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Are Devotees Destructive?
ISKCON Communications Briefing

11 August 2001

A parliamentary commission in Chile, established by the Minister of Justice has named twenty religious movements as destructive cults and intends to cancel their legal registration. ISKCON was included in this listing together with the Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, the Unification Church, Transcendental Meditation and Ananda Marga.

The parliamentary commission was established after the legal status of the 'Tibetan Centre of Studies' was cancelled following the mysterious disappearance of two of its members and claims that its leader was sexually exploiting young women.

The commission has received testimonies from 30 former members of Different groups and determined that these groups have a 'destructive profile'. MP Alberto Espina, who is one of the members of the commission, said in an article in 'El Mercurio' (15/04/01) that, besides Chile, there have only been serious studies on 'cults' in France, Germany and Spain. However there have also been thorough studies in the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy, while the French studies have been very controversial.

France's parliamentary report in 1996 on 'cults', which has received a great deal of criticism from the scholarly community, has led to a new law that passed in May 2001 for the repression of such 'cults'. The law is presently the object of a report to be written by the Council of Europe.

Jorge Enrique Precht Pizarro, Professor of Public Law at the Catholic Pontifical University in Chile, had in an earlier article ('El Mercurio', 12/04/2001) explained that France's strategy to legislate against groups of a 'sectarian nature' was an 'isolated affair in Europe and has led to a great deal of polemic in the interior and exterior of the Gallic parliament which has yet to end. ' He also mentioned that the 'list of cults' issued by the French parliament (and part of their report) had also received strong opposition. 'Groups that are not destructive, nor could ever be and religious entities that are without question members of recognised churches are included. ' He further reminded the State of Chile that its primary duty is to protect religious freedom and that it should therefore only intervene in cases of crimes or violation of the constitutional right of others. He urged the State to not create a separate law but that 'common law be applied to all. '

Pedro Zabala, president of the Christian Confraternity of Churches, commented that 'not all cults are dangerous' and warned that 'the way to avoid dangerous groups is not to increase control, since it could endanger freedom of religion. ' He asserted that 'the ideal is to create dialogue between representatives of diverse persuasions, to face the phenomenon in a deeper way /I/ the answer is to devote ourselves to education, not to repression. ' ('El Mercurio', 08/04/01)

According to Virabahu Dasa, Co-GBC for Chile, internal disputes in the early 1980's led to the point where ISKCON lost its legal status. The devotees have nevertheless been able to operate publicly without any problems.

There has been an attempt of re-registration, which was 'frozen' when a new religious law was issued. The news that the Chilean parliament desired to outlaw the devotees has however come as a surprise.

The Chamber of Deputies in Chile characterised cults by the following criteria:

a) Fanaticism, inflexibility, exclusive group, revealed leader.

b) The faithful break ties with the world, specifically with their families, their friends and their educational surroundings.

c) The faithful are conditioned by means that violate human dignity and generally, unacceptable behaviour is required, such as perverse sexuality, slavery, sleep deprivation and rejection of the biological family.

d) The leaders are illegally made wealthy by exploiting their followers, requiring them to work without pay, quotas of daily income, without submitting to labour laws.

e) Manipulated sexuality as a way of behavioural control, especially of women, which is known as 'holy prostitution' and which is added to other forms of sex for commercial ends.

f) The children of the group are educated to reproduce the ideology and the practices of this organization and in many cases they are the victims of sexual abuse.

g) Grave injuries to the physical and mental health of the followers.

h) Aggressiveness against traditional churches, such as defiling temples and places that are of significance to Christian entities

i) Practices of defiling cemeteries and tombs; practices of necrophilia and mass and individual suicides.

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