CICNS Documentary - Anti-cult France - Part 2
Anti-cult France: Current Status
Advocating for Individual Freedoms
Disclaimer: this documentary has been created and produced by the CICNS, an independent French organisation not connected to Kenja or any other group.
This is part 3 of a documentary in 3 parts (120min).
The CICNS is reaching into an understanding of spirituality away from extremist religious viewpoints, and set itself up with a project for an independent
Observatory of spiritual minorities in France.
The Documentary Part 2 is in french subtitled in english. Below is a transcript in english translated from french:
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CICNS presents:
Anti-cult France - Current Status:
Advocating for Individual Freedoms -
Part 2
2nd semester of 2006
Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on cults and children…
Jacques Myard, representative, member of the Commission
"You have made reference to two cults, one of which, la Citadelle, has already made quite a stir in the past, while I was not aware of the other one, since, naturally, they multiply… Tabitha's place, that's it, right?”
Jean-Michel Roulet, President of MIVILUDES
"Such a parent, upon the return of one of his children from an internship, is shocked by the change in his behaviour. For example, he no longer wants to eat meat."
Guy Rouquet, Psychothérapie Vigilance association
"The New Age trend has settled into the holy water from the Church, where Christ becomes Cosmo planetary and the Virgin steps in for the White Lady."
Patricia Adam, representative, member of the Commission
"I have made myself very clear. I believe that if one belongs to a cult, one can no longer practice this profession."
Charline Delporte, President of ADFI Nord-Pas de Calais
"If, however, the 'cult' decides that this child should not exist, he will be sacrificed."
Jean-Pierre Brard, representative, member of the Commission
"Can we consider that the children of Jehovah's Witnesses are not disabled, intellectually speaking?”
Jean-Michel Roulet, President of MIVILUDES
"Things are happening, people are suffering, there are victims and, faced with this, the State, the Government, the country cannot merely remain a passive observer."
'Cults', gurus, an insidious and omnipresent danger, victims, children in danger. This is the picture painted by those involved in the war against cults. Mr Roulet is the current president of a government agency inspired by this alarmist viewpoint: MIVILUDES, the Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Sectarian Derivatives.
As seen in the first part of this documentary, since 1981, the actions of the State, supported by regular media campaigns and two Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry, have led the French people to support the theory, quite marginal on a global scale, which holds new expressions of spirituality to be the source of a characteristic perversity and delinquency.
A Third report from the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry entitled "Stolen Childhood" appeared on December 19, 2006 which was full of this sort of sentiment and benefited from wholehearted media support.
Soir 3
"The Parliamentary Commission released its report this morning to the President of the National Assembly."
Emilie Aubry, LCP Info 13,
"A much-anticipated parliamentary report, "Stolen Childhood: the young victims of cults"…"
France 2, 13 heures
"… of the cults. The youngest members are cut off from the outside world, manipulated by gurus or their parents…"
"…with 50 proposals for the protection of minors"
Georges Fenech on France 2, Télé Matin, 4 Vérités
"The report which we have produced is alarming on two counts: first off, there is the number of children in France affected by this phenomenon, who are in the thousands."
Journalist
"How many?"
Georges Fenech
"We estimate between 60 and 80,000 children"
Behind these definitive statements, there is in reality no proof of the danger posed to children within these supposed sectarian aberrations. Any journalist, through a careful reading of this report or viewing of the Commission's hearings, which are available online, would be capable of suspecting the enormity of the lie that has been generally accepted for the last dozen years. Just a few hours' viewing was enough to provide us with brief demonstration.
Mr Fenech, President of the Commission on December 19, 2006, the day the report was released:
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission
"Taken into consideration the reports of the interministerial audit, which stressed the dangers posed to children, as well as the warnings brought to our attention, particularly by the judicial authority, we decided that this matter was an appropriate target for the attention of the commission."
Ms Sansy, representative of the judicial authority, three months earlier, during the hearings:
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission:
"We were given the figure of 80,000 children who have supposedly been affected by cultist activity."
Sophie Sansy, Service Manager at the Ministry of the Interior
"Yes, except that in 2003-2004, while the investigation was underway, we uncovered 192 files, not one more, that's it, that had been opened for a reason relating to cults, whether directly or indirectly. In addition, for a significant number of these files the involvement was indirect, that is, we weren't even certain that the sectarian activity had had a direct influence on that which was the subject of the accusation."
Philippe Tourtelier, Deputy, member of the Commission
"You said earlier that there are a hundred or so files which are 'rather old', you said, 'followed up', and I was wondering about these 'rather old' ones, since 'rather old' would seem to imply that there are no new ones, that they sit around and can't be resolved, what did you mean by this? What was behind this comment of yours, 'rather old'?
Sophie Sansy, Service Manager at the Ministry of the Interior
"I meant, in effect, that there has been a noticeable reduction in the number of alerts."
Mr Dupuis, « Cult » Mission at the Ministry of National Education.
Jean-Yves Dupuis, Inspector General of the National Education Administration
"We asked the district supervisors which of these children who were in danger were in such a position due to sectarian movements, and they replied that there were eight."
Georges Fenech, President of the Committee
"Out of the 19 000 alerts delivered to the Prosecutor's Office regarding children in danger, you're telling us that only eight involved sectarian activity. In that case, questions must be asked. Why this number, which is so negligible?"
