EUROPE RESISTS AMERICAN RELIGIOUS CULTS
Secular society at stake
June 6, 2001
The Swiss conductor Michel Tabachnik was charged with criminal conspiracy in connection
with the Order of the Solar Temple this April in France : 71 of its members had died in
four so-called collective suicides from 1994 to 1997. The case focused attention on groups
which claim to be religious sects, but are instead engaged in money-making activities.
France is now ushering in legislation that will allow the courts to dissolve such
movements. The US administration is, however, trying to ensure their impunity on grounds
of religious freedom and supports various cults which peddle forms of new-right and
neo-conservative ideology in the name of anti-communism. by BRUNO FOUCHEREAU * Religious
cults used be regarded merely as a social phenomenon but in the last decade they have
become a major security problem. The world was shaken by the Solar Temple massacres in
1994 and 1995, the Aum Shinri Kyo gas attack in the Tokyo subway in March 1995 and the
Heaven's Gate mass suicide in Los Angeles four years later. France, Germany, Belgium and
Spain, have all strengthened legislation in response to parliamentary reports on the
dangers of cults that coerce and manipulate their followers.
Official organisations have been set up throughout Europe to monitor the spread of cults.
In 1996 France passed legislation to protect the psychologically vulnerable, and the
Jospin government established an Interministerial Mission to Combat Sects, headed by Alain
Vivien. [On 31 May France's national assembly deputies almost unanimously endorsed a bill
allowing courts to order the immediate dissolution of any movement regarded as a cult
whose members are found guilty of such existing offences as fraud, abuse of confidence,
the illegal practise of medicine or wrongful advertising. The bill must now by approved by
the senate.] In Germany, the main struggle has been with the Church of Scientology : after
a police investigation in 1997 the Federal government warned the public of its dangers and
the state of Bavaria banned Scientologists from the civil service.
With Europe hardening its position, observers expected a counter-attack from international
cults, some of which have assets of several hundred million francs in France alone. The
attack came from the United States (1). On 27 January 1997 Washington officially condemned
German measures against Scientology. A few days later the State Department's Bureau for
Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (BDHRL) (2) published its country reports on human
rights practices for 1996 : Germany came under fierce attack, joining China on the list of
states violating religious freedom.
The BDHRL report came just at the right time to support the Scientologists' campaign
against Germany, which consisted of demonstrations, ads in the international press and a
complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. The State Department issued a communiqué
to calm things down, explaining that although it was critical of Germany, it did not
endorse the Scientology campaign. That was the least the German authorities were entitled
to expect.
Congress then passed the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998. It then established
the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (Uscirf), which has a representative
in every US embassy, and the Office of International Religious Freedom within the State
Department itself. The office is headed by an ambassador-at-large, assisted by five State
Department staff. The first ambassador was Robert A Seiple, a former marine who is fond of
repeating that "human rights are universal because they are granted by God" (3).
In an interview given to a Florida newspaper, he explained how his faith sustained him
during 300 combat missions as a marines officer in the Vietnam war (4).
But Seiple was not chosen for his qualities as a soldier-monk. For 11 years he headed the
ultra-conservative World Vision Inc, the world's largest evangelical organisation. World
Vision subsidises thousands of projects in both hemispheres, and millions of people
throughout Latin America and Asia are affiliated to it (5). The first Annual Report on
International Religious Freedom, released by the BDHRL in September 1999 (6), accused
France, Germany, Austria and Belgium of violating religious freedom. The 1995 report of
the French parliamentary committee of inquiry was portrayed as blind persecution and the
French deputies were accused of practising religious segregation by drawing up a list of
innocent associations, persecuted not for illegal activities but for their religious
beliefs.
On 22 March 1999 French policy was fiercely criticised at a seminar held in Vienna by the
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (Odhir) (7) under the auspices of the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). US diplomats and congressmen
repeated and expanded on the State Department's accusations, and a diplomatic incident was
only narrowly avoided. The scene was repeated in Washington at a hearing of the Commission
on Security and Cooperation in Europe (8), where three witnesses had dreadful tales to
tell : France was reverting to the practices of the Vichy regime, the prime minister had
been indoctrinated by anti-religious movements, believers had been exposed to public
opprobrium and were losing their jobs, and children were being removed from their parents'
custody.
The commissioners' official report, released in June 1999, waxed eloquent about the danger
to fundamental freedoms in Europe (9). It accused the French government of using its tax
department as the armed branch of a latter-day Inquisition.
