RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE IN FRANCE Recent developments : For centuries, France has had an excellent reputation in the preservation of human rights. Freedom of speech, religion, and assembly now appear to be vaporizing in that country. 1998-NOV-17: The Inter-ministerial Mission to Fight Against Sects appears to be a major first step towards a significant loss of freedoms of thought, religion, and assembly in France. The European Human Rights Office of the Church of Scientology commented: "...it is clear that there is a campaign ongoing to sensitize public opinion against minority religions by labeling them indiscriminately as 'dangerous sects' thus marginalizing and attempting to criminalize them. This manipulation of public opinion is done almost daily at the moment with press, radio and television articles centering on the supposed dubious activities of sects whilst interviewing the main opponents of minority (and majority) religious movements." 9 "...the Minister of Justice announced in the National Assembly that...a 'Mr.

Sect' (as it was dubbed in the media) - a magistrate - was to be placed in every Court of Appeal to co-ordinate the fight against sects." 1998-OCT-28: A Human Rights Without Frontiers speech to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Implementation Meeting in Warsaw stated that a Parliamentary Inquiry into the "assets, financial and fiscal aspects of sects; their economic activities and their relations within economic and social fields" is expected to be set up in 1998-DEC or 1999-JAN. "Two laws are now to be voted by the National Assembly. The first one is meant to control the finances of 'cults' more strictly.

The second one is dealing with the control of home schooling practiced by the children of members of so-called 'cults'." 10 1999-DEC-17: A news release by the Foundation for Religious Freedom states that "On December 16, the French Senate, the upper house of the French legislative system, voted on a law proposal from Senator Nicolas About which provides a means to dissolve groups which 'cause trouble to public order." The bill is not yet law but has passed its first major legislative hurdle...It is entitled 'Law proposal to reinforce the penal measures against associations or groups which, through their illegal acts, constitute a trouble to public order or a major threat to the human being or the security of the State.' The bill originally stated 'groups with a sectarian character' but the words 'with a sectarian character' were removed.

In theory, therefore, the bill could apply to any group, though its real intent to target 'sects' was clear during the debate in the Senate." ("Sects" in French is equivalent to "cults" in English.) "It gives power to the President of the Republic to issue, after discussion with his Cabinet, a decree of dissolution against any group which: A) has been condemned, as a group, by a court of law twice; B) whose leaders have been condemned by a court of law twice for certain types of offenses and constitute a threat to public order or a major threat to human beings." 13 2000-JUN-15: According to ReligionToday: The federal government has approved a law which allows individuals to sue "marginal religious groups" who practice "mental manipulation." The law, entitled Human Rights and Public Liberties, is considerably more draconian than the law passed in 1999-DEC in the Senate. It has the potential to impoverish religious groups by endlessly tying them up in litigation -- at least until a court decides that the law is unconstitutional.

14 2000-JUN-22: The bill approved by the federal government on JUN-15 passed the National Assembly unanimously on JUN-22. It will be voted upon by the Senate in the Fall of 2000. The Explanatory Memorandum to the bill, states that the purpose of the bill "is to paralyze" the activities of new organizations with a "sect-like character". The legislation is based on the belief that new religious groups create a state of mental dependence in their members, and infringe on "human rights and fundamental liberties." The law is very vaguely worded and uses many ambiguous terms that it does not define. Any local mayor or chief of police can deny a group a permit to open a religious house of worship. Any literature that is regarded as "propaganda" can bring criminal penalties.

It introduces a new term: mental manipulation which includes any activity "with the goal or the effect to create or to exploit the state of mental or physical dependence of people who are participating in the group's activities and to infringe human rights and fundamental liberties; to exert repeated pressure in order to create or exploit this state of dependence and to drive the person, against his will or not, to an act or an abstention with is heavily prejudicial." This provision of the law could be used to charge the Roman Catholic church for its teachings on abortion, birth control or co-habiting. This need for this law seems to be built upon hype and public fears; it is unsupported by any valid scientific studies. "The law would create the offense of 'mental manipulation,' and give the state power to dissolve religious groups and imprison and fine members found to be 'creating a state of mental or physical dependence' among participants." 15 A group found guilty of "mental manipulation" would be prohibited from setting up churches or offices within 200 meters of a school, hospital, nursing home or retirement home. This would effectively ban any such group from the inner cities.

Under the law, the state could disband a religious organization if two representatives of the group were found guilty of one or more legal infractions. "The law would also make the group liable for civil penalties, restrict its right to advertise or proselytize, curtail the travel freedom of group leaders, and prohibit the groups from owning property, holding services or reincorporating themselves under another name." 16 2000-JUL: A number of religious denominations and civil rights associations expressed concern about the new anti-sect law. Bruce Casino, president of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom, notes that the legislation might be applied to religious groups of any size, whether new or established. "It would, by its terms, give enormous discretion to French prosecutors and civil litigants to go after religious organizations, political parties, trade unions and other groups that call for contributions or volunteer efforts from members." John Graz, the Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association and a Seventh Day Adventist, said "The real target of this law is religion in general. It's naive to think that only the listed groups are in danger." Pope John Paul II alluded to the proposed law when meeting with the French ambassador to the Vatican.

He said that: "religious liberty, in the full sense of the term, is the first human right ... To discriminate religious beliefs, or to discredit one or another form of religious practice, is a form of exclusion contrary to the respect of fundamental human values and will eventually destabilize society, where a certain pluralism of thought and action should exist." Heber Jentzsch, president of the International Church of Scientology, noted that individual Scientologists have been arrested and interrogated throughout France. Businesses operated by Scientologists have been forced into bankruptcy after being "outed" in the local press. 16 Rev N J L'Heureux, religious liberty moderator of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

said that "Overly aggressive evangelical preaching could be interpreted by some as mental manipulation." Etienne Lhermenault, general secretary of the Federation of Evangelical Baptist Churches (FEBC) said that the situation in France "has been made infinitely more complicated by the vast ignorance of the French as far as religion is concerned and the resulting fear of all that is not firmly rooted in society." He also blames the media for their "confusing generalizations and by the mediocre level of their information on Protestantism and the evangelical churches." 17 2001-JUN-12: Anti-cult bill awaits president's signature: Although the anti-cult movement has been largely discredited in North America, it is quite powerful in France. According to the Globe and Mail: "France is moving forward with Europe's severest legislation against minority religious groups, igniting fears among civil-liberties organizations that it could invite similar measures by other governments.

Ignoring criticism from mainstream church leaders and foreign governments, especially Washington, France's National Assembly has passed a law 'to reinforce the prevention and repression of groups of a sect-like character.' " Joseph Grieboski, president of the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Public Policy, said: "This law makes the practice of one's religion into a criminal offence." The daily French newspaper, Le Figaro, mentioned that the lifestyle of a Carmelite nun could fall afoul of the legislation. The bill will create a new type crime covering the abuse of a person "in a state of psychological or physical dependence caused by the exertion of heavy or repeated pressure or techniques liable to alter his judgment." The bill also empowers courts to dissolve religious groups if two leading members are convicted of crimes such as fraud and child abuse. Depending on how this clause is interpreted, it could criminalize catechism classes run by established religions. It could also threaten the existence of faith groups -- large and small. 2001-JUL-9: Republican congressman condemns new law against sects: Rep.

