The Briefing with Albert Mohler - Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.On today’s edition of The Briefing, Dr. Mohler discusses the political agenda behind France’s student protests, the growing financial crises facing the welfare states of France and Britain, and the historical significance of Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and the Vikings’ arrival in North America.Part I (00:14 – 10:44)There is Far More to the French Protests: And Why Do the French Protest So Dramatically, So Predictably, and So Often?The Far-Left Mayor on the Front Line of France’s Student Protests by The Wall Street Journal (Matthew Dalton)What’s Driving the French Student Protests by The New Yorker (Lauren Collins)France’s Long, Fervent History of Protest by The New York Times (Zane Irwin)Part II (10:44 – 19:42)France and Britain Face Similar Financial Crises on the Horizon: The Crippling Impacts of a Welfare StateStrikes, Barricades and Fiscal Turmoil: An Autumn of Discontent Grips France by The New York Times (Mark Landler)The Welfare State Is Crushing Britain by The Wall Street Journal (Max Colchester and David Luhnow)Part III (19:42 – 27:18)Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day? What About the Vikings? Each Retelling of Our Nation’s History Makes an ArgumentSign up to receive The Briefing in your inbox every weekday morning.Follow Dr. Mohler:X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.To write Dr. Mohler or submit a question for The Mailbox, go here.

It's Wednesday, October 14, 2006. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. There's so many things going on in the world, but I want to go back to France, because in France right now, there's a big story, and as always, there's more to the story, and I want us to look back and also look at the present and understand what's going on here. I'm talking about what's identified as the student protests there in France. They're going on, and yet the crowds have been cut somewhat near to how. half, and that's predictable because the French students have gone on the equivalent of a fall break. But it's still likely to continue. You're likely to see also an expansion of all of this. And it is at least what we're being told. It's a series of protest that emerged from high school students absolutely fed up with declining tax support for their schools. They're saying that there's been a cutback in teachers. There's been a decline in facilities. And by the way,

most of those facilities don't have air conditioning. It turns out that given record heat in France over the course of the last several months. That might be important. But it's also just basically about student unrest. And at least a lot of the headlines are about these French students now seizing the initiative to take their place in the long, proud tradition of French street protests. All right. As always, there's more to the story. And we're going to look at this today in understanding that the more to the story takes a little bit of historical background to understand. For one thing, there are headlines that would say things like, why is this happening in France rather than in London? In other words, why is this happening?

Some of the same problems are showing up in London, but you don't have teenagers going into the streets. And at least a part of it is because of a difference in culture. And, you know, they're just separated by famously the English Channel, but the reality is the two cultures, though sharing a lot of European heritage, they actually are quite different. And the big issue is when you distinguish those histories, the French Revolution is very, very different. than British history. Very, very different than American history. The French Revolution is a part of the problem. And as you look at it, you realize France has had this revolutionary spirit, and that revolutionary spirit's been quite ideologically to the left in so many cases. That was true,

of course, in the French Revolution. Arguably, the American Revolution was a conservative revolution. It was about conserving a society. It was basically about intentional continuity with European civilization, but with a very clear American context. The French Revolution was far more radical, perhaps seen most graphically in the fact that in Notre Dame Cathedral, the crucifix was taken down and the Madonna was taken away. And instead, you had goddess reason placed in the high point of the altar. And so you see the idolatry, the humanistic idolatry there. But after the French Revolution, there have been five different French constitutional order.

So remember, the United States, Revolution 1776, the French Revolution, just a few years later, and yet you've had five different constitutional orders, five different regimes in France. In the same time, the American Constitution is still very much in force. Okay. So the first one was 1792 to 1804. It was formed after the French Revolution, and you could basically say it was brought to an end by Napoleon Bonaparte. So it was a republic. They declared a Republican. What they meant by a republic is not a kingdom. So in other words, that word republic is loaded. And the French declared themselves to be avid Republicans.

