Crosswalk.com: Evangelical churches in France, part of a growing Christian movement worldwide, are encountering growing administrative difficulties as the country re-examines its secular principles.
The French Protestant Federation said it must frequently intervene to protest official actions that could be considered attacks on religious freedom but were more likely the result of ignorance. Because of France's Catholic traditions, explained federation president Jean-Arnold de Clermont, public officials consider legitimate only those religions which have a recognized head, like a bishop, and a recognized service, like the Mass.
Anything that differed from that pattern was regarded as a sect. A French magazine last year declared in a headline article that evangelical churches were sects and criticized what it said was the use of religion as a political tool in the United States.
