therefore sit down to study the question of national differentiation in the light of the Word, and we must develop a model that helps to articulate Europe on the basis of respect for national identities and fruitful coexistence.

From this same perspective we must study the question of immigration and integration, returning to the biblical model in which the immigrant had rights equal to others and at the same time was integrated into the people of Israel while strictly respecting the worldview of the nation that welcomed them.

Finally, we Protestants build all democratic freedoms on the freedom of conscience and the right to conscientious objection. Freedom of expression, association, and others were born from them. Both are under threat in today’s Europe and I fear that we are heading towards new authoritarianisms. It is we Protestants who are responsible for claiming that without freedom of conscience there is no democracy.

X. Manuel Suárez, medical doctor, politician and general secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.

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