GERMANY: State-funded Lutheran Church’s “Sect Filters” for school teachers
You should state you have not attended events of, or sympathize with, Scientology, Jehovah’s Witnesses, “Moonies,” “Hare Krishna,” or Universal Life (other religions are not mentioned).
By Massimo Introvigne
Bitter Winter (11.10.2023) – “Bitter Winter” has denounced in the past the discriminatory practice of “sect filters”—now an expression in common use in English, although “cult filters” would be a more accurate translation—used by certain institutions in Germany. While Scientology is not banned in Germany, those who want to be hired for certain public and private jobs, or obtain state benefits, including subsidies to buy ecological electrical bikes, should declare that they are not Scientologists, have not taken Scientology courses, and do not support the ideas of Scientology. Courts of law in Germany have occasionally recognized the discriminatory nature of these “filters,” which should look obvious to anybody who reads them, but so far have not banned the practice altogether.
It seems that “sect filters” are now being extended to religious minorities other than Scientology. Every länder (state) in Germany offers religious instruction in public schools. Religious communities with Public Law Corporation status (or those without such status that have entered into agreement with the states) appoint religion teachers. The länder pays the teachers’ salaries and supervise them.
One such state-supported churches offering religious instruction in schools is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria. A “sect filter” statement by its Munich School Department now includes the usual questions about Scientology and the ideas of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, but also wants to know whether applicants have had anything to do with other “cults” singling out the “Hare Krishna” (i.e., the International Society for Krishna Consciousness), “Moon” (by which they mean the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, once known as Unification Church, and perhaps other groups based on the teachings of the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon), the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Universal Life (a German new religious movement founded by Gabriele Wittek).
A translation of the application reads as follows:
“On the occasion of my application for employment, I answer the following questions:
A)
1) Do you have or have you had any relations with cults or other religious associations (e.g. Hare Krishna, Moon, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Universal Life) in the last twelve months?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)
2) In the last three years, did you or do you participate in events, courses, trainings, seminars or the like with the above-mentioned groups?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)
3) Do you support the above mentioned groups ideally, financially or in any other way?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)
B)
1) Do you have any business or other relationships (e.g., volunteer or employee, member of an association, holder of a contractual right to use the technology of the founder of the Scientology organization, L. Ron Hubbard) with an organization that, to your knowledge, uses or distributes the technology of L. Ron Hubbard or operates according to these methods? (The term ‘organization’ includes all organizations, groups and institutions of the Scientology organization, i.e. also, for example, those that are active in the social and economic field or in the educational field).
__No
__Yes, namely (more detailed designation)
2) Are you subject to the directives of an organization that uses or distributes Hubbard’s technology?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)
3) In the last three years, have you attended or are you attending any events, courses, trainings, seminars, etc. with the above-mentioned groups that use or disseminate the technology of L. Ron Hubbard or work according to these methods, or have you registered for future events and similar?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)
4) Do you support the above mentioned groups ideally, financially, or in any other way?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)
5) Do you work according to the methods of L. Ron Hubbard or have you been trained according to these methods?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify).”
In this strange document, even participating in an event without being a member of the targeted minority religion is ground to be refused employment. In fact, applicants should disclose their inner thoughts, where perhaps lies hidden an “ideal support” for a “bad” religion even if not accompanied by any participation in its events.
Obviously, it is part of the religious freedom of the Evangelical Lutheran Church to make sure that those who teach its religion on its behalf in public schools share its theology. It would be normal to interview them and make sure they adhere to Lutheran theology rather than, say, its Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu counterparts, or any other different belief or religion.
The “sect filter,” however, is something different. It doesn’t ask whether the candidate teacher has attended a Catholic or Buddhist event but only singles out certain “cults.” As such, it introduces an unacceptable invasion of the candidates’ privacy and discrimination, one we may suspect is needed because the teachers are paid by the state and all state-supported activities and jobs in Bavaria should be performed only by those who have passed through the “sect filters.” Remember the electrical bikes.
****************************
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNSectUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
Photo: The Evangelical Lutheran Deanery in Munich, which hosts the School Department. Source: Evangelical Lutheran Deanery, Munich.