Chris Smith (R-NJ), chairman of the House sub-committee on international operations and human rights, engaged in what he called contentious, argumentative talks with the bill's co-author Catherine Picard. He believes that its wording is so vague that it could in theory be applied to almost any cult or religion, including the Roman Catholic Church . He said: "This (law) is sowing the seeds for profound religious intolerance in France. If and when it is exported, it will spread an anti-religious contagion." He added: "When I read the plain body of the language, you can take virtually any denomination and in a variety of situations you can dissolve it. You name it, the Catholic Church, you can dissolve it.'' Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu said that the lawmakers' intention was to protect the weak and that the law would not limit freedom of conscience or worship. 18 2002-NOV-29 Government anti-cult group reorganized: The Governmental Mission to Fight Cults has been renamed the Governmental Mission to Watch and Fight Cultic Deviances. Mr. Jean-Louis Langlais, a French civil servant with experience in youth and anti drug work, has been appointed as its president.

A "consultative committee" is to be selected to evaluate the Mission's work and consider its orientation. It will probably be composed primarily of persons committed to the anti-cult movement, but may include other experts as well. The anti-cult movement called for former MP and anti-cultist Catherine Picard to head the Mission. The appointment of a civil servant, and the change of name, may indicate that the government is lowering the profile of the Mission. 19 2002: Council of Europe criticizes About-Picard law: The Council of Europe passed a resolution critical of this law and invited the Government of France to reconsider it. As of the end of 2003, the authority under the law for the government to disband religious groups had never been applied. 20 References: Anonymous article, "Religious Groups Face French 'Blacklist'", Action Magazine, The Rutherford Institute, Charlottesville VA, Vol. 2, No. 5, 1997-MAY Judah B.

Schroeder, "Representatives from 15 European Union countries decry discrimination against Jehovah's Witnesses in France: Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and the United States join efforts to visit embassies," Watch Tower Public Affairs Office, 1998-JUN-30. Mark Kellner, "Then They Came for Me," Column in The Washington Times; exact date unknown Associated Press, "Jehovahs Witnesses would be the object of a tax assessment," 1988-JUN-29 "Jehovah's witnesses pay a price for lack of cult status," The Independent (London UK), 1998-JUL-9. News section, Page 13. News Release, "France: New Dramatic Developments in the Sect Issue," Human Rights Without Frontiers, Brussels, Belgium, 1998-JUL-7 Free Minds, "France Moves to Tax Religion!" advertisement in the New York Times, 1998-JUL-5.

See: "Establishing an Inter-ministerial Mission to Fight Against Sects," (English translation) at: Quoted in Martin Weightman, "Religious Hysteria in France," European Human Rights Office, Church of Scientology, 1998-NOV-17. "Religious Intolerance and Discrimination," speech delivered by Human Rights Without Frontiers to the OSCE Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, 1998-OCT-28. See: "Report of the Inquiry Commission into New Religious Groups," 1995-DEC-22 at: This is the original document; in French. An English translation is available at: "1997 Annual Report of the Inter-ministery Observatory on Cults" is at: (original document; in French) "France: New discriminatory law proposal," Foundation for Religious Freedom news release, 1999-DEC-17. ReligionToday news summary for 2000-JUN-15 "Rights groups fear French cult bill would curb religious liberty," Newsroom, 2000-JUL-5.

Online at: "French 'Cults law' draws fire from religious groups," CNSNews.com, 2000-JUL-14, at: "French Baptists concerned about religious freedom," Evangelical Press News Service. Online at: Paul Holmes, "Congressman assails French law on sects," Reuters, 2001-JUL-9. "Jean-Louis Langlais is the new President of the French Mission," Center for Studies of New Religions (CESNUR) at: "France: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," U.S. State Department (2003) at: Top 10 Cults - Listverse Top 10 Cults Listverse Staff September 15, 2007 Cult roughly refers to a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture considers outside the mainstream, with a notably positive or negative popular perception. Many cults are destructive or suicidal though others, whilst being controversial, do not commit extreme acts. This is a list of the top ten cults. In no particular order: 1.

Church of Bible Understanding Stewart Traill The Church of Bible Understanding (formerly known as the Forever Family) is a destructive cult started in 1971 by former atheist and vacuum repairman Stewart Traill in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The cult targeted teens as young as 13 by drawing on their weaknesses. Throughout the 1970s, the cult expanded to many other parts of the United States. Traill, born in Quebec in 1936 is the son of a Presbyterian minister, who teaches that he is the reincarnation of Elijah, and that he knows the date of the return of Christ. Members of the cult live in a commune and donate 90% of their income to the cult. Traill amassed a fortune and owns four planes and a half million dollar mansion. According to former members, Traill controls every aspect of members’ lives through harsh criticism, shame, and public humiliation. Ron Burkes, a staff member at a residential treatment center for former cult members says this: “[Traill] has one of most effective means of shutting down critical thinking I’ve ever seen.

Of the hundreds of people I’ve treated, COBU is definitely in the top five in terms of harm and psychological damage.” The cult also runs a mission in Haiti, where some former members claim Haitian children are indoctrinated in exchange for food and clothing. According to an article originally appearing in the Manassas Journal Messenger, COBU receives government funds for its Haiti Mission as part of President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative. Dive into the terrifying world of brainwashing with World Famous Cults and Fanatics at Amazon.com! 2. Manson Family The Manson Family was a cult started by Charles Manson. Manson was born to Kathleen Maddox, an unwed sixteen year old girl, in 1934. It is said that his mother, an alcoholic, sold him to buy beer. When he was returned to her she had him sent to a boarding school. After a number of years living with his religious aunt and uncle, he returned to his mother who rejected him. After a number of robberies, he was put in jail for the first time. One month before his parole hearing in 1952, he raped a boy in jail by holding a razor to his throat. Two years later he was paroled.

Manson began to pimp a young woman he met and eventually took her, and a second woman to New Mexico to work for him as prostitutes. He was caught and tried under the Mann Act (a 1910 act that prohibited white slavery and trafficking for immoral means). In 1967 he was released (having spent more than half of his life in institutions). Upon release, he requested permission to move to San Francisco which was granted. When he arrived he became part of the Hippie movement centered around the Haight-Ashbury region and he set himself up as a guru. He moved in with 23 year old student Mary Brunner and convinced her to allow other women to join them. Eventually eighteen other women were living with them – this was the beginning of the family. By 1968, Manson had established a home for the “family” at a ranch owned by George Spahn. Manson convinced one of the family members, Lynette Fromme, to sleep with Spahn in order to get free rent. Manson began teaching his followers that social uprisings were coming – using the assassination of Martin Luther King as evidence.

