barnhart wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2024 10:36 amJust a few observations.
1. French culture has been intentionally mocking Christianity since the French revolution when the masses reacted against an oppressive crown propped up by a complicit church. This should sound warning bells for Christian nationalists, Christian integrationist/integralists in this country, be careful of siding with powerful movements because the pendulum may swing back much harder and much sooner than you think. The revolutionaries threw the church officials out of the building and dressed a young girl in a crown and flowing robes, calling her the goddess of reason and set her on the alter in front. There is nothing new under the sun
I'm not sure this is a valid understanding of Christian integralism. As I understand it, integralists think Christians (and by Christians, they mean "Catholics") should occupy the high offices of the land, such as distinguished professors, higher court clerkships, and so on so that they can influence the broader polity with Catholic principles, such as Catholic social teaching. I have a hard time seeing anything wrong with this. This is entirely the opposite of the idea of "siding with powerful movements"; rather, it is more of attempting to influence or even usurp powerful movements.
2. Secularists and Neo pagans will be more reluctant to mock Islam. This is a good thing. It acknowledges at the root Christianity is fundamentally different than Islam which cannot bear mockery and easily supports holy war. Whereas the root of Christianity is a king who was willing to bear any amount of mockery while eschewing power and revenge. We should be honored they acknowledge the distinction.
It is not, however, wrong to point out the hypocrisy of secularists who claim they are simply mocking "religion" but mysteriously never mock Islam.
3. We need to think of secular Europe as fertile ground for evangelism by the meek and humble. The fields are ready for harvest...
It isn't. It is some of the most barren ground you can find anywhere. My denomination has repeatedly tried to evangelise this area with no success.
We do now have 1 missionary couple in France, but that is mostly because there are so man non-French people there who are more open to hearing the gospel. (By "non-French", I mean people who aren't, well, French, that is, their ancestors come from a different people and land.) The same story is true in the Great Britain, where the only success from tract work and missionary activity has been non-British people. (And by "non-British", I mean people who aren't, well, Welsh, Scottish, or English.)
Western Europeans, simply put, seem to have inoculated themselves against Christ's gospel of peace. But don't take my word for it - go and spend a weekend passing out tracts and see who accepts them and who doesn't.