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The French Take A Look At ‘Evangelicalism.’

Author
Category Articles
Date March 17, 2005

During the first week of December, one of the major French weekly magazines, “Courrier International,” dedicated its cover article to the “phenomenon” of evangelicalism. The evangelical church in France represents only about 0.8 percent of the population according to the most optimistic statistics. Many (if not most) French people have never heard of “evangelicals” or at least have no real idea of what they are.

However, the role of American evangelicals in the re-election of George Bush was widely reported by the French Press and demanded an explanation as to what the evangelical movement is.

I thought I would share with you some of the contents of this eight-page article in order to give you an idea of how little French people understand about the evangelical faith and what obstacles are being thrown in the way of the preaching of the true gospel by the current media depiction of evangelicalism, which has been building for the last few years.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article translated into English for you. These quotes are from the beginning of the article which gives some introductory information on evangelicals. I will make some remarks after each quote.

“What is the origin of this religious movement? It is Jonathan Edwards, an American theologian of the 18th century, who is considered to be the father of evangelicalism. Jonathan Edwards taught that intense emotions toward God must not be seen as being in conflict with reason. During the Second ‘Great Awakening’ at the end of the 19th century, evangelicalism asserted itself as a typically American form of Protestantism: egalitarian, individualistic, proselytizing, both mystical and down to earth… Wherever it exists in the world today, evangelicalism coincides with promotion of American cultural models.”

Those familiar with church history will easily pick up on the inaccuracies of the quote. I’m concerned by another aspect. During these days of heightened tension between French and American cultures, the association of “evangelicalism” with American cultural models makes it very difficult for those evangelicals in France (whether native French or foreigners like me) who are working for a return of a different sort of “evangelicalism,” which actually flourished on French soil and in the French cultural model before America even existed. Indeed, the French Calvinistic Protestants of the 16th century were called by the term “evangelical” before the founding of America, and their robust and God-centered theology makes many present observers of the man-centered and frivolous evangelicalism of today long for the return of the older variety!

“Evangelicals, “born-again”, Pentecostals, these three notions overlap more or less. Evangelical and “born-again” Christians can belong to all sorts of churches or “denominations,” in general these are branches of Pentecostalism. After baptism or conversion (which is the “first blessing”), the believer needs a “second blessing” to confirm his commitment. Pentecostalism promotes a “third blessing”, the baptism in the Spirit, which causes the believer to enter into trances, provokes healings and gives the gift of tongues . . . Pentecostalism promises riches and success.”

The rest of the article (which is 90 percent of it) is really all about Pentecostalism (and the most extreme and unbiblical variety at that) and makes it seem that all evangelicals are Pentecostal and that most preach the “health and wealth” gospel.

To complete the picture, let me describe, without further comment, a couple of the photos and captions from the article as a way of summarizing the tone and orientation of the rest of the article.

There is the photo of a woman preacher, with a Bible raised above her head in one hand and her eyes closed. She is preaching somewhere in Israel, but is obviously American, for behind her a man is holding up a stretched-out American flag, and beside her, with her arm around the woman preacher is a teenage girl with a tee-shirt that says, “Chocolate Shoppe” (the French image of Americans puts great emphasis on American eating habits and obesity). The caption below the photo reads: “Keep Gaza in the name of Jesus.” The subtitle reads “Thousands of Zionist Christians support the Israeli extreme right against Ariel Sharon’s project to disengage from Gaza.”

Another photo is of an American missionary handing a “certificate of conversion” to one of the most notorious leaders of the Cambodia Khmer Rouge concentration camps (the Khmers Rouge killed almost 2 million people). A caption next to the photo summarizes the article’s description of the recent supposed conversion of a large number of Khmer Rouge leaders: “Christian Repentance in order to soften up the Justice System?”

Well-taught Christians will probably react in two ways to all this.

(1) They would agree with the article in its critical regard for much of what is described. We would simply say that this is not what true evangelicalism is about.

(2) They would expect articles from secular magazines to present unfavorable and slanted presentations of evangelicals such as this one. You can find such examples in your own secular press.

The French press seems determined to identify evangelical religion with American culture (which is not most appreciated at the moment by the French people) and with certain political agendas found among some Americans (with which the French find much to criticize, and not always wrongly).

You can see that this changes the question from being one of considering the claims of Christ and Christianity on the basis of what they are in and of themselves to the question of French culture against American culture; “Americans are evangelicals. French are not. This whole thing is a cultural phenomenon.”

Really, the issue is the claims of Christ recorded in Scripture; “Did God reveal Himself to man in Jesus of Nazareth?” ”Did Jesus rise from the dead’?’ “Is He the Son of the Living God?” “Is the Christian message true in what it says about God, man’s sinfulness and the way of salvation for sinful men through Jesus Christ?”

We personally have no desire to reproduce American cultural models or politics in French. We even admit that living in France has changed our views on both culture and politics in some ways. We do long to see the true good news of Christ known again in France, that gospel which was given by God 2000 years ago and which is for all men, a gospel diametrically opposed to most of what this magazine article describes as being at the heart of modern evangelicalism.

David Vaughn, 10 impasse du Vercors, 38400 Grenoble, France.

An American pastor who lives in France David wrote this for the ARBCA Update, First Quarter 2005. It is reprinted by permission.

www.reformedbaptist.com

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