Retailleau, the Man Who Wants to Put Order...in Our Minds

HappyGayTV will never give you voting instructions. Everyone is free, in all conscience, to choose the party or candidate that suits them. However, it seems essential to us to return to two statements by the Minister of the Interior of the first Barnier government, Bruno Retailleau. Beyond political divisions, these remarks directly threaten our freedoms and our Republic, because they announce a real paradigm shift.

What has been little mentioned in the press and other media is the marked influence of Christianity in Mr. Barnier's French government, and more precisely of Catholics. But be careful, this is not just any Christianity, but its most conservative branch.

Among them, Bruno Retailleau, appointed Minister of the Interior, and from the benches of the Saint-Gabriel high school in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, in the Vendée department, an establishment whose teaching represents one of the three branches of Montfortian and Marian spirituality (source Wikipedia).

In this context, the recent statements of the Minister of the Interior of the first Barnier government are enough to make your blood run cold. Regardless of political divisions, this man could represent a real threat to the Republic and, let's say it, to our mental health. Read this article and make up your own mind. Analysis.

Order in minds

Barely appointed, the new Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, announced his intention to restore order. Here is what he said: "Order in the streets, order at the borders, order in minds too"! It was this last part of the sentence that mainly made the entire HappyGayTV team jump, and here is why. Order is a fundamentally subjective notion. Everyone has their own definition of what is "orderly" or "fair". As they say, everyone sees noon at their door. Some people put up with a joyful disorder, only tidying up their living space out of necessity when the chaos becomes too invasive. Others, on the contrary, are obsessed with order, but even in this case, the vision of order varies from one person to another. In this second category, it is certain that no one will mix dishcloths and napkins, but not everyone will put them in the same place. In short, order is a relative notion, with variable geometry. Imposing a single order, particularly in people’s minds, amounts to adopting methods found in sects or totalitarian regimes, a real brainwashing of sorts! But then, what order does Mr. Retailleau really want to establish?

An order of divine right

Bruno Retailleau belongs to an extreme Catholic right, that of traditionalist Catholics. Like their evangelical, Pentecostal and Baptist counterparts, their ambition is to reestablish "divine order". Yes, the law of God. "Let your kingdom come..." is their obsession. To better understand, you must know that each major monotheistic religion has a penal and civil code. To illustrate my point, let's take a well-known example, taken from the Bible, in the New Testament, in the Gospel of John (8:1-11): that of the adulterous woman. According to the rules of the Old Testament (Leviticus 20:10-12), caught in the act, she should have been stoned. Fortunately, she was presented to Jesus, who, in a gesture of mercy, spared her this tragic end, asking her only to sin no more.

This episode of the Gospels therefore gives us a clear glimpse of the nature of law in this part of the world at the time of Jesus. But let us not be mistaken, other statements by Retailleau leave no doubt about his desire to restore this famous "divine right".

The rule of law and the sacred

Indeed, the latter also declared: "The rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred!" A statement that deserves to be scrutinized closely. If the rule of law is no longer perceived as intangible, then what new rules will replace it? The choice of the word "sacred" is particularly revealing. By definition, "sacred" refers to religion: "that which belongs to a forbidden and inviolable domain, religiously venerated". In other words, Retailleau opposes republican law, which he considers profane and temporary, to divine law that he wishes to restore, irrevocable and "sacred". What he is proposing in filigree, to influence our minds, is therefore neither more nor less than a step backwards: the end of secularism, the reopening of the debate on the separation of church and state, a complete reversal of the law of 1905. In summary, it would be the return to the death penalty, the questioning of women's hard-won rights, the end of abortion, and a total erasure of LGBT rights... but we already suspected that!

An order with variable geometry

But isn't this famous "divine right" that Retailleau and his acolytes are trying to impose also variable geometry? Let's take a very concrete example: who, these days, would dare to apply this law taken from the Bible, more precisely from the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy (21:18 and 21:21): "If a man has a son who is unruly and rebellious, and will not listen to his father or his mother, even after he has been punished, [...] all the men of his city shall stone him until he dies..."?

This kind of precepts takes us straight back to the darkest periods of history, such as the Inquisition, or even to practices still in force today under the aegis of other so-called "sacred" texts, often interpreted in a fundamentalist manner, as is the case in certain countries, such as Afghanistan, not to mention it. What you will certainly have understood is that the arbitrary interpretation of the scriptures, either by choosing to ignore certain rules or by applying them blindly, would plunge us into a reign of arbitrariness and autocracy, far from the republican values that we defend.

The paradox of the fundamentalists

The real paradox in all this is that Retailleau's positions, widely shared by other figures of the extreme right such as Éric Zemmour (Reconquête) and traditionalist Catholics, are in total contradiction with the teachings of Jesus. Jesus, who put an end to the laws of the Old Testament by preaching a message of universal love and opening a new era, that of the New Testament. However, these religious fundamentalists want to subjugate women, hate gays, trans people, foreigners, and some do not even hesitate to display their anti-Semitism. So, a question arises: how can they claim to be Christians? Because being a Christian means being a disciple of Christ, the same one who said: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”" (Gospel of John 13:34-35, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016).

Anti-Semitism, a Christian nonsense

But then, how dare they call themselves disciples of Christ while spreading so much hatred? And worse still, how can some of them be anti-Semitic when they venerate Jesus, the son of God, who was himself Jewish, just like his mother, the Virgin Mary, and the apostles? Even Saint Peter, their first pope, was Jewish! How can these fundamentalist Catholics find themselves in such a contradiction, by denying the very foundations of the religion they claim to defend?

The Silence of the Gospels on LGBTQIA+

How can they oppress women and hate the LGBTQIA+ community to such an extent, when, unless I am mistaken, concerning the latter, not a single verse in the Gospels reports that Jesus condemned or even exhorted these people to "repent" or to follow a so-called "right path". Nothing. Certainly, in the New Testament, the Epistle to the Romans speaks of it, but these are not the words of Christ himself.

What divine order?

We can then ask ourselves, what "divine order" do they want to impose? The one preached by Jesus, made of love and compassion, or the one of hatred and violence found in the Old Testament? Faced with so many contradictions, I wonder who really needs to put their minds in order.

Fortunately, Prime Minister Michel Barnier had the wisdom to declare, on France 2, to Laurent Delahousse, that his priority is the mental health of the French. A most judicious decision. Let us just hope that Mr. Retailleau is one of the first on the list of consultations, because he also seems to be in great need of putting his minds in order!

Marco DRION

To go further together

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