He also told them that the social turmoil he had been predicting had also been predicted by The Beatles. The White Album songs, he declared, told it all, although in code; in fact, he maintained, the album was directed at the Family itself, an elect group that was being instructed to preserve the worthy from the impending disaster. In 1969, on August 8, Manson told Family members at Spahn Ranch, “now is the time for Helter Skelter.” That evening the family, under the direction of Manson, would commit the famous murder of Sharon Tate, leading to other murders over the two day period. 3. Aum Shinrikyo Aum Shinrikyo, is a Japanese religious group founded by Shoko Asahara. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out a Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways. In 2000 the organization changed its name to “Aleph” (the first letter of the Hebrew and Arabic alphabet), changing its logo as well. In 1995 the group had 9,000 members in Japan, and as many as 40,000 worldwide.

As of 2004 Aum Shinrikyo/Aleph membership was estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 people. The movement was founded by Shoko Asahara in his one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward in 1984, starting off as a Yoga and meditation class known as Aum-no-kai and steadily grew in the following years. It gained the official status as a religious organization in 1989. It attracted such a considerable number of young graduates from Japan’s elite universities that it was dubbed a “religion for the elite”. Aum’s PR activities included publishing. In Japan, where comics and animated cartoons enjoy unprecedented popularity among all ages, Aum attempted to tie religious ideas to popular anime and manga themes – space missions, extremely powerful weapons, world conspiracies and conquest for ultimate truth. Aum Shinrikyo had started as a quiet group of people interested in yogic meditation, but later transformed into a very different organization. According to Asahara, he needed “to demonstrate charisma” to attract the modern audience. Following his decision, Aum underwent a radical image change.

The rebranded Aum looked less like an elite meditation boutique and more like an organization attractive to a broader, larger population group. Public interviews, bold controversial statements, and vicious opposition to critique were incorporated into the religion’s PR style. The cult started attracting controversy in the late 1980s with accusations of deception of recruits, and of holding cult members against their will and forcing members to donate money. A murder of a cult member who tried to leave is now known to have taken place in February 1989. At the end of 1993 the cult started secretly manufacturing the nerve agent sarin and later VX gas. They also attempted to manufacture 1000 automatic rifles but only managed to make one. Aum tested their sarin on sheep at a remote ranch in Western Australia, killing 29 sheep. Both sarin and VX were then used in several assassinations (and attempts) over 1994-1995. Most notably on the night of 27th June 1994, the cult carried out the world’s first use of chemical weapons in a terrorist attack against civilians when they released sarin in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto.

This Matsumoto incident killed seven and harmed 200 more. However, police investigations focused only on an innocent local resident and failed to implicate the cult. 11 cult members have been sentenced to death, although none of the sentences have been carried out, nor the time and date for the executions to take effect has been publicly established. 4. Restoration of the 10 Commandments The full name of this cult is the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was a breakaway group from the Roman Catholic Church that formed in Uganda in the late 1980s. As the name implies the group strongly emphasized the Ten Commandments. This emphasis meant they even discouraged talking: out of fear of breaking the commandment about giving false witness. They also believed that their strict adherence to the Ten Commandments would be advantageous after the apocalypse. This proved significant as the group had a strong emphasis on the apocalypse, highlighted by their booklet A Timely Message from Heaven: The End of the Present Time. New members were required to study it and be trained in it, reading it as many as six times.

They also taught that Mother Mary had a special role in the apocalypse, and communicated to the leadership. They saw themselves as like Noah’s Ark, a ship of righteousness in a sea of depravity. The group tended to be secretive and as mentioned above, was literally silent. Therefore it was relatively unknown to the outside world until 2000, although in 1998 the school they ran was sanctioned by the government due to unsanitary conditions and violation of child labor statutes. In March of 2000, around 300 followers died in a fire in what is considered a cult suicide. Investigations conducted after the fire discovered mass graves, raising the death toll to over 1,000. This may mean it was larger than the Jonestown murder/suicide in 1978, but some speculate the death toll was around 800. There are also allegations that the event was more of a mass murder by the leadership. 5.

Raëlism Founder, Claude Vorilhon (right) Raëlism or Raelian Church is a UFO religion founded by a purported contactee named Claude Vorilhon, who is known recently for supporting Clonaid’s claim that an American woman underwent a standard cloning procedure, which led to the birth of her new daughter Eve in December 26, 2002. National authorities, mainstream media, and young adults have increasingly investigated the church’s activities as a result of controversial statements by Clonaid’s head Brigitte Boisselier the day after. Members of the Raëlian Church consist of people who have been baptized by Raëlian clergy in quarterly ceremonies, and among the converts are members of Raëlian-founded free love groups such as the Order of Angels and Raël’s Girls. The organization—which preaches a sensual philosophy and a physicalist explanation of the origin of life—could have as many as sixty-five thousand members. Raëlians emphasize secular and hedonistic ideas, rather than worshiping a supreme metaphysical deity.[30] The Raëlian Church members follow a UFO religion that favors a strong version of physicalism – the belief that everything consists only of physical properties.

Raëlians deny the existence of the ethereal soul and a supernatural god, and believe that the mind is a function of matter alone. This ties into their belief that mind transfer is possible and that it will be possible to create an identical human clone in terms of mind and personality—as long as the clone and the original are not alive at the same time. Get free shipping, thousands of movies, and millions of streaming songs with a FREE trial of Amazon Prime at Amazon.com! 6. Scientology The Church of Scientology is a cult created by L Ron Hubbard (Elron) in 1952 as an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system called Dianetics. Scientology and the organizations that promote it have remained highly controversial since their inception. Journalists, courts and the governing bodies of several countries have stated that the Church of Scientology is an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and abuses the trust of its members. Journalists, governments, religious groups and other critics worldwide have often referred to the organization as a cult.

Reports and allegations have been made, by journalists, courts, and governmental bodies of several countries, that the Church of Scientology is an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and brutally exploits its members. In some cases of US litigation against the Church, former Scientologists were paid as expert witnesses and have since stated that they submitted false and inflammatory declarations, intended to be carried in the media to incite prejudice against Scientology, and deliberately harassed key Scientology executives, by knowingly advancing unfounded opinions, either to get a case dropped or to obtain a large settlement. Although Scientologists are usually free to practice their beliefs, the organized church has often encountered opposition due to their strong-arm tactics, directed against critics and members wishing to leave the organization. 7. Order of the Solar Temple Joseph Di Mambro The Order of the Solar Temple also known as Ordre du Temple Solaire (OTS) in French, and the International Chivalric Organization of the Solar Tradition or simply as The Solar Temple was a secret society based upon the new age myth of the continuing existence of the Knights Templar.

