[CBS 2]
Germany could be asked to ban the U.S.-based Church of Scientology under a Hamburg security official’s proposal that contends the group violates human rights. Hamburg’s secretary of the interior, Udo Nagel, plans to seek a nationwide ban of Scientology at this week’s meeting of top German security officials, spokeswoman Ulrike Sweden said Monday.
The German government considers Scientology a commercial enterprise that takes advantage of vulnerable people. During the summer, it initially refused to allow the producers of a movie starring Scientology member Tom Cruise as Germany’s most famous anti-Hitler plotter to film at the site where the hero was executed, although it did not expressly state Scientology as its reason.
Read about it here.
[From me]
Sounds like a prudent plan. Scientology is a cult. They worship themselves and their money. They encourage people to stay away from Psychology and the milk people of money. Maybe the US could follow Germany. No, our government has no guts to make the right decision and protect people from predators.
What do you think?
How would you make a legal distinction between a bona-fide religion and a fraudulent one?
This is a sticky one, Kevin. I’d have no problem with the gov’t determining that a church of this type not receive tax-free status due to the commerical nature of its’ operations, but I’m not for the U.S. Gov’t banning religion on the basis of their beliefs, no matter how kooky. Once that precedence is set, it’s only a matter of time before whoever is in power determines that WE are the ‘kooky’ religious wackos and our corporate existence is banned.
I’m a firm believer in freedom of speech and religion. As such, I also belief the best way to address incorrect speech (and religion) is through exercising OUR right to to express our beliefs.
Just my $.02 worth of thoughts . . .
i think darryl has it right. once the US gov’t has banned one religion no matter how ridiculous it may seem in our eyes – there would not be much stopping people from trying to ban christianity.
think about this – christianity has historically thrived when it has been illegal. would the same thing happen with scientology?
that may be ridiculous and if it is – i fall back on the first thing i said.
Seems like a short step to some sort of licensing for government approved religious groups in Germany.
One man’s predator is another man’s senior pastor.
While I don’t expect any bans by the US on any religious persuasion, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some property ordinances. Something designed to prevent churches to purchase prime real estate that would produce significant revenue if a church weren’t sitting on it.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see something on the local level designed to curb the proliferation of “church starts”. Every Tom, Dick and Harry that can’t get along with anybody decides to start his own church, buy valuable real estate and build a big tax shelter on it.
It might also be interesting to see if states could avoid commerce clause problems by trying to curb southerners from flocking to the north to start more churches, perhaps some sort of ordinance to prevent out of staters from coming in to pray (prey?) upon the local folks.
Right, do you really want the government determining what is and is not a valid religion?
I think it is govt getting bigger – what if a lawmaker is offended by the cross or Bible, does it make it right to ban Christianity then?
I for one am thankful for the first amendment to our constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”
I’m pretty sure I want it to stay that way. There are lots of religions that I wish would disappear, but I don’t want others (who may not know the difference) to be judging what is or is not a cult.
Definitely not the thing we’d want America doing. It may be headed that way, but freedom of religion is a good thing. Even God doesn’t force us to believe Him. Many would say evangelical Christianity is cult-like, too, and predatory. And, many aspects of today’s Church could be called prejudiced, hate-filled, etc., for some of its stances. Be careful what you ask for…
I think Americans should start by banning Tom Cruise. Although, “Top Gun” was one COOL movie!!
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