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The Golden Eagle The
persecution of a minority -
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Once, Heretics Were
Fought - Even the name of Jesus of Nazareth was blackened by the caste of priests as an "enemy of Ceasar" before the Roman rulers. Since that time ecclesiastical leaders have incited the state over and over again against "heretical" movements which wanted to revive Christianity in its original form. In a similar manner to the Middle Ages, the Churches again figth new religious movements today by means of character assassination and slander. Using the example of the Original Christians in Universal Life, the author shows how certain Church representatives today attempt to destroy their "religious competition" by again inciting the state against religious minorities. The state eagle should become the golden eagle which allows itself to be trained by the Church to thrown stones at ist own citizens who just happen to have the "wrong" prayerbook...
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Current News Germany is considered a free democracy and a state under the rule of law with an outstanding constitution. A part of this is freedom of religion and ideology as an inalienable component of basic human rights. But it is the least number of people who know that this freedom should, in practice, be valid for only two groups: church members an atheists. On the other hand, all those who join together in a new religious movement - mostly consisting of former church members – are indiscriminately denounced as a “dangerous sect” by a cartel of power of church, state and press, and made outcast as lepers, even when they remain fully true to the law and the constitution. Martin Kriele, one of the leading constitution law professors of the Republic has written: “In no other free democracy is discrimination against religion and ideology so shamelessly carried out as in Germany.” This internet page indicates a book in which the years´ long persecution of the Original Christians in Universal Life are documented. Its title: “The Golden Eagle and Its Sulphurous Smell – The New Middle Ages – The Persecution of Religious Minorities in History – The Persecution of Original Christians in Universal Life." The persecution measures nevertheless continue. Their progress will be documented on this internet page. Presently a new slander campaign is rolling against the Original Christians today, above all, through the Main-Post newspaper and the Bayerischen Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting Company that are dependent on the Church.
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The Cup Is Full – |
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The Discrimination
of the
Table of contents: Universelles Leben is a religious community that has existed for some 25 years and which draws on original Christianity. Its guidelines are the Ten Commandments of Moses and the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus of Nazareth, which the community does not consider utopian but a set of practical rules of life to be applied in everyday life. The Original Christians in Universelles Leben are of the conviction that the Spirit of the Christ of God is being revealed through the prophetic word to mankind today, renewing and deepening the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth according to His announcement: “I have yet many things to say to you...” (John 16:12) These teach-ings consist above all of the Inner Path, on which a person can turn back to God by way of self-recognition and by clearing up his sinfulness. Most of the adherents of this community walk this path where they are and have lived until now, attending the religious meetings of Universelles Leben, which is represented in about 80 cities in Germany, in most large cities of Europe and overseas. About 700 followers of the community of faith, among which are seven US citizens, have joined together in the Covenant Community New Jerusalem in Universelles Leben. They live in the surroundings of Würzburg and work in the “Christ enterprises” founded by themselves, in order to actualize the Sermon on the Mount in their daily work and, at the same time, to earn their living. And so, since the mideighties, a school, two clinics, homes for the elderly, a social service agency, several artisan enterprises and farms have come into existence. As established by the highest courts in Bavaria, Universelles Leben is a religious community within the meaning of the constitution. The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and the Bavarian Ministry of Education have further repeatedly established that no doubt exists concerning the loyalty of the community towards the law and towards the constitution. As written in a report from the Bavarian Ministry of Education to the Bavarian Parliament on January 1, 1995, there are no findings to indicate “that out of the fundamental religious attitude of Universelles Leben, any attempt against the liberal and democratic fundamental order, especially against human rights, is pursued.” II. Church and state fight against new religious movements One can assess the discrimination this community has experienced in Germany only if one considers the overall situation of religious minorities in Germany: It is marked by the fact that the main churches (Meant here are the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Lutheran Churches, which as corporations under public law in Germany have a preferential status and represent a