Having spent the last few years living in Indiana, I paid close attention to the transatlantic rumblings created by the state’s Religious Freedom Act last month. It is hard to believe such a raucous could be caused anywhere else except the U.S., as Europe seems far too “progressed” to have such issues and poor and ‘backward’ countries get a distant slap on the wrist by the West.
I was thus surprised to find a Catholic priest interviewed on French national television about a simple advertisement in the Paris Metro. “What kind of advertisement,” I thought, “could bring a priest on national television?”
It turns out the RATP, who runs the Parisian urban transport system, deemed the sign above too politically-charged. A musical quartet of Catholic priests called “The Priests” (yes, not that original) putting on a concert this June were forbidden for noting that the concert was “In support of Christians in the Middle East.” They argued that this entailed the promotion of political causes.
Unlike in the U.S., however, large French papers and even the head of one of the country’s larger political parties came out against the RATP. Eventually, the RATP backed down and the poster—as pictured above—reappeared.
But the difficulties of religious freedom in France remains an issue. This British article notes the historical origins of the RATP’s decision. Recently, only sheer luck prevented another terrorist attack near Paris. A young computer science student had targeted Catholic churches in a town whose name ironically translates to ‘Jew Town.’ Parliamentarians recommended protecting Christian places of worship as Jewish ones have been protected in recent months. But how much can military protection do when government agencies like the RATP actively work against more profound demonstrations of religious ideals?
A Historical Perspective
Issues of religious freedom have been an issue in France since the beginning of the first millennium. Blandina was one of many early Christian martyrs in the city of Lyons tortured and killed in the arena pictured above. Lyons was capital of the Roman region “The Three Gauls” and a key commercial hub for the entire Empire. The Church Father Irenaeus spent much of his life in the city and helped move Christianity into the consciousness of the Greco-Roman world. But life was not easy for Christians then, just as today.
The issues of church and individual freedom to practice religion have profound impact on the way a society carries out commerce, politics, and other societal matters. Indeed, Diderot and d’Alembert, atheistic Enlightenment thinkers who inspired the French Revolution, praised the religiously vibrant city of Geneva for its order and wealth. However, what Diderot and d’Alembert admired was not reproduced through the destroying of French institutions by their disciples. What was produced out of Geneva’s overflow of religious expression stemming from the Reformation could not be created from godless scratch.
What can we learn from these 2nd and 18th century anecdotes? Out of many things, we should remember that if Western societies on either side of the Atlantic wish to promote societal, economic, and political well-being, they would be well-advised to permit religious freedom.
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