In light of human rights and religious freedom, should Christians boycott the World Cup in Qatar? Various Christians in France already made up their mind. Despite being sports fans, they have chosen to turn their backs on the World Cup, Evangeliques Info reports.
Guest of the podcast of Décrassage, Charles Compagnon, elected mayor of Rennes and commercial director, explains his choice. “My little boycott, where I will deprive myself of an evening with my friends, will not change the World Cup, I am aware of that. On the other hand, this can be a message for FIFA, to prevent them from making a mistake.” He thus hopes that the body that governs world soccer will be made aware of the consequences of future allocations.
“I boycott, but I pray”
Others have decided to go even further. Joël Thibault, Protestant pastor and sports chaplain, launched a challenge on his Facebook page on November 17. With “I boycott but I pray”, he invites his friends to join prayer evenings on Zoom during the matches of the French team.
He thus calls for intercession “for Qatar, FIFA, freedom of expression in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and persecuted Christians”. The first Zoom call will take place on Tuesday November 22 at 8 p.m., at the same time as the match between France and Australia. To receive the link to the Zoom call, simply contact [email protected].
Sacred challenge
“Sacred challenge for you”, one of his friends commented at his post on Facebook. Joël Thibault indeed spiritually accompanies many high-level athletes including Olivier Giroud, who was selected to play with the French team and will be at the forefront of the tricolor attack in the absence of Karim Benzema. Nevertheless, for several weeks, the believer has been sharing publications with the hash tag #BoycottQatar2022. This hash tag has now already appeared in more than 19,000 tweets.
Along the same lines, another internet user writes on Facebook: “Every day when there is a World Cup soccer match, I take time to pray that God will touch the hearts of the FIFA leaders in particular and the political leaders of the countries of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. I pray for freedom of expression, so that persecuted Christians can freely live out their faith”. The competition lasts until December 18, 27 days, so 27 opportunities to pray specifically for these subjects.
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