Tag: Madrid

Alignments for the future

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Some while back we had a confirming word sent us while we were focusing on the removal of Franco’s body from the valley of the fallen. It was during the time when the process seemed stuck. We had begun to home in on the release of three groups of people: the students (youth), the women and the pensioners as key in that process and the wider picture of Spain. After a number of weeks without knowing about our focus Michael Schiffman called us to say we needed to release 3 distinct groups of people and the shift on Franco would come.

Today Greta Thunberg will arrive in Spain and will be present at the climate crisis change conference in Madrid over the coming days. She is a sign in these times. A young woman. And with her are rising an army of youth. It is their future that they are calling for. Recently while presenting a small paper on politics and theology I touched on the ‘touchstone’ issue for many Christians, the issue of abortion, which for sure is a major issue, yet I suggested there is a spectrum that it sits on which has to include that of creation care (also war, nationalism and immigration are on the same spectrum). Both the issue of abortion and climate care are to do with the future and how we relate to those not yet born and those who are yet to live – true life being defined as becoming those who contribute to others, that being the real test of how much glory is present.

Columbus Square

Some years back we made a small visit to Columbus Square where the adventurer(*) is honoured and it has become one of the centres for nationalism (Spain Day), the military and power displays. Since our little venture into that square we have noted some wonderful shifts in the response to such celebrations of power. And just after that time this wonderful focused statue of the woman has been there. And in this photo with the juxtaposition of the woman and the Spanish flag surely speaks loudly! Love for nation and nationalism are not one and the same. It is the same as equating evangelism with seeing people as objects to be evangelised… no good news there!!

The woman, the feminine. There is a future that is held at this time in the hands and hearts of women. In the same way as there were good men at the time of Jesus, so there are ‘bad’ women today, who use power and ungodly position for their own ends. Yet Jesus died as a man – he nailed where the central corruption of humanity lay. So I suggest there is a new centring in of hope to be found in and among women in this time.

In Spain since 2003 there are over 1000 women who have been killed in domestic violence situations. Many more physically and emotionally beaten. Yes there is a violence that at times has gone the other way, but this is not a level field.

In parliament yesterday

Pensioners. Some who have made their contribution, have lived through trauma to help give a future (and some of course who have not been contributors over their years). Care for the elderly. Honour those who have walked before, otherwise there is little genuine hope for a better tomorrow. Many pensioners are going to find a new lease of life. Their time is not over, even if the money (in Spain) set aside for them has been raided by previous governments. (Not a surprise when so much financial basis is founded on debt, the way to ‘create’ wealth!)

Yesterday in parliament – yes still no government here, and a total police barricade so we were not able to get to the building yesterday – Agustin Zamarron (70+ and still seeking to serve as an MP) with great dignity spoke of the responsibility to Spain and the deep embarrassment he felt that to date there has been no success in forming a government.

An army that is different. That has a different spirit. I am looking at this when I think of the 2010 -2020 dream and the final level playing field. I am not a student, nor a woman nor a pensioner… but I am and need to be involved. There is though a centre, and maybe it is just Spain but there is something congregating around youth, women and pensioners.

Madrid, with the work of the last mayoress, despite reversals being activated by the new administration has seen pollution drop by 20%, the most of any major world city. The climate conference is here, and the TV news spoke of this conference and ‘the planet is looking for her salvation’. That is a quote from someone I read… where then are the daughters and sons of God? And maybe we also have to ask who then are the daughters and sons of God? The opening day one of the biggest Spanish polluters of the environment were on the front page of most of the main papers. Money can buy publicity, as always. It buys elections. Power wins. Or it has, but here comes 2020. A level playing field. Could love find a way?

Before 2020, comes tomorrow (literally). The streets will speak once again in Spain, so we need to be there as wisdom cries out in the public square. Walking boots on and with many thousands others we will walk.