OTS was started by Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984 in Geneva as l’Ordre International Chevaleresque de Tradition Solaire (OICTS) and renamed Ordre du Temple Solaire. It is believed that other members were also involved who have remained unknown to the public. In October 1994 Tony Dutoit’s infant son (Emmanuel Dutoit), aged three months, was killed at the group’s centre in Morin Heights, Quebec. The baby had been stabbed repeatedly with a wooden stake. It is believed that Di Mambro ordered the murder, because he identified the baby as the Anti-Christ described in the Bible. He believed that the Anti-Christ was born into the order to prevent Di Mambro from succeeding in his spiritual aim. A few days later, Di Mambro and twelve followers performed a ritual Last Supper. A few days after that, apparent mass suicides and murders were conducted at two villages in Switzerland, and at Morin Heights — 15 inner circle members committed suicide with poison, 30 were killed by bullets or smothering, and 8 others were killed by other causes.

Many of the bodies when found were drugged, possibly to prevent the members from objecting. The buildings were then set on fire by timer devices, purportedly as one last symbol of the group’s purification. In western Switzerland, 48 members of a sect died in another apparent mass murder-suicide. Many of the victims were found in a secret underground chapel lined with mirrors and other items of Templar symbolism. The bodies were dressed in the order’s ceremonial robes and were in a circle, feet together, heads outward, most with plastic bags tied over their heads; they had each been shot in the head. It is believed that the plastic bags were a symbol of the ecological disaster that would befall the human race after the OTS members moved on to Sirius. A mayor, a journalist, a civil servant and a sales manager were found among the dead in Switzerland. Records seized by the Quebec police showed that some members had personally donated over $1 million to the cult’s leader Joseph Di Mambro. There was also another attempted mass suicide of the remaining members which was thwarted in the late 1990s.

It is believed that The Solar Temple group continues to exist, with thirty surviving members in Quebec at the St-Anne-de-la-Pérade center, with from 140 to 500 members remaining worldwide. 8. Heaven’s Gate Heaven’s Gate is a destructive, doomsday cult centered in California. 21 women and 18 men voluntarily committed suicide in three groups on three successive days starting on March 23, 1997. Most were in their 40’s; the rest covered an age range of 26 to 72. Two months later, two additional members, Charles Humphrey and Wayne Cooke attempted suicide in a hotel room a few miles from the Rancho Santa Fe mansion; Cooke succeeded. Humphrey tried again in the Arizona desert during Feb 1998 and was successful. They followed a syncretistic religion, combining elements of Christianity with unusual beliefs about the nature of UFOs. They interpreted passages from the four gospels and the book Revelation as referring to UFO visitation. In particular, they emphasized a story in Revelation which described two witnesses who are killed, remained dead for 3 1/2 days, were revived and taken up into the clouds.

They look upon earth as being in the control of evil forces, and perceived themselves as being among the elite who would attain heaven. They held a profoundly dualistic belief of the soul as being a superior entity which is only housed temporarily in a body. Applewhite said that bodies were only “the temporary containers of the soul…The final act of metamorphosis or separation from the human kingdom is the ‘disconnect’ or separation from the human physical container or body in order to be released from the human environment.” Members called themselves brother and sister; they looked upon themselves as monks and nuns; they lived communally in a large, rented San Diego County (CA) home which they called their monastery. Most members had little contact with their families of origin or with their neighbors. Many followed successful professional careers before entering the group. Some abandoned their children before joining. They were free to leave at any time. They dressed in unisex garments: shapeless black shirts with Mandarin collars, and black pants. They were required commit themselves to a celibate life. Eight of the male members, including Do, submitted to voluntary castration.

This seems to have been a form of preparation for their next level of existence: in a life that would be free of gender, sexual identity and sexual activity. Thirty-eight group members, plus Applewhite, the group’s leader, were found dead in a rented mansion in the upscale San Diego community of Rancho Santa Fe, California, on March 26, 1997. The mass death of the Heaven’s Gate group is said to be one of the most widely-known examples of cult suicide. In preparing to kill themselves, members of the group drank citrus juices to ritually cleanse their bodies of impurities. The suicide was accomplished by ingestion of phenobarbital mixed with vodka, along with plastic bags secured around their heads to induce asphyxiation. They were found lying neatly in their own bunk beds, with their faces and torsos covered by a square, purple cloth. Each member carried five dollar bills and a few quarters in their wallets. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike tennis shoes, and armband patches reading “Heaven’s Gate Away Team”. The suicides were conducted in shifts, and the remaining members of the group cleaned up after each prior group’s death.

9. Branch Davidians The Branch Davidians are a religious sect who originated from a schism in 1955 from the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists, themselves former members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who were disfellowshipped during the 1930s. From its inception in the 1930s, the splinter movement inherited Adventism’s apocalypticism, in that they believed themselves to be living in a time when Christian prophecies of a final divine judgment were coming to pass. They are best known for the 1993 siege of their Center near Waco, Texas, by the ATF and the FBI, which resulted in the deaths of eighty-two of the church’s members, including head figure David Koresh. However, by the time of the siege, Koresh had encouraged his followers to think of themselves as “students of the Seven Seals” rather than as “Branch Davidians,” and other Branch Davidian factions never accepted his leadership. Some former members of Koresh’s group alleged that he practiced polygamy with underage brides, physically abused children, and stockpiled illegal weapons, legal authorities investigated these charges.

On February 28, 1993, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) conducted a raid on Mount Carmel, a property of the Davidians. The raid resulted in the deaths of six Davidians and four ATF agents after a firefight broke out. Following this confrontation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) laid siege to Mount Carmel for 51 days, during which time the FBI and ATF conducted around-the-clock operations including psychological warfare (psyops) on the occupants of the complex. The government’s siege on the Branch Davidians ended on April 19 when federal agents released CS tear gas into the compound. During the assault, several fires broke out and spread quickly through the buildings, killing approximately 79 Branch Davidians, 21 of whom were children. Autopsies confirmed that many of the victims, including David Koresh, had died of single gunshot wounds to their heads. The government put some of the survivors on trial. All were acquitted of conspiring to murder federal agents but some were convicted of aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter. 10.

Unification Church The Unification Church (Mooneyism) is a new religious movement started by Sun Myung Moon in Korea in the 1940s. The beliefs of the church are explained in the book Divine Principle and draw from the Bible as well as Asian traditions and include belief in a universal God; in the creation of a literal Kingdom of Heaven on earth; in the universal salvation of all people, good and evil as well as living and dead; that Jesus did not come to die; and that the Lord of the Second Coming must be a man born in Korea early in the 20th century who must marry and have children. In the United States in the 1970s, the media reported on the high-pressure recruitment methods of Unificationists and said that the church separated vulnerable college students from their families through the use of brainwashing or mind control. Moon dismissed these criticisms, stating in 1976 that he had received many thank-you letters from parents whose children became closer to them after joining the movement. Moon and his wife were banned from entry into Germany and the other 14 Schengen treaty countries, on the grounds that they are leaders of a sect that endangered the personal and social development of young people.