As for us, we find ourselves in a position to ask the following question: how can we explain that the Commission simply did not consider that these numbers might in fact correspond to the reality of the near inexistence of victims? Instead, they stubbornly continued their search for proof within each ministry.
Hearing of Ms Françoise Le Bihan, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission
"Your Ministry, your Leadership is not responsible for matters concerning divorced parents with children who have moved abroad?"
Françoise Le Bihan, Associate Director of the DFAE, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"But of course!"
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission
"Yes, in fact, you do get those, yes."
Françoise Le Bihan, Associate Director of the DFAE, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"That's why we are aware of those two files, the two files which I mentioned to you."
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission
"Not more than two files, you say?"
Françoise Le Bihan, Associate Director of the DFAE, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
"Ah, concerning minors and derivative cults."
Georges Fenech, President of the Committee
"Yes."
Lacking numbers, the Committee turned back to the usual media scapegoats. As such, the Jehovah's Witnesses were mentioned no less than 415 times over the course of the hearings. Yet again, the rumours were occasionally the subject of blatant contradictions.
Messrs Dupuis and Polivka, Inspectors General of National Education.
Pierre Polivka, Inspector General of National Education
"We have never received reports from teachers, from students' parents, or from student representatives regarding the behaviour of Jehovah's Witness children."
Jean-Yves Dupuis, Inspector General of National Education Administration
"Indeed, we don't report that sort of thing."
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission
"Why not?"
Jean-Yves Dupuis, Inspector General of National Education Administration
"Because we don't find them to really be threatened."
Jean-Michel Roulet, President of MIVILUDES
"Things are happening, people are suffering, there are victims…"
There are certainly things happening, but they don't seem to worry observers from the Ministries. Maybe there are victims, but their number does not in any way justify the actions of the government. Observing these actions over the past twenty-five years, it can even be said that if there have been no confirmed victims, it's not through lack of searching.
A "Guide for Public Servants Faced With Sectarian Derivatives", distributed throughout the administrations, sums up the main elements of a system that is unique in the world.
Since 1996:
- a permanent interministerial mission, MILS, succeeded by MIVILUDES;
- vigilance and coordination missions within each Ministry;
- a "Cult Magistrate-Correspondent" in each Court of Appeal;
- fifty 'cult' correspondents among the investigators of the Direction Centrale des Renseignements Généraux;
- in all prefectures, a surveillance committee for sectarian activity;
- brochures warning against 'cults' in the 1239 Youth Information Points;
- a special 'cult' book for mayors;
- and, at every level of this system, the intervention of anti-cult organisations:
- CCMM, the Centre Against Mental Manipulation
- and, foremost, the ADFI, Family and Individual Protection Organisations, who are recognised as a public service and over 90% subsidized, at hundreds of thousands of euros.
And this impressive arsenal finds itself incapable of detecting more than a few victims of sectarian derivatives each year.
Mr Leschi, the head of the Bureau of Worship, wraps up our overview of the Ministries and demonstrates how the actions of the State sometimes run contrary to common sense and the ethics of public service.
Didier Leschi, head of the Central Bureau of Worship at the Ministry of the Interior
"If the administrative authorities, which were put in place to protect children, were to put together a consistent enough file, submit it to the Ministry of the Interior and say, "Here you go, on the basis of these confirmed facts, of these files, we are in the presence of a movement whose philosophy systematically causes children to be raised in a manner which contradicts the International Conventions signed by France," of course we would study the file. For the moment, I have not seen it. I won't invent it. I have no right to stand in for this absence of proof."
So what is it that supposedly fuels the work of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, MIVILUDES and the organisations that are subsidized by the state? Do they know who it is that they're calling dangerous?
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission
"But you know, we completely respected the inconsistencies. We sent questionnaires to all of the involved communities, they were all given the chance to reply, and so all is clear."
Journalist on France 3 – Soir 3
"So the Jehovah's Witnesses, contrary to their claims, you say, you spoke to them, they were heard…?"
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission
"But we do not communicate with cultist communities. We take note of their actions, when they cross the yellow line, that is, the Republican law."
In fact, and in the footsteps of Mr Fenech, the idea of not communicating with the incriminated persons enjoys general consensus among anti-cultists. Another popular idea is that of ignoring the work of historians of religion, sociologists or ethnologists employed by the State who have been studying the emergence of new spiritualties for a number of years and who have proven in front of our camera that they have something to say regarding the situation in France.
Maurice Duval, ethnologist, has been studying, among other things, the aumist religion for the past four years.
Maurice Duval, ethnologist
"These days, we are in an era of more and more control, and we try, like Big Brother, to control people's thoughts and belief systems. This is why I'm fighting against this: I believe it is, socially, very dangerous."
And I'd say to MIVILUDES that they are involved in this situation, and that they are well aware of this, regardless of all rhetoric, because, when we look at how many people, groups, and 'cults' have been targeted by the law for wrongdoings, for offences, we can see that it's trivial compared to the number of groups. So MIVILUDES doesn't like this very much, they can see that there's no point. There's no point."
