Worldwide Religious News
France has a government agency called the Miviludes, unique in Western countries, whose job it is to track and counter those religious and other groups it considers as being sects. Miviludes is an acronym of the French phrase ‘Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires, i.e. ‘Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviancy.’A sect is defined here as being any religious organisation which can be characterised as employing any of the following methods;
Mental destabilisation, exorbitant financial demands, a rupture with members’ original environment, power in the hands of one person, the invasion of a person’s physical integrity, the recruitment of children, antisocial preaching and troubling public order, activities which lead it to be tried in a court of law, using parallel economic structures, attempts to infiltrate the workplace, schools, and public powers.
These and other organisations are said to be acting as front organisations for various religions, who do not have UN accredited presence. Most notable amongst them is the Church of Scientology, which has launched several attacks on the Mivilitudes, notably by using the US State Department’s clout at the UN. The Scientology Internet site logo looks very much like the UN logo and the Church presents itself as being ‘Associated with the UN Department of Public Information.’
France has a government agency called the Miviludes, unique in Western countries, whose job it is to track and counter those religious and other groups it considers as being sects. Miviludes is an acronym of the French phrase ‘Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires, i.e. ‘Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviancy.’A sect is defined here as being any religious organisation which can be characterised as employing any of the following methods;
Mental destabilisation, exorbitant financial demands, a rupture with members’ original environment, power in the hands of one person, the invasion of a person’s physical integrity, the recruitment of children, antisocial preaching and troubling public order, activities which lead it to be tried in a court of law, using parallel economic structures, attempts to infiltrate the workplace, schools, and public powers.
These and other organisations are said to be acting as front organisations for various religions, who do not have UN accredited presence. Most notable amongst them is the Church of Scientology, which has launched several attacks on the Mivilitudes, notably by using the US State Department’s clout at the UN. The Scientology Internet site logo looks very much like the UN logo and the Church presents itself as being ‘Associated with the UN Department of Public Information.’
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