As French Senate Tightens Church Controls, Christians Protest Without Fear
by Kami Rice, Christianity Today:
French Protestants strongly disagree with new separatism law, but don’t adopt a victim mentality in defending their view of laïcité and religious freedom as they live in “Babylon not Jerusalem.”
On Monday night, the French Senate passed an anti-terrorism law that has greatly concerned church leaders.
Now called the “Law to Uphold Republican Principles and the Fight Against Separatism,” the bill—approved by a 208–109 vote, with 27 abstentions—intends to combat the Islamist radicalism that has incited numerous attacks on French soil in recent years.
However, the Macron administration’s desire to make France safer has put the nation’s deeply rooted freedom of religion in the crosshairs.
“The wind has changed in France,” said Clément Diedrichs, general director of the National Council of Evangelicals in France (CNEF). The government has “clearly indicated that we’re no longer in a Christian society.”
“Religion has become expendable,” he observed, saying that the country’s leadership no longer has any desire to protect space for any faith.
See also: France urges citizens to leave Pakistan amid anti-French protests, BBC
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