Church and State, Not Dead Yet

Above: Royal Palace, Madrid, Spain. 10 April 2025.

TIMDT, Hoops, Bronx Girl, and Mwah (sic) visited the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain today.

Image: Royal Palace atrium ceiling. Two female figures reaching out to one another symbolize the symbiotic relationship between the Spanish Church and State. That was then.

In today's Spain, and in most of the rest of Western Europe, the influence of the Church is negligible. The monarchy, once partner to the Church, has morphed into a fleeting national symbol without political power. The vacuum left by the impotent monarchy and abnegation of Church influence has been filled by the "principles" of the new Democratic Socialist state under the umbrella of the European Union.

The European Democratic Socialist state introduces individual freedom, self-expression and a globalist world view as cultural guidelines substituting for the emphasis on family, community, religious devotion, national patriotism and virtue put forward by the Church.

Today European countries are challenged by slow economic growth, growing regulations and diminishing freedoms, such as curtailments on free speech. And while large scale immigration from Muslim countries has stemmed European population decline it has also contributed to rising sectarian tension due to resistance by mainly Muslim immigrants to assimilate into the Democratic Socialist "value neutral, do your own thing" cultural miasma.

Of European nations, Russia alone has resisted following the path of Democratic Socialism and has opted for a cultural and economic model where the Church plays a strong role, co-equal with the state, as was the practice in former times throughout Europe. Russia's "state" is, of course not the monarchy of former times. Let's call today's Russian state democratic authoritarianism. That sounds like an oxymoron, but Russian presidents are elected. Russia also has its challenges after eighty years of debilitating Bolshevik rule. Alcoholism, and declining population to name two.

President Vladimir Putin, in his effort to revive Russia from the horrors of Bolshevism, where the Bolshevik Soviets executed over ten million Christians, has analogized the balance between Church and State to a double helix DNA strand, where each strand is essential in building a healthy national culture. Unlike the sterile, totalitarian culture of Russia under the Bolsheviks, where the Church was marginalized, today's Russian state advances the role of the Church even to the point of subsidizing its recovery from the Communist days. Russia is now returning to its roots as a Christian, conservative society were religion, patriotism and family are touch stones.

So, now we have two economic and cultural models in Europe, one incorporating Christianity as an essential partner to the state and the other marginalizing Christianity to advance a globalist, multicultural standard. Both models are challenged by growing Muslim populations. One, Europe, welcomes Muslims as immigrants. The other, Russia, uses strong arm tactics to keeps its indigenous, oft belligerent, Muslim population under control. While the Church is dead in Europe, it is put forward as a vital component to achieving cultural success in Russia. There is a certain irony that Russia has morphed from a godless totalitarian society to one holding up the Church as essential to cultural progress where Europe trends towards the totalitarian and the godless, freezing out the Church's role in human affairs.

The mural on the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Madrid still has some relevancy today, just not in Spain and most of Europe.