Church of Scientology Reply to the German Government’s Defense of its Discrimination
For further information contact:
Leisa Goodman
(323) 960-3500
e-mail: humanrightsofficer@scientology.org
Church of Scientology Reply to the German Government’s Defense of its Discrimination
GERMAN GOVERNMENT: “The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Scientology’s claims that its practices are protected under religious freedom guarantees.”
FACT: The Supreme Court has made no such finding. On the contrary, both the Supreme Court and numerous decisions of U.S. courts have held that Scientology is a religion and that its beliefs and practices are protected under the First Amendment. On September 30, 1993, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit noted, after reviewing every decision on record in the U.S. and finding none that had ever concluded that Scientology was anything but a religion, that “no genuine factual issues exist to dispute [that Scientology is] a bona fide religion.”
GERMAN GOVERNMENT: A court in Italy ordered jail terms for Scientologists found guilty of criminal association.
FACT: This ruling was overturned in October 1997 by the Italian Supreme Court. The Supreme Court threw out the “criminal association” charge and fully recognized that Scientology is a religion. The Supreme Court held that the lower court had used a far too narrow and Christian-based definition of religion in evaluating the religious bona fides of Scientology.
In particular, the Supreme Court charged the lower court with using out-of-context quotes from L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion to imply a commercial motivation on the part of the Church. “Such evidences are far from having the importance that the judge attributed to them,” the Supreme Court noted. “The directives... just two out of about eight thousand signed by Hubbard—are addressed to the people in charge of the finances rather than to all the believers, so that it may not be argued... that these directives characterize and represent the doctrinary basis of the Church of Scientology.”
The Court’s finding is relevant as these same directives were used by the Federal Labor Court in Germany to justify its discredited interim decision and one of them has been quoted by the former German government.
Continued...
For further information contact:
Leisa Goodman
(323) 960-3500
e-mail: humanrightsofficer@scientology.org