Meanwhile, in France

[Swiss Bro]

I can confirm that northwestern Europe is a barren ground for evangelization. At best, people don‘t give a rip about the Christian faith but often they are downright hostile against it.

[Valerie]

I can confirm that northwestern Europe is a barren ground for evangelization. At best, people don‘t give a rip about the Christian faith but often they are downright hostile against it.

It was prophesied the Falling Away was to happen, seems we are rapidly heading there.

[Swiss Bro]

I can confirm that northwestern Europe is a barren ground for evangelization. At best, people don‘t give a rip about the Christian faith but often they are downright hostile against it.

It was prophesied the Falling Away was to happen, seems we are rapidly heading there.

Yeah, it‘s in full swing.

[Ken]

Otherwise the Olympic stage just becomes an endless parade of increasingly extreme displays of political, commercial, and religious messaging.

endless parade of commercial messaging?

Ken, have you seen any of the Olympics in the past 40 years?

The Olympics are most definitely for sale to official sponsors.

They are downright militant in opposing any commercial, religious, or political messaging that hasn't been paid for.

So you can't wear branding that isn't an official Olympic sponsor. And likewise, if you are a business that isn't an Olympic sponsor you had better not be putting the Olympic rings on your brand or otherwise co-op Olympic symbols because they will come down on you like a ton of bricks.

You especially can't bring politics into the Olympics. So no showing up on the medal stand wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh to protest Gaza or anything like that.

[Josh]

For what it's worth, I find the idea of telling women they can't wear hijabs highly offensive, and a good example of what is wrong with "secularism". This kind of wrong-headedness is indeed one of the reasons the Western-installed puppet government in Iran was eventually ousted by the Iranian people.

[Ken]

For what it's worth, I find the idea of telling women they can't wear hijabs highly offensive, and a good example of what is wrong with "secularism". This kind of wrong-headedness is indeed one of the reasons the Western-installed puppet government in Iran was eventually ousted by the Iranian people.

What about telling women that they MUST wear them? You OK with that?

[RZehr]

For what it's worth, I find the idea of telling women they can't wear hijabs highly offensive, and a good example of what is wrong with "secularism". This kind of wrong-headedness is indeed one of the reasons the Western-installed puppet government in Iran was eventually ousted by the Iranian people.

What about telling women that they MUST wear them? You OK with that?

While it is not my place to force anything, there is a difference in forcing someone to do good, and forcing them to do bad. For example, I don’t think it a bad thing to force people to wear clothes in public, but I think it would be a bad thing to force them not to wear clothes in public. It’s not wrong to have laws forbidding crime, but it is wrong to have laws requiring people to commit crime.
And from what I can tell of the Bible, to force women to cover their heads, would be closer to the former than the latter.
And we could discuss what it means to cover, and when to cover - those would be important discussions for sure. Ultimately, wearing a hijab is not sinful. Therefore, in my understanding it would be less evil to demand them, than to forbid them - based on the NT teachings of head covering.

[Josh]

What about telling women that they MUST wear them? You OK with that?

No, I don't think that's the state's place, although I do think it is the responsibility of the state to enforce basic decency, such as not being naked or obscene in public, and that is an area where Western governments are currently derelict in their duties. The government of Iran does not enforce hijabs, but does require an easy to comply with standard of cultural decency of a simple headscarf.

I think telling women they CANNOT wear hijabs is beyond ridiculous. Many women reacted by simply staying home. It was a way to isolate conservative and religious people from public and for the wealthy and powerful to both dominate public spaces and to also boldly offend religious and conservative sensibilities. (Sound familiar?)

[Ken]

The government of Iran does not enforce hijabs, but does require an easy to comply with standard of cultural decency of a simple headscarf.

Riiight.

CULTURE is the exact same reason the French use to prohibit head scarves. You can't have it both ways.

[barnhart]

I can confirm that northwestern Europe is a barren ground for evangelization. At best, people don‘t give a rip about the Christian faith but often they are downright hostile against it.

It was prophesied the Falling Away was to happen, seems we are rapidly heading there.

Yeah, it‘s in full swing.

I agree that is the landscape, but God loves to do hard things and often in surprising ways and unexpected times. This conversation highlights some of the discomfort I have with capital "D" Dispensationalism. If we give up on the ability of the gospel of Jesus to appeal to Europe because of end times prophecy, I think we have misunderstood the scripture.