Pray for French Congress

Urgent Prayer Needed for the French Congress

"This is the first time, as President of the Protestant Federation of France, that I find myself in the position of defending freedom of worship. I never imagined that in my own country something like this could happen," - François Clavairoly, president of the FPF 

For weeks now, many have publicly decried this bill as extremely damaging to the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion in France. 

“Libérticide” is the phrase we like the best – “Freedom Killer” is the best translation. 

Tomorrow, this bill moves to the National Assembly where it will be voted on in approximately two weeks. Already, over 2,650 amendments have been proposed, however, several major problems remain. 

What's the problem? It’s supposed to curb radical Islam. Isn’t that good?

The first thing is that it doesn’t apply to most Muslims! In France, most mosques are dubbed “cultural centers” and organized as 1901 associations. This law applies to 1905 associations. 

So, which associations are 1905? 4,000 of the 5,000 registered 1905 associations are Protestant Churches (and 90% of Evangelical Churches are 1905 associations!)  

So, rather than limiting Islam, it is a slap in the face to Evangelicals and promotes the idea that that religion is guilty until proven innocent, houses of worship are centers of terrorism, and anything that is related to faith should be controlled and erased. 

Here are four aspects of this law that directly affect the Evangelical Church in France:  

1. Evangelical Churches will need to apply to their prefectures every five years to keep their status as a church. For any reason, the prefecture could close the church without any hearing or other legal process. 

2. Churches will need to declare foreign funds over 10,000 EUR, and “certify their accounts” which is like getting audited financials and costs several thousand euros. The churches who can’t pay? The pastor is personally fined 9,000 EUR and the church is uncompliant. 

3. Article 44 – “The government’s representative… can temporarily close a place of worship if certain positions, ideas, or theories are shared or certain activities are done which incite hatred or violence towards a person or a group of people or would justify or encourage such hate or violence.” This puts the State in a position to audit preaching and teaching in a Church. 

4. Homeschooling – although not widely practiced among Evangelicals in France as is in the US – would still be made illegal except for children with health issues, intense sports/artistic activities, live too far from a school, or have other situations specific to the child but whose parents can justify their ability to teach. There is no exception for religious or philosophical abstention. 

Please pray that the voices of the French Church are heard and that the law is rejected or approved with the modifications desired by the FPF and the CNEF. 

In Christ, 

David Broussard 

President, Impact France

A Guide to Donor Advised Funds: 3 Reasons Why They Are Helpful

Since 1930s, donor advised funds have been available and offered by community foundations and more recently have become available through sponsored charitable gift funds.

One of the main benefits of a donor advised fund is that it allows individuals with philanthropic intent to have their charitable assets professionally managed and distributed to desired causes at a fraction of the cost of a private foundation.

Here are a few reasons why you should consider a Donor Advised Funds (DAF)

Charities shouldn't lose 3% (or more) to transaction fees.

Giving online comes with fees. While Huguenot Fellowship offers simple ways to setup a reoccuring donation using a credit card or a bank transfer, with less fees, all of these methods come with fees. Using a Donor Advised Fund, you can give cash or stock without any fees and 100% goes to the charities that matter to you if you chose the right DAF.

Give more by saving 20% or more on taxes.

The tax deductibility of contributions made to a donor advised fund can also be leveraged. This leverage is achieved by contributing highly appreciated assets. By using a donor advised fund, you can transfer your stock securities directly to the DAF without selling them. Then they, acting on your wishes, will sell these assets under a 501c3 with no taxability and then issue the gift to the organization of your choice. This means if you have owned a stock security with significant gains, you can avoid capital gains taxes on the sale of that stock by giving it directly, effectively increasing your donation to the charitable organization of your choice, while allowing the deduction for the full amount on your taxes. The US is one of the most philanthropic countries in the world and government incentives like this will help others give more than otherwise possible.

Timing flexibility

Perhaps the biggest advantage is the ability to make donations to the account and receive immediate tax benefits for doing so, while also being allowed to disburse the money from the accounts according to your own timetable. In other words, you can choose to pay out a donation to an approved charity right away or invest the money in the advised fund account and let it grow tax-free until you’ve designated the charity of your choice. This allows you to make a decision to give and separate that from the receiving entity immediately allowing you to make the donation at the right time or change your giving priorities based on greatest need.