*I very generously described Columbus as an adventurer. Read the stories as he left in the service of God and Spanish crown, accompanied by a priest who preached in Spanish, giving all an opportunity to respond to the message of salvation (I know some preaching is hard to understand but this takes the cake!), then those who did not respond were ‘legitimately’ killed or enslaved. I called him an adventurer, and I do that not to excuse him, but to allow the challenge to be ours of clearing up the mess, for those who have conviction that something is wrong surely must be those who seek to shift the effects of what has gone before.

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History – repeats or rhymes

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Reports

A couple of nights ago we were in a part of the city where we do not normally frequent – the other side and not a place that pulls us. However, it was the third time in four days we had been there (circumstantially), and again in the next few days we will be there. Gayle said – must be something there that is pulling us and we had better do some research. Well no need to do research as the people we met with told us that this was where the tanks finally rolled in during the Civil War. Not sure how but being there pushed me to think about something we had not touched on before – the atrocities committed, not by the Franco side but, by the Republican side in the Civil War within Madrid. An early morning and – in brief – a few things kicked in:

  • A place to the north of Madrid just the other side of the airport where between 2000 – 10000 prisoners were taken and killed who were supporters of / sympathetic to the nationalist side (Franco). Civilians and clergy among them.
  • The government in Madrid that sought to defend Madrid at the time of the Civil War was made up of (pretty much) the same make up as the government that had supported Pedro Sanchez: socialists, a few communists, other left wing parties, Basque and Catalan members. That government eventually could not hold together and fought against each other thus being weakened Franco was eventually able to take Madrid. (This part will be very important to us in the next few weeks with the outcome of this recent election and the forthcoming elections for the city and communidad governments.)

There were so many parallels in what we read… We went this morning to the place (Paracuellos) where the assassinations took place. I wrote our friend in Calpe, Noë about our thoughts. He replied: ‘Just yesterday I was thinking to share with you on the Paracuellos slaughter.’ Nice confirmation.

When we met the couple the other side of the city a few nights ago they prayed for us. ‘You are not coming with a bright light, you are coming with salt, and it is going deep.’ We live in Salitre street – because there was a salt factory here in the past and the type of salt produced, one use was to extract old roots that were embedded deep in the land. So bags of salt and off we went to Paracuellos de Jarama.

Apart from a great view of Madrid the area had many dead burnt out trees. Gayle said let’s go over the ridge, I am sure there will be some poppies there as a sign. (Clever woman that one!)

Two poppies just where they needed to be!

There were no other poppies in that area. Later when we went down from the ridge to the river a rainbow appeared through the white clouds. Sweet!!

Hopefully a small contribution so that history does not continue to repeat or rhyme.

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And Spain elects…

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

The general election for Spain took place on Sunday and now we wait to see how a government will be formed. There is no one-party overall majority and this both opens up the possibility for some great coalition possibilities and not so good ones!

There are any number of articles on line about the election. This one from the NY Times seeks to put it in the context of bucking the trends in Europe.

Take responsibility

Some years back, from left of field, we had the strong impression that the Lord was asking us to take responsibility for the political shape of Spain. Left of field as I can just about spell the ‘p’ word. However, when that kind of responsibility meets incompetence it gets one thinking. What is ‘politics’ and what does it mean to take responsibility.

Political shape

I like the term political shape. There are political parties and I appreciate there are people who are members of a specific party. However, normally we are those who ‘I like this party on this issue but not on that one’. It is always further complicated by our faith perspective. We can be very critical of sharia law but happy with ‘Christianised’ law. Issues such as a stance on abortion, or on same-sex marriage often sways the Christian vote. If only it was as easy as that!

Political shape I understand to be where healthy choices and opportunities become a greater possibility. Everything in Scripture is centred on people. Created in the image of God surely focuses us toward humanity. God’s desired address is in the midst of humanity so societal shape is very important to him. The health of all aspects of society is when a shape is held that enables people to move toward their destiny – that destiny ultimately being helping others to the release of who they were born to be. It is not ultimately ‘the economy, stupid’ that should pull our vote but ‘the people, stupid’ that should help us determine where the ballot paper is marked.

