This is Apropos
Well, since the U.S. Vice President described the slain conservative influencer as a martyr
for Christianity, admirers of Charlie Kirk have been suggesting that his assassination
will galvanize throngs of people to become more engaged in evangelical and Catholic churches
Evocations of Kirk-inspired religious fervor surfaced almost immediately after his death, as Siobhan Silk reports
Thank you for protecting him. Evangelical Christian leaders pray for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump
a man they see as a saviour. We believe you're a vessel. You're a chosen vessel
It's a symbiotic relationship. Christians, get out and vote just this time
It'll be fixed. It'll be fine. You won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians
The Christian vote was essential in getting him back into the White House and he's rewarded them with victories like the overturning of abortion rights
Now contraception, same-sex marriage and no-fault divorce are in their sights, as is shifting funding from public schools to Christian schools
part of a mission to end one of the fundamental principles of the United States
the separation of church and state. Evangelical Christians are deeply embedded in the second Trump administration
including his cabinet. This is a culmination of a decades-long strategy that dates back to the 1980s
when the original megachurch pastor Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, a now-defunct conservative movement that for the first time put social and moral issues at the heart of U.S. politics
and helped put true believers at the heart of U.S. power. The Evangelical Christian Lobby has also been winning the hearts and minds of ordinary people
with notable success in one particular demographic, disaffected young white men. They've been recruited en masse by a new breed of influencers and podcasters
like the late Charlie Kirk, credited with turning a new generation towards Christian nationalism, a way of ensuring its continued survival
These methods have been making inroads in other countries like Brazil, where far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, now convicted of attempting a coup
sought and won the support of a rapidly growing evangelical base, predicted to soon outnumber Catholics
But though Bolsonaro is gone for now, evangelical Christians continue to have an outsized influence on politics
40% of members of Congress are part of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front
the so-called Bible block. Even in France, where traditionally only a fraction of the population
practices a religion, evangelical churches are growing. And in a country that prides itself on its secularism
conservative Christians are now trying to influence politics, with the National Council of French Evangelicals
sending lobbyists into the halls of power. That's mirrored in the EU
Groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom are active in Brussels. It's an American Christian advocacy group
that was instrumental in using U courts to overturn abortion rights and now well and determined it attempting the same tactics in Europe
To discuss, we are joined now by Gagné André, Professor and Chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University
Thanks so much for being with us on the programme. Firstly, let's start with the basics. Evangelicism, what exactly is it
It's a very large umbrella term, isn't it, Gagné? Yes, yes, it is a very, very large term that engulfs a lot of different various types of religious expressions, especially, you know, expressions like Baptists or Pentecostals and so on
And when we think about evangelicals, essentially, we can reduce it to about four things
the emphasis on the Bible, the Bible is the word of God, the emphasis on the necessity of conversion
experiencing new birth, the idea of the message of Jesus's death on the cross, and of course
the idea of activism, meaning sharing one's faith and participating in promoting the Christian
message. So essentially, that is what constitutes evangelicalism, but it's a very, very large
umbrella term that regroups various types of religious denominations and congregations. And we largely associate it, of course, with the U.S., but how big is the movement here in Europe
do you know? Yes, you're right. The reflex is to associate it with the U.S. There's 23 percent
of the people in the U.S., about 80 million people out of a population close to 350 million
in the U.S. that belong or have a claim to be evangelical. In Europe, however, the numbers
are quite less. In fact, it only represents, evangelicals only represent about 2.5
of the population. That's about 22 to 23 million evangelicals. And you have evangelicals, of course
in various countries, like in France, there's about a million. In the UK, around maybe five
million. In Germany, about two million. And in other countries, even less. So the proportions
are not comparable to what we see, for example, in the US and in Brazil
And is it having an increasing role in politics, though, here in Europe? And if so, why
It has up to a certain extent. Of course, when you talk about evangelicals, they do have
certain concerns. And some of those concerns often are reflected in ideas that, you know
parallel a bit what we see in the US. What stems a lot in the US is this idea, for example
