Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution as an Instrument for Character Assassination
It requires only that willingness to look. In the United States,
the Internal Revenue Service and the Church of Scientology had been “at
war” for four decades. Finally, Church officials and IRS officials
agreed to dialogue, and for two years the IRS scrutinized the Church's
beliefs and activities. According to IRS officials, their examination
of the Church of Scientology was the most thorough of any in the IRS's
history. At its end, the IRS had the evidence it needed to declare that
the Church of Scientology and its affiliated social betterment
organizations are “organized and operated exclusively for religious and
charitable purposes.”
In its representations to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Germany's diplomatic delegation has strenously asserted that dialogue is its government's favored means of resolving differences. In March 1999, the OSCE called upon governments to dialogue with religious communities and to develop mechanisms for consultation and public debate. In other words, everyone agrees that dialogue be used to resolve misunderstandings that might otherwise lead to discrimination or persecution. It is time to use it here.