Overall shape – our responsibility

And this is where I see the role of the body of Christ. People live within a context, a geo-societal context that has been shaped by history which gives ground to the demonic powers. OK… now I think I am getting somewhere. We might not know very much about politics and some of that is best left to those who know much better, but there is so much material in Scripture about the powers. If there needs to be a healthy people-centred political shape then there needs to be an overall ‘powers restrained’ shape in which that healthy politics can develop and be expressed. That I understand as being our responsibility (and beyond politics, to economics, health, education etc.). I do not see this as trying to get to the top of the mountain to influence but in going to the deepest places to cleanse. Our desire is not to see Christians occupying the positions, indeed some of the greatest joys we have is when one could take speeches by those who are atheists, remove their name, give the speech to a believer and ask them to underline the Jesus-themes in it.

We took this current election very seriously. Spain has had a challenging past, with many issues undealt with. Cataloña is not a recent issue, and it will not and cannot be resolved by a referendum nor the refusal for a referendum. As in many nations a handful of the powerful (one politician says 20 families in Spain) shape what goes on. There is economic control that shapes the lives of those who are not seen but are simply fodder for the status quo. There is considerable corruption. The (former) major party has something just under 8000 major scandals against it, and one person tweeted that post Sunday they have more MP’s in prison now than they will have in the parliament.

Thank God we are seeing a shift. A shift has to take place because if the history is cleansed the demonic does not have the right of presence they had before and what was hidden or undealt with comes to the light. Social transformation is the barometer of spiritual change.

I am not of a so-called right wing persuasion and like all others uneducated in a field am opinionated and biased. There are those who are better educated than I in politics and more ardent in their commitment to Jesus who would vote much further to the right than I do, so my comments that follow are not about ‘the right’ but about the rise of something that is very disturbing – often called the ultra-right. In Europe it is so disturbing, and it can also pull in the Christian support. Normally there is within it a call to protect our values (and borders), our Christian heritage, family values etc., but there is no sight nor place for the ‘other’. The anger expressed is not a righteous anger but a cover for hate and a legitimising of demonising whole groups of people. Spain’s background of course was through and post the Civil War of the 30s in Fascism. And the sins committed were not simply on one side – at the door of the republicans is placed the slaughter of all-but 7000 Catholic clergy, so we cannot simply demonise one side.

Some months back we salted the entire surround of one of the party headquarters in Madrid. In the election campaign it was a little more than amusing that the façade that they placed up on their prominent building came down causing the road to be closed for safety reasons! In this election their representation has been halved from what it was. They will probably never recover as a party in Spain. For this we are grateful as their history of lies, deception and scandal reaches unbelievable proportions. At the same time there has been the rise here of a party, VOX, that espouses a nationalism, anti-immigration and an anti-feminist stance of the extreme kind. They wish to make certain media illegal and also certain political parties illegal. They have pulled on in their rhetoric on the ReConquista and the spirit of Columbus. The party is not our enemy but what they are pulling on we have been praying into. It is personally very galling that the last ultra-right representative in the Spanish parliament lost their seat in 1982 but once this new parliament is formed there will be 24 such representatives. Five of the 37 seats available in Madrid will be taken by them.

This party made a significant breakthrough in the recent regional elections in the south of Spain and we have stood in the main gate into Madrid from the south a few weeks ago to declare ‘not here’. And now? I take it personally.

The shifts in this election are very significant, perhaps the shape of politics in Spain will never be the same again and although the extreme right have not made the level of inroads it wished I remain very disturbed.

A few weeks ago we came across a photo of a republican poster from the Civil War. It will soon be on our wall here.

The poster reads:

Fascism wants to conquer Madrid. Madrid will be the tomb of Fascism.

Fascism is to be given no space in Europe. The soil in Spain is supposed to be cleansed so it can have no power here, and Madrid is to be its tomb. So five representatives? An insult.

Over the past days we have been four times in a part of the city where we would not normally go. We have been pulled there circumstantially, and again tomorrow we will be there. When we left last night to meet a couple over there Gayle said there has to be a reason. Well we have just found out that is where the fascist tanks rolled in with a great slaughter into Madrid. Why are we being pulled there circumstantially, because there is a tomb in Madrid for fascism. Interestingly this was the area where we already resisted the plans to rebury Franco. Battles won are great, advances that should not take place are more than annoying, we are all in this for the long haul, but this is our watch, and when our watch is over the political shape will be one of the markers as to what happened on our watch.