They say power to the people. But of course, this has been a very fragile and sometimes radical experience there in France. And so the first French Republic was basically over in 1804 with Napoleon. After Napoleon, there was a second French Republic that was declared in 1848. It only lasted four years. It fell in 1852. This was established after yet another revolution. evolution that followed yet another monarchial tradition. And then there was a third French Republic

1870 to 1940. So that's long for France, 1870 to 1940. That's 70 years. And this happened after the Franco-Prussian War. And it lasted for the 70 years, as I mentioned. That was basically until the arrival in the explosion of World War II. The fourth French Republic was declared in 1946 after the end of World War II. And it had a very weak constitutional authority for the national government, a very weak executive system. And it basically fell apart, at least partly due to the Algerian crisis there in France. It was a constitutional crisis because there was no strong president, no strong executive, no strong leader who could do anything about basically settling a very unsettled situation. In 1958, France entered its late.

constitutional system. What is declared is the French Fifth Republic. And if you're going to associate this with an individual, that individual is Charles de Gaulle. He was the hero of France at the end of World War II. And this was a constitution that was largely written about Charles de Gaul. In other words, he was the essential man of the time. And this was basically a constitution that had a great deal to do with him. Now, that may sound strange, but something very similar actually happened in the United States of America, where in the constitutional order, we know with three branches of government, including the executive branch headed by the president of the United States, a good deal of the content about what it would mean to have a president of the United States

was basically a set of ideas that revolved around George Washington. So in other words, without George Washington, we probably would not have the same strong executive branch, the same very strong president as chief executive that we have here in the United States. DeGal was that figure in the mind and in the imagination of France for the French Fifth Republic. The unrest in France in the 1960s following the establishment of the Fifth Republic. And now it's leading to some huge questions as to whether the French Republic, the Fifth Republic, can continue. And of course, there's a huge fiscal crisis as well, which is at least in part why the students are out there. But here's the thing. The students we are told are on the streets, and it's basically about

students. That's what we're told. It's about student unrest because of the failure of the schools to be adequately funded, et cetera, et cetera. Now, is that true or is that false? Well, it's not false. It's true. But it's not the whole story. The whole story is almost always a far larger situation. And I want to tell you about some photographs that make the whole story come into clear focus. The photographs actually show the student protests. And one of the things you notice in the student protests is not just signs about we need more funding for schools. It is, it is. for example, the Palestinian flag. And so it is very interesting. There are reports saying that the most common flag seen at many of these events would be the Palestinian flag, not the flag of the Fifth

Republic, or the French Fifth Republic. Depends on how you want to say it. But the reality is we're looking at a far larger picture here. And even as so many want to say, it's just basically about the students. I think historically it did kind of begin there, but that's not where we are right now. And by the way, one of the signs that this is not where we are right now is who is showing up. So the press yesterday was talking by the fact that Greta Toonberg had shown up. And so predictably, here she comes. And by the way, she's not a teenager anymore. She's now 23 years old. But where there is a protest, there is Greta in the midst of it, usually. And so she will show up, and this is big headline news internationally. And it just goes to show that a lot of this

has to do about a leftist agenda. Greta Toonberg is not famously known for her concern about the funding of French schools. Her concern is for very leftist, far away. more radical ideas, and of course, that had to do with all kinds of things, but most famously had with what she identified as an environmental crisis and all the rest. But the fact is that the left works this way. The left shows up and eventually the true flags begin to show up as well. So it's very interesting. You have the Wall Street Journal, which I think is doing some really good reporting on this. Matthew Dalton, news story, quote the far left mayor on the front line of France's student protests. You also have the New Yorker, Lauren Collins, what's

driving the French student protests. One of the interesting things is, is that in this article for the New Yorker, Lauren Collins does note how many Palestinian flags are now showing up. She says at one point that the Palestinian flags are as common as French flags. It just shows you the agenda behind all of this. And by the way, one question of suspicion you always need to ask when you see something like this is just how effective would a bunch of teenage high school students be at organizing this kind of national protest. The reality is, no, there's something else behind it. And it points to the way the French left works. And by the way, that could point to the way the political left works. It's basically an assortment of all kinds of grievance causes. And they all show up. So

environmentalism, radical environmentalism here, I mean. And then you look at all kinds of radical causes. And you look at France, and this has been the tradition. That's why I went through the history of the five French republics is because this kind of extremism on the streets, is more common in France than in any other major European nation. And we need at least to understand this is a big story. It is. It is genuinely a big story. But it's a big story that turns out to be bigger when you look at the worldview consequences at stake here. On the issue of the current protest in France, the New York Times, interestingly,