of religious freedom. Sometimes evangelicals feel that their religious freedom, even in the context of Europe
they have less religious freedom. Some of them at least that what they encounter So it normal for them to want to have sometimes a voice and they do We can neglect the fact that evangelicals remain for most of them
people that have conservative values in relation, or at least in, that really differ from what we see
in a secular society. Of course, they value traditional family, issues around abortion
they're against abortion, they're all pro-life, issues around gender roles and so on. So
when they do have opportunities to speak out their mind, they will take those opportunities
because for them, they are people that get involved in elections and they feel that they
should have a voice. At the same time, due to the small proportion of evangelicals in Europe
the impact is not really, really significant due to the fact that, of course, a lot of European
countries are quite secular. At the same time, you'll have other countries in Eastern Europe
for example, that are more traditionalist Catholics, that some of those values sometimes
align with those of evangelicals. And sometimes what they will do is they will get together
cooperate on certain issues so that they can have one voice and share the things that are
important to them. And even if these things, they can bring them into the public and political arena
if they have the opportunity to do so, they will do so
At the same time, what's very important, and this is important to stress
a lot of evangelicals, and most of them, I would say, in Europe
do not want to associate or be associated with the brand of evangelicalism
that we see in the U.S., the type of Christian nationalist agenda
that is pushed. Many of them actually want to distance themselves and don't want to be identified as evangelicals that share a similar agenda as that of the US
But of course, again, some of their values up to a certain extent are social conservative
Yeah. Does it play out more subtly than perhaps here in Europe
because we saw during the referendum campaigns in Ireland when it came to same-sex marriage and abortion
that influence was creeping into some of the debate that we were seeing around those issues
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, it's more subtle and they will play on some of these issues
But again, to have a direct impact on policies, it would be much more difficult for them
At the same time, it's very interesting. When you look at the situation of the European Union
you have a party that is called the European Conservatives and Reformists that is currently the fourth largest group
in the European Parliament. And they constitute a group of individuals that do value traditional types of social conservative values that are very very close to the values of people that we would label as being the Christian right
in the U.S. They value the churches as being important institutions in Europe, and that should
remain. And they very much push the idea that there needs to be religious freedom in Europe
That means that people are allowed to express their ideas. They are allowed to have views that
are not necessarily aligning themselves with the views of a secularist Europe. So again
you will see this played out, but in more subtle ways, because they don't have the demographics that are present, of course, in the US
And would you agree, in the US particularly, that this is kind of winning over a lot of those young, white, male, disaffected young people, men particularly
Absolutely. You're absolutely right. And we've seen it with the phenomenon, Charlie Kirk, the impact that his death has had on a lot of young people
He was, of course, very influential on college campuses, in over 3,000 campuses across the nation, and really engaging in this idea of debate and open discussion
That's what at least he tried to say or the way he promoted his events as being open the bank
But that we can we can maybe question that to a certain extent
But, yes, there's there's a generation of young people sometimes that feel they have lost their way somehow
And it gives them a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging
You see, when we talk about evangelicalism, and maybe it's important to say this, at the moment, the growth of evangelicalism globally is more in the global South countries
The exception is really in global North countries is really the U.S
In Europe, the growth is not as phenomenal. So it's global South countries
And at the same time, the types of evangelical churches that grow more significantly are those that I call Pentecostal, neo-charismatic types of evangelical groups, where it's all about experiencing the divine
It's experiential Christianity. It's being part of something. It's having God transform our lives
It's this idea of a religion of the heart versus a dogmatic religion that has no life
So that's very attractive for a lot of people that are looking for meaning
and looking for a way to actually make a difference in the world
And that's why it attracts a lot of young people. Ghani, Andre, we'll have to leave it there for now
And thank you so much for being with us on the programme this evening. Well, that's it from us
Thank you for having me. Stay with us, though, for more wild news here on France 24