In response, the interministerial mission and the French foreign ministry explained that
investigations into the structure and financial flows of the Scientology organisation had
shown it to be a commercial organisation generating enormous profits. In these
circumstances the fines and penalties were fully justified. They also explained that the
Assembly's report had been drawn up with the help of legal experts, academics, specialised
police officers and associations officially recognised as being of public benefit.
Although the 180 organisations named in the report claimed to be religious, close
examination had revealed their totalitarian nature and the coercive methods they used on
their followers. The vast majority had already been sentenced by the courts.
The French authorities also tried to correct some misconceptions. They pointed out, for
example, that France was accused of refusing to recognise certain minority groups as
religions, whereas the 1905 act on the separation of church and state prevented it from
granting official recognition to any religion.
An end to dialogue
But dialogue proved fruitless. The report published on 9 September 1999 contained an even
more vehement attack on the European countries. On 8 December foreign minister Hubert
Védrine protested to Madeleine Albright : "Your administration's unwarranted
criticism of French government action at a time of ongoing dialogue between our senior
officials has cast a deep shadow over the discussions".
This put an end to diplomatic exchanges on the subject - and they have yet to resume. The
State Department's latest report, released on 2 March 2001, acknowledges the positive
aspects of the 1901 and 1905 acts and corrects a number of errors, though without
admitting it. However, it still remains highly accusatory.
Neither American history nor the US constitution fully explain the country's stubborn
support for the groups in question. The Office of International Religious Freedom is a
subordinate body of the BDHRL, which is itself attached to the State Department ; the
Commission for Religious Freedom was set up in Washington by members of Congress ; and
Uscirf reports directly to the White House. Its executive director, Steven T McFarland,
says his commission is mainly intended to act as a watch dog : its job is to ensure that
the other commissions are working along the right lines. Elsewhere, a commission set up to
monitor the work of other commissions monitoring religious freedom would probably be
described as a relic of the Soviet apparatus.
McFarland admits he has not read the French National Assembly's report. He can neither
read nor speak French, he explains. Nor has he read the reports of the interministerial
mission, the communiqués issued by the French foreign ministry, or the information notes
published by the French embassy in Washington. In fact, none of the officials of the
American commissions I was able to contact had read any of these documents in the original
or in translation. McFarland shrugs this off. For him, the information he receives from US
intelligence agencies and the US embassy in Paris, as well as academics and NGOs
complaining of intolerance by the French government, is sufficiently reliable. When shown
copies of telexes from the US embassy in Madrid (10), proving the BDHRL had intervened to
stall a Spanish magistrate's investigation of Scientology, McFarland declined to comment.
Obviously the members of the intelligence services who brief the US commissions cannot be
identified. But when the French National Assembly held a colloquium on psychological
manipulation, the US embassy, though not invited, sent two of its staff, accompanied by a
French Scientology official.
The testimony gathered by these commissions is also open to question. The man appointed by
the OCSE to chair the meeting in Vienna in March 1999 was none other than Massimo
Introvigne, an Italian self-styled sociologist and founder of the Centre for the Study of
New Religions (Cesnur). Cesnur is a Catholic fundamentalist organisation with close links
to the Brazilian neo-fascist cult Tradition Family Property. Introvigne is a frequent
contributor to Scientology publications and testified in favour of the cult in Lyons in
the case brought against its leaders by investigating magistrate Georges Fenech (11).
French lawyer Alain Garay, a defence counsel for Jehovah's Witnesses who fights their tax
battles, was also invited to Vienna and Washington. He too is a frequent contributor to
Scientology publications. Another key figure is Willy Fautré, chairman of a Belgian
organisation called Human Rights Without Frontiers. (The name does not mean it is
recognised by the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues). For many years
Fautré was a correspondent for News Network International, a large American evangelical,
anti-abortionist and fiercely anti-communist press and lobbying group. He is also a member
of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), whose reports have been
abundantly quoted by the American commissions. The IHF's Greek correspondent has
contributed to Scientology publications and its Moscow delegation has published a book
jointly with the Church of Scientology.
Finally, among the major witnesses who came forward to testify to the violations of
religious freedom orchestrated by the French government was pastor Louis DeMeo of the
Nimes Theological Institute (NTI). The NTI is part of the Greater Grace evangelical
movement, which is based in Baltimore (US). Greater Grace has over 3,000 missions in Latin
America, as well as several hundred in Africa and eastern Europe. The NTI is used to train
people for work in eastern Europe. Greater Grace, whose methods have been strongly
criticised even in the US, is a fellow traveller of Scientology.