Jean Baubérot, occupant of the only French chair on Secularism, much-respected authority at conferences, both in France and elsewhere, on the topic.
Jean Baubérot, Historian
"The existence of organisations that fight against other groups, it's part of global society, it's part of freedom of expression. The connection of these organisations to the State, their recognition as a non-profit, and their ability to use the State for their own purposes, that's very serious, and that's what sets France apart from other democracies."
Raphael Liogier, Director of World Religion Watch, institute at the Université d'Aix-en-Provence.
Raphaël Liogier, Director of World Religion Watch
"Most social science researchers agree with the evaluation of what's happening, of religious matters, of the new religious movements, in any case there are no serious researchers in the social sciences in France who are afraid of the new religious movements."
Few or no victims, a harmless population according to the academics who study them… and nevertheless, a national mobilisation against this population and the fixed idea that it represents a major social problem. All of this adds up to a veritable psychosis which is not without its consequences. We now invite you to discover the other side of the coin, the men, women and children who have been the wrongful victims of this repression.
Daniel Groscolas, President of the CCMM, Centre Against Mind Control
"With 'cults', courtesy is not the norm. They must be taken by surprise."
In December 2006, we met with a small Christian community which was at the time doing publicity for the third parliamentary investigation report on 'cults', at their own expense.
David Pujadas, Journal télévisé, France 2
"Good evening and thank you for watching. Here are this Wednesday's headlines. The Parliamentary Committee on Cults has discovered eighteen children living cut off from the world, in the biblical community Tabitha's Place…"
Régis, member of Tabitha's Place
"Around 9 am the morning of the sixth, I was starting class with my three students and a child came to tell me that there were men waiting at the door. I was told that they were from the Government. So I let them in, we sit down, and we start talking calmly."
Guilhaume, member of Tabitha's Place
"We knew that they were from the commission devoted to, as they put it, the war against 'cults'. So we knew what was coming…"
Régis, member of Tabitha's Place
"I trusted my instincts and I told myself, "Okay, for the past ten years we've been asking them to come here, to see for themselves what we're doing, how we're living, what are children are like."
Guilhaume, member of Tabitha's Place
"So they visited three classes, they asked the children a few quick questions…"
The visit was short, because the representatives' schedule was very busy that day.
Guilhaume, member of Tabitha's Place
"The representatives were still on our property when we started to be contacted by journalists who told us that a press dispatch had come in from AFP which said that the Commission would be holding a press conference in Paris at 6 pm."
Before their departure, the representatives were invited by their hosts to chat over drinks.
Guilhaume, member of Tabitha's Place
"We sit them down, in these rooms here, where we are now, and we ask them what their first impression had been. And it was Mr Georges Fenech who replied, and he himself said, and I regret not having recorded this because he told us, "Listen, in all honesty, we have been pleasantly surprised by the welcome you have given us, because we came without notice, and you received us with a smile, you opened your doors to us without hesitating. We have found your property to be in order, your children are healthy and appear happy, we even saw how well they play together, we saw them through the window," it was Mr Fenech who said this. A few hours later, these men took a plane, arrived in Paris, and there the scene changes, it becomes a tragic affair, they have discovered Natascha Kampusches, children who are asocial and cut off from the world…"
Georges Fenech, President of the Commission, JT de France 2
"We were flabbergasted, no reason to hide it. We saw these eighteen children under the reins of the community, in psychological imprisonment. The law does not permit us to combat this psychological imprisonment, of these children cut off from the world."
Régis, member of Tabitha's Place
"Cut off from the world… From what world? What world… We are not cut off from the world, we regularly receive guests and family members, we go to visit them, we go to fairs and to markets. Our children come with us. We are in no way cut off from the world."
This supposed discovery by the representatives of eighteen children cut off from the world, in reality consists of children who are home-schooled, as is legally permitted, and regularly inspected by the Board of Education. This education is influenced by the Christian principles that govern the community.
Régis, member of Tabitha's Place
"We try to teach them what matters most. And what matters most? We want them to learn compassion, forgiveness, true friendship, understanding, comprehension, and to overcome difficulties. And, of course, we want them to receive an education that will enable them to develop their gifts, so they might become fully realized human beings. We want them to be responsible human beings. That's why the people from the village, who are of another generation, of the previous generation, they understand our lifestyle much better. In general, when I go to fairs or markets, I meet older people, I tell them about our lifestyle and our children's education, they completely understand, they completely agree with what we're doing."
Despite its designation as a 'cult' in 1995 by the first Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, the integration of the community posed no problems before the media got wind of a tragic event.
France 2 – JT 13 heures – April 5, 1997 (INA)
On April 13, 1997, baby Raphael, suffering from a heart defect, died at the age of 19 months. The parents, residents of Tabitha's Place, who decided to care for their child without the support of conventional medicine, were examined by Justice and later convicted of "neglect of care and food on a minor by legitimate influence resulting in death." The event immediately became, to the media and Justice, a new "cult case".
Guilhaume, member of Tabitha's Place
"The day after the death, there was a raid by the gendarmes here, forty gendarmes arrived, accompanied by doctors, accompanied by psychologists. They checked all of our children. Following this, all of the families were followed by a juvenile judge, who delegated social workers for years. Some people in the community were charged, after this death, to benefit next by a non-suit as it was clearly established by the judicial authorities that the death of this little boy was not due to the beliefs of the community."
