Resolution of the French
National Federation of Free Thought (FNLP)
2013-01-21
On various occasions, the French National Federation of Free Thought solemnly and firmly reasserts its position on the issue of the sects.
No one, not even the commissions in Parliament that have dealt with the problem, can establish a legal definition of a “sect” in relation with “big” religions. No one can define where the former begins and where the latter finishes. The opposite is also true.
Obviously, the current debate and confrontation that we are witnessing in France, in Europe and across all the continents, is marked by the desire of big monotheistic religions, notably the Roman Catholic Church, to preserve their market-shares in the irrational.
Consequently, concerning the Free Though, there could be no question to assist the big religious supermarkets in their fight against the small retailers of amateur esotericism.
Against any emergency regulation!
That is why the National Federation of Free Thought is firmly opposed to any emergency regulation against the “sects”. Any emergency legal status is contradictory with republican equality, democracy and freedom of expression and organisation.
It appears that most of the “sects” as well as their members are harmless and do not represent a danger for the faithful, as it is mentioned in a number of Parliament reports. In some cases, this is not true, and among other things, financial embezzling and violence against individuals’ rights and dignity have been reported, just like what sometimes occurs in the “big” religions.
Besides, the Civil Code and the Penal Code provide enough juridical resources to bring to Justice and punish for their criminal acts the perpetrators of those crimes.
Also, it is only normal that the civil servants, who work on the survey of sects in order to prevent any drifting which could be harmful to citizens, should be granted a protection status in their duties, like any other civil servants.
The US spiritual and armed wing
If the question of sects is less crucial in France than in some other continents, it seems that they are often the instrument of great financial and state powers. How can’t we see that the “evangelists” are the armed wing of the USA in Latin American and in Africa? Those sects are the religious auxiliary of the bank safe and the international bodies in its service. They seek to dislodge the former colonial powers from the positions which cast a shadow on US interests.
The recent change in the positions concerning the December 9th, 1905 Law of Separation between the Churches and the State in the Protestant Federation of France has been caused by the increasing presence of evangelists within this Federation. Although Protestants, an oppressed religion in France, had supported the Separation, today, under the Evangelists’ rule, the Protestant Federation of France demands an amendment to the Law of December 9th, 1905.
For the National Federation of Free Thought, there is no need to make a difference between “sects” and “religions”. Secularism in Education and in the State, safeguarded by the 1905 Law concerning the Separation of the Churches and the State should be applied to all, without difference or accommodation.
That is how republican equality will safeguard democracy for all and to the detriment of no one.