cites David A. Bell, a history professor at Princeton University, who says that the French political life is just absolutely rife with this sense of protests. He says that the streets are considered a fourth branch of government, a last resort, when the legislative executive and judicial are unresponsive. That's the summary of his statement by the New York Times. And it is interesting that the French sometimes seem to protest and only after they're protesting, ask what they're protesting about. But you are looking at something that's tailor made for television and the social media age where you take a picture and you say, this is what it's about. It's not that this is not about students and their concerns about schools. The issue is that when you look at it and we needed to take a few days for this to become fully evident,

you see, there's a lot more behind this. And I think one of the most telling issues here in worldview and in moral terms is the presence of the Palestinian flag. That's an agenda that has nothing to do with high school students in France and everything to do with the urgent moral concerns of the ideological left. There is another major issue related to France we need to talk about, and that is the fact that France is facing a massive financial crisis. And when I say massive, I genuinely mean a massive financial crisis. And it is because the French welfare state is so overextended that it actually is something that is not sustainable. And that's especially true when you look at the fact that it has this ever-expanding welfare state. And it has a now shrinking population. The birth rate is just incredibly small. It's well-belior. the replacement rate, which means that with people living longer, you're going to have more people on the welfare roles or the state roles and fewer people paying into it. So you can just look at it and say, that's going to be a crisis. Governments can borrow the way out of this only so long. And by the way, that applies to the United States of America as well. But the numbers for the U.S. are not anything

near as dire as what the people of France are facing. And here's where things get very interesting. because when you look at France, you look at these protests, you are looking at the far left really being involved here. As a matter of fact, there are now pretty sensible French figures who are saying, you know, it's really hard for us to tell what's a legitimate student protest and what's actually being fed by the political left with a national election on the horizon soon after the first of the year. The left wing in France really believes it has an opportunity in this election and we'll look much further at that as we get closer to the election. but the fact is that the far left has been activated for a lot of this. Headline again, strikes, barricades and fiscal turmoil, and autumn of discontent grips France. Well, that discontent's only going to get worse when you look at the financial numbers because there is going to be a collision with reality here.

And this is where one of the distinctions we need to make is the distinction between conservative and far right. And I want to tell you, it is because there are governments on the far right that are not fiscally conservative. And it's Marine Le Pen, who is the most important candidate of the right. And in many ways, is poised to become the next president of France. She's actually from the right calling, for example, the retirement age to be lowered to 60. Now, France can't pay its bills with its current retirement age. And the current French president, Emmanuel Macron, was really pressing for an increase,

which he got in the law. But now you have people saying, no, it needs to be put back, not only where it was needs to be put back even younger. And let's just say that if you make the retirement age 60 and you look at the incredibly generous retirement benefits that come to the French people, there are going to be more people getting than giving, more people drawing down the nation's finances than putting money into it. It is absolutely untenable. One of the arguments classically made in the 18th century against democratic self-government is that the people will simply vote themselves benefits that cannot be sustained. And they will elect candidates who will say, we'll give you more, and it will cost you less. Eventually, that just doesn't work. And it is interesting to see how that is

becoming a major political reality and a catalyst for further radicalism there in France. But while we're talking about that, it's incredibly important that we understand we are looking at a world headed towards a fiscal crisis. And a team of reporters has been working on this for some time for the Wall Street Journal. And I would really commend to you the massive report that they have published entitled the welfare state is crushing Britain. The subhead in the article is, the soaring number of people on disability and sickness benefits is blowing up the country's welfare bill and imperiling its long-term financial stability. Okay, does that sound a little bit interesting? Let me tell you, the real story is just incredibly interesting. Now, we are

told that in this system right now, let me read you this. Quote, some 7 million people, more than 10% of the population, now claim at least one or more sickness or disability benefits. the numbers are growing fastest among working age people who should be powering the country's economy, surging more than 60% in the past six years to 4.7 million from 2.9 million in 2019. So what you have going on right now in Britain is this category that comes under the welfare state, people who are now listed on disability and sickness benefits, but it's growing to a large portion of the total population. Listen to this, quote, many of the newer disability claims are for mental health issues, like depression, anxiety, and ADHD, which can be harder for the government to verify harder than a

physical disability. Between 2017 and 2025, disability claims for cancer doubled, but benefit claims for all psychiatric issues surged fourfold. One benefit, I'm reading here, one benefit created to help those with disabilities be more mobile, allows people to give up part of their welfare cash handout in return for a new car lease every three years, and now accounts for about one and every seven new car sales in the UK. Among those who got new cars last year, 40 people whose primary medical condition was tennis elbow, 50 with wheat intolerance, and 320 with dyslexia. So just understand this. These are new car leases, 40 of them for tennis elbow, 50 of them for wheat intolerance and 360 for dyslexia. It's an astounding explosion of people who have decided to go on the welfare rolls and not to work.