These acquittals and the expertise clearly demonstrate the innocence of the community with regards to the death of baby Raphael. It is likely that in any case a similar case in the medical area has never been investigated to this extent. One can also legitimately ask the question on the fairness of the court decisions against the parents of baby Raphael, in the atmosphere of the witch hunt that surrounded the trial.
Guilhaume, member of Tabitha's Place
"Following the death of their baby boy, in the hour that followed, the two parents were separated, not to see each other for months. They took their children and, since that time, they lived through the ordeal. For us, it is clear that if they were treated so severely, it was the fact that they belonged to our community. I don't think they would have been treated as severely if they had been 'Mr and Mrs Everybody'.
Even if they made mistakes with their children, they did not want to hurt their child. And that we can attest to because we have seen the love that they bestowed on that child. As for them, they were not criminals. They had six years in the court of first instance. When they appealed, that made twelve years."
The parents paid a high price. The community was laid bare by the various social inquiries, without anyone being able to reproach them. But for the most part the media, and the anti-cult activists, never ceased to perpetuate the image of a dangerous cult responsible for the death of a child. So today they are again under the spotlight and under the threat of an act of justice against them or a new administrative bullying.
Guilhaume, member of Tabitha's Place
"The threat that is on us, is that if the inspections are not satisfactory, our children will be removed to be forced into the public schools."
The cult label is a real 'passport to trouble', a life sentence to the presumption of guilt, even for those who have had legal proceedings and who escaped bleached out.
Another place, other people reunited around other convictions, victims of the same collective psychosis. February 2007, near Toulouse, area of the Château de la Balme.
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"At 6:30 in the morning, bell and tambourine, finally loud knocks at the door. And then I opened the door and there, the shock: six gendarmes, half a dozen gendarmes with submachine guns, pistols and bulletproof vests that enter my home."
Constance, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"All of the cars were parked there, we saw this from above. Really, it was a great shock."
Guy, Resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"I was searched in my hallway when I was in my pyjamas."
Nothing predisposed them, they believed, to undergo such a descent.
Constance and Aurélie, residents of the Château de la Balme
"There were fifteen or so vehicles, I don't know, and the gendarmes around, but they swarmed from all sides. So then, as I live on the third floor, I could totally see the house where Mr David lives, which is located downstairs, in the courtyard, so there, I saw the door of his home open, with the cops who were entering with torches."
Claude David has been psychoanalyst for four decades. He teaches and practices Institutional Psychoanalysis. It was around his teachings that the community was founded and on him personally that the accusations were focused.
Guy, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"The alleged Claude David, who is in prison, sexually touched the kids. That is completely absurd, when you know the person."
Even these charges do not justify the violence used by the police who knew that they wouldn't find any weapons and that they could traumatize the children.
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"There, I swear that there they want to shock, that they did, that's for sure. You are ... Myself, I was but ... My jaw was paralyzed - yet you see, I speak - but my jaw was paralyzed from this shock, from this desired violence, desired."
Constance, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"I have my god-mother who called me very worried, saying to me: "But Constance, what is going on? I recognized you on TF1, what are these stories? Are you all right? Remember that I have an apartment in Paris, I can host. What is going on? Completely distraught!"
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"I was handcuffed, everything in my home was searched, etc., in my office and I was taken out."
Constance, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"I saw Fabienne leave in handcuffs surrounded by five soldiers who were very tall. But it's true that I found it abominable. Abominable."
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"Excuse me, I call it Gestapo manoeuvres. I say it and I'll say it again before the Court if necessary."
Guy, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"You still have to say that they invaded an apartment, the bedroom of a boy of eight, eight and a half years of age. The parents did not have time to intervene. The kid saw three cops with machine guns and flak jackets arrive in his bedroom, torch in his eyes, and the boy was taken as part of the Noémie proceedings and returned to his parents two and a half hours later."
It is not clear what victory the military was after posing in front of Claude David's house after the arrest.
We have not been able to interview Claude David, because he was remanded into provisional custody at the end of his police custody and he had just been released, more than four months later, when we finished off this documentary.
The group, which is called "People of Bernard" has existed for more than twenty years. It is a Christian community, united around psychoanalysis work. When it arrived in Toulouse, a few years ago, it had already had to face the 'cult' accusation.
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"We got here first, so it is in Old-Toulouse, in a parish where we were greeted by the Jesuits, thus directly by religious people, with whom we had a very good relationship but to whom ADFI has sent this mess and the attack against us."
Guy, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"The Fathers, at the time, responded by saying they knew us and that it was the opposite but, perhaps, it would be interesting that we meet, that they come and that we could talk, which ADFI never wanted, as always, by the way, since they never want to meet the people that they accuse."
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"After examining all of this, they will see that indeed it was slander, since we have also filed a complaint against La Dépêche because La Dépêche, at that time, had said that we were a 'cult', etc."
La Dépêche du Midi would be, on this occasion, convicted of defamation.
The words that the anti-cult associations and some media circulate today against the community come mainly from former members of the group who left with bitterness. This selection of information is common when it comes to attacking minorities on their convictions.
Here is the opinion of a specialist on the question, Anne Morelli.
