French Secularism

Evangelical Christians in America often complain about secularism and the secularization of society, but in France it is much more extreme. There church and state are separated to a radical degree - even to the point where the ability of people to exercise their religious freedoms can be genuinely impaired.

Sarah Dalglish writes for the Tufts Daily:

In France, the reasoning behind the laïcité [secularism] law strays well afar of [Jules] Ferry's original intension of providing free public education to every French girl and boy. Indeed, the proposal seems to evince paternalistic and frankly anti-Muslim undertones. Supporters of the law have argued, for example, that the veils are forced upon young Muslim women, and are therefore shameful signs of female submission in a patriarchal and chauvinistic ("phallocratique") society. But the so-called moral obligation idea of saving people from their own culture has a long, dark history amongst Europeans, post-colonial regrets notwithstanding.

[Prime Minister Alain] Juppé rightly points out that the state's conception of secularism has changed over the past century: the ideal no longer exists to prevent government submission to the church (in particular the Roman Catholic church), but now protects the right of the citizen to practice his religion without having other beliefs imposed on him. How, exactly, does the wearing of the headscarf violate this principle? Here emerges the unseemliness of the debate: never was laïcité so dearly held until Muslim religious insignia were at issue.

The goals of French secularism were laudable. The desire to remove religious leaders from political power was entirely appropriate - and it continue to be a good idea. That does not mean, however, that the state should try to cleanse all religious expression from public view. Perhaps there can be fair and valid restrictions on the sorts of religious expression made by employees of the state, like teachers in the classroom, but the state must tread more carefully when it comes to the religious expression of students.

Granted, no one wants public schools to become a forum for religious strife, conflict, and separation. The government has a valid purpose in trying to cause children to think of themselves as French - all French and all united in having a French identity rather than separated by different religious beliefs. That must be tempered, however, but allowing them to continue to have some differences. It would be inappropriate to try and make them all clones of each other.

Read More:

• Secularism 101
• Separation of Church and State 101
• Religion in Public Schools