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By Kent Larsen
Proposed French Law Calls Mormons 'Dangerous Cult'
PARIS, FRANCE -- A proposed law that is expected to pass France's
parliament this week would classify Mormons as a "Dangerous Cult" and
subject missionaries to criminal penalties for "mental manipulation."
The controversial law has been attacked by even mainstream churches
not on the law's list of "dangerous cults" and civil liberties
advocates, who worry that the law will diminish religious freedom in
France and discourage proselyting.
The proposed law contains two main provisions. First, it would make
it a crime to engage in "mental manipulation," a term the law's
opponents consider too vague and open to interpretation, in spite of
the legislature's attempt to tone down that provision this past
month. Second, the proposed law would allow judges to dissolve
religious organizations whose leaders are convicted of two or more
criminal offenses. Other provisions ban sects from advertising and
prohibit them from opening missions or soliciting members near
schools, hospitals or retirement homes.
The law's opponents cover a wide variety of activists, religious
leaders and government officials. The interreligious Institute on
Religion and Foreign Policy, based in Washington DC, opposes the
legislation. Its president, Joseph Grieboski, says the law is part of
a disturbing trend. "This is a very dangerous piece of legislation.
It's also our concern that this legislation is not just an
infringement on religious freedoms in France. It sets a very bad
model in places like Eastern Europe and Russia when a state like
France, a liberal, democratic bastion, infringes on the free
expression of religious belief."
Former (until last week) US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
called the proposed law "a danger to freedom of religion." "The
proposed legislation is part of a disturbing trend in western Europe
where some states have adopted or are considering discriminatory
legislation or policies that tend to stigmatize legitimate
expressions of religious faith by wrongfully associating them with
dangerous `sects or cults,' " wrote Albright in a letter to American
religious leaders.
The law is, in part, a response to a French government report that
classified 173 groups as 'dangerous cults.' The list includes
Mormons, Unificationists, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of
Scientology. "This places these 173 groups on the list in a position
to be direct targets of the government," says the Institute on
Religion and Foreign Policy's Grieboski. "We're concerned about their
ability to exercise their religious freedom, but we're also worried
about the long-term extrapolation that could also target more
mainstream groups."
But the law's supporters say that it is a reasoned approach for the
French government to protect its citizens from those that use
religion to prey on their emotional needs. Member of the French
National Assembly Catherine Picard, one of the bill's authors, says
that existing law is "inadequate to deal with increasingly
sophisticated and manipulative groups. The law is a response to the
evolution of society and the growing importance that sects have in
it."
Source:
Mainstream religions fear impact of law
Palm Beach FL Post 28Jan01 T1
By Bert Roughton Jr.: Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
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