Franco and Protestantism

https://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/33362/francoism-against-protestants-recovering-stories-of-repression-and-resilience

Given that we now have calls for a 'Protestant Franco', this book should interest all readers. At present I can't seem to locate the book in English, and so that may be forthcoming. At least we'll hope so.

In the meantime, the article gives us something of a preview and touches on aspects of Francoism that clearly have been forgotten. In addition to Protestant praise for his fascistic model, some Evangelicals who have been completely compromised with regard to Roman Catholicism will (it can be hoped) be challenged by this work and what it reveals about the nature of this regime and its relationship with the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

I'm not sure I accept Luis Mas' conclusion that in the years prior to Franco, “Protestantism at that time was involved and influential in society”. No doubt they appreciated the toleration, but the statement doesn't follow. Maybe the book will shed more light on this in which case I for one would be very interested in discovering the influences on Spanish Protestantism in the early 20th century. Mas does mention trade unions and the like which (in some respects) makes more sense though this will not please contemporary American Evangelicals. As I have stated repeatedly, in contexts wherein Protestantism was a minority (such as in France, Spain, and Italy) or where we see nonconformist and dissenting Protestantism in the face of a state Protestant Church (such as in the UK, or among Pietists in Germany etc.), the tendency for these Christians, when entering into political thinking and debate, was to trend to the Left.

And as I have previously shared, during my years in Europe during the 1990's, the Christians I encountered both on the continent and in the UK were almost (without exception) Left-leaning in their politics - if politics were much of a concern.

I do believe that this has significantly changed. This is not to say all Evangelicals and the like are now Right-wing - that would be an exaggeration. However, it's clear that a substantial number have shifted to the Right in light of EU-related issues, economics, immigration, and culture war. And I also believe they have been subjected to a fairly aggressive propaganda campaign by elements connected to (and inspired by) the Christian Right in the United States.

And so with regard to Spain in the 1920's and 1930's, I would expect most Protestants to be less than political but those that had been affected by calls for political engagement - which may have been in some cases from Theological Modernism and its synthesis of Christian and Enlightenment-Liberal thought, then yes, I would suspect they would be Left-leaning.

I certainly look forward to getting my hands on this work.