kind of state church (whose funds are collected by the state as a church tax and which is highly subsidized by the state). To avoid repetitive and unwieldy wording within this text, please note that the use of words referring to churches is always in connections with these two particular churches which we could also describe as “official” or “establishment” churches) are suffering under a growing wave of membership withdrawals, while new religious movements have a great influx of new members. The established churches reacted to this situation, among other things, with the help of clerical sect watch agents, who led a full-scale campaign – via public lectures, polemic writings, newspaper articles and media interviews – against “sects,” under which label they include practically every religious group that does not belong to their own particular camp. They cast suspicion on them, accusing them, of all things, of all those practices which one normally associates with the official churches of Germany – the claim to be the only one through which salvation is attained, totalitarian leadership, indoctrination of youth, avarice, etc. The long years of spreading suspicion and
insinuations, by the clerical sect watch agents in the role of “experts”
and “pastors” against new religious movements stigmatized by them as
“sects,” incited the public and inflamed a type of witch-hunt, which in
the meantime has been taken over by the state. For some time now, there
are not only clerical, but also governmental “sect watch agents” whose
purpose, according to the official version, is to “warn and inform.” In so
doing, the state has taken over the generalized suspicions of the clerical
sect watch agents and, just as much as the latter, have waived making any
distinctions. Occasional aberrations and abuses of individual groups are
also attributed to every other group all of which have simply been lumped
together under the general heading of “sect.” The ecclesiastical smear
campaign and its takeover by the state finally caught on with the press
and television. Ecclesiastical denigration is passed on as “expert
judgements”; and ministerial announcements are assessed as official
confirmations of such, although is more a matter of echoing the same. In
this way, a climate of public banning was created which ostracized
religious minorities from society, reminding one of the darker passages of
German history. Under these circumstances, a commission of inquiry was appointed called “So-called sects and psycho-groups.” Anything that had to do with religion and ideology was to be examined – regardless of whether a suspicion of specific danger was present or not. This appointment alone, of a comprehensive commission of investigation, mandated by the German Parliament and initiated by politicians who, at the same time, are church functionaries, was an assault on the religious freedom guaranteed by constitutional law and the constitutional order for state neutrality in matters of ideology. What intentions were to be followed by this commission became clear, at the latest, with the awareness of the composition of its membership. Numerous church representatives sat next to people who had distinguished themselves not by special training or scientific qualifications, but by vociferous polemics against “sects.” Identifiable experts were few. From the religious minorities affected were none. The proceedings were also correspondingly unfair. Despite repeated requests, those affected by the investigation were given no opportunity to state their view regarding the judgements of condemnation made by their persecutors and obtained behind their backs. It is a matter of scandalous proportions: A parliamentary forum which gives a verdict of “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to religious groups, refuses to have applied to it the most elementary principle of the law “audiatur et altera pars,” one of the fundamental components in the cultural tradition of European law. Such a thing has only been witnessed during the Middle Ages with the offices of the Inquisition which were not interested in the truth, but wanted only to condemn. The results are in accordance: The report, which in the meantime is available, gives vent to its ideological prejudice against counseling services that are not tied to the churches, speaks in general terms about the “totalitarian distribution of power” of “some groups,” so that each group immediately comes under suspicion, reports on unchecked hints from “drop-outs” and, despite all contrary endeavors, finally reached the conclusion that “no danger to government and society” is present – in order to then, in a recent turnabout, call for the institutionalization of the persecution of religious minorities: The instrument for this shall be a governmental information and documentation office. It shall “gather” material, “analyze” it and give the authorities as well as churches (!) “information” and explain to the public about “the dangers in the area of new religious and ideological communities and psycho-groups.” III. The discrimination of the Original Christians in Universelles Leben In this climate of growing intolerance and generalized condemnation of every new religious movement, Universelles Leben became the preferred target of the witch-hunt initiated by clerical sect watch agents and, in the meantime, taken over by the state. Some examples from a long series of countless acts of discrimination are as follows: 1. Denigrations as “enemies of the state” Some Original Christians in Universelles Leben practice organic