This goes on. It goes on for page after page of documentation. And it seems to be that there's almost no way under the current law and with this parliament for Britain to gather and gain any control. The article also compares France to Britain, mentioning that France is in a more dire situation, even though long term the bills may end up larger in the United Kingdom in Britain. We're also told that the former prime minister, Kier Starrmer, quote, announced plans to tight-term. eligibility requirements for sickness and disability welfare in a bid to shave $5 billion a year off of government spending by 2030. Listen, the backlash was so sharp, Stramer abandoned the cuts. Okay, so that just tells you someone, even on the left, said this is going to crash. He tried to fix it just a little bit and had to give up. Now one observer looked at this and said, and I quote, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and or inability to cut public spending. listen to this. The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax and spend socialist government

with better TikTok videos, end quote. In other words, this is a liberal socialist government with better videos than the last one, but the economic answers are absolutely untenable. The proposals are absolutely unworkable. And yet, you're looking at all of these people who have just these minor disabilities getting rental cars on a three-year basis as a part of their disability benefits. does the math telling us, again, quote, today one and every 12 people is getting disability checks. The program now covers people living with a range of physical and mental health issues, including anxiety, ADHD, depression, and even acne. You can't make this up. I look at this, and it just reminds me that one of the warnings made by those who opposed democratic self-government

is that eventually it will lead exactly to this. And so you have the American experiment, which of course was far more based in ordered liberty. You have the British experiment also, again, very deeply based in the concept of ordered liberty. You have France in which is kind of disordered liberty. And the fact is that when you have a populace that demands this kind of spending and this kind of economic reward for not working, you end up with bills the society can't pay. And eventually, by the way, in an international global financial context, one begins calling the bills. And that's the grave danger. And by the way, it is a current danger to the United States of America, to a lesser extent. We're not looking at problems quite like what's

described here as problems in Britain or in France. But the reality is that Americans will face a dire financial crisis, certainly a national debt crisis and a tax crisis if the United States continues borrowing money and the cost of borrowing money, because for one thing, just of say, international petroleum prices, it goes up too high. Guess what? The United States is going to be in big trouble. And stories like this, well, you go back to President Ronald Reagan. He was very clear that some of these stories are already here, not as widespread as what we see in France or in Britain in this case. But you look at the headline, the welfare state is crushing Britain. Out of control, the welfare state will crush everywhere. And you know, in the United States, I think most

Christians would say there needs to be a baseline of support in this system. to help people who are genuinely in need. There are some people, but this has to be a fairly small percentage of the people who are not able really to take care of themselves. But when you incentivize not working to the extent you see right now in Britain and in France, guess what? Evidently, a lot of people just stop working. So all right, all of that is very interesting. There's so many things interesting here in the United States. And a part of that goes back to Monday. Okay, so what was Monday. Well, it was Columbus Day in the United States. It was also Indigenous People's Day, and behind all of that, there are some really interesting developments. And I think, you know,

most Christians even looking at this, they understand there's something going on here. But I think a lot of Americans, including a lot of American Christians, don't really know much of the history here. So, for example, one of the arguments being made is that it is wrong to credit Christopher Columbus with the discovery of the United States of America. It's wrong to have a Columbus Day like we have now, because the discovery of North America did not come in 1492. Instead, it came centuries earlier with the Vikings, and in particular, some of the Vikings who went to Newfoundland. And by the way, that's pretty well attested now. And that includes, of course, Leif Erickson and others. And we now know, and it's very well attested, what really wasn't

known, even until fairly recent times, until the last half of the 20th century, that there are very clear historical evidences of the fact that, yes, there were Norse expeditions to North America. There are now places that have been found, particularly way, way in the northeast of what's now Canada. And yes, evidently, centuries before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, the Vikings were here. So, in other words, do we need to replace Christopher Columbus Day, not only with Indigenous People's Day, but also with Leif Erickson and the Vikings Day, this gets really political. Should we celebrate Columbus Day? Is that a legitimate celebration? Is it right to speak of Christopher Columbus? By the way, the very first Columbus Day takes us back to October the 12th, 1792. Okay, so 1492, 1792, 300th anniversary of 1492.

