Germany discovers a dangerous religion that has been imported within its borders and sets about suppressing it

Guess which religion it is. Go on, guess.

James F. writes:

A friend recommended VFR and I have been reading through the articles the past few days. A very incisive website!

If I may, allow me to bring up an issue I came across today. In a thread awhile back, you and your correspondents discussed the heavy-handed approach taken by the European community with regards to Darwinism and the teaching of alternative theories. Some comments were made concerning the “totalitarian” spirit displayed by the European commissioners, brooking no opposition to the advancement of Darwinism in schools.

Now comes this:

“Germany’s top security officials said Friday they consider the goals of the Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation’s constitution and will seek to ban the organization.”

Now I am not a fan of Scientology—in fact I regard it as fraudulent. But what amazed me was that this organization was deemed “to be in conflict with the principles of the nation’s constitution.” Now I’m not sure what the German officials mean that Scientology conflicts with the aims of the nation. It exists in the U.S. and has never been judged to be subversive to the state or traiterous to the government. So I’m assuming that Germany has problems with Scientology’s religious ideology since it has never made militaristic statements against the state.

A German official goes on to say: “It threatens the peaceful democratic order of the country.”

I have difficulty comprehending this statement because Scientology does not view itself as a political order running a parallel form of government. Nor does it gather together individuals and groups into geographic communities that form any sort of self-governing bodies. So how is it a threat to the “democratic order” of Germany?

“The ministers, as well as federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, ‘consider Scientology to be an organization that is not compatible with the constitution,’ said Berlin Interior Minister Ehrhart Koerting.”

It is not “compatible with the constitution”—how does an apolitical organization infringe on the political principles enunciated in a civil document? Scientology has never been evaluated to transgress any American civic or political principles. Yet Germany finds it to be so.

It appears to me that the German political order considers its constitution to infuse society with spiritual values and that a religion or an organization’s spiritual values may indeed transgress the government’s political rule. Is not this dangerous, in fact lethal, when spirit and state conflate to become one? The liberal rule of government becomes the liberal rule of social and personal values (spirit).

I first became aware of Germany’s intrusion into personal life when I heard that its government has come down hard on home-schooling. Then the move to make Darwinism the sole official explanation of the origin of life. And now this.

Frightening where the liberal order is heading. Once again I have no regard or fondness for Scientology, but the implications of this move by the German government is mind-boggling. To think that we liberated Europe and the Germans from Nazism and now this? Sad.

LA replies:

Thank you for writing. Personally, I’m embarrassed to say that I know next to nothing about Scientology, there was nothing about it that caught my interest. It just seems like another spiritual-psychological cult, of which there are so many. So I share your amazement that the German government would single it out as incompatible with the German constitution.

Of course, they don’t consider Islam incompatible with the German constitution—which it really is.

Could this be another instance of what the late Samuel Francis called anarcho-tyranny? Liberal society, he said, does not exert authority against the real misbehaviors that ought to be suppressed and punished. But in order to be seen as having SOME moral standards, the liberal authorities must clamp down on SOMETHING, so they go after things like smoking. They allow and promote the massive moral decay of society, but they make a holy cause out of prohibiting smoking.

Perhaps something similar is happening here. They are not banning Islam from their society, which is the thing they really need to ban. But they feel the need to show that they are not completely without standards, that they are “strong” about something. So they ban … Scientology.

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Alan Roebuck writes:

Scientology is a cult both in the sense that it is a false religion (denying the divinity, words and works of Christ) and that it is a small religion with very unusual practices. Scientology is infamous in the world of Christian apologetics for its strong-arm tactics against its critics, including the effective use of lawsuits. Consider this quote from Wikipedia:

The Cult Awareness Network famously received more complaints concerning Scientology than any other group, and therefore listed them at the top of their cult list. Until they went into bankruptsy [sic] from suits initiated by Scientology, and were then bought out by Scientology, who now operates the new Cult Awareness Network as a promotional arm of the church.

I don’t know any of the details of why the German government has it in for the Scientologists, but I would bet that someone in the government was harassed by them, and decided to fight back. Scientology’s unusually aggressive attacks on its foes, combined with the unusual degree of control that it exerts over its members, makes them a tempting target, I presume. Plus, unlike Islam, they don’t have the left to protect them.