farming. This type of farming is subsidized by the government of Bavaria within the framework of a state agricultural program. When the farmers, who see themselves as connected to Universelles Leben, applied for state subsidies, these were rejected on the grounds that behind their farms stood “in the end, the ideological community of Universelles Leben.” In consideration of this, the farmers had no right to claim support, as opposed to their colleagues, since the principle of equal treatment does not call upon the “state to deliver itself up to its enemies.” As grounds for this outrageous act of discrimination, reference was made to statements of a clerical sect watch agent which a court had permitted since it regarded these statements as mere “expressions of opinion.” And now, these have been flatly converted into claims of fact by the authorities. Other grounds for the assumption that the farmers were hostile to the state was the fact that another court had permitted a governmental warning to be issued to the community of faith because skepticism was expressed regarding the employment of antibiotics and vaccina-tions in an article attributed to the community. The decision which declared the followers of the community of faith were hostile to the state – in order to block the granting of public funds to them – was made available to the public by the officials concerned, thus considerably intensifying the discriminatory effects. The newspapers reported that governmental agricultural agencies held the community of faith of Universelles Leben to be a “totalitarian” organization, and the refusal to provide subsidiary funds was based on the “principle of a defensible democracy.” The principle of equality before the law does not go so far that the state “must also finance its enemies.” All of these statements took place despite better knowledge, since, as already mentioned above, the authorities of the Bavarian government responsible for the protection of the constitution do not doubt the constitutionality of the community of faith Universelles Leben. In another case, the broadcasting corporation played a decisive role via a television program in causing the ruin of an EDP (electronic data processing) firm which had been founded and run by adherents of the community of faith Universelles Leben. For ten years, the firm had been selling computer software programs from the well-known software company MediStar of Hannover to the medical profession and servicing them as well. Over 400 medical practices in Lower Franconia were counted among the firm’s customers, who regarded the experts from the firm as competent and reliable. When it became known (again through the sect watch agents of the Protestant Lutheran Church in Bavaria) that the operators of the firm were close to Universelles Leben, the weekly newspaper of Wiesbaden Medical-Tribune took the opportunity, in their edition of May 16, 1997, to bring out an article under the headline, “Can Psycho-sects snoop around in the electronic data of medical practices?” which cast suspicion of data abuse upon the EDP firm, because its operators were adherents of a “sect” which “experts hold to be just as dangerous as the infamous Scientology.” The sect watch agent who triggered the whole thing followed up with press releases and radio interviews where he further fanned the flames of public suspicion of a possible abuse of data. Finally, the Bavarian Television Station, that is, the Bavarian Public Broadcasting Corporation, took up the matter in a nationwide broadcast on July 21, 1997, which was introduced by the moderator as follows:
Upon concluding the program, a board member of the Federation of Health Insurances in Germany, Dr. Rüdiger Pötsch, was given the word in a broadcast comment:
The EDP firm during its ten-year sales and servicing work had very well proven there was not the least cause for suspicion; nevertheless, the media campaign led to the fact that the main business associate to the EDP firm, the firm MediStar, felt themselves under such public pressure that they terminated the distributorship agreement with the EDP firm. With this termi-nation of contract, the main business activity of the firm collapsed and they were forced to close down by the end of the year. With this, fourteen employees lost their jobs, and the firm itself incurred damages accruing into the millions. 3. Pilloried through governmental “warnings” The most forceful discriminatory acts on the side of the government took place in such a way that governmental offices utterly pilloried the community by “warning” the public against the community of faith: 3.1 The federal government began this in September 1993, when the parliamentary state secretary of the Federal Ministry for Women and Youth declared to the German Parliament that the federal government was in possession of “findings on the organization ‘Universelles Leben – Homebringing Mission of Jesus Christ’ which point to possible dangers to the development of personality and the social integration of young people.” What these “findings” specifically consisted of was not stated. Neither were they substantiated within the framework of a court case which the Original Christians brought against this statement made by the state secretary. Nevertheless, the statement was not forbidden, not because the court assumed its truth, but because it assumed that the state secretary would not repeat it and that it was not “particularly insulting (!?).” 