In October 2020, French president Emmanuel Macron proposed new education legislation that was meant to counter the influence of subcultures within France – particularly those of a religious nature.
It's generally accepted that the main target of the
legislation is the French Muslim community, large portions of which are
unintegrated and increasingly subject to radicalisation. Additionally, considerable
numbers of these same radicals which (for the most part) live in urban ghettoes
across France have indicated they have no desire to be integrated. They're in
France for economic reasons or because they would face forms of political persecution
in their home countries as there are numerous Muslim governments which do not
tolerate Salafism. They're French residency is a pragmatic move. They do not
share French ideology, nor do they wish for their children to do so either.
One of the practical problems with this citizenship-identity
rejection is that their children grow up isolated from society and without any
kind of prospects. In a Muslim society this can prove particularly frustrating
as it cuts off the youth from not just social access and opportunity but any
hope of getting married. Without a means to support themselves, young Muslim men
are left aimless, angry, and without hope. They are prime targets for
radicalisation.
French education would turn them away from the ideology of
their parents, and once they become French in culture and outlook the
possibilities for advancement are considerable and the possibility of
radicalisation quickly collapses. And yet to do so means turning away from
Islamic ideology or at the very least subordinating it to the
Enlightenment-rooted values of French society – something no pious Muslim (or
any religious person for that matter) would consider.
And yet it's not only Muslims who are facing difficulties
with this legislation. Non-mainstream Christians are also affected, especially
as the legislation effectively outlaws homeschooling and demands compulsory
education to begin at the age of three.
This is a deliberate project on the part of the French state
to get a hold of children and to indoctrinate them in the Liberal and secular
values of modern France and Europeanism. Macron has made it clear that religion
is to be subordinated to the state, its laws, and its values. He has
effectively declared war against any religious claims that would (even
passively) challenge the authority of the French state and its Enlightenment
ideology.
In Biblical terms, Macron is a beast or at the very least a
bestial agent. He has 'lifted up the horn' against Christ's Church and is a blaspheming
affront to God.
So be it. In God's plan, Macron is to lead France at this
time. Apart from praying for him, the question for Christians is this – what
now?
Macron also wants faith restored in institutions. Like the
leaders in many other European states he does not want subcultures to form. He
wants mainstream life to be normative. To many American ears, this is offensive
and contrary to basic concepts of liberty and yet it's not that simple. At
different times in American history the mainstream would agree with Macron's
premise even if they would take it in a different direction. Indeed, many
American Christians if probed will reveal that they don't really want
principled pluralism either. Most want a ruling consensus, a Christian
preference in terms of law, government and state ceremony. America has also
seen a collapse in institutional trust and it's not hard to see that it can
quickly lead to fragmentation and even crisis. When the government can't be
trusted, when the media is despised, when medical authorities are met with
scepticism, and military and intelligence claims are met with hostility – you
have a breakdown in your society. It's certainly not a society that can unify
to fight wars and pursue large-scale social and economic projects. Even most
American conservatives will admit that libertarianism (which as a form of
hyper-individualism fragments all social cohesion) is ultimately destructive to
society as a whole.
As Christians we must never put our trust in any of these
institutions. That's plain enough. We're strangers and pilgrims living in a
hostile world – a present evil age. And this reality exists regardless of what
government we live under. And yet these basic New Testament truths have been
largely lost, abandoned, and in many cases (if proclaimed) are met with great
hostility.*
In 1685 Protestantism was outlawed by Louis XIV. The Edict of
Fontainebleau marked the revocation of the 1598 Edict of Nantes which had
granted toleration. Louis was an authoritarian and tyrant who would not brook
any dissent or nonconformity. And he had imperial ambitions and such militarism
always leads to suppression and clampdowns at home. One does not wage
large-scale and controversial wars when there is the potential for significant
dissent on the home front or the rise of a Fifth Column. This is a rule of
thumb which was also demonstrated in stark terms after 9/11by the US
government.
Protestants were forced to become Roman Catholics and conform
to the mainstream order. Refusal meant imprisonment and possibly death. And
it's interesting (but hardly surprising) that the state also targeted Huguenot
(Protestant) children. Non-conformists would have their children removed and
handed over to the monks and nuns to be raised not just as nominal Roman
Catholics (the cultural norm) but as zealots – a particularly painful and
insulting affront to the bereaved parents.