The Netherlands and a few other Schengen states let Moon and his wife enter their countries in 2005. In 2006 the German Supreme Court overturned the ban. In 1993, Chung Hwa Pak released the book Roku Maria no Higeki (Tragedy of the Six Marys) through the Koyu Publishing Co. of Japan. The book contained allegations that Moon conducted sex rituals amongst six married female disciples (“The Six Marys”) who were to have prepared the way for the virgin who would marry Moon and become the True Mother. Chung Hwa Pak had left the movement when the book was published and later withdrew the book from print when he rejoined the Unification Church. Before his death Chung Hwa Pak published a second book, The Apostate, and recanted all allegations made in Roku Maria no Higeki. Bonus. Jonestown On 18 November 1978, more than 900 people died in the largest mass murder/suicide in American history.

Most of the deaths occurred in a jungle encampment in Guyana, South America, where members of a group called Peoples Temple lived in a utopian community and agricultural project known as Jonestown. Most died after drinking a fruit punch laced with cyanide and tranquilizers, although some may have been injected; two residents died of gunshot wounds. Earlier that day a few other residents of the group had assassinated a U.S. congressman along with three members of the media and a departing Jonestown resident. And in Guyana’s capital city of Georgetown, yet another member of the group killed her three children and then herself after receiving word of the deaths in Jonestown. In all, 918 Americans lost their lives that day. Since that time, Jonestown and its leader Jim Jones have entered American discourse as code for the dangers of cults and cult leaders. The expression “drinking the Kool-Aid”—which means both blindly jumping on the bandwagon, and being a team player—is one manifestation of this.

The story of Jonestown, and of its parent organization Peoples Temple, however, is more complicated than sound-bites comparing strict parents to Jim Jones, or pundits relating religious violence (such as the suicide air strikes of 11 September 2001) to Jonestown. Instead, Jonestown serves as a lesson in how a combination of media, government, and citizens can create a climate of persecution and fear. It also provides an example of how uncritical acceptance of the status quo and social and geographic isolation can lead to violence and even death. Notable Exclusions: The Children of God, Mormonism, Jevhovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists Sources: Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Videos Germany Treats Scientology as a Threat to Democracy. The U.S. Should Too. – Tablet Magazine Continue reading: A totalitarian movement A 1972 directive from Hubbard titled “Governing policy,” cited by the German government in its position against the Church, clearly characterizes Scientology as a commercial enterprise. “MAKE MONEY. MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY. MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MONEY,” Hubbard wrote.

In 1967, the IRS revoked the Church’s tax-exempt status, a decision reasserted by each and every American court to which the Church brought challenges over a subsequent 25-year-period. A 1984 U.S. Tax Court ruling, for instance, found that the Church “made a business out of selling religion” and that Hubbard and his family had diverted millions of dollars to their personal accounts. The Los Angeles Superior Court, meanwhile, deemed Hubbard “a pathological liar” driven by “egotism, greed, avarice, lust for power and vindictiveness and aggressiveness against persons perceived by him to be disloyal or hostile.” Desperate for legitimacy, in 1973 Scientology launched Operation Snow White —a covert operation aimed at infiltrating governments. Scientology agents broke into IRS headquarters, bugged its offices, and dispatched private investigators to spy on individual agents—all in hopes of blackmailing officials. All this was permitted under Scientology’s “Fair Game” doctrine , which, according to Hubbard, demands that Church critics “be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist.

May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” The plot was uncovered in 1977, and Hubbard’s wife and 10 other Church officials were sentenced to jail. Hubbard was named an unindicted co-conspirator. But in 1993, Scientology finally did achieve tax-exempt status from the IRS—a massive victory in the Church’s quest for mainstream acceptance. It did so, according to the New York Times, only “after an extraordinary campaign orchestrated by Scientology against the agency and people who work there” that included the hiring of “private investigators to dig into the private lives of I.R.S. officials and to conduct surveillance operations to uncover potential vulnerabilities.” Scientology even set up a front group, the National Coalition of IRS Whistle-blowers, to battle the agency. As if to emphasize the capriciousness of the IRS’s decision, just a year before the agency’s reversal, a decision by the U.S. Claims Court rejected Scientology’s case for tax-exemption, citing “the commercial character of much of Scientology,” its virtually incomprehensible financial procedures” and its “scripturally based hostility to taxation.” Now that the U.S.

government recognized Scientology as a religious faith, the Church could claim that the policies of foreign governments amount to religious discrimination. Four months after the IRS decision, the U.S. State Department released its 1994 annual human rights report, which included a paragraph critical of the German government’s measures against Scientology—the first of what would become many such complaints. While Washington ended its official skepticism of Scientology, European governments grew harsher in their actions against the Church. France, Spain, and Italy raided Scientology centers throughout the 1980s. In 1997, a Greek judge ordered a Scientology center in Athens shut down for “medical, social and ethical practices that are dangerous and harmful,” and an Italian judge ordered 29 Scientologists to jail in 1997 for “criminal association.” But in no country has Scientology captured the public imagination—and served as the hotbed for international controversy—more than in Germany. In the summer of 1996, the youth wing of the Christian Democratic Union (then and now Germany’s ruling conservative party) called for a boycott of Mission Impossible.

At around the same time, stories began appearing in the American press airing allegations from German Scientologists that their children were being barred from certain kindergartens. A state-owned bank shut down accounts belonging to members of the Church, and the provincial government in conservative, Catholic Bavaria announced that it would require applicants for public-sector jobs to declare any connections they might have to the Church. By the middle of the decade, what Frank Rich referred to as “the great American religious saga of the 1990’s” erupted on the other side of the Atlantic, with both sides accusing the other of acting like Nazis. *** Some German government actions against Scientology have been so earnest that it’s easy for skeptics to mock them as overcompensation for the country’s fascist past. In 2009, for instance, Berlin’s Charlottenberg-Wilmersdorf district government erected a giant poster of a stop sign outside the Church’s headquarters to “express its opposition to the activities of the Scientology sect in this district.” But judging by the writings and political sympathies of its founder, the allegation that Scientology is an authoritarian movement cannot be so easily dismissed.

In his 1951 book, the Science of Survival, Hubbard devised a system of “tones” to measure human emotions. “The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals occupying the lower bands of the tone scale from the social order would result in an almost instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society may have entered,” Hubbard wrote. “It is not necessary to produce a world of clears [the Scientology term for enlightened person] in order to have a reasonable and worthwhile social order; it is only necessary to delete those individuals who range from 2.0 down, either by processing them enough to get their tone level above the 2.0 line or simply quarantining them from the society.” Promulgating less-mangled formulations of this idea is banned in Germany and other European countries. Hubbard was a supporter of the Greek military junta ( calling the regime’s constitution “the most brilliant tradition of Greek democracy”) and South African apartheid (“not a police state”).

The forced relocation of blacks to rural townships, Hubbard wrote in a letter to then-Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd, was “the most impressive and adequate resettlement activity in existence.” Hubbard suggested that his e-meters be used to interrogate anti-apartheid activists. In 1966—in one of the strangest episodes in a very strange life—Hubbard spent some three months in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in an attempt to ingratiate himself with the white minority government’s Prime Minister Ian Smith, who had just unilaterally declared Rhodesia’s independence from the United Kingdom. Hubbard, who believed he had been Cecil Rhodes in a past life, strode around the country sporting the same style hat worn by the great imperialist and tried to present Smith with a new constitution he had written for the country. On its website describing the “worldview” of Scientology, the Baden-Württemberg branch of the BfV cites Hubbard’s use of the racist British expression “wog” to describe non-Scientologists, “a term thrown around liberally among Church staff,” according to Janet Reitman, author of the acclaimed new book Inside Scientology.