Gayle has great insight to these Spanish elections and here is a short resumé that she put out yesterday.

  • Far right got seats but not what they hoped for. We have to face them now which is a bummer but like the boar (reference to a dream) it is boundaried now and can’t pull off the past.
  • The PP (the main historical right political party) after years of corruption and mafia like behaviour is completely broken. They flirted with VOX and the people said ‘no’.
  • Podemos did enough just to stand in a place of influence not power. We (Martin and I) still are praying for that coalition.
  • A HUGE sign for me was the crowds outside PSOE (who won most seats) shouting for this coalition of Peter (PSOE) and Paul (Podemos) and using Podemos slogan of ‘It can be done’.
  • Pablo Iglesias prophesied there would be unexpected signs… well for another party to shout out the Podemos slogan ‘si se puede’ – this has to be a massive sign.
  • June 10th stays in the diary as the moving out of Franco’s bones. A space and date we are guarding.
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Catalans in Madrid

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Reports
Supreme Court, Madrid

Yesterday Gayle and I were out and about. First a visit to the Supreme Court, though the security is high and we were unable to get right to the building. It has been this way ever since the beginning of the trial of 12 Catalans for their role in the ‘illegal’ referendum concerning independence. We have been there before on two separate occasions and were there to pray into two aspects – the trial and also the delay on the removal of Franco’s remains from the Valley of the Fallen. A June date has been set for the latter but there still is an appeal lodged in the Supreme Court. The judiciary has been a focus for us as it is vital a judiciary is not bought nor controlled by a political wing, and here in Spain there is long way to go on that issue.

Of course I have an opinion on Catalan independence but being neither Spanish nor living in the Catalan comunidad it has to remain as an opinion without weight. Our huge respect is for those who are seeking to be a bridge and call for open dialogue. The experience of those who are bridges is they are then trodden on from both sides, that being what a bridge offers. To help us pray Michael Schiffmann sent us some direction that we had to release three groups of people so that what needs to take place will flow in a healthy direction. (This is a joy to us. For those following these posts will realise that our theology is that the church has the responsibility to ensure that the shape in which things can be expressed in society is a healthy space where hostile powers have limited access. This does not mean only good things will happen – free will see to that! – but it does ensure a healthy space.)

The three groups at this time we see, and this will have a wider application than just Spain are: women, students and pensioners. This is a day for women… and again I have to be careful what I write for obvious reasons. I am slowly becoming aware that ignorant pontificating is not wise! Let me simply say women when embodying the feminine aspects of God; students, whether in formal education or not, but who are seeking to learn about their world and how to pull for the future; and pensioners, who in Spain have lived through and seen so much; those three groups are vital – and I think in that order. Those three we called for and for the Supreme Court to hear the threefold testimony of wisdom calling out from the street.

From the Supreme Court we dropped in a cafe and found ourselves sitting among a group of right wing extremists. Not our normal habitat, but both in need of a toilet and a refreshment having been out for a while already this was the place where we happened to drop in! Dressed in semi-militaristic style clothing the atmosphere was interesting to say the least. Then we went and stood in and by the Catalan demonstration. Incredibly moving as the songs were sung and banners that appealed for justice for the non-violent prisoners facing up to 25 years for rebellion and insurrection in organising the referendum.

Crowd in both direction beyond what the eye could see
The Poster is asking for the political prisoners to be released

The demonstration itself, brave as it was with many from Cataluña in the capital, might not move things forward. It might even push people further away. We certainly saw some blatant antagonism to the march, including a very well dressed older woman walking the other way to the marchers and giving them the finger while sneering at them. The march itself had people of all ages and estimates of numbers vary, but I would suggest in excess of 50,000 and perhaps as many as 80,000. It might not make a difference but we were both so happy to stand in it and get a feel for it. The card in the image that follows was given to us by an older woman (pensioner?) and the spirit of it embodied in the last words ‘a hug’ is what is needed from and to all ‘sides’.

