A tormented people
by Pastor Emmanuel Bozzi
Certain signs are unmistakable. France may well be one of the richest countries in the West, a symbol of "the good life", a high place of culture and gastronomy, the land with over 400 kinds of cheese and one of the best socialized medical coverages in the world, yet it is a spiritual desert where multitudes of thirsting souls are perishing.
The French are the greatest consummers of tranquilizers in the world, especially among women, surpassing even the United States.
In recent years suicide has become the first cause of death among French youth, killing more people between 15 and 25 years of age than even car accidents or cancer. Newspaper articles and tele-vision reports on suicide cases abound. In one instance a teenage girl shot herself with her father's gun in front of her classmates at school. In another case two 12-year-old girls killed themselves to follow their idol in the popular rock group, Nirvana, that had done the same thing.
Depression and nervous breakdowns are multiplyng. It must be said that France has been influenced--more than other European countries--by psychoanalysis, which was long considered the "wonder religion" of modern times, but is now put more and more in question. Psychiatric hospitals are full, with 93,500 full-time patients in 1988 and nearly two million out patients!
Divorce in major cities has now reached the rate of 1 out of 2 marriages. In 1991 there were 280,000 marriages and 103,000 divorces. In 1993 the number of children (under 18) from broken families reached 1,230,000--two per cent of the population of France! In 1990, 169,000 abortions were recorded compared to 760,000 births, in other words, 1 abortion for 4.5 births (we have reached 200,000 abortions in 1998). Non-married couples are common and make up 12% of the couples in France.
Lastly, the widespread practice of consulting seers and astrologists, right up to the president of the republic--former president Mitterand regularly consulted a famous astrologist--reveals a deep problem and an evident spiritual thirst.
Our Bible stand, which goes out three times a week in different neighborhoods of Paris, has had great success. Many French people have never read the Bible themselves and are curious to see what it contains. On the other hand, they are reluctant to join a church because of their individualism and prejudice against religion in general.
This dark picture reveals a population suffering because of sin, a spiritual vacuum and Satanic domination. The French are not harder than other peoples, but they are surely more blind.
Excerpt from « France Now », S.E.E.'s news journal