Here are some examples of Donor Advised funds that you may consider partnering with: CharityVest, National Christian Foundation, Fidelity Charitable administers a donor-advised fund for Fidelity, Schwab Charitable administers the Schwab Charitable Fund, and Vanguard Charitable administers a donor-advised fund for Vanguard. (National and local organizations not connected with financial institutions also administer donor-advised funds; these funds are often set up to benefit a specific charity or region.)

Each of these funds have different fee structures and benefits. Some of the more recognizable funds take a small fee, but allow in-kind gifts like Real Estate and allow you to transfer assets to the DAF and invest them in the interim while you decide the organization to give towards.

Other funds, like CharityVest, sell your assets immediately on receipt, but have less restrictions on the charities you donate towards and charge no fees at all. This can be useful if you are simply donating stock and have already a charity in mind you’d like to give towards.

We hope this is helpful!

Qualified Charitable Distributions

Are you at least age 70 1/2 and subject to making a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) each year from an IRA account?

 If so, did you know that you can instruct the trustee of your IRA to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) directly to The Huguenot Fellowship, and normally receive two important benefits? First, a QCD counts towards satisfying your RMD (up to $100,000). And second, a QCD is not treated as taxable income. (Of course, no tax deduction is permitted for the contribution, since the distribution is not included in income.) Lower income may result in further tax benefits also. Note that in order to qualify, your IRA trustee must send the contribution directly to, and payable to The Huguenot Fellowship.

401(k) plans are not an eligible source for making a QCD. However, consider opening an IRA and rolling over funds from your 401(k), and thus be all set to make a QCD the following year.

 Thank you for your faithful support of The Huguenot Fellowship!

 (Not intended to give tax advice. See IRS Publication 590-B regarding IRA distributions. And, be sure to consult with your tax advisor and IRA trustee.)

The Forgotten Giscard

Any Answer to Catholic Popular Religion?
The Forgotten Giscard

William Edgar

Among the losses in 2020 that may have escaped our radar is the death of Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing. VGE, as he became known, likely succumbed to Covid 19 at the age of 94. His long, public career included being President of France (1974-1981). His friend, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, editor-in-chief of Le Point, told readers that VGE could be summarized with one word: l’incompris (the misunderstood one).

Almost inevitably French leaders, dating back to its kings, had to live within a paradox. French people require their leaders to be both aloof and understanding. In modern times this enigma remains sharp. Charles De Gaulle famously quipped, how can anyone govern a country with some 246 different cheeses? He ruled, indeed, from a high perch. So did his successor Georges Pompidou. As did his successor the Socialist François Mitterrand. VGE had all the makings of an aloof ruler but fought against this image throughout his career. He came from one of the most distinguished families of France; he graduated with high honors from the very best schools; he represented the center-right. His father obtained the privilege of calling his family “d’Estaing” a sign of nobility. (An ancestry going at least as far back as the distinguished Count, Jean Baptiste C. H. H. d’Estaing (1729-1794), who among other accomplishments led in a blockage against the British at Sandy Hook, New Jersey.) He even spoke with a cultivated upper-class lisp! At the same time, he sought more than any of his predecessors to modernize France. To do that he needed diplomatically to pull away from Charles De Gaulle, who had been unable to respond to the crisis of mai ’68 wherein so many French institutions were put into question and revolution was so close at hand. He also had to square off with Georges Pompidou, under whom he served as Finance Minister.

How did he go about modernizing the country? Some of the smaller, yet symbolic, ways include inviting the garbage collectors of Paris to a leisurely breakfast for a show of friendship and also in hopes of conversations which would better help him to understand the working man’s issues. French Presidents don’t do that! He also chose not to live in the Elysée Palace, but in the humble residence of Eugénie, Empress under Napoleon III. On a larger scale, he balanced the budget, no small accomplishment in hard times. He lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, which may have cost him the next election, as young people are typically left leaning. His most ambitious endeavor was to foster the construction of Europe. After the cruelties imposed by the Nazis, the memories of which were still fresh in people’s minds, he showed considerable courage in working on the European Community with the Germans, a project which he believed would carry France onto the world platform.