3.2 Another example of forceful public denouncement of the Original Christians in Universelles Leben by governmental authorities is a public report on “The activities of sects in Schleswig-Holstein,” presented in 1995 by the state government of Schleswig-Holstein. In the report’s preliminary remarks the impression is conveyed that all the groups dealt with in the report are to a greater or lesser degree dangerous, whereby they are accused of patterns of behavior which are a matter of course in the large churches or are more or less openly practiced there: a strict hierarchy, recipes for salvation, claim to possess the only truth, supervisory methods and the like. In light of this, they are, so goes the report, “religious-ideological extremist groups,” against which one must be warned. This warning, as with all other cases, was expressed without any kind of hearing or consultation of the communities concerned. 3.3 Similarly discriminatory is the sect report issued by the state government of Berlin in 1994, bearing the title, “Information on new religious and ideological movements and so-called psycho-groups.” Here, too, in the preface, all groups treated by the report are indiscriminately struck out at: Through a comparison it is implied that the concern is over a “monstrosity” which is altogether “anti-democratic and socially incompatible.” The senator who bears the political responsibility for the report is a Protestant Lutheran theologian. Again, without a previous hearing or consultation of any sort, Universelles Leben was included in this report. In so doing, one could not set forth any kind of danger to law and constitution. One simply reported a whole series of suspicions, as have been spread around for years by the clerical sect watch agents. When the association Universelles Leben tried to prevent the categorization of the community of faith in society as dangerously anti-democratic through a temporary in-junction, it was notified that the community is “not hindered” from “continuing the activities which it considers to be right according to its faith ... by the treatment accorded to it in the informational brochure” of the government of Berlin. 3.4 In part, the governmental authorities attempt to utterly out-trick the courts: Thus, the senate administration for schools, youth and sports of the state government of Berlin again published in December of 1997 a sect report under the title, “Sects – Risks and Side-Effects.” The competent senator for this matter informed the public about this in a press conference where at the same time she reported that 5000 copies had already been sent to educational counseling centers, social service agencies and schools “as a precaution against legal blockades.” A state government with a constitution which guarantees rule of law considers legal redress as a “blockade” which one endeavors to eliminate with quick action! This attitude and way of action is all the more odd if one takes into account that the senate administration did not deem it necessary to grant a prior hearing to the communities affected by its publication. This report, too, concerned a governmental warning issued with the inclusion of Universelles Leben as well. The inducement for this was not eventual unconstitutionalities of the community of faith, but the declarations of church representatives which were referred to in the sect report of the government of Berlin in order to demonstrate the alleged danger of the community. Naturally, legal assistance came too late. After about a quarter of a year, a court order was issued which therewith informed the community concerned that they could respond to the public warning issued by the senate administration with “dissenting disclosures.” The court knows, of course, that this is completely impossible. No Berlin newspaper would print remonstrant statements from the community of faith Universelles Leben to the official report of the senate administration. Apparently, the families concerned – who are snubbed by their neighbors because of belonging to a particular faith or whose advertisement for religious events no newspaper will accept – shall fight against their discrimination by handing out flyers on the streets? One would either take no notice of their corrective measures or would repudiate them because the opposite was already “officially established.” 4. Cities and towns prevent religious advertising by the Original Christians While on the governmental level the religious freedom of the Original Christians in Universelles Leben is severely impaired by “reports” and public “warning,” it is injured on the level of cities and towns through specific administrative actions. 4.1 For example, in Karlsruhe, where police officials have blocked permits for information stands on the literature of the community of faith since 1995 on various grounds: One time the permission cannot be granted because the community of faith is a “highly controversial organization” (letter of the city of Karlsruhe on Mar. 28, 1998); another time, permission cannot be granted because the community of faith is a “commercial enterprise” (letter of the city on May 5, 1998). After it was again proved to the city that their assumptions were not correct, permission for information stands was blocked with a new argument: They first had to find out “what kind of organization” it is; at the same time it was explained that they were of the opinion that it was “a totalitarian organization” (letter of the city on June 5, 1998). On July 25, 1998 the community of faith now learned that in no case would it be given a permit by the city for information stands: the Chief of Police declared this in a public newspaper interview, whereby he denied that Universelles Leben is a religion; that in its character the group is not dissimilar to Scientology ..., a comparison which presently is equal to the strongest condemnation in the eyes of the German public. 