Lilli writes from Germany:

I don’t think someone in the government was harassed by Scientologists and I don’t think it’s a kind of surrogate for banning Islam. The moral damnation of Scientology is older, it’s nothing new. On many occasions politicians have warned against Scientology before, for example:

[In June 2007] Defense Ministry spokesman Harald Kammerbauer said the film makers “will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult.”

The legal ban is only the logical result of an on-going social ban. It is based in the very teachings of Scientology, which are considered capitalistic, particularly American-style capitalistic, and therefore evil.

Germany’s soul is deeply socialistic and romantic. Yes, we are a capitalistic country but this is considered a necessary evil, we have to eat and drink and buy some luxuries (don’t we?) and nobody has invented a better system up to now. Therefore it’s practiced but it should be morally condemned in spite of that. Scientologists teach “Be successful!” “Make money!,” while a religion should teach “Be poor!” and “Be equal!” Capitalism is considered by German elites like sin is considered by sinners: “I do it for my personal reasons, but I know, it’s wrong, and it should not at all be praised by a religion.”

I think this goes back at least to the Romantic period in the 19th century and the “back to nature” ideology of Rousseau, both of which have influenced Germany deeply and persistently. Therefore Islam and the Muslim “noble savages” can count on much more sympathy than Scientologists. That’s also the reason why Germany is at the forefront of ecologism and climate alarmism. Last night we were strongly recommended to switch off the lights between 8 p.m. and five minutes past 8 p.m. in order to save the earth or at least to set an example against global warming. Even google.de showed up all in black to promote it and several castle illuminations were turned off. But there is some hope: Only very few people did it. I looked out of my window—I didn’t see a single window turning dark, and others have observed the same. Obviously people are still not quite as dumb as the elites.

LA replies:

But if the main thing that is objectionable about Scientology is that it is pro-capitalism, there are many other religions and belief systems that would be pro-capitalism and also bigger than Scientology. For example, Calvinist and evangelical Protestantism. With all the U.S. soldiers in Germany, such Protestantism must be widespread, far more than a cult like Scientology. So why should Scientology be singled out?

Comments added December 12

A. Zarkov writes:

We should congratulate German government for trying to suppress a dangerous cult. Scientology started off as “Dianetics,” the brainchild of L. Ron Hubbard, a science and pulp fiction writer. He promoted Dianetics as the “Modern Science of Mental Health,” but in reality it is little more than an elaborate confidence game based on fantastic psychological theories. I knew one of the charter members of Dianetics who quickly broke with Hubbard after he realized what was going on. He said Hubbard had a nasty habit of reporting people who disagreed with him to the FBI as Communists (this was the early 1950s). Later Dianetics morphed into the so-called Church of Scientology, a nefarious cover organization that has gained much power, wealth and influence over the last 30 years. COS will go to any lengths to stop former members from revealing the truth about the organization, including law suits and intimidation. COS will even try to buy all copies of critical books, and even stealing them from libraries. It has brought lawsuits against former members for revealing its “trade secrets.” Now can a church have “trade secrets?” Being in trade contradicts the notion of being a religion.

For many years COS sought tax exempt status from the IRS, failing every time. But with the Clinton administration it met with success. Whether they simply wore out the IRS with repeated litigation, or they corrupted the organization from the inside is a matter of debate. But something is very rotten because members of COS enjoy tax benefits denied to the members of other religions. To be specific, COS members can deduct the cost of courses, but members of other religions can’t. Someone sued over this but failed to prevail. Amazingly the Ninth Circuit Court upheld the denial of the benefit. See Sklar v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue No. 00-70753. You can read the actual decision here.

I recommend you read it because this decision is fantastic, even scary. It upholds giving a benefit to COS denied to other religions. On how this could have happened, I can only speculate. But it does seem that COS can corrupt a democracy. The Mafia can do it, why not COS?

The Clinton State Department also protested the German government’s actions with regard to COS. Now why would State go to bat for a cult organization with such a nefarious background?

I recommend you read “A Piece of Blue Sky,” a book by a former insider.

Alan Roebuck writes:

I just formed a hunch that there is something about Scientology that reminds the Germans (semi-consciously or unconsciously) of Nazism, so they react with primitive savagery, or as close to such as hollow-chested liberals can. Just a hunch.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 08, 2007 02:00 AM | Send