French parliamentary commission report (1995) In 1995, a parliamentary commission of the
National Assembly of France on cults produced its report (in French: compare an unofficial English translation). The report included a list of purported cults based upon information which may have been provided by former members, the general information division of the
French National Police (
Renseignements généraux — the French secret police service) and cult-watching groups. The criteria chosen by the French Renseignements généraux to establish the potential dangers of a movement were criticized since they were considered vague and may include many organizations, religious or not. One of the first criticisms came from bishop
Jean Vernette, the national secretary of the French episcopate to the study of cults and new religious movements, who stressed that these criteria can be applied to almost all religions. Moreover, sociologists such as
Bruno Étienne emphasized that the mental manipulation should not be defined by the policemen of the Renseignements généraux. The list of cults was based on the criteria defined by the Renseignements généraux, but without specifying which of their practices are specifically criticized. In addition, the secrecy of the work made by the RG led to questions about the presence or absence of certain organizations in the list. Étienne questioned the presence of the CEDIPAC SA company, formerly known as
European Grouping of Marketing Professionals (GEPM), as its activity is not in the religious field. The absence of
Opus Dei or the Freemasons also raised questions. In 2007, Yves Bertrand, General Director of the Renseignements généraux from 1992 to 2003, spoke about his collaborative work with the parliamentary reports on cults, and said: "Alongside genuine and dangerous cults practicing removal of school, abuse of weakness or pedophilia, some groups have been a bit quickly dress up of the word cult". Furthermore, on 27 May 2005, the 1995 list of cults of the French report was officially cancelled and invalidated by
Jean-Pierre Raffarin's circulaire. In France,
Antoinism was classified as a cult in the 1995 parliamentary reports which considered it one of the oldest healer groups. However, in a 1984 letter, the French
Minister of the Interior wrote that the movement was considered, from an administrative point of view, as having for exclusive purpose the exercise of a religion, thus complying with the 18th and 19th Articles of the
1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. He added that Antoinism had always been allowed to receive bequests or donations, which meant that its religious nature was never challenged. In addition, many anti-cults activists, associations or watchers said they had not noticed cultic deviances in this group. For example, when heard by the Belgian commission on cults, philosopher Luc Nefontaine said that "the establishment of a directory of cult movements (...) seems to him dangerous, because it would also give a bad image of quite honourable organizations such as (...) Antoinism". Eric Brasseur, director of Centre for information and advice on harmful cultish organizations (Centre d'information et d'avis sur les organisations sectaires nuisibles, or CIAOSN) said: "This is a Belgian worship for which we have never had a complaint in 12 years, a rare case to report". Similarly, in 2013, the
Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Cultic Deviances (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires, or MIVILUDES) made this comment: "We have never received reporting from Antoinists. They heal through prayer, but as long as they do not prevent people from getting proper treatment by legal means..." In addition, the
Renseignements généraux stopped monitoring the religion given the absence of any problem. In 2002, the national service "Pastoral, sects and new beliefs" ("Pastorale, sectes et nouvelles croyances"), which analyses new religious movements from a Catholic point of view, wrote about Antoinism: "Although listed among the cults in the 1995 Parliamentary Report, it has no cultish feature." Similarly, the French sociologist
Régis Dericquebourg, who deeply studied the religion, concluded that Antoinism is not a cult: it "has no totalitarian influence on its members, and do not dictate their behaviour to get in the world; it is not exclusive [and] shows no hostility towards social systems". In France, the 1995 parliamentary report listed the
Shri Ram Chandra Mission. This has been criticized by lawyer Lawrence Hincker, who said that "this system of meditation, called Sahaj Marg, does not lead to a life away from the world. It integrates all aspects of man, whether physical, mental or spiritual, without charge or austerity or penance or self-negation". According to the sociologist
Bruno Étienne, an expert on religious issues, the SRCM publishes books as any other group but does not proselytize, and has never been convicted: "To us, it is fully a NMR (new religious movement), modern religious group, although based on an ancient tradition, and subject to serious arguments advanced by others more knowledgeable, we do not understand why it is criticized on the list of the damned".
Raphaël Liogier, Director of the Observatory of religious and university professor at the
Institut d'Études Politiques in
Aix-en-Provence, said he did not understand the inclusion on the cult list of an association that is fully recognized in
India. In May 2005 the then
Prime Minister of France, in a
circulaire, which stressed that the government must exercise vigilance concerning the cult phenomenon, said that the list of movements attached to the Parliamentary Report of 1995 had become less pertinent, based on the observation that many small groups had formed: scattered, more mobile, and less-easily identifiable, and that the government needed to balance its concern with cults with respect for public freedoms and
laïcité (secularism).
French parliamentary commission report (1999) The French Parliamentary report of 1999 on cults and money{{cite web|url= http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dossiers/sectes/sommaire.asp|title= Les sectes et l'argent [Cults and money]|access-date= 2009-04-20|author= Assemblée Nationale|author-link= National Assembly of France|date= 1999-06-10|publisher= République Française|language= fr The groups examined included: • Anthroposophie (
Anthroposophy) • Au Cœur de la Communication (At the Heart of Communication) • Contre-réforme catholique (
League for Catholic Counter-Reformation) • Dianova (Ex-Le Patriarche) (Dianova (formerly: the Patriarch)) • Église du Christ (
Boston Church of Christ) • Église Néo-apostolique (
New Apostolic Church) •
Énergo-Chromo-Kinèse (ECK) • Fédération d'agrément des réseaux (ex-Groupement européen des professionnels du marketing) (Federation of the networks of agreement (formerly:
European Grouping of Marketing Professionals (GEPM))) • Fraternité blanche universelle (
Universal White Brotherhood) • Invitation à la Vie (
Invitation to Life) • Innergy (
Insight Seminars) • Krishna (
Hare Krishna movement) • Landmark (
Landmark Education) • Mahikari (
Sûkyô Mahikari) •
Mandarom • Méthode Avatar (
Avatar Method) • Moon (
Unification Church) • Mouvement du Graal (
Grail Movement) • Mouvement Raëlien (
Raelian Movement) • Nouvelle Acropole (
New Acropolis) • Office culturel de Cluny (
Cultural office of Cluny – National Federation of Total Animation) •
Ogyen Kunzang Chöling • Orkos (Anopsology) • Pentecôte de Besançon (
Evangelical Pentecostal Church of Besançon) • Prima Verba • Rose-Croix - AMORC (
Rosicrucian Order) • Rose-Croix d'Or (
Gold Rosicrucian Brotherhood) • Scientologie (
Scientology) • Soka Gakkaï (
Sōka Gakkai) • La méthode Silva (The
Silva Method) • Témoins de Jéhovah (
Jehovah's Witnesses) • Tradition Famille Propriété (
Tradition, Family, Property) == Germany ==