The Soul Anchor [Hebrews 6:19] - August 1, 2024
As I’m writing this, we are less than three weeks past a French election which had surprising but not conclusive results. CNN reported that, “French voters had, once again, kept the far right out of power. But after the shock second-round results, the waters are more muddied than they have been in decades.”
As I’m writing this, we are also just one day away from the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics centered in Paris. The only time that I’ve been to France was in 1988 when I led a team on an evangelistic to Paris where we did street evangelism during the day and have revival meetings in the evening. There were a couple of things that really drew my attention. First, there were many beautiful, old historic church buildings in Paris such as Notre Dame, Eglise Saint-Sulpice, and the Basilique Du Sacre-Coeur. What was most noticeable to me was that the buildings were more like museums than houses of worship. I’m not sure they even held church services at that time. Second, I was surprised to learn that there was only one area, the Pompidou Centre, where it was legal to openly evangelize (proselytize) in the city. It was the first time that I had ever sat next to someone in church who had actually gone to jail for simply telling other people about Jesus in public.
France embraces a principle called “laïcité” which is best translated as secularism and means they really have adopted a freedom from religion mentality within the public sphere. This goes well beyond the idea of separation of church and state and sets very tight restrictions on religious expression in public places. This has only been re-enforced by Isalmist terrorist attacks such as the 2015 bombings and attacks on the Charlie Hebdo as well as stadium and theater attacks that took place later that year.
As the start of the 2024 Olympics in Paris rapidly approaches, the French laïcité will undoubtedly face challenges as the ban on French athletes wearing religious symbols may prompt some French athletes to rebel and attempt to show their faith. In addition, every four years Christian Ministries send evangelists to the Olympics to engage attendees with the gospel. It will be interesting to see what kind of reception they get on the streets of Paris.
Why are we and France so different in this area? I believe it is a tale of two revolutions. Ours was founded by those desperately seeking freedom of religion. Our founding documents state that our rights come from our Creator and our Constitution was dated, “in the year of our Lord, 1787. The revolutionaries in France renamed Notre Dame as the Temple to the Goddess of Reason and changed their calendar to a 10-day week thus eliminating the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday, and the “Lord’s Day” on Sunday.
I find it interesting that since 1789 and the French Revolution, France has had 14 constitutions and multiple republics. General de Gaulle put the current constitution in place in 1958. The United States has had only one constitution.
I have no doubt that this year’s Olympic games will be filled with many great moments displaying skill, speed, strength and endurance. But the truth is that as believers we run an even greater race for an even more important reward.
As Paul wrote to the church in Corinth where the Isthmian Games were somewhat of a contemporary to the Olympic Games. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25,
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.“
God bless,
Pastor Frank
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