The text written in Castellano and not Catalan says:

Hello friends. We invite you to know Cataluña and Catalans with your own eyes. I am sure that many prejudices will drop away and you will discover that the majority is not what you have believed. You will be well received. An embrace.

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A tale of remotes

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Updates

I feel a story coming on…

Last summer when we travelled in the north of Spain we had enormous issues with the remote control to lock and unlock our van. The key worked in the door manually but only with great difficulty, twisting it this way and that. But we got there and back and were able to lock and unlock our personal transport when we needed to – even if it took a little longer than one would wish.

Not everything is a sign, but there are times when you have to slow down and ask. Our journey was preceded by hearing ‘You need to take the manual key with you’. I ignored that – no comments about my stupidity please!! So when the remote proved an issue we did slow down and sought to see if there was a significance in it all. The manual key was the one that we should have brought along, so the one you use in situ was going to be important.

It was of course in the season when we knew we had to be in Madrid. We had been turned down by the power of Mammon and then by the power of the legal system. I had had a (tentative) sense for some while that we would offer on 3 properties and would get the third. On our way back home we went to the centre of Madrid where there is a statue of Madrid’s symbol (a bear) and we took our key, placed it on the bear to declare we are coming. We understood the Lord was saying we could not simply lock and unlock from a distance and that now we needed to be in the city to do things on site.

Fast forward… We have TV in Oliva through a company called Orange. A large number of the buttons on the remote control for the TV stopped working. So I phoned them a few weeks back and they agreed to send a new one. A week or more went past. I phoned them again, and again, and a third time this Tuesday. Other than the annoyance of the waste of time I quite enjoy such calls, but the issue was ‘get it here quick cos we are going to Madrid and on to Malaga and won’t be back for 2 weeks’.

Eventually I tracked it down – they were trying to deliver it to Cadiz. We left there 5 years ago and never had Orange provide a service to us there in Cadiz. They had even been trying to call me on a cell phone we had in Cadiz (not an Orange phone), not on the cell phone that Orange gave us and have on their records as our phone number!! Go figure!

We will get it from Cadiz to you, they said. I said, well we won’t be here!

Next day we leave, off to Madrid. As we drive out of Oliva, I see a delivery van – I have no idea how many come in per day but there must be hundreds. ‘Gayle turn around and catch him, I am going to ask him if he has our package!.’ A three point turn later and no sight of him. A few streets later I see the delivery van. Pull over. ‘Tienes un paquete para Scott a la playa?’. What street…? Yes I do! So 10 minutes later we have the remote for our TV in Oliva as we continue to drive to Madrid.

The story continues… If you are lost remind yourself it is about remotes and the story has an ending and a purpose – at least in my little head!

We are renting an underground parking space in Madrid as there is now a red zone inside of which you cannot drive your car. When we were given the remote for the garage back in January he said – it does not always work, you might have to use it manually. That was certainly true – probably 90% of the time it would not work when we were here previously. This time we turn up, immediately it works, and has done every time since!

Remotes. Here we are in Madrid. We could no longer affect Madrid remotely and have to be on site. But we have remotes that work in Madrid now and remotes from elsewhere for other places. Sweet!!

Of course we have authority over all the works of the enemy, but that is not a universal truth in the sense of I pray today and all demons world wide are paralysed. It applies to our personal lives and what we have responsibility for. In taking responsibility we have to find the leverage points that means our authority is effective.

A tale of remotes!!! Change things from one place for others. So off now to the Supreme Court. Put the manual and personal presence key in as representing Jesus and maybe a few remotes will also be pressed for elsewhere.

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Wisdom and optimism

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by Martin Scott
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The mayoress of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, at 74 years old is an amazing woman. She was the co-founder of the labour law office that saw a massacre in 1977 of 5 lawyers and assistants. The response to the massacre was one of the factors that enabled Spain transition peacefully from the era of the dictatorship to democracy. She came out of retirement to run for mayoress in Madrid and many social changes have taken place. On Monday this week she met with the mayors of London and Berlin. She says perhaps because she is older she is more optimistic than they are! Older, wiser and more cynical? No… Love it!! I also love the ‘govern from below’. Wisdom from the street. (Rough translation below.)