and it was declared in New York City on October the 12th, 1792. And then by 1866 with the influx of Italian immigrants to the United States, Columbus Day becomes a big Italian-American celebration. And so where you find large populations of Italian-Americans, you find Columbus Day becoming the merger of two cultures, the Italian culture and the American culture coming together with a sense of mutual patriotism. And especially given the fact that many Italian Americans had to work their way up in terms of

economic realities and jobs and all the rest, Columbus Day became a major issue of Italian American pride. All right. So that goes on. The big change came in 1989 when the state of South Dakota, which as the Washington Post notes, is the home to nine federally recognized indigenous tribes, replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day. So what you have now is Columbus Day out.

and now it's Indigenous People's Day in order to say that's the part of the history we're going to celebrate. As I said, things get even more complicated when you add the historical claims concerning Leif Erickson and the Vikings. And here you're talking about activity that goes all the way back to the year, 993. Now, that's really interesting. Why do I say 993? Well, it is because one of the most interesting things is that in some of these settlements, there has been a dating of the wood based upon the age of the ring. of the trees that seems to indicate the historical and environmental conditions that would say

993. And so you look at that and you say, that's a long time before 1492. As a matter of fact, that's 500 years, save one year from 1492. All of this should remind Americans that we really do care about history and we really care about honest history. We really care about an honest timeline of history. And yes, there's a reason why Columbus Day is a very legitimate holiday, not just for Italian Americans, but for all Americans. There's a reason why we talk about Christopher Columbus in 1492. One of the reasons is that when you look at the Vikings, they didn't leave history in the same sense we think of history now.

So even those who are making the argument for, say, the Viking history, they point out that the Viking documents and the legends and the sagas include a mixture of both historical realities and, well, rather mythological events and mythological peoples. I won't go into the details. let's just say that becomes pretty clear when you take a close look. And it is interesting. But it's also interesting that the navigational details that are embedded in those tales and legends are remarkably accurate. And so there is more to it than just mythology. When you look at 1492,

one of the things we need to understand is that in Western civilization, the way we think of history and the way we tell history became very, very different. Now, Christopher Columbus was a central part of that because Spain was so strong, and the Spanish monarchs wanted that to be a major part of history. They wanted that history told. Is there more to the story? Christians understand there's almost always more to the story. But is the story wrong? No, the story's not wrong. The Vikings, by the way, were remarkable. And by the way, the word Viking basically means pirate. We're talking about Scandinavian peoples. And when you say the Vikings, you know, that just sounds like people think that there was a group of people, a nationality, called Vikings, who lived in Viking land.

No, that's not true. They basically came from Scandinavia. They had a Germanic tribal background, but those who were leading these basically military and adventuresome missions, they were called Vikings. They were basically called pirates, and that's pretty much the way they operated. There are so many interesting dimensions to this. For one thing, why did the Vikings go so far? Well, is it because of the fishing that may have been a part of it? Is it because of the need for food? that may well have been a part of it. We were talking about a land they called Vinland or Vineland because it was green and they were coming around Iceland and Greenland and guess what?

This was a part of the territory in what's now northern Canada that was a lot greener than what they'd seen before. And there was also wood. And it turns out that may have been a central issue. They needed wood in order to build and repair so much not only their settlements, but their boats, those Viking boats. and it turns out that in Greenland and in Iceland there just wasn't much in terms of vegetation that was going to lead to the kind of wood they needed for their boats. And so it was a big thing that they had found these massive forests to the south.

But there is no evidence that they intended to build a permanent settlement. Maybe they just thought it was just way too far. In any event, it's good for us as Christians who understand that when we talk about history, we're talking about something that happens in space and time in a universe that God created. And thus we have an historical interest because this is the unfolding of events in an orderly universe that God has made. We also understand the importance of trying to understand the truth. We also understand that everyone telling history usually has a point behind the telling of history. And thus we're not surprised by that.

We understand it. We also understand the history can be rightly told. And the history can be told in such a way that we take moral responsibility for the telling. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website at Albertmuller.com. You can follow me on X or Twitter by going to X.com forward slash Albert Moeller. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbtsk.edu. For information on Boyce College, go to voicecollege.com.

I'll meet you again tomorrow for the briefing.