THE FRENCH government will monitor and shut down any groups that demonstrate “religious pathology,” Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday, two days after the announcement of a new agency called, with Orwellian candor, the National Observatory of Secularism. Valls asserted that many religious groups are of concern. According to Reuters:

Valls said the government had a duty to combat religious extremism because it was “an offence to the republic” based on a negation of reason that puts dogma ahead of the law.

Giving examples of religious extremists, he mentioned creationists in the United States and the Muslim world, radical Islamists, ultra-traditionalist Catholics and ultra-Orthodox Jews who want to live separately from the modern world.

As reported at CNA, the interior minister stated that the Catholic group Civitas, recently in the news for its peaceful protests against homosexual “marriage,” pushes “the limits of legality … All excesses are being minutely registered in case we have to consider dissolving it and defending this before a judge.”

Of course, who are the religious pathologists? They are the millions of Muslims opposed to historic France and bidden to conquer infidels. But, presumably in order to justify its concern about Islam, the government will monitor any groups that are actually religious, any groups that refuse to confine faith to the private realm. Perhaps France will eventually rival Saudi Arabia in its prohibition of any and all expressions of devout Christianity. Then the National Observatory of Secularism could be turned into a mosque.

Valls hypocritically states that the government will not use force to disband religious groups:

The aim is not to combat opinions by force, but to detect and understand when an opinion turns into a potentially violent and criminal excess.

In other words, religious pathologists will face criminal charges.

—– Comments —–

Daniel S. writes:

In modern France figures such as Joan of Arc, Charles Martel, and Bernard of Clairvaux would all be punished for demonstrating a “religious pathology.” What a truly malevolent act on part of the French government. Make no mistake about it, this is aimed at the Catholic Church.

 Laura writes:

Every saint is an instance of religious pathology.

Daniel S. continues:

Here is my quick takedown of the malicious French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, based on quotes from the CNA story:

“The objective is to identify when it’s suitable to intervene to treat what has become a religious pathology,” Interior Minister Manuel Valls told a conference on the official policy of secularism, according to Reuters.

Religious pathology? That is to say, in the view of the French government those who take religion seriously suffer from some sort of dangerous psychological disorder. It would seem the French government is taking its policy advice from Richard Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens (who describe religious education as child abuse). In modern, secular France to believe in God, Christ, the Bible, the sacraments, etc. is to be a potential terrorist or murder.

“The aim is not to combat opinions by force, but to detect and understand when an opinion turns into a potentially violent and criminal excess,” he said at the Dec. 11 conference.

I.e. justification for the liberal police state. Anyone who does not sufficiantly adhere to France’s smelly little orthodoxies will be weeded out and punished. Thought crime is no longer just a literary phrase in France.

Valls’ remarks come in the wake of President Francois Hollande’s announcement Dec. 9 that he would create the “National Observatory of Secularism” to promote France’s policy and to “formulate propositions for the transmission of ‘public morality,’ giving it a dignified place in schools.”

Public morality? Sounds like a phrase out of Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia. The secular Taliban in France will be out and about enforcing public morality. And here I thought we supposed to be avoiding such religious pathologies.

He said that Civitas is observed because its political protests flirt with “the limits of legality … All excesses are being minutely registered in case we have to consider dissolving it and defending this before a judge.”

Civitas is “a political movement inspired by natural law and the social doctrine of the Church … engaged in the establishment of the social Kingship of Christ” throughout the world, and in France in particular. It demonstrates against secularism and policies which denigrate Christianity.

And here we see that “violent excess” is not the real issue of concern. Civitas is completely non-violent and is being targeted for its refusal to submit to the zeitgeist.

According to Reuters, Valls offered radicals Islamists, traditionalist Catholics, and ultra-orthodox Jews “who want to live separately from the modern world” as examples of religious extremists.

Even non-violent, social or cultural seperatism is unacceptable. To borrow from the vindicated Orwell again, one must not just submit to Big Brother, one must love him as well.

In an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, he said that secular morality is to “understand what is right and to distinguish good from evil.”

“Secularism is not about simple tolerance … it is a set of values that we have to share.”

That sure sounds like religious language to me. Will someone investigate the Interior Minister for religious pathology?

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