Helping the victims
Stacy Brooks is president of the Lisa McPherson Trust (12), the main American organisation
set up to help victims of Scientology. She was herself a Scientologist for 15 years. She
was also secretary to David Miscavige, Ron Hubbard's successor and current Scientology
guru. Brooks clearly recalls Reverend George Robertson, who runs Greater Grace with a rod
of iron : "He's in close touch with the leaders of Scientology. When the
Scientologists are loath to intervene on certain matters that might damage their image,
they get Robertson to do it. He's their main mouthpiece in the evangelical movement."
The Cult Awareness Network was once the main support organisation for victims of religious
cults. It was founded in the 1970s. Greater Grace and the Church of Scientology set out
together to bankrupt it by lawsuits. Then they bought up its logo and license agreement in
the federal bankruptcy court (13).
There is another reason for the influence of Scientology and its followers in the US. In
October 1993 the all-powerful US Internal Revenue Service granted the sect full tax
exemption as a bona fide religion, after doggedly refusing to do so for 25 years - a
refusal that had been backed by all the American courts right up to the Supreme Court. The
IRS turnabout saved the Church of Scientology tens of millions of dollars and gave it an
extraordinary public relations tool by opening the doors of the American administration.
The full story behind the reversal was revealed four years later in the New York Times
(14). Scientology had waged an all-out war on the tax authorities. At one time the cult
and its members had more than 50 lawsuits pending against the IRS. But it did not stop at
lawsuits ; it also hired detectives to dig up the dirt on top IRS officials. One of them
told the New York Times he had worked for Scientology for 18 months from 1990 to 1992.
From his Maryland office he had gathered information on officials who missed meetings,
drank too much or had extra-marital relations. On express instructions from the IRS
commissioner, the Church of Scientology was granted religious status by a special decision
that circumvented the usual procedures.
But annual profits of $300m, infiltration and intimidation techniques, and recognition by
the IRS are not enough for Scientology. It has other methods of consolidating its
influence at the highest levels of the American state. Stephen A Kent, a professor of
sociology at the University of Alberta, Canada, has studied the Washington lobbying
strategy of religious groups and cults in great detail. He has shown how Scientology, like
Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, mounts major public relations campaigns directed at
members of Congress and the White House. Scientology organisations paid $725,000 to a
public relations firm specialising in political lobbying in 1996 and 1997, plus a further
$420,000 in 1998.
Scientologists in the movie business contributed over $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's Senate
election campaign fund. Tom Cruise personally donated $5,000 to Al Gore's campaign. A
group headed by John Travolta organised a gala dinner to raise funds for the Democrats.
The tickets cost $25,000 each. One Scientology lawyer gave $20,000 to the Democrats'
election campaign, while a group of 10 Californian Scientologists including Craig Jensen,
corporate executive officer of Executive Software, donated a total of $7,400 to the
campaign fund of Representative Benjamin A Gilman, chairm of the House International
Relations Committee (16).
Joining forces
The Moon sect, which owns one of the main US dailies, the highly conservative Washington
Times, gave Hillary Clinton space for a weekly personal column. Countless congressmen are
subsidised by Moon, and two US presidents, Bush senior and Gerald Ford, regularly attended
conferences organised by the Unification Church. Scientologists and Moonies soon came to
an arrangement. Since the mid-1990s they have been conducting joint campaigns for
religious freedom in Europe and the US.
A series of letters between Scientology and Moon leaders published on the internet
revealed that their activities in eastern Europe were jointly planned and coordinated. The
Scientology-Moon coalition, supported formally or informally by other sects, is similar to
the partnership between Scientology and Greater Grace. It is now receiving support from
American religious fundamentalist groups. The members of the Institute on Religion and
Public Policy (17), warmly recommended by the State Department, include ultra-conservative
congressmen, Moonies and cult guru Sri Chinmoy. This institute has set up shop a few
blocks away from the White House and openly campaigns for the rights of Scientology, the
Moon sect, and other "minority religions" in Europe.
The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), which has existed for over 20 years and
given birth to tens of thousands of Protestant fundamentalist missions throughout the
world, has been a zealous supporter of Reagan and Bush (father and son). This
ultra-conservative, gay-bashing, anti-abortionist organisation has now joined the chorus
of France's critics. According to its president, Diane L Knippers, "France is a model
for other European democracies. It is imperative that it abandon its anti-religious policy
and once again guarantee freedom of religion". In her eagerness to explain, however,
she unwittingly reveals the nature of her concern for the assortment of heterogeneous
cults whose freedom she is defending : "What makes us stand up for religious freedom
today is the same thing that made us fight communism. Human society cannot prosper on a
bed of lies. And atheism and communism only breed lies. Spirituality is the guarantee of
civilisation, because spirituality and faith make people honest. Without honesty there can
be no trade, and without trade there can be no civilisation."