Where was he spiritually? His early education was in parochial schools. He was married in the Church. Yet as a political leader his relations to the Vatican were cordial at best. He would not identify France with the Catholic Church except in formal ways. Or is that all there is to it? Two legislations he pushed aggravated relations with Catholics, as well as with conservative Protestants. (1) In 1974, VGE promoted the law crafted by his Minister of Health, Simone Veil, decriminalizing abortion. Known as la loi Veil, it was (euphemistically) known as IVG (interruption volontaire de la grossesse – voluntary interruption of pregnancy). Veil (not to be confused with the theologian Simone Veil, who converted from formal Judaism to evangelical religion) argued for a “compassionate” view: no woman ever wanted an abortion, which always created a crisis for her, but that abuse was so rampant it was better to legalize it. (2) The second was to allow no-fault divorce, seen as an antidote against the perceived male-bias of the present law, which required finding fault with one of the parties, empirically often the insufficiencies of mothers. Perhaps most significantly of all, he endorsed the privatization of religious convictions, rather than supporting the historic view that France was the “eldest daughter” of the Church.

According to Jean Duchesne, privatization ought to be a wakeup call to Catholics in need of embracing modern life. (See his article in Aleteia [https://fr.aleteia.org/2020/12/08/giscard-la-fin-dune-epoque-le-catholicisme-populaire/].) Rightly navigated it should be a platform from which to be more public in one’s faith. He recounts seeing VGE attend mass in New York with Cardinal Lustiger. It caught him off guard since Giscard’s private religion was thought to be, well, private. He goes on to argue that Catholicism today needs to be a religion of the people, popular without being “populist”, and that Giscard showed the way. Disappointing for most of us, though, is that Duchesne’s popular religion meant being open to such things as abortion, divorce, and even higher criticism of the Bible.

Our Seminary in Aix also wants the Christian faith to be popular, but in the sense that the Reformation forefathers intended it: able to be understood by the people, not open to every kind of ethical or critical accommodation. It is not likely that VGE knew our Seminary. But did he unwittingly contribute to recognizing a need for a version of the Christian faith which is popular, yet still orthodox? May neither Giscard nor French people be incompris on such a high priority matter. It’s a matter of life or death.

Good News of a Great Joy

Paul D. Wolfe

December 2020

“Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy...”

It’s that most wonderful time of the year, when our hearts and minds turn to the announcement of good news.

And as the President of the Huguenot Fellowship, I get to make an announcement here!

I’m thrilled to report that the governing board of Faculté Jean Calvin (FJC) has officially named the seminary’s professorship in Apologetics “The William Edgar Chair of Apologetics.” Hand in hand with that happy step, we at the Huguenot Fellowship have now created a special fund which will be devoted to supporting the Edgar Chair at FJC for years to come. This transatlantic partnership of our two organizations fulfills a desire to honor a dear brother and faithful servant who has been vital to both!

Over the course of a distinguished, decades-long career of teaching and writing, Bill Edgar has labored faithfully and fruitfully in the field of Christian Apologetics. Bill taught at FJC for eleven years before moving his family to the United States in 1989 to teach at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. In the thirty-plus years ever since, he has continued to be a devoted supporter of the seminary in Aix: serving as the President of the Huguenot Fellowship until 2019, as well as traveling frequently to FJC to teach there in person. Bill is now an internationally-renowned expert in his field, and a beloved member of the extended FJC family. To top it off, he and his wife Barbara have lovingly lived out together the faith he has taught and defended all these years, by their warm hospitality and gracious encouragement of countless friends and strangers around the world.

The theological discipline known as “Apologetics” involves the explanation and defense of the Christian faith in a world in which that faith is sometimes regarded with misunderstanding, or skepticism, or opposition...and sometimes all of the above! Apologetics brings together a wide range of subjects and interests—everything from theology to philosophy to popular culture to interpersonal relationships—in order to answer questions concerning Christianity and to show its truthfulness. Because Bill has devoted his life to this worthy calling, putting his name on the FJC chair of Apologetics was an irresistible fit—especially since he once occupied that professorship himself. This means that FJC Apologetics Professor Yannick Imbert, who once studied under Bill at Westminster, is now the first occupant of the Edgar Chair. Parfait!

We’ll have more to say about this new initiative in the months to come. But we wanted to get the word out here at the close of 2020. Like I said, it’s the time of year for good news. We couldn’t wait.

Want to get involved?

Then www.huguenotfellowship.org is the place to go!

There you’ll find a link (“Announcing the William Edgar Chair of Apologetics”) where you can learn more, make an initial contribution (including by stock donation), and sign up for email updates. We’d love to keep in touch with you via email and save some trees.

