A French government agency called MIVILUDES (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaries -- Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviancy) recently issued a 199-page report charging religious cults with having a growing influence in international bodies such as the United Nations. According to a report at Digital Journal, "A sect is defined here as being any religious organization which can be characterized as employing any of the following methods; Mental destabilization, exorbitant financial demands, a rupture with members' original environment, power in the hands of one person, the invasion of a person's physical integrity, the recruitment of children, antisocial preaching and troubling public order, activities which lead it to be tried in a court of law, using parallel economic structures, attempts to infiltrate the workplace, schools, and public powers." Among the 50 or so religious groups that MIVILUDES tracks in its report (La justice face aux derives sectaries -- Justice with Regard to Sect or Cult abuse) are: Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, Mormons, The Universal Church, Raelians, and The Unification Church (the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.).
A French government agency called MIVILUDES (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaries -- Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviancy) recently issued a 199-page report charging religious cults with having a growing influence in international bodies such as the United Nations.
According to a report at Digital Journal, "A sect is defined here as being any religious organization which can be characterized as employing any of the following methods; Mental destabilization, exorbitant financial demands, a rupture with members' original environment, power in the hands of one person, the invasion of a person's physical integrity, the recruitment of children, antisocial preaching and troubling public order, activities which lead it to be tried in a court of law, using parallel economic structures, attempts to infiltrate the workplace, schools, and public powers."
Among the 50 or so religious groups that MIVILUDES tracks in its report (La justice face aux derives sectaries -- Justice with Regard to Sect or Cult abuse) are: Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, Mormons, The Universal Church, Raelians, and The Unification Church (the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.).
