Evangelicals under investigation by French "FBI"

The title was simply, "Urgent." I suspected it was spam...

But the e-mail came directly from Stéphane Lauzet, General Secretary of the French Evangelical Alliance, with an attached letter from Jean-Arnold de Clermont, the president of the Protestant Federation of France. Pastor de Clermont wrote,

"Dear friends,

I was informed yesterday of the launch of an national investigation by the Bureau of General Information (Renseignements Généraux) for a 'census of the evangelical milieu' with particular attention paid to the 'incidents' linked to worship service practices. I am perplexed by this decision.…"

Is this some sort of intimidation? What are these mysterious "incidents"? It sounded so strange that I didn't fully believe it until I received the same information from the General Secretary of the Evangelical Federation of France (FEF) of which our Grace Brethren Churches are members. Clément Diedrichs wrote,

"The FEF's viewpoint is the following. The fact that the Bureau of General Information (Renseignements Généraux) investigate our churches is nothing new. Of course we make sure that the State does not interfere in the life of our churches, but at the same time we understand that it cannot ignore Religion. Further, it is the State's responsibility to guarantee the freedom of worship and so we prefer that the government has accurate information."

Presidential hopeful, Nicolas Sarkozy addresses the annual general assembly of the Evangelical Federation of France (January 31, 2004)

Now I've been to the see the French FBI three times; they ask lots of questions. Only once were they asking questions about other evangelical pastors in Dijon, but when I walked out I felt like I had been manipulated and a bit "dirty." That was the first time, so live and learn. The second two times all went well; the agents (one was a Bruce Willis look-alike!) were quite polite and even helpful by answering my questions as well.

So please keep this in prayer as evangelical leaders work toward helping the French government understand the value of true religious plurality and liberty through wise speech and behavior that adorns the Word and honors Jesus. Thanks!