Time


Time Mag covers Germany:

February 10, 1997

SECTION: WORLD; Pg. 42

LENGTH: 1143 words

HEADLINE: DOES GERMANY HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST THESE GUYS?;
SCIENTOLOGY, THAT'S WHAT. THE GOVERNMENT'S HANDLING OF A
GROUP CHAMPIONED BY JOHN TRAVOLTA AND TOM CRUISE PRODUCES
CHARGES OF NAZISM, AND THE U.S. IS CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE

BYLINE: BRUCE W. NELAN, REPORTED BY JORDAN BONFANTE/BONN AND
BRUCE VAN VOORST/WASHINGTON

BODY:
John Travolta and Tom Cruise may be just pop-culture icons
to you and me, but in Germany their faith in the preachings of
science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard is politically taboo;
Scientology is deemed not a religion but a suspect movement
whose activities verge on the dangerous edges of extremism.
Now Germany's stern attitudes are raising something of an
international ruckus, fueled in equal parts by the assertive
Church of Scientology, Hollywood luminaries and a U.S.
government caught with conflicting objectives.

Until last month, only the Scientologists and human-rights
observers were paying much attention to what was going on in
Germany. Then a startling letter appeared in the International
Herald Tribune, signed by 34 show-biz celebrities and studio
executives, comparing the purported discrimination suffered by
Scientologists in Germany today to the "unspeakable horrors"
perpetrated against the Jews in the 1930s. That comparison
provoked outrage in the American Jewish community. Last week
the State Department stepped in to address the charges in its
influential yearly Human Rights Report. Spokesman Nicholas
Burns went even further than the report, flatly accusing
Germany of "discrimination" against Scientologists and of
punishing them solely for their beliefs.

With that, Germany had had enough. In Bonn, the government
declared that it was its "duty to publicize Scientology's
practices and protect citizens from them." There were
prolonged meetings at the chancellery, with much dark talk of
slashing back at the U.S., reportedly by urging it to abolish
capital punishment and do more to combat racism.

So why is all this erupting into an international dispute,
albeit a well-contained one? The answer lies in the very
different standards of religious freedom, the opposing views
of the controversial Church of Scientology and Germany's
intense sensitivity to its painful modern history.

The German campaign against the Scientologists as detailed
in the State Department's report is a dry dish of bureaucratic
caution, simply laying out the facts and calling no names. It
says Scientologists have been barred from joining major German
parties like the Christian Democratic Union and the Social
Democrats and that some who joined earlier are being purged.
The state of Baden-Wurttemberg has ordered its equivalent of
the FBI to put a watch on church members. Bavaria is screening
them out of the state civil service and says it will deny
funds to events that feature performers who are
Scientologists. Cruise and jazz pianist Chick Corea, also a
member of the U.S. church, have been the targets of a
demonstration and a boycott, apparently with official approval.

Scientologists and their supporters say this is as bad as
the Nazi regime. Church members, they claim, cannot obtain
employment by the government, and their children have been
kicked out of schools. Such "religious intolerance," said the
Hollywood letter, is akin to Nazi policy that "first
marginalized, then excluded, then vilified and ultimately
subjected [the Jews] to unspeakable horrors." Those
provocative charges put the U.S. in an awkward position:
Scientology is a legally recognized church in the U.S., and
its members are entitled to practice their faith freely.
Burns, required to stand up for the principle of religious
freedom but not to offend a major ally, denounced the ad's
over-the-top parallels as "outrageous."

In fact, everyone involved in the dispute is having trouble
presenting a coherent case. The German government also
guarantees freedom of religion but refuses to register
Scientology as a religion, considering it a profit-making
enterprise that is bilking its members of their savings.
German officials explain that it is precisely because of the
Nazi past that they are hard not only on Scientology but on
all "radical cults and sects, including right-wing Nazi
groups." People have gone to jail in Germany for displaying a
swastika or denying the Holocaust. And most Germans, 70% of
whom tell pollsters they think the church should be banned,
consider Scientology a subversive organization. "The federal
government," says Peter Hausmann, its spokesman in Bonn, "will
continue to combat Scientology with all legal means." Kohl
snapped that those who signed the letter "don't know a thing
about Germany and don't want to know."

Burns told Scientology officials, "We share the outrage of
many Germans to see their government compared to the Nazis."
But that did not keep him from drawing sharp distinctions
regarding German notions of religious freedom. "We believe,"
he said, "that the members of the Church of Scientology have a
right to practice their religion in Germany. Some Americans
have had their religious rights infringed." Other U.S.
officials use harsher terms. They believe Germany is violating
the spirit, if not the letter, of its own constitutional
guarantees. And, says an Administration official, the Germans
are conducting their "witch hunt in the absence of
demonstrated illegal action by the Scientologists."

The Germans have no hard evidence of criminality but an
abiding fear of extremism in any form. The Christian Democrats
call Scientology "totalitarian." A Social Democratic member of
the Bundestag says it is "fascist." When a German delegation
met with U.S. officials on the issue late last year, the
Americans argued that if there is evidence of illegality, the
Scientologists should be prosecuted under existing laws. The
Germans replied that, well, there wasn't enough evidence for a
trial, but even so, their government "has a responsibility to
protect its citizens." Washington agrees that the lid should
be kept on dangerous movements but thinks Bonn is tightening
such restraints far beyond worrisome Nazi-like groups. "This
is all extralegal in our view," says an American diplomat.

Some German officials argue that the whole fuss was cranked
up by the Scientologists "to achieve what we won't give them:
tax-exempt status as a religion. This is intimidation, pure
and simple." Scientologists campaigned in the U.S. for years
before receiving tax exemption in 1993, and Washington has not
asked Bonn to grant it.

Both countries emphasize that the dispute will have no
serious effect on their close alliance. The German embassy in
Washington says the relationship is obviously in good shape if
this is the biggest problem it has to deal with. Last week's
State Department report also points to "some positive
developments": Bonn has decided not to put Scientology under
federal surveillance and concluded there is no evidence that
the church has committed criminal acts. In spite of the public
argument, both capitals think they can quietly agree to
disagree on the issue--if the Scientologists will let them.

--Reported by Jordan Bonfante/Bonn and Bruce van
Voorst/Washington

GRAPHIC: COLOR PHOTO: Z. ROSENTHAL--TURNER PICTURES, JOHN
TRAVOLTA The Scientologist played an angel in the 1996 movie
Michael [John Travolta in movie Michael]; COLOR PHOTO: MURRAY
CLOSE--PARAMOUNT PICTURES, TOM CRUISE When he starred in
Mission: Impossible, protests erupted in Berlin [Tom Cruise in
movie Mission: Impossible]








<Picture: Prev><Picture: Next>