Anne Morelli, Historian at the Free University of Brussels
"Of course, the media focus their vision very often on narrations by the repented, and what I call repented, this means people who were in a group and came out, who obviously are not happy because they have spent time, money, been dedicated to a cause which, in retrospect, did not appear good to them. And what is true in religion, is true in politics too. We write the history of the Communist Party much better by listening to those who came out rather that those who stayed in. That has a crusty side, obviously, since you've got a terrible criticism there of the structures of the Church or the party that we left behind."
Today, someone coming out of a spiritual minority in France is also provided with financial, logistical and moral support from associations specializing in the collection of these types of complaints. The combination of these three elements, media, defectors and anti-cult associations, lead to all of the excesses.
Ça se discute - France May 2 to 25, 2005 - How do we fall under the grip of a manipulator?
"Impostors! Impostors! Hypocrites! Whores! Bastards! That feels good ... Stop it, now, say they have gone. It was the room in the kingdom, the Temple that we frequented, the last room in any case that we frequented for twenty-three years. It was the group of people that we were with when we left the Jehovah's Witnesses."
Anne Morelli, Historian at the Free University of Brussels
"We don't bother to give an objective view of the phenomenon but we dig our heels in on those that aren't happy. And so we have a very skewed view of reality."
The supposed 'cults' are invariably attributed with the same charges. Around three large universal themes, "gender, power, money", there is the vague notion, unstoppable, of mental manipulation or psychological subjection. These points are taken up again throughout the custody of the residents of Balme, according to the details of the worst clichés.
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"Under custody for two days and let's say, roughly, twenty-three hours of questioning non-stop for two days, what, 11 hours, 11 hours."
Guy, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"If you want, myself, I was interrogated about AREFPPI, which is an association where they wanted me to say, like the others who were responsible for associations or the SCI, they wanted me to say that it was created by David so that he could fill his pockets. It was a way to divert money, or the people from here, or people from outside. In particular, they tried for two hours to make me say, to demonstrate to me, that the seminary that Claude David had had for forty years makes money. It has never made money for forty years, ever.
Hundreds of people can attest, either in Nantes, in Manosque or here. It has never made money. When they saw they couldn't get anything from that side, they said to me: "Anyway, your association, who cares", it was even ruder than that, "what we want is David's skin. So, you will help us get David's skin. "That's it. So, they said to me: "Either you are completely stupid and you haven't understood anything for thirty-five years, you have been manipulated, or you are an accomplice. So choose."
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"It was: either I was a victim, while at the start, it was really very civilized: "You see, Mr David, he earns lots of money, you, you don't earn very much, Madame. "These were accusations, no doubt, the others. "And then, he has a nice apartment and you have a small apartment", to try to elicit all of these accusations up front."
"Questions for example on whether I had had an intimate relationship with Mr David. Finally, I have forgotten all their questions but still, I have told you everything...
Guy, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
"On sexual touching ..."
Fabienne, resident of the Chateau de la Balme
Yes, sexual touching, violence, etc., violence against children. I never saw violence against children in the community."
Constance and Aurélie, residents of the Chateau de la Balme
"Aurélie was not worried about the day of the legal operation, but two or three days later, she was summoned by the gendarmes for questioning with a camera. She was asked questions that were completely pointed, to see if Mr David was kind to her, nothing but questions..."
Fabian, member of the Balme community
"Myself, I didn't eat for two days. I couldn't, finally it didn't even ... I didn't decide, I didn't eat. This bothered them a lot because I understood well; they told me afterwards, they were really afraid that people would commit suicide under police custody. But wait, they do everything to you that is necessary for that. They don't realize that it is their methods that can drive people to that."
"But you know, the custody is completely misguided, it's not an investigation, it's this: they want to extort a confession, by all means. So there, the law is no more."
Guy, member of the Balme community
"After two days of police custody, we were released. It didn't even finish with an examination before the judge, with an indictment or something like that. Nothing. For the moment, there is nothing."
After the passage of the judiciary's compressor roller, La Balme remains a community that is battered but still united based on the same values and solidarity and over the very cruel fate of Claude David, who, after one hundred and thirty-seven days of detention, was only released on condition of not exercising his profession and a travel ban in the Midi-Pyrenees.
We have just seen that in the case of a spiritual minority, a simple arrest can take the form of an armed attack. The following testimonials will show that the sequence of the judicial process can be even more destructive.
The residents of Terranova, a small community that we already mentioned in the first part of our documentary, were as such subjected to a particularly violent arrest in December 2000, mobilizing four to twenty police and special forces intervention. After time spent under custody, in all respects similar to that of the inhabitants of La Balme, this is the first meeting with the Judge and the beginning of a long ordeal.
Magali, Resident of Terranova
"The Judge's first sentence was: "I am placing you in prison," me and Olivier, "I am going to put you in prison at home". Immobilized at home, where I would no longer have the right to work, plus the right to leave, so no right to have an income because they, in fact, in addition, took all the money I had in my purse, they blocked all of my accounts, now finally, they have made sure that everything goes very badly afterwards."
"To annoy us, they decided to take all of our computers, all of our accounts, all of customer files, that is to say, the bones of our work."
