More on the Christian revival in France!

Matthew W. Maguire argues that France is in the middle of a strong religious revival in his recent article written for Touchstone Magazine. I especially like how Maquire takes aim at the common misconception that most American Christians have about the state Christianity in Europe. They seem to think that European Christianity has all but died. Not entirely so, and that's exactly what I argued back in my December 13 post concerning the matter. Ironically in that exact same post, I took aim at another Touchstone contributor William Murchinson for his overly pessimistic portrait of European Christianity.

Interesting enough Maguire directly repeats my argument that although everything is not necessarily good when concerning the state of Christianity in Europe, on the other hand all is not lost. European Christianity still has a lot of spirit left in it. And the current Pope's call for Christians to be Europe's "creative minority" is certainly being well heard and is adding to this potentially positive development.

My only contention with this article is what Maguire tries to make of the fact that French Catholics are becoming less likely to vote for Le Pen and support his National Front. The argument is that French Catholics are somehow becoming less nationalistic. This is not the case. Rather French Catholics are now beginning to support men like Philippe de Villiers(who is now suppose to be ahead of Le Pen in the polls). The fact that Le Pen is losing support among many French Catholics maybe a direct result of his attempts to court Muslim voters.

So keep up the good work France!

Other posts where I have dealt with the state of Catholicism in France and Europe in general:

Polls show the Catholic Church is still strong in Europe of April 2

Rifkin's European Dream of May 9, 2005

Europe and the Popes of April 20, 2005 (a real classic!)