The Church of the Immaculate Conception went up in flames Monday in yet another instance of a French church burning to the ground, leading to speculations on the origins of their destruction.
The church burnings highlight the tensions brewing in France’s secular and multicultural country, and its immigration policies have come under increased scrutiny. Weak church structures, bias against Christians, and mass immigration have all been brought up as potential factors in the onslaught of church burnings.
These attitudes toward Christianity are not unique to France or Europe in general. These attitudes also reflect those of too many in the Western World, including the United States.
Be informed, not misled.
The Daily Caller reports that "A church burns down every two weeks in France, President of the French-based Observatory of Religious Heritage Edouard de Lamaze told the French site 76actu in 2021."
Lamaze explained that many churches are not properly maintained and weakened over time. He said it is the responsibility of local authorities to care for churches, while the state is responsible for maintaining monuments and cathedrals.
Two-thirds of religious building fires, however, are caused by arson, Lamaze told the Catholic News Agency.
He stated that in France, one mosque is built every 15 days while “One Christian building is destroyed at the same pace.”
The National Catholic Register says, "While Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral succumbing to flames in 2019 gripped the world, many other smaller French churches were attacked and vandalized."
Although the vast majority of churches attacked have been Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches also suffered, according to the Register.
Ellen Fantini, who directs the watchdog Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, says that church attacks in France have been relentless for the past four years.
An official with France’s Ministry of Interior stated there were nearly 1,000 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023.
"The UK is embroiled in riots and protests over immigration, and Ireland has also experienced clashes over migration. Sweden cracked down on illegal immigration earlier in 2024, including by introducing a proposal to legally require workers in the public sector to report illegal immigrants," according to The Guardian.
France is not the only country suffering a slew of church burnings — since 2021, 33 Canadian churches have been engulfed in flames, CBC News reported in January. At least 24 were reportedly confirmed arson attacks.
While physical churches are not being torched in the US at the rate they are in Europe, our Constitutional right to religious liberty is being burned before our eyes.
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and other experts warned earlier this week that Christians must continue to fight for religious freedom in American culture even if they are achieving major political or legal victories.
The panelists gathered last Tuesday as an extension of The Christian Post's "Politics in the Pews" podcast and article series to discuss diminishing religious liberty in the United States and the growing threats to religious freedom, including the Equality Act and the politicization of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The panel included insights from former GOP Kansas Gov. Brownback, First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys, Family Research Council Senior Fellow Meg Kilgannon, and Joseph Kennedy, the former football coach fired for praying on the field who won his case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.
'You're going to have to fight.'
The Christian Post says:
Brownback, who resigned as Kansas governor in 2018 to serve as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom under former President Donald Trump until 2021, emphasized the importance of standing up for religious freedom and the need for individuals to be proactive in defending their rights.
Even if Christians like Kennedy are victorious in court under the current 6-3 conservative makeup, Brownback suggested that American Christians are going to have to fight for their religious freedom if they hope to maintain it.
"The Supreme Court doesn't set the culture of the country; we do, it's the people," Brownback said. "But if you're not willing to go out and exercise and find it and push for it — really, the bigger issue is you're just not willing to stand up and fight a little bit, because you're going to have to fight a little bit to do this — it won't matter."
He spoke of a time when he asked Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito if religious freedom will persist in the U.S., to which the Roman Catholic reportedly said, "You'll have it in the law, but I'm not sure you'll have it in the culture."
Brownback said some Christians are beginning to face financial persecution as major U.S. banks have allegedly started "de-banking" religious organizations."
Brownback said he is personally aware of a woman who heads a crisis pregnancy center and was recently denied Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance because the insurance company told her they did not approve of what she was doing.
"It's de-insurance and de-platforming, de-banking, and it's this effort to suffocate," he said. "And we've got every right on our side. We've got the Free Exercise Clause, and now we've got a Supreme Court that's defined it and said, 'You have this right to do this.'"
"I don't care what other people think about it, you have a free constitutional right to exercise your faith, but we've got to fight for it," he added.
Takeaway
RE the so-called Equality Act.
Kilgannon, a senior fellow for education studies at the Christian conservative advocacy group Family Research Council, warned about the potential dangers posed to people of faith by the Equality Act championed by Democrats in Congress. She noted that it is at odds with biblical values and has received the full-throated support of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The act would codify discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity into federal law.
"We see so often it's these questions surrounding human life and human sexuality, where our values as Christians come in direct contrast to what those kinds of proposals would entail and require us to say things that aren't true, to agree with things we don't believe in, and to promote those things and to endorse those things," she said.
"And we simply cannot do that as Christians. We can't do it for ourselves, but we also can't do it because it's not good for anybody, even the people who believe those things are true. And so we really must stand fast against those kinds of pressures."
The consensus of the meeting was:
"It starts on your knees in prayer, men need to feed their families and stand up and be men." The Christian public was also urged to get involved in their local school districts and make small decisions about which companies you would subsidize.
"Not everybody is called to fight up in everybody's face, but support the people who are on the front lines. Everybody can do that."
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