Guilhem, resident of Terranova
"When I saw the judge, she did not ask me questions, she made me understand that I had to leave Terranova. What she wanted me to say to her was that yes, I could leave and go back to living a "normal" life in a big city. So I was banished from where I lived, I no longer had the right - legally, officially - to meet with the people with whom I lived. I was working, so I no longer had a job; I was not offered a trade, but hey, it was not their problem."
Olivier, resident of Terranova
"I am a writer, I have written some thirty books, really, writing is my life. They prevented me from writing for eight months; they took away a part of my life."
Magali, resident of Terranova
"Eight months of imprisonment at home with two children, plus being pregnant, writing numerous letters to try to find a way to earn money ... I even, at one point, wrote a letter saying that I wanted to go to Restos du Coeur to eat; this was denied."
Court of Appeal
You should know that after the court proceedings, there will be nothing left of the original charges of mental manipulation, theft, violence or sequestration, which made the front pages of the local newspapers, and nothing of any sort to justify what happened during the investigation, particularly the wrong turn taken by the gendarme's inquiry.
Olivier, resident of Terranova
The police travelled across France to visit the customers of Télesma Editions, saying: "So there, you are in a 'cult'".
Magali, member of Terranova
"I had distributors, they sent a file: "Attention, it's a cult", they no longer wanted us; we had the booksellers with whom we worked: “Attention Manitara is a guru", so they no longer wanted to work with us. Finally, the police completed their path in such a way that there was no way out for us. People didn't try to find out if it was true or not, what they reported to them. For them, from the moment it was put in front of their noses, for them, it was true."
Olivier, resident of Terranova
"You become a sub-citizen, you become a bad French person, you become a being that we should not help, we must put a spoke in their wheels... This is the reality."
The defendants are hoping for a confrontation from the court hearings that is finally fair where they will be able to defend and obtain justice. This expectation is often disappointed by Judges who seem to lose all rationality when it comes time to judge a 'cult' case.
Schaller Tal, a doctor and naturopath, was first seen on suspicion of belonging to the Order of the Solar Temple and on suspicion of inciting a collective suicide. What was revealed, two days later, were Hotel Code infractions, which would be punished in a fairly surprising manner. He testifies, as did the inhabitants of Terranova, of being accused of 'cult', which often means being the helpless spectator at this theatre of the irrational.
Dr Tal Schaller, Conference Speaker, Writer
"We had a fine, not only an extremely high fine but also a strange sentence, which was to deny us for five years from organizing workshops and conferences on all matters relating to health and personal development.
We returned to court several times and always had the impression that the judges told us in some way: "Yes, you may not be a 'cult', but you are still a 'sectarian deviance'". With this word 'sectarian deviance', you can put what you want and, in some way, we were doomed from the start since we were in a 'sectarian derivative'."
Magali, Resident of Terranova
"When we were interrogated, where they made us go, I don't know how many, eight hours or nine hours standing at the bar, they insulted us and called us a "guru", a 'cult' and they didn't want to hear anything, nothing, really. At one point, I was even forced to cry out to explain. When you are accused of something, in principle, you have some time to answer the question. There, it was: "You are accused of this," I began to speak, I said four words: "Yes, but you always try to defend yourself, you know that you are a 'cult', it is useless to prove ..." I explained to them that I had papers that prove that I am innocent of what they had accused me of: "Yes, but that, that isn't true." Then the lawyers got involved and said that it was outright discrimination."
Olivier, resident of Terranova
"The Prosecutor for the Republic said that I was ill, I was a 'guru', that I had organized a 'cult', that the Editions Télesma was harmful to society, so I was someone harmful to society. That is scary. "I'm not safe because these people want to incriminate me. It wasn't that I had done something, they wanted to incriminate me."
These supposed 'cult' cases, do not reveal any victims of the 'cults' but some disputes, as happens in all sectors of society, and especially for those persecuted for perfectly legitimate life choices. This assessment can be extended to twenty-five years of struggle against sectarian derivatives, as evidenced by Me Florand and Me Biro, both lawyers and specialists in fundamental freedoms.
Me Jean-Marc Florand, Lawyer
"If there was a citizenship, statistical, sociological, legal survey, we would find that, one, there have been very few convictions over ten years, but almost nothing, you will find a dozen or so, and of this dozen, they concerned, for eight or nine of them, the personal derivatives of members belonging to minority groups. So it's actually a fantasy to think that there is a delinquency or a particular criminology, a particular delinquency that concerns 'cults'. It is a non-existent phenomenon."
Me Bernard Biro, Lawyer
"We have a huge arsenal that we use to run like Tartarin after the beast that haunted the public forest. We have hardly found little dangerous animals and it has produced disastrous effects in the population, particularly this collective phobia that has gripped the country, and behind this collective phobia, a plethora of trials that have nothing to do with it, such as divorces, where one person accuses the other of being in 'cults'. So that is the assessment, a totally disastrous assessment."
The cult accusation is much more common than we think and can affect anyone. When a couple separates, it is common to see the injuries generate all kinds of attacks and the courts become the scene of the most extreme and gratuitous allegations. Two testimonials, to speak for the hundreds of people who have seen the day where they were accused of being in a 'cult' in a divorce dispute.
Marie-Christine D.