Hoy he estado debatiendo con los alcaldes de Berlín y Londres sobre los retos que afrontan nuestras ciudades, desde las consecuencias de Brexit hasta el ascenso del racismo y la extrema derecha. Quizá por tener más edad que ellos, yo soy optimista: he visto a España salir de una dictadura sin violencia y he visto cómo se ha arraigado el pacifismo, que es una idea relativamente reciente que va ganando espacio.

En las ciudades, no debemos olvidar que la única manera de conseguir mejoras es que haya solidaridad entre la ciudadanía (como estamos viendo por ejemplo con la contaminación y la movilidad sostenible). Y para ello, los políticos deben gobernar desde abajo y no desde arriba, relacionarse con los vecinos y vecinas en su vida cotidiana en lugar de colocarse en una situación de privilegio, y nunca convertir los problemas en un teatro.

Today I have been discussing with the mayors of Berlin and London about the challenges facing our cities, from the consequences of Brexit to the rise of racism and the extreme right. Perhaps because I am older than them, I am an optimist: I have seen Spain emerge from a dictatorship without violence and I have seen pacifism become established, which is a relatively recent idea that is gaining space.

In cities, we must not forget that the only way to achieve improvements is to have solidarity among citizens (as we are seeing for example with pollution and sustainable transport). And for this, politicians must govern from below and not from above, interact with neighbours in their every day lives instead of placing themselves in a privileged situation, and never turn problems into a theatre.

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Have you seen my feet?

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Not sure how your feet look today, but mine? Really bad and not sure what I am going to do with them. Filthy, so filthy, and hope that there is some way I can get them cleaned up – otherwise it will be so embarrassing.

Actually my feet have been dirty for a while. Dirty because I am so privileged. And that is the heart of the issue. How to keep some semblance of cleanness on those feet when privileged.

Gayle and I are actively pursuing an apartment in Madrid, and although there are many complications with the purchase such as the possibility that we could end in court concerning the issues on the whole block, we are actively making drawings of what we can fit in there. (Did I write ‘we’? I should have put Gayle, she is the expert on that, seeking to work out what can go in to an apartment of 18 foot x 14 foot (5.5m x 4.3m).) Property – such a great investment. Put your money in bricks and mortar, prices go up, particularly in a city – so goes the advice.

Now that is where the dirty feet come in. Madrid, like most major cities, has so many properties that have been bought up simply so as they can be rented out with the result that rental prices are going up, many locals no longer being able to afford to live in the area. This is no exception in the area where we have for years prayer walked and homed in on.

We can lay out all the reasons why we want to live there, the prayers, the prophetic words, we can lay out our finances etc., and we can do so with a clean conscience. We have stood in front of Madrid when Mammon spoke loudly to us and said ‘you cannot enter here’, and we spoke back saying that we are not coming to make money or to exploit. We have simply asked for a place to enter, somewhere small, somewhere from where we can make space for others to find their place in the city. Yet, assuming we get this property, just by moving in we will contribute to the rise in prices.

Hopefully then we have a clean heart but in the very act of pursuing this apartment our feet are already dirty. That of course was the issue that Peter had to face up to. He did not need to be washed throughout, just his feet. Maybe as a reminder to us the barrio where we are looking to move is ‘Lavapies’ – feet washing!

How do we respond? With humility has mark the start of any entry, and we probably have to do something in the early days that is not simply counter-cultural but counter-spirit. Money makes the world go round (often in the wrong direction), so to turn the rotation, something always has to be done. Jesus, with choice of treasurer, did that in a big way. Sabbath and Jubilee ensured there was a jolt to the ever present ‘invisible hand of the market’, and the entry to the land was marked by gaining nothing materially at the first point of entry (Jericho). I have sought to do that in certain places. I had books published in Korean, Swedish, German, Portuguese and in the USA. In each situation I decided to take no royalties. A small response as sometimes one can only make a small response.