Our goal is to raise up to $1,000,000 over a multi-year campaign. This would enable us to contribute annually a portion of the salary for the Apologetics professorship. Now that we’ve hit the ground running, we should be able to support the Edgar Chair in this way beginning early in 2021. As I’m sure you can imagine, the events of 2020 have put FJC in a tight financial spot, so this new campaign presents us with a golden opportunity to keep the seminary going at a time when its message is so needed.

Please consider joining us as we honor our dear friend and seek to advance the cause of truth that he himself has served so well for so long.

Oh, and Merry Christmas too! Good news of a great joy, indeed.

Yours,
Paul D. Wolfe, President
The Huguenot Fellowship

News from Faculté Jean Calvin

Click to read the latest News from Faculté Jean Calvin in English.

Erin Imbert

Erin Imbert, Librarian at Faculté Jean Calvin

I grew up in a Christian home in the United States. While I attended a Baptist church during my childhood, I first encountered an explicitly reformed theology in high school, which provided the theological structure and consistent worldview that confirmed me in the faith and formed my Christian life. I studied business and economics in college and worked as an accountant for eight years. During that time I was asked to serve as treasurer for the Huguenot Fellowship, a non-profit organization in the U.S. that supports the Faculté Jean Calvin. Through my involvement with the Huguenot Fellowship I came to love the work of the Faculté and also, incidentally, met my husband, Professor Yannick Imbert. Prior to moving to France in 2016 I studied at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. As a lover of both books and theology, I am delighted to serve as the new librarian at Faculté Jean Calvin. I look forward to welcoming friends of the Faculté to the library on their next visit.

Approach The Tragic Without Fear

Pierre Berthoud

On the occasion of the crisis caused by Covid-19, André Comte-Sponville shared with his listeners and readers some interesting thoughts on the panic, no doubt legitimate, caused by the pandemic. This anxiety has been largely exploited by health and political authorities (with a few exceptions) and amplified by the media. Beyond the issue of health, the philosopher argues that this fear crystallizes around death. It's as if our contemporaries suddenly discovered that they were mortal! The coronavirus forced them to face a reality that they sought to hide at all costs because they saw death as a failure. To reassure them, here is what Comte-Sponville says: “I have two pieces of news to share with you, one good and one bad: the bad one, we are all going to die; the good, the vast majority of us will die of something other than covid 19! He added, "Finitude, failure and obstacles are part of the human condition. Until we accept death, we will be distraught with every epidemic. To admit the reality of death is therefore to give oneself the means to appreciate life. This is how "we will love life because we will become more aware of its brevity, its fragility, its value. In other words, we have to make the most of human existence because there is nothing after death! Such awareness allows us, he says, to live more intensely while recognizing that health is only a "means to achieve happiness" and not an end in itself. Indeed, health is only a good, and can in no way take the place of "great values" such "justice, love, generosity, courage, freedom ...".

There is wisdom in the words of Comte-Sponville, his insistence on the preciousness of earthly life, on the limits and fragility of the human condition, on the values ​​and ethical principles which give meaning and quality to existence. However, his approach gives the impression that he is indebted to the Judeo-Christian heritage while obscuring his philosophical and biblical roots. He bluntly rejects the existence of a sovereign and personal God to whom we are accountable and with whom we can have an intimate relationship. We are the only actors on the stage of this world and beyond its horizon there is nothing but nothingness. As for his acceptance of limits and obstacles, it is more akin to acknowledgment or resignation.

In contrast, the biblical perspective emphasizes the scandalous nature of death in a broken world. It is the ultimate enemy whose power is sin, understood as the rebellion against our ultimate face-to-face and his wisdom. It is precisely because the Bible distinguishes between the origin of being and of evil that sin, suffering and death are tragic. We can approach this tragedy without fear and with confidence because the Lord has turned the tide of history in Jesus Christ, his life, his death and his resurrection attest it! In it, we pass from death to the life which is embodied at the heart of our existence and which transcends the horizon of our world.

May the Holy Spirit give us wisdom in this restless, tottering, and crying world to be ambassadors of comfort, peace, and hope before which fear and anguish. faint. As "the Lord's steadfast love is better than life" it awakens in us confidence, peace, and praise (Ps 63.3).

Pierre Berthoud
President
Professor Emeritus
Faculté Jean Calvin

(translated)