"I was finally able to find the energy in myself to ask my husband for a divorce, something I had wanted to do for years, but he was fiercely opposed to this and did not want to hear about it. He had talked a lot about it to my eldest sons, who were adults, and they got in mind, all of them, that I had to be part of a 'cult'. It was not possible that I would want, for myself, to divorce, it was unthinkable; something had to have taken over my head. And that was when they decided to go to see ADFI."
This turn of events was based on the fact that Marie-Christine, who only leaves the family circle once a week, participates among others in the activities of an association that meets to share various books and personal development techniques.
"So ADFI played on, I would say, the paranoia, on the fear: "You don't realize it, your mother, it's not really a 'cult' that she is in but she may meet extremely dangerous people, so she can be drawn into a 'cult', then she can drag in your two little brothers," so my last two children, who were minors. "Once that happens, to get out of that, it is impossible. To avoid this, as a preventive measure, it is better to take away custody of the children."
"So ADFI advised my husband to go to a lawyer in Aix-en-Provence, a lawyer who had a huge flag that said "anti-cult fight". So he contacted this lawyer who told him he had to do a divorce for cause, to take the children away from me. This lawyer said that it was normal procedure in such cases, that the file would be constructed in such a way that I could not get out."
Marie-Christine, who could not leave the marital home, as it could have constituted a fault in the context of a divorce, thus had to suffer for many weeks, a real persecution.
Marie-Christine D.
"They told my children to search through all of my personal papers, my agenda, my check stubs, my address book. They were really all ganged up against me, they assaulted me, they even insulted me, I was treated terribly, like a liar and so on, so on the pretext of saving me, because they were told that they really had to save me, I was in serious danger."
"Trying to talk to my husband about all of this was impossible; he was in denial of the discussion. There was one of my children with whom I was able to speak, one only. Gradually, I managed to make him understand a few things. At one point, he tried to talk to his brothers and my ex-husband, and at that time, they all treated him like a traitor."
"I really felt at that point that I was going to flip out, I was on the brink of madness. There was actually one particular day where I felt that, that day, if there was not someone who had been there with me, whom I could talk to me and who could hold my hand, I was going to go crazy."
Where are the victims then? Can we talk in this case of psychological confinement, mental manipulation or brainwashing, all things that the new spiritualties are usually charged with? Marie-Christine's ex-husband eventually abandoned the proceedings, filled with remorse, but also most certainly for financial reasons.
Marie-Christine
"Knowing in any case that the lawyer had requested between 10,000 and 15,000 euros for an at fault divorce, in that it was a difficult file. So, as I see it now, the file would have been extremely difficult because there was nothing in it. There was absolutely nothing that could be used to accuse me of anything."
Marie-Christine's case is not isolated, as testified by Christian Paturel, a former lawyer.
Christian Paturel, former Lawyer
“In the procedures, we saw ADFI files appear, fairly often, in files that were about this thick, which were given to the opposing counsel in order to fuel the debate."
Marie-Christine
"ADFI, who claimed to be a family and individual support association, really pushed for the destruction of a family and incited aggression and hatred. Under the pretext of love, all of the values of tolerance, respect for others, listening are swept away and people are assaulted, as people, they are placed lower than the ground and are destroyed."
Christian Paturel, former Lawyer
"I've had cases where we could move towards a joint divorce that, suddenly, became angry and turned to litigation, to trench warfare."
Christine was, herself, divorced for eight years when her son, after spending several years with his father, asked to return to live with her. The ex-husband, disappointed, could not oppose the wishes of his son since the freedom to come and go freely between the two homes was established in the divorce judgement. He then resorted to the 'cult' accusation.
Christine B.
"He filed a complaint with the juvenile court, stating, and I quote here what was indicated on the judgement, that he seized the juvenile court "because of the danger posed to him by the harmful influences of his mother and her entourage, because of the connections she had with a 'cult'. So he felt that there was a danger to his son and I had a bad influence, negative, on him because of how I live.
The judge's decision, I knew immediately at the end of the interview. He said to me: "Listen, I have heard your son, I have heard you and I see absolutely no danger in the fact of your son being with you. You are not in a movement that looks dangerous. So I am dismissing this case."
Christine, just as Marie-Christine, only belonged to the spiritual minorities that sometimes made the headlines. She did not live in a community and led a very conventional professional and social life. She was thus far from imagining that she might be accused of being in a 'cult'.
Christine
"I have a totally healthy life, I have a completely normal life, I work, I eat normally, I look after myself normally. I reflect, I am not indoctrinated. I don't give my salary to someone that I don't know that."
The ex-husband, dissatisfied with the dismissal, was to complain directly to the Prosecutor for the Republic.
Christine
"One day, to my surprise, I got a call to go to my neighbourhood police station. I found myself in an office, like in the movies, behind a table, with a gentleman who typed on his machine, a really tiny room with nothing on the walls. I felt immediately like I was in a guilty position, immediately. At one point, another person arrived. He was very exasperated, very edgy, he looked for his cigarettes, his lighter or something or other, and he started to say to me: "Yes, but you know, people like you who are in 'cults', you know, they all work the same way. We know them, we are used to this." So he asked me several questions, he asked me how I made my living, how I ate, where I went, how I looked after myself, if I took medications, if I took drugs."