Once we get this apartment it will be eminently rentable, but we will have to, in the first season make choices that do not benefit us financially, otherwise even if our hearts remain clean we would be making no real contribution to the rotation of the city. Hopefully as we walk the city our feet will not get too dirty, in fact the very act of walking will help them be a little cleaner than they would be otherwise, but for sure they will never be spotless. And seemingly that is the way it is meant to be.

The percentage share of global wealth

Comparatively, our wealth, puts us in the top perentage of those considered wealthy in the world. We have food, we have a roof, we even have a car, both of us have cell phones. Wealth.

How then do we live with privilege? That is the issue.

Years ago the discussion about ’emerging church’ and the like could be seen as a luxury that many in the world could not afford to engage in. Live in a favela, or to be living under constant scrutiny for one’s faith in certain countries, and then suggest that what they should do is hold a conference on the nature of emerging church would be an insult. That was the privilege (luxury) of living in the west with our resources and heritage.

University education, the world of academia… In Spain so many of those who are pushing for political change are university graduates, some having been professors. A privileged world seeking to bring a difference to those who have been silenced. Does one have to go into academia to make a difference? (For me part of the attraction of Liberation Theology was the privileged interpretation of Scripture by the poor. The suggestion was that they could understand Scripture in a way that no academic theologian could, being one of the outworkings of the ‘preferential option for the poor’.) I write from time to time about money, but I do not understand economics. I probably do not have the ability to grasp the issues surrounding economics, so some of what I write those with greater understanding could probably drive the proverbial bus through. So is real change only effected by those who can study and intellectualise at that level?

In theory I do not like the world of privilege, hence I am not a royalist, and I find it easier to spell the word ‘socialist’ than ‘conservative’, yet I am privileged and if I had one regret in life it would be that I have not always rocked the boat when I should have. Ah well – learn from past errors.

With all my questions over the privileged worlds of home ownership, academia and the like, I remain convinced that amidst that luxury there is space to use that for the sake of others. Discussions on ’emerging church’, ‘the nature of Imperial power’, or ‘how church and theology have been subsumed by sovereignty’ are not simply luxury discussions. I think they are also essential so that something is sown into the wider world. If we can have those discussions and seek to influence one another there will be substance stored up also for those who, in the future, move beyond living in survival mode (where the society is hostile to the Christian faith) or move beyond the heady days of revival growth.

We have to live in at least two worlds. The small world where we find ourselves, and in our situation that small world is a highly privileged world. And the bigger world of the world the corporate ‘we’ have created. We cannot simply live in one of those worlds. In our world we have to use any privileges we have to undermine those very privileges and to contribute to the shift in the rotation of the big world. Probably we will only make a small contribution. Maybe that is all we are meant to make, and to ensure that the small contribution has eternal value, we probably have to look quite often at our feet.

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Conflict in Lavapiés, Madrid

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by Martin Scott
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We have prayer walked this area consistently for the past years, and have been drawn to it over and over again. We have AirBnB rented on some of the very streets where the troubles have been. Right now huge conflicts are breaking out there. No-one should have to live their lives in the midst of that, but just think of Syria day to day, year after year. This pushes us all the more to get in to this zone with a small apartment. Maybe not too rentable(!!), but if we can get our feet on the ground.

These troubles followed the death of a mid-30 year old street vendor, with his basic goods spread out on a rug, who ran from the police and died of a heart attack, and as far as we can make out, right outside the door of the last place where we shared an apartment with Simon and Amy Bell last December.

Politicians have made their initial response. One (not surprisingly) came out in total support of the police – and they have a difficult job to say the least, but some of the videos do not show (some of) them in a good light. Another boldly has said that (I paraphrase) he cannot but

stand in solidarity with the person who was selling everything he has in order to survive, while living in a country where impunity for the corrupt is massive.

Prayer, walking, loving. Our part. Intervention from heaven? Well a sound on earth is what attracts heaven. The sound on the streets right now is not one that attracts heaven’s grace but dark powers from the heavenlies. This can be reversed.

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