The Church’s claim that psychiatrists were responsible for the Holocaust—an argument it brought to Germany with an outdoor traveling exhibit in the 1990s—is also something that rankles Germans, not to mention German Jews. Ironically, the German government bases much of the strict policy toward Scientology upon rulings by U.S. courts. One of the three major U.S. legal findings that the German government cites in a long and detailed explanation of its policy is a 1994 California case, which stated that the Church’s activities took place in a “coercive environment.” The German government also cites a 1997 Illinois Supreme Court ruling regarding allegations that the Church’s vindictive and cynical legal strategy against the Cult Awareness Network, whereby it sued the organization—a support group for cult members and their families—into bankruptcy, assumed its name, and then operated it as a Scientology front. “Such a sustained onslaught of litigation can hardly be deemed ‘ordinary,’ if [the Network] can prove that the actions were brought without probable cause and with malice,” the court found.

Continue reading: A public-health problem Though the Church has won successive attempts by the German government, at both the federal and provincial level, to ban it outright, it still exists in nebulous legal territory, permitted to operate but not recognized as a religion or a nonprofit organization. (Germany isn’t stingy in its designation of tax-exempt status; according to the government, some 10,000 groups are tax-exempt, including the Mormon Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses.) The German government cites a history of court rulings claiming that the Church is in fact a commercial enterprise: For instance, a 1995 decision found that the Church is “masquerading as a religion in order to make a profit.” But the government goes further than the courts in arguing that Scientology represents a unique threat to German society. This is a view that cuts across partisan lines as the leading political parties—the Christian Democratic Union, its Bavarian sister Conservative Social Union, the Social Democrats, and the liberal Free Democrats—all ban Scientologists from membership.

According to a 2010 report by the BfV, Scientology “rejects the democratic system; its long-term goal is a social order in which it is the sole authority.” In 2007, Tom Cruise hoped to shoot the film Valkyrie, a docudrama about German officers’ plot to kill Hitler in which the Scientology star played ringleader Col. Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, in Germany. When German military officials attempted to prevent filming in the building where the plotters were eventually executed, all the hoary old arguments likening contemporary Germany to Nazism came back to the fore. But many Germans saw Cruise’s assuming the role of the German hero as galling. Berthold Graf von Stauffenberg, the colonel’s eldest son and himself a former general in the West German army, voiced widespread German feeling when he said , “The fact that an avowed Scientologist like Cruise is supposed to play the victim of a totalitarian regime is purely sick.” (The German government, in a surprising turn-around, later agreed to let Cruise film inside the Defense Ministry.) *** Around the world, a handful of politicians have urged their governments to prosecute Scientology as a criminal conspiracy.

Three years ago, a Paris court found the Church guilty of fraud and fined it $900,000. That same year, a member of the Australian Senate, Nick Xenophon, delivered a speech in which he described Scientology as “criminal organization that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs.” After calling for an investigation into the Church’s tax-exempt status during a television interview, he began to receive letters from ex-Scientologists across Australia detailing what he described as “a worldwide pattern of abuse and criminality,” including torture , forced confinement, and coerced abortions . (Xenophon’s call for a parliamentary inquiry into the Church was ultimately rejected by the Australian government.) In 2007, following a 10-year investigation, a Belgian prosecutor called for the Church to be labeled a criminal organization and recommended that up to 12 Church officials face charges for the illegal practice of medicine, violation of privacy, and use of illegal contracts . The State Department criticized the move, stating that the United States would “oppose any effort to stigmatize an entire group based solely upon religious beliefs and would be concerned over infringement of any individual’s rights because of religious affiliation.” But it was not long ago that the U.S.

government came close to cracking down on Scientology. In a New Yorker profile last year of Paul Haggis, the Academy Award-winning director of Crash who recently defected from the Church, Lawrence Wright reported that the FBI was investigating Scientology on charges of human trafficking. According to Tony Ortega, the editor of the Village Voice who has long written about the Church, the bureau was preparing to raid Scientology’s California international headquarters—using footage it had shot with drone aircraft—based upon evidence that a defector had given them about “an office-prison made up of two double-wide trailers where fallen officials were kept day and night, sleeping on the floor and being forced to take part in mass confessions.” The probe was ultimately called off for unknown reasons. But a series of high-level defections over the past several decades demonstrates just how dangerous the Church has become. This month, Tanja Castle, the former executive secretary to Church leader David Miscavige, told the story of how, in 2004, she had to physically flee the Church’s California headquarters, jumping over a razor-wire fence. She had been forced by Church leaders to “disconnect” from her husband, who had been accused of financial misconduct.

“We were first discouraged, and then not allowed to communicate with each other, or see each other, or be a married couple,” she told an ABC affiliate in California. Earlier this year, a former Scientology executive named Debbie Cook told a Texas court that, in the summer of 2007, she had been held in a prison-like compound called “The Hole,” with 100 other Church members. According to the Tampa Bay Times, which covered the case, “They spent their nights in sleeping bags on ant-infested floors, ate a soupy ‘slop’ of reheated leftovers and screamed at each other in confessionals that often turned violent.” Cook further “described a 12-hour ordeal at the California base where she was made to stand in a trash can while fellow executives poured water over her, screamed at her and said she was a lesbian.” *** For obvious reasons—beginning with the Constitution, and the fact the United States was founded by Europeans fleeing religious persecution—most Americans are loath to do anything that would appear to infringe upon someone else’s religious liberty.

Though some of us may find each other’s religious convictions, or religion itself, strange, few believe that it should be the government’s role to tell other people how, if at all, to pray. And so while the consensus in the United States may be that Scientology is a bit nutty, the general attitude, owing to Americans’ dedication to individual liberty, seems to be: live and let live. The problem with Scientology is that it is not content to let other people “let live,” certainly not those who join the Church or criticize it from the outside. The differences in historical traditions of American individualism and European communalism should not be used to discourage a tougher American approach to dealing with the Church of Scientology. Revoking its ill-gotten tax-exempt status is the obvious first start, followed by an end to criticism of foreign governments, such as Germany’s, for doing precisely what the U.S. government should be doing: investigating Scientology as a harmful enterprise, with the ultimate aim of shutting it down. Congress should establish a commission, as have many other governments, to investigate the Church and its activities and actively warn citizens about its dangers.

