Story number 2 for 16 Aug 2000

Meanwhile, believers in France are keeping a close watch on an anti-sect law that was approved by the French National Assembly and is before the Senate for approval in September. The bill has made the religious situation more difficult for the minority Protestant groups and others who are labeled as sects. Evangelical Free Church Mission’s Susan McClure. “The danger is real and the tension is real, but we found that a way to respond to that is to use a language that folks in government can understand. We’ve identified a certain language, which would be an evangelical language that scares them to death. So, when we explain who we are, and avoid those terms, it seems to “calmer le jeu”, we say in French, it seems to “calm things down”.” McClure adds that this makes evangelism challenging. “It goes much slower. You have to have more patience. I’m not sure that Americans can understand that, though. They’re looking for church planting to be done in the space of two and three and four years in France; and, when you have to move more slowly and be careful what you say, it takes longer to get to the point.”