This campaign for "spirituality" throughout the world is actively linked with
the lobbies seeking to impose American values through globalisation. As the IRD has made
clear on several occasions, globalisation is a mission inspired by the Bible. This amalgam
of mysticism and imperialism is a concept to which all American fundamentalist and
evangelical groups subscribe. And it is in the forefront of the minds of those who claim
to be defending religious freedom. John R Bolton, for example, a member of Uscirf, was
formerly vice-president of the American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research, a
militant free-market group. He was one of Bush senior's chief international trade
advisors. According to Nina Shea, a member of the same commission, "our main aim is
to establish the new liberal order throughout the world".
The strategy of global domination, and the machinery for achieving it, were put in place
in the early 1980s by the Reagan administration. The struggle has now reached its peak
with the drive to globalise legislation - an attempt to put the finishing touches on
globalisation of the world market. But resistance is emerging in many quarters. France,
for example, has taken the lead in the fight against globalisation of education. Here,
cults and media giants have a common enemy in the widespread European ideology of
secularism, of which France is the historical crucible. The onslaught on France's
anti-sect legislation is a direct attack on the secularism of the French state.
The religious cults have much to gain. If they can penetrate the European education system
and establish schools that are free from all state control, as in the US, they will expand
and consolidate their membership, since recruitment will become an integral part of the
cultural and psychological development of the individuals under their influence. It would
be an exaggeration to describe the cults' links with the communications industry as a
common front - their actions are not part of a jointly defined strategy or directed by a
unified general staff. Still, there is a striking overlap of personnel. The links between
ABC, CNN, etc. and the American religious fundamentalist lobbies are no secret, and nor is
their total commitment to the ruling ideology.
Daniel Ichbia, Bill Gates' first biographer, was a Scientologist. And so is Craig Jensen,
one of Gates' closest collaborators. One of the main firms in the Microsoft empire,
Executive Software, officially declares itself Scientologist. Big Brother is just behind
the screen.
* Journalist, author of La Mafia des sectes, Filipacchi, Paris, 1996.
(1) This is not surprising, since 90% of sects are of American origin or based in the US.
(2) The BDHRL, established in 1990, has links with all the US intelligence agencies. Its
official remit is to assess the degree of freedom and democracy in all countries. It
reports to the government and feeds information to the House of Representatives and the
Senate.
(3) Interview with the author.
(4) The Naples Daily News, 28 January 1999, quoted by Stephen A Kent in "Consultation
on Religious Persecutions as a US Policy Issue", Trinity College, Hartford,
Connecticut.
(5) See World Vision magazine, December 1991, page 14, and the Interhemispheric Resource
Center's file on World Vision at http://www.pir.org/gw/
(6) The Commission's reports are available on the US State Department website at
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt/
(7) Odihr, an office of the OSCE, was first established in 1990 as the Office for Free
Elections under the Charter of Paris to monitor elections in Europe. In 1994 the Budapest
Summit extended its mandate to respect for the human dimension in democratic institutions
and to conflict prevention. Under the influence of US senators Dennis De Concini and
Alphonse d'Amato, Odihr is particularly concerned with religious freedom issues.
(8) An independent agency of the US government charged with monitoring and encouraging
compliance with the commitments of the 55 countries belonging to the OSCE.
(9) Religious Freedom in Western Europe : Religious Minorities and Growing Government
Intolerance, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 8 June 1999, accessible at
http://www.csce.gov/
(10) These documents are accessible at http://parishioner.org/spain.html
(11) In 1996, 23 members of the Church of Scientology were brought to trial, in connection
with the suicide of another member, on charges ranging from manslaughter to embezzlement.
The trial was the culmination of a five-year investigation by examining magistrate Georges
Fenech, who took the opportunity to expose the workings of Scientology inside and outside
France.
(12) For information about this organisation see http://lisatrust.bogie.nl/
(13) See Los Angeles Times, 9 September 1999.
(14) See Douglas Frantz, "Scientology's Puzzling Journey From Tax Rebel to Tax
Exempt", The New York Times, 9 March 1997.
(15) Stephen A Kent, " The French and German versus American Debate over 'New
Religions', Scientology, and Human Rights", Marburg Journal of Religion, Vol. 6, No.
1, January 2001, accessible at http://www.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr
(16) Ibid.
(17) See their website at http://www.religionandpolicy.org/
Translated by Barry Smerin |