Such policies should be seen as no different from a public-health measure, like long-existing, widely popular government campaigns to discourage smoking. Nearly 50 years ago, the Australian state of Victoria launched just such an investigation into Scientology. “There are some features of Scientology which are so ludicrous that there may be a tendency to regard Scientology as silly and its practitioners as harmless cranks,” the Board of Inquiry into Scientology found. But the activities of the Church were no laughing matter. “Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents sadly deluded and often mentally ill.” The Church was gradually shut down in several provinces but fought back hard, winning nationwide legal recognition in 1983. Scientology isn’t just about space aliens and brainwashed actors jumping on couches. The relative handful of high-profile adherents obscures its many everyday victims, people whose lives and families have been destroyed by this cult. It may not be the role of a government in a free society to prevent its citizens from making unwise decisions. But surely it should take reasonable measures to prevent the unscrupulous and deceitful from brainwashing and abusing people.

As Katie Holmes can no doubt attest, it’s long past time Americans stopped joking about Scientology and started treating it like the Germans do. *** Like this article? Sign up for our Daily Digest to get Tablet Magazine’s new content in your inbox each morning. James Kirchick, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Initiative, is a columnist at Tablet . He is a former writer at large for Radio Free Europe based in Prague and a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow based in Berlin. His Twitter feed is @jkirchick . Atheist goes into Scientology center experience - YouTube Atheist goes into Scientology center experience Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Mar 28, 2015 I went to the scientology center on Hollywood Blvd. during my trip to LA. I went in with an open and mind and everything that I've heard about Scientology being a money making scam seemed to be true.

I think Scientology is crazy like any other religion, But the way they try to sell you their courses seemed more like a business then a church. They tried to give me an e meter test. But I said it was too long. And I spoke one on one with the scientologist manager at the location. He used a lot pseudoscience to try to persuade me. The back ground information from Wikipedia Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction writer L.

Ron Hubbard (1911–1986), beginning in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics.[6] Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion, and in 1953 he incorporated the Church of Scientology in Camden, New Jersey.[7][8] Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature.[9] Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counselling known as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.[10] Study materials and auditing sessions are made available to members on a fee-for-service basis, which the church describes as a "fixed donation".[11][12] Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in the United States, South Africa,[13] Australia,[14] Sweden,[15] the Netherlands,[16] New Zealand,[17][18] Portugal,[19] and Spain;[20][21][22][23][24] the Church of Scientology emphasizes this as proof that it is a bona fide religion.[25] In contrast, the organization is considered

 a commercial enterprise in Switzerland, a cult (secte) in France and Chile, and a non-profit in Norway, and its legal classification is often a point of contention.

A large number of organizations overseeing the application of Scientology have been established,[26] the most notable of these being the Church of Scientology. Scientology sponsors a variety of social-service programs.[26][27] These include the Narconon anti-drug program, the Criminon prison rehabilitation program, the Study Tech education methodology, the Volunteer Ministers, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, and a set of moral guidelines expressed in a booklet called The Way to Happiness.[28] Scientology is one of the most controversial new religious movements to have arisen in the 20th century.

The church is often characterized as a cult, and it has faced harsh scrutiny for many of its practices, which, critics contend, include brainwashing and routinely defrauding its members,[29] as well as attacking its critics and perceived enemies with psychological abuse, character assassination, and costly lawsuits.[12][30][31] In response, Scientologists have argued that theirs is a genuine religious movement that has been misrepresented, maligned, and persecuted.[32] The Church of Scientology has consistently used litigation against its critics, and its aggressiveness in pursuing its foes has been condemned as harassment.[33][34] Further controversy has focused on Scientology's belief that souls ("thetans") reincarnate and have lived on other planets before living on Earth[35] and that some of the related teachings are not revealed to practitioners until they have paid thousands of dollars to the Church of Scientology.[36][37] Another controversial belief held by Scientologists is that the practice of psychiatry is destructive and abusive and must be abolished.[38][39] Category Religious Intolerance in Germany Sponsored link.

Quotations from the German Constitution: Article 3:3: "No one may be discriminated against because of his sex, his heritage, his race, his language, his birth-place, his beliefs, his religious or political ideologies." Article 4:1: "The freedom of faith, of conscience, and the freedom of religious and ideological beliefs are inviolable." Article 4:2: "The undisturbed practice of religion is guaranteed." Statements that new employees must sign in two German firms before being hired: 8 "Affidavit:...I hearby declare that....I am not a member of a Sect or Free Church..." "11. I testify that I (neither in the past, nor now, nor in the future) - am a member of a sect..." Overview of the Anti-Cult Movement: In the 1960's, a Anti-Cult Movement (CCM) was founded in the United States. It was created in response to the many small new religious movements (NRM) - often headed by a single charismatic leader. Young adults flocked to these groups, seeking an intense spiritual experience and inter-personal intimacy.

Some of these movements encouraged their followers to sever relationships with their friends and families of origin. Many followers abandoned their academic pursuits in order to devote more time to the movement. Some parents became alarmed, fearing that their children had become the mindless victims of mind control techniques and brainwashing. A movie The Manchurian Candidate (1962), dealt with mind control. Although it was a work of fiction, and based on non-existent science, it convinced much of the public that such control was possible. A series of incidents involving loss of life in small destructive, religious groups (including those at Jonestown and Waco) raised public concern about " cults " in general. However, by the late 1990's, the CCM had largely run out of steam in the United States. Some within the movement had committed very serious criminal acts, assaulting and brutally kidnapping members of NRMs and forcibly confining them. A series of legal cases put the largest of these groups out of business. But even as fear of "cults" started to diminish in North America, it was on the ascendancy in some European countries - particularly in Russia , Germany and France .

Public fears were greatly increased by a religiously motivated mass suicide-murder of members of the Solar Temple group in southeast France on 1995-NOV-16. In Germany, this fear seems to have promoted the federal government to actively persecute members of the Church of Scientology . A number of incidents have been reported at the federal, state and local level. The Church has won some, but not all legal battles in German courts. Sponsored link: German Persecution of Religious and Other Minorities: 1992: Jeri Labor, the executive director of the Helsinki Watch, wrote Chancellor Helmut Kohl, noting that they had been "closely following the increase in violent attacks against foreigners in Germany... Gypsies in Germany have a long history of persecution, and they continue to face prejudice and hatred." At the time, Germany had developed a plan to pay Romania to take back Roma �migr�s.

Labor call this "discriminatory treatment that violates Germanys obligations to engage in no practice of racial discrimination as established in international law." 1995-JAN: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance cited Germany for religious intolerance and human rights violations against members of the Church of Scientology. 1995-MAR: The United States State Department issued its annual "Human Rights Report".

They observed that: "major German political parties exclude Scientologists from membership." "business firms whose owners or executives belong to the Church of Scientology may face boycotts and discrimination, sometimes with governmental approval." "artists have been prevented from performing or displaying their works because of their Scientology membership." "public criticism of Scientologists by leading political figures increased during the year, with one Cabinet member publicly stating that Scientologists were unfit to serve as teachers, police officers, or professors." "Scientologists continued to take such grievances to court, and the courts have frequently ruled in their favor." 1995-APR: Helsinki Watch issued a report: "Germany for Germans: Xenophobia and Racist Violence in Germany." They documented incidents in which "Turks, Gypsies and Africans have been targeted by neo-Nazi skinheads and are viewed with hostility by the German government." 1 1995: A Charismatic Christian church's tax exempt status was canceled by government officials in Cologne. They stated that the church was not a charitable group, and that it "does not contribute to the cultural, religious, or spiritual value of German society." The church has launched an appeal.

