Mr. Chairman,
Free thinkers around the world, who work for the separation of states and religions, defend the full freedom of conscience of individuals and recognize the right to believe, not to believe or change one’s belief. They consider that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is legitimate to publicly practice the worship it deems appropriate for its theological choices, provided that it remains foreign to civil law. In particular, they do not deny him the right to practice baptism for the dead, referring to the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians – […] what would those who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are they baptized for them?” (1 Cor 15:29) – nor to believe in the eternal family forged by the indestructible sacrament of marriage. They do not challenge the company Family Search International to conduct its work.
Nevertheless, the appropriation by this society of the identity of all deceased persons whose knowledge is possible seems intolerable to the International Association of Free Thought (AILP) since it has the effect of enrolling atheists, Agnostics, deists, free thinkers or members of other religions who died in the caravan of Latter-day Saints. The IAFT is in favour of keeping civil status registers by public authorities independent of cults, and fights against all practices of this nature throughout the world, especially in Europe. Thus, she supported Thomas Borès, who was subject to the church tax against his will by the Federal Republic of Germany on the basis of a certificate of Catholic baptism even though he had repudiated that religion. Similarly, in France, many citizens who have left the Roman Church are challenging the possibility of retaining their identity, even with the mention “renounced his baptism”, in the registers of catholicity where they were registered without their consent during their minority. In view of the entry into force at EU level of a General Data Protection Regulation, one of them recently applied to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for the right to have his name removed from the register.
Therefore, although representatives or public institutions of states, even separated from cults, could have favoured the access of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Saints of the Last Days to the civil registers archived, such as for the French Republic, André Malraux in 1960, then Minister of Culture, or more recently, in 2013, the National Commission for Information Technology and Freedoms (CNIL), we ask you to limit your searches to people who practice and have practiced your religion. We inform you that the French National Federation of Free Thought (FNLP), member of the AILP, will take the CNIL and the Ministry of Culture to ask them to denounce the agreements of 1960 and 2013.
Please believe, Mr. Chairman, in the assurance of our consideration.
Christian EYSCHEN
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