Christine would have to wait several months with no feedback from the judiciary, before being again called by the judge. Her son had meanwhile decided to return to his father's house, Christine then got her ex-husband to withdraw his complaint.
For those involved in alternative lifestyle choices, a sense of oppression can easily take root listening to these testimonials. It is a reflection of the daily life for those accused of being in 'cults'.
Guilhaume, resident of Tabitha's Place
"Living our life in France is difficult because from the moment you become the target of the media, it is something that you must endure."
Christine
"It is not trivial. You are stripped naked, in fact. You are asked all about your life and the people around you are checked."
Fabienne, resident of de la Balme
"There is only one bell sound and the bell sound says: "Here, they are monsters," because, when you read the press, we are the monsters here."
Constance, resident of de la Balme
"Right away, you are assumed to be guilty of something, but it is not possible. This is the hardest part that is happening to us right now, to have the impression of being guilty, but what, finally?"
Fabienne, resident of de la Balme
"Mr David worked all his life among the weakest. We are treated like terrorists, that's all."
Guy, resident of de la Balme
"It affects us a lot, the current attacks, because it goes against everything we are trying to do, precisely."
We often feel a real contempt for the most profound aspirations, within this so-called fight against the cults. This explains the cynicism of an activity that leaves deep wounds behind it.
Marie-Christine
"Now, there is a real destruction, that is to say that I cannot feel confident with my children. It is out of the question that I could still talk to them about my private life or what I think or what interests me. I keep that to myself. My birthday, I am no longer able to do that with them."
Olivier, member of Terranova
"I was in a huge depression after. I was really lost. If I had not had my belief in God, if I had not had prayer, in my opinion, I would have killed myself, I can say frankly, because everything was collapsing around me. I felt they were on me while I had nothing to reproach myself with, that I could not even explain ..."
Magali, member of Terranova
"When I was arrested, it was so violent that I did not recover, I spent three months in the hospital where I delivered the baby two months early, so I gave birth to a premature baby."
Guilhem, member of Terranova
"It was rather difficult to get a normal sleep in my apartment. That affects much more than we think."
Hundreds of people have experienced similar situations, these twenty-five years, amid general indifference.
The CICNS has, in a short time, compiled a nominative and detailed case.
We denounce this persecution under a discriminatory policy that continues without any serious justification. Some individual derivatives have been used for twenty-five years by the media and some government powers to maintain a hunt for spiritual minorities that has caused much suffering in our population. The flagrant injustice of such a situation could quickly become the shame of our society if the driving forces for this tragic mistake are not exposed to the light of day in order to move the debate forwards towards more wisdom and understanding.
To be continued...
Appearances and credits
Deputy Members of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the influence of sectarian movements and the consequences of their practices on the physical and mental health of minors.
Jacques Myard, Patricia Adam, Jean-Pierre Brard, Georges Fenech (President), Philippe Tourtelier
Heard by the Commission:
- Jean-Michel Roulet, President of MIVILUDES
- Rouquet Guy, President of the Vigilance Psychotherapy Association
- Charline Delporte, President of ADFI Nord-Pas de Calais
- Groscolas Daniel, President of CCMM (Centre against mental manipulation)
- Sophie Sansy, Director of Service for the Operations Under Court Protection and Education Branch of the Ministry of Justice
- Jean-Yves Dupuis, Inspector General of the National Ministry of Education and Research
- Françoise le Bihan, Deputy Director of French Foreign Affairs, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Peter Polivka, Inspector General of National Education
- Didier Lèschi, Chief of the Central Bureau of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior
Academics interviewed by CICNS:
- Maurice Duval, Lecturer at the Department of Ethnology at the Université Paul-Valéry in Montpellier, Director of CERCE (Centre for Studies and Comparative Research in Ethnology)
- Jean Baubérot, Historian-"History and Sociology of Secularism" Chairholder at EPHE (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes - The Applied School for Higher Education)
- Raphael Liogier, Director of the Religious Observatory at IEP in Aix-en-Provence
- Anne Morelli, Historian - Assistant Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Religions and Secularity at the Free University of Brussels
Lawyers interviewed by CICNS:
- Me Bernard Biro, Lawyer at the Paris Bar
- Me Jean-Marc Florand, Lawyer at the Paris Bar
- Christian Paturel, former Lawyer
Members of the Tabitha's Place Community
Members of l'Essentiel, former Télesma publishing house
Residents of the Chateau de la Balme
Dr Tal Schaller, Physician, Conference Speaker, Writer
People accused of belonging to a cult in a divorce procedure:
Marie-Christine D., Christine B.
Various media:
- 4 vérités – Télématin – France 2 – December 19, 2006
- Soir 3 – December 19, 2006
- LCPAN – « Info 13 » – December 19, 2006
- France 2 – JT 13 heures – November 22, 2006
- France 2 – JT 13 heures – December 20, 2006
- France 2 – JT 13 heures – April 5, 1997 (source INA)
- France 2 - Ça se discute - "How do we fall under the influence of a manipulator?" - May 25, 2005
© Copyright CICNS 2007
CICNS
BP7 – 82270 Montpezat de Quercy
www.cicns.net – contact@cicns.net
published 18/1/2012
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