1996-JAN: A group of 34 actors, artists and executives from the entertainment industry sent an open letter to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman, Larry King, Tina Sinatra, Aaron Spelling, Oliver Stone, Gore Vidal and others said in part: "When a modern nation demonstrates its unwillingness to protect the basic rights of a group of its citizens, and, indeed, exhibits a willingness to condone and participate in their persecution, right thinking people in other countries must speak out. Extremists of your party should not be permitted to believe that the rest of the World will look the other way. Not this time. Those who seek to gain political power or to indulge personal hatreds by repeating the deplorable tactics of the 1930s cannot be permitted that luxury. This time voices will be raised." 2 1996-JAN: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance cited Germany for the second consecutive year.

1996-MAR: The United States State Department issued its annual "Human Rights Report" criticized Germany for religious persecution and "both social and government-condoned harassment." 1996-SEP: A British fact-finding committee visited Germany. It was made up of two members of the House of Lords and academic experts. They interviewed members of 17 small religious and philosophical groups as well as representatives of the government. They reported that they were "completely unprepared for the sheer scale of [religious] prejudice, discrimination and even persecution" in the country. 1996-NOV: The U.N. Human Rights Committee stated that the decision by the Bavarian government to exclude Scientologists from public sector employment was a worrying development that could violate rights that Germany is legally bound to guarantee. 1997-MAR: The Rutherford Institute is a conservative Christian organization dedicated to preserving religious freedom in the US and other countries. John Whitehead, President of the Institute said: "When individuals with unpopular belief systems are being penalized it is nothing less than encroachment on religious liberty." He listed three areas of concern in Europe, involving the Jehovah's Witnesses, a Charismatic Christian church and the Church of Scientology.

1997-APR: The University of Tuebingen issued a report commissioned by the state government of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The Associated Press reported that the study found that German government accusations against Scientology are groundless. 1997: The Human Rights Centre at Essex University, UK issued a report, stating: "In Germany, democracy is used as an ideology to impose conformity. It has been dismaying to discover that the state, and some of its politicians and people, are using what are known from the past to be well-worn paths of discrimination and intolerance and of inciting intolerance towards a new religious minority, the Scientologists...recent years have seen an astonishing and, for post-war Western Europe, unique policy of official, and officially endorsed, vilification of and discrimination against certain of these groups including the Jehovah's Witnesses and, most particularly, the Church of Scientology." 1997-APR: Tal Pechner is the author of "History of Zionism and the Holocaust", and was a Holocaust lecturer at the Yad-Vashem Museum of the Holocaust. She issued a study which found "persuasive documentation of human rights abuses" in Germany against Scientologists and non-traditional Christian groups.

She noted "ouster and banning from political parties, jobs, banks, schools and civic organizations." She urged fellow Jews to turn their "subjective rage of 'Never Again'" into action in defense of religious freedom. 1997-JUN: The Interior Ministry of the German federal government announced that it considers the Church of Scientology to be a threat to the state. It has placed members of the Church of Scientology under surveillance. 1998-AUG: In the past, the German government has issued "sect filters" to companies. These are forms which help determine the religious affiliation of employees. Many companies require their employees to declare that they are not a member of the Church of Scientology, nor have they studied the works of L. Rod Hubbard. In addition to the above, the Helsinki Commission, Congressional Arts Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have independently expressed their concerns. Within Germany, the Cooperation of Christian Lawyers and Legal Advisors has warned that "religious freedom is in danger in Germany." We have been unsuccessful in obtaining information on the response of the German government to this groundswell of concern by human rights groups and others. We are actively seeking such information.

German Secret Police and "Otto D." Germany's Interior Minister, Manfred Kanther, announced in 1997-JUN that "All means available to the state" will be used to monitor Scientology's 30,000 members in that country, because the government believes that the church is a threat to democracy. Counterintelligence agents will be used. He did not say how the Church threatens the democratic processes. The Church of Scientology International filed complaints with the United Nations High Commissioner, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. They expected to file additional complaints with other international civil rights watchdog agencies. Meanwhile, Switzerland announced that they had found no legal basis to justify the surveillance of church members. Otto D. is a police officer in Germany. He seems to have been in line for a promotion, when an unsigned letter came to the attention of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution (OPC). The letter claimed that Otto was a leading member of the Scientology church in Berlin. The secret police raided his house, but found nothing. Otto was suspended from work.

The OPC then tried on multiple occasions to bribe a part-time employee of the Church of Scientology in Switzerland. They offered $5,000 DM. The OPC hoped that they could gain access to Scientology membership records and prove that Otto was a Scientologist. The German branch of Scientology denies that Otto was ever a member. He has counterattacked with both civil and criminal law suits. He indicates the he is not a Scientologist; he said that he does not have a religious faith, although he is tolerant of all. He comes from a long line of persecuted individuals. His mother was Jewish; many of her relatives were exterminated in concentration camps. These developments caused a minor international incident between Germany and Switzerland. It is ironic that the OPC's role is to protect the constitution, is apparently committing unconstitutional acts when investigating Scientologists. They have been unable to bring charges against any Scientologist for any criminal act after over a year of investigation. The European Journey for Religious Freedom The Foundation for Religious Tolerance, a Scientology group, has promoted the European Journey - a foot race from East Grinstead, Sussex, UK to Frankfort, Germany.

It started on 1998-JUN-24 "In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." It is also intended to publicize the increasing governmental persecution being experienced by various religious minorities in some European countries. 3 Although their name, Web site's URL, and logo are similar to ours, we have no connection with that group. A total of five runners, from Canada, South Africa, Switzerland, and the US traversed about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) through 8 countries - UK, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany. They picked up additional national runners in each country who accompanied them to the border. They held celebrations at various key human rights locations, such as the International Court of Justice at the Hague; the European Parliament in Brussels; Human Rights Square in Trocagero, Paris, etc. The runners carried a "torch of freedom" and a religious freedom proclamation. The latter lists 19 human rights reports critical of the German government's persecution of religious minorities.

They have received support from various Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Raelian, Scientology and Sukio Mahikari groups, theologians, scholars, politicians, and individuals. The Journey ended at a "Rally for Truth" celebration in Frankfurt, Germany on AUG-10. This was attended by about 6,500 individuals, and was well covered in the media. A new coalition of religions was formed on AUG-11. It includes representatives from over 20 faith traditions, including Charismatic Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. The next day, leaders of the Islamic Association of German-Speaking Muslims, Central Community for Orthodox Judaism in Germany, German Sikh Community, Unification Church in Germany, and the Church of Scientology in Germany announced the formation of an Interreligious Coalition to fight religious discrimination in Germany

Question: What is legally classified as a religion in the United States, a cult in France, and a business in Switzerland?
Answer: Scientology