4.2 The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg refused permission to set up poster stands for the events of Universelles Leben on the grounds that poster advertisement “does not primarily serve an event of exclusively Christian character” (Ruling of Feb. 10, 1998). 4.3 The city Obernburg on the Main refused permission for an information stand for the religious literature of the community of faith with reference to statements of a clerical sect watch agent according to which Universelles Leben demonstrates “a totalitarian structure.” And it is known that “within the framework of sect investigations, Scientology as well as Universelles Leben have come under the eye of the authorities.” For this reason the sale and advertisement of literature and cassettes “which are supposed to lead people precisely into this totalitarian structure cannot be granted.” 4.4 Here it is a matter of only a few examples from an endless series of similar cases. The courts are in part willing to force the cities, through temporary injunctions, to grant permission for the information tables – but not in time for the information date foreseen. In part, they also refuse permission and relegate the community to years-long court cases. However, the towns not only refuse permission for information tables, but meanwhile also refuse the rental of public rooms or halls for lectures of the community of faith. 5. Employment terminated on religious grounds Now and then, it also happens that someone loses their job, when it is learned that he feels close to the community of faith of the Original Christians in Universelles Leben. A case which also caused public outrage took place in the city of Wertheim: A kindergarten teacher had been working there for 18 months to the full satisfaction of the city administration and the parents of the children in her care. When the local pastor learned one day that the kindergarten teacher was close to Universelles Leben, he held an “informational meeting” with the help of another pastor, at which the parents were so stirred up that the majority of them afterwards demanded the city hire a new teacher. The mayor of the city, who likes to publicly profess his affiliation to the Catholic Church and attacks Universelles Leben at every opportunity, did not lift a finger to appease the matter, but instead gave notice to the kindergarten teacher. In the proceedings that followed, the Labor Court established the following: “The court has no knowledge of the fact, and the defendant (the city) did not state anything to the effect that the plaintiff is affiliated with or belongs to an association that in any way violates the law or pursues unlawful aims ...” The court did declare the termination of the contract null and void; however, at the request of the city administration, it was forced to dissolve (by way of a settlement) the employment relationship, which meanwhile broke down completely. 6. A concept of enemy as in the dark moments of the German past The years-long discrimination of Universelles Leben by state and church did not remain public without having its effect. The adherents of the community of faith have to experience how many of their fellow citizens meet them with hostility. It comes to threatening telephone calls, to spray-painting mottoes like “Out with Universelles Leben!”; it comes to the willful damage to property – a stone cross was smashed to bits and stones were thrown through windows – ; the harvest on a field belonging to adherents of the community of faith was set on fire; and the room where the public events of the community of faith are held in Würzburg was even shot into once. Artisans lost their contract orders when it was learned that they were close to Universelles Leben. The children of adherents of the community of faith were insulted (“sect-pigs”) or even beaten up. When a large religious event of the community of faith takes place somewhere or even when a small marketstand is opened by followers of the community of faith, the local press – referring to statements by state and church – warns about the “dangerous sect” which now also wants to “gain a foothold in our city.” In Darmstadt / Hessen the Young Union, an offshoot-organization of the Christian Democratic Party, called for a boycott of the marketstands at which the Original Christians sell organic products. One not only refuses the community halls for public lectures, rooms for offices and permits for information stands, but the majority of the press also meanwhile refuses to accept advertisements for books and events put on by the community of faith. The German Urban Advertising Agency flatly refuses to make their advertising space available for posters of religious events put on by Universelles Leben. The ugly concept of enemy that state and church have portrayed of the people in Universelles Leben causes restaurants and shops to more and more often point out in newspaper ads and posters in their show windows that they “have nothing to do with Universelles Leben.” The public discrimination and social ostracism of the adherents of this community reminds one of dark passages in the German past. This presentation encompasses only a part of the discrimination. Each of the cases described can be substantiated in detail. Upon request, all documents will be provided. Dr. Sailer |