Cultic Studies Journal
Psychological Manipulation and Society
Vol. 9, No. 1, 1992

2/8

The Council of Europe's Report  on Sects and New Religious Movements

1. Introductory Remarks

Should this report have been called "freedom of religion" or "sects and new religious movements"?

The two motions for recommendations which provided the report with its starting point were headed "freedom of religion," but they both concerned sects. We shall see, in fact, that the two things are closely linked.

Andre Malraux's famous phrase, "The 21st century will be spiritual, or it will be nothing," is proving prophetic. As the 21st century approaches, sects are proliferating, while the fundamentalist tendencies inherent in all religions are growing stronger. The phenomenon may not be a new one, but it is growing and spreading internationally in a way which has often brought it to the headlines. Very recently, indeed, sects were reported to be threatening the very basis of government in Latin America.

Sociologists and churchmen who have looked at the reasons for the trend have come up with two possible explanations which complement each other:

1. firstly, there is a waning of interest in and support for churches of the traditional kind, which are blamed for failing to keep pace with social trends, losing their purity, and shedding their mystery, thus leaving a yawning gap in the field of spiritual quest;
2. secondly, secular alternatives to religion have not been properly considered, and this has left an ethical void.

These two explanations may be put in a nutshell by saying that sects have taken advantage of the vacuum left by waning interest in the traditional institutions which once answered the great questions of existence.

Before we look at the problem in more depth, some preliminary points should be clarified.

The Rapporteur has deliberately chosen not to provide a list of sects, or to name and describe some of the best known. Lists of this kind can easily be found in published sources, such as the Vivien report, Sects in France: Expressions of Moral Freedom or Means of Manipulation?, prepared for the French Prime Minister in 1985. Most sects are actually found in many countries, since the phenomenon undeniably has an international dimension.

Similarly, he has chosen not to describe the activities of these sects or the abuses of which some of them are accused, which are detailed in the Cottrell report presented to the European Parliament (doc. 1-47/84).

At one stage, it was also suggested that a hearing of representatives of sects might be organized. This would have spared the Assembly the criticism levelled at Mr. Alain Vivien, namely, that he had derived his information solely from the Ministry of the Interior, anti-sect groups, and former members of sects and had not interviewed representatives of the various well-known movements. It would have also met the wishes of the sects themselves.

Various problems would, however, have arisen. It might have seemed that anti-sect movements should be heard to balance the hearing of sects. Above all, what sects should have been invited? Any choice would have been arbitrary, since there were no obvious criteria for making it: membership, public impact, controversies generated? There was a real danger of providing a platform for sects already well equipped to publicize themselves, which would have lost no time in making use of the "recognition" thus accorded them by the Council of Europe. Indeed, the Council of Europe's name is already being used by some such movements.

Finally and above all, your Rapporteur thought it unlikely that a hearing of this kind would have thrown much additional light on the phenomenon.

This was why two experts specializing in the question were called in: Mr. Francis Messner, lecturer at the CNRS (France) (doc. AS/Jur (41) 9), and Mr. Alan Tyrrell, Queen's Counsel at Gray's Inn and S.H. Hancox, barrister of the Inner Temple, London (doc. AS/Jur (41) 4).

The present report is based on their two reports and on replies to a questionnaire sent to all the delegations on the legal situation of sects in member states and the case-law to which they have given rise.

2. Aim of the Report

In light of the above and considering that he had all the information which he needed, the Rapporteur wishes to help to calm the debate and to make a number of practical proposals which, without being spectacular, should open the way to solutions.

His problem was that of deciding whether special legislation was needed to regulate the activities of sects or indeed, as some people would certainly like, to prohibit them.

We shall see why this approach cannot be recommended.

3. What is a Sect?

The Robert French dictionary gives the following definition: "An organized group of people sharing the same doctrine within a religion," as well as a more up-to-date definition: "A group with a religious or mystical basis whose members live in a community under the psychological influence of one or more persons."

A study carried out in the Netherlands ("Overheid en nieuwe religieuse bewegingen") offers the following description:

a group of people which has recently emerged in the spiritual field, characterized either by a leader or by religious conceptions or by a particular form of behavior as a group or by a combination of these aspects.

This study went on to distinguish three types of movement: oriental, evangelical, and syncretic.

Alain Vivien, in his report, began by emphasizing the difficulty, indeed the impossibility, of defining sects. He nonetheless drew a distinction between splinter groups of the major religions and groups or associations of a philosophical, spiritualist, or mental development type, dividing them into three categories which overlapped with those previously mentioned, namely, orientalist, syncretical, and racist.

In other words, there is no generally accepted definition of the term sect. Most sects themselves object to this designation, which has acquired pejorative connotations, and prefer the term new religious movement, or even religion. Be this as it may, and with all due respect to those who deny the existence of any connection between sects and religions, any attempt at definition makes it clear that there is indeed a link.

4. Is a Sect a Religion?

First of all, what is a religion?

Professor Jacques Robert, who had the task of summing up the Parmer Seminar of New Religious Movements (9-11 May 1988), did not think it possible to give a legal definition of religion, any more than of sects.

He did try, however, to list their essential components. Religion, he said, consisted of two elements:

one objective: the existence of a community, a legal entity, or a collective phenomenon;

the other subjective: faith.

To characterize religious belief, he selected the following criteria:

reliance on divinity, a supernatural power;

possibly, therapeutic value;

the promise of happiness;

a certainty.

In legal terms, the courts see then constituent elements of religion as permanent ministers, a rite, a liturgy, and a comprehensive and supernatural explanation of the world.

The Robert French dictionary offers the following definition: "Recognition by man of a superior power or principle on which his destiny depends and to which obedience and respect are due: intellectual and moral attitude which results from that belief, in conformity with a social model which may constitute a rule of life." It must be said that some of the constituents of religion recur in any attempt to define a sect, and some people who are fond of pithy formulas even say that religions are merely sects which have succeeded.

We shall see that national legal systems confirm this approach.

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