While the Macronian implementation of social monism is likely
to be less brutal than that of Louis XIV, Macron has functionally done the
same. His primary target is Islam but I'm sure he has no great love for
Protestants, Evangelicals or any others that would create a subculture. These
groups will conform – that's his goal. Refusal means removal of children,
deportation, and certainly imprisonment for the recalcitrant. It's a very
serious situation.
With children being forced into government schools at the age
of three, Christians have been placed in an impossible situation. For those tasked to raise their children in
the fear and admonition of the Lord, for those who view their children in
Biblical terms as members of the Church and Christ's Kingdom, the idea that you
would hand them over during their formative years to priests of Baal is
unthinkable and impermissible.
I hope, and would assume
that there are serious inquiries into Christian schooling options and I hope
Christians will avail themselves of this. The alternative of public school is (and
has been) unthinkable.
It is unclear at this time if private non-government funded
(though still regulated) schools will be targeted. They have experienced some
grief and what might be described as harassment and obstruction. Hopefully that
option will remain, but there are indications that Macron is planning to target
them as well.
At the very least there's a brewing conflict over curriculum
as Macron will undoubtedly seek to impose educational standards that are out of
bounds and contrary to basic religious teaching – whether Christian or Islamic.
Feminism, sodomy, secular-materialist ethics, and French conceptions of
citizenship are givens but there's likely to be a lot more in terms of
scientific materialist philosophy, humanist politics, and the like. It's a real
dilemma and given the influence of Catholic Integralism and Protestant
Dominionism some of the resistance will be rooted in other than New Testament
categories and doctrine. This will confuse and distract many and lead them to
fight the wrong battles for the wrong reasons – and I'm afraid in other cases
it will lead to radicalism. At the very least it will push many of these
elements into the arms of the fascistic LePen led Front National/National Rally
Party or worse.**
If the Christian-Private school option is removed, the only
real alternative for Biblically minded French Christians is to leave. And if we
don't see that kind of exodus what will it mean? What does it indicate?
The answer is found in places like Germany which has
similarly outlawed homeschooling. Given its history Germany has an even greater
fear of subcultures although at this point it's also clear (if bitterly ironic)
that the Berlin Establishment is willing to tolerate a subculture in the form
of resurgent fascism as the rise and success of the AfD party demonstrates. In
other words the discrimination wielded by the modern German state is not
ideologically driven but selective and self-serving.
A refusal to stand or flee indicates a fatal comprise. Eager
to preserve bourgeois status and in other cases blinded by the Dominionist
agenda which has enshrined cultural relevance and influence – which in every
case fails- these Christians have made a bargain with the devil. Instead of
transforming culture it is they who are transformed and the harvest is the
subsequent lost generation, their apostate children. Attached to creature
comforts and bourgeois lifestyles, they have effectively sacrificed their
children, for you can be sure that children who spend the majority of their
time with people who are trying to undermine the faith and belief system of
their parents will not emerge unscathed. Most abandon the faith in short order
and those that retain it are nevertheless confused by the pro-feminist,
pro-sodomite, Enlightenment secularism (and mammonism) that has (by that point
in time) been deeply ingrained within them. And there are plenty of
culture-affirming false teachers out there who will tickle their ears. As a
result some will stay within the 'Church' for a time.
I would plead with the Christians in Germany and France to
quit thinking in terms of 'success'. Many want this for their children and are
unwilling to face social ostracisation and a kind of second-class citizenship –
the kind of alienation we're told to expect as normative in the New Testament.
The problem is they've made a basic error when it comes to
terms like 'success'. American Evangelicals are no different. They've let the
world define these terms for them and form their categories.
For a Christian parent, success is something quite different.
Success is raising Christian children who stay in the faith and live faithful God-glorifying
lives. Whether they dig ditches, run a cash register, harvest crops, or do some
other menial job is immaterial. Besides, the jobs that are more deeply invested
in the larger society are fraught with problems and ethical entanglements. You
cannot serve God and Mammon. One of the most basic and fundamental lessons of
Christ's teaching has been lost and for the most part rejected by the Church –
even the Church that professes to be 'conservative' and Bible believing. What
fruit have they produced? Ever-shrinking numbers, generational loss, and almost
unprecedented worldliness – and this is among churches that purport to be
conservative.
During the Catholic centuries, the Roman-aligned hierarchy
went specifically after children. Wanting them indoctrinated, they insisted
upon catechism, and for children to learn things like the Ave Maria, the
rosary, and a proper recognition of saint's days and the like. In other words
targeting children is nothing new. All authoritarian regimes know the secret to
long term success and the sustaining of the power is to capture not the present
generation – but the next one.
Today the false religion is different but the result is the
same and the acculturated syncretism of Christianity and Classical Liberalism
sits confused – confusing French, British, American, or Western values with
Christianity. And thus it stands ill-equipped to resist the Parisian beast and
its head Emmanuel Macron.
Evangelicalism stands at a place very similar to Catholicism
in the Middle Ages. Acculturated, worldly, financially invested in the state
and society, and governed by tradition, custom, and superstition, it has a robust
(if not always Biblical) theological tradition but it is largely unknown by the
masses or drowned out by cultural commitments and a therapeutic worldview. In
the European context where the numbers are much smaller, there is a separatist-minority
consciousness but it's been weakened by several decades of Dominionist thought
flowing from the Anglo-American sphere. Additionally, if one of America's deep
cultural cancers is hyper-individualism, Europe errs the other way – long traditions,
and historically heavy population densities have produced a deeply ingrained
sense of conformity and social consciousness. The European default (as it were)
is probably better and closer to a general Christian ethic than the American,
yet at times it can prove incapable of producing the kind of against-the-grain
antithesis thinking required of Christians. This is one of those moments and I
will certainly pray for French Christians who are certain to face fairly
intense struggles in the years to come.
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*First there is a confusion with regard to the use of 'liberty'
in the New Testament and a general confusion regarding the term vis-à-vis New
Testament Christianity. Then in another vein there is often a failure to acknowledge
that in terms of history and ideology there is spectrum to what is meant by
liberty. This is not said to defend or justify Macron for I would not wish to
do that. I say it only for the sake of being honest and in an attempt to
accurately assess what he's done in a larger context of liberty as understood
in the post-Enlightenment epoch.
It's also ironic because many American Christians are arguing
for the same thing as Macron in some respects. They too lament the breakdown in
society and wish for the old days when the institutions were trusted and
dominated society, when they were Christian – which they never were, unless one
defines Christian in other than New Testament terms. In fact that same attitude
produced the kind of worldliness that today, makes Christians so ill-equipped
to discern the times and combat contemporary threats to their identity. The
so-called Christian consensus many long for (the good old days as it were) are
in fact a spiritual danger, a sign of sacralist conquest and a loss and
abandonment of New Testament identity.
And ironically it was the authoritarian children-targeting
projects and institutions of earlier Christians that have now been appropriated
by the secular state and turned against them.
And yet the lessons haven't been learned. Today's libertarian
impulses if turned if allowed to run their course would quickly and necessarily
result in authoritarianism. Social breakdown and economic monopoly would
produce an authoritarian oligarchic-plutocratic state. I do not believe that if
the Christian Right ever gained control of the American government and its
educational system that they would tolerate Left-wing private schools and a
homeschool wave rooted in secularism, sexual libertinism and the like – let
alone the rise of an Islamic homeschool movement. They would seek to crush it.
They would do more or less what Macron is doing right now.
Though Macron may champion secularism, in fact his thinking
is perfectly in line with Sacralist thinkers. He is driven by ideology and by a
desire to see society in terms of a monistic structure. In his case the
religion which is to bind society together is Enlightenment French
Republicanism. It is the standard by which all things are judged. It is the
glue that binds society together. It may posit a closed universe and a
materialist cosmology but it is no less a religion. For Macron, France is the
paradigm to lead and to be emulated. It is the holy nation, the vanguard, the
prophetic voice to the world. It is his religion and France is (in actuality or
potential) his vision of heaven, the holy nation. But a holiness defined in
terms of a secular epistemology, its heaven a pathetic attempt at utopia in which
death would still reign – an expression of 666 as Revelation would have it.
**It's a tragic,
disturbing, and dangerous trend we're seeing throughout the West at present – a
sad repeating of history that belies the narratives of many Right-wing
Christians regarding the Church and what theology led to the Christian embrace
of Fascism a century ago. Their lies, obfuscation, and deliberate misdirection
have all but opened the door for a disastrous sequel. One need only look to the
overwhelming support given by Christians to the fascistic Trump movement and
the way in which Right-wing American Evangelicals and forming alliances with
fascistic political parties in Europe.