Governmental lists of cults and sects


The application of the labels "cults" or "sects" to religious movements in government documents usually signifies the popular and negative use of the term "cult" in English and a functionally similar use of words translated as "sect" in several European languages. Government reports which have used these words include ones from Austria,
Belgium,
Canada, China, France, Germany, and Russia. While these documents utilize similar terminology they do not necessarily include the same groups nor is their assessment of these groups based on agreed criteria. Other governments and world bodies also report on new religious movements but do not use these terms to describe them.

Austria

The Austrian government does not always distinguish sects in Austria as a separate group. Rather, religious groups are divided into three legal categories: officially recognized religious societies, religious confessional communities, and associations. In 2010, the most recent year for which sects were officially distinguished in Austria, the groups included the Church of Scientology, the Divine Light Mission, Eckankar, Hare Krishna, Osho movement, Sahaja Yoga, Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, Transcendental Meditation, Fiat Lux, Universal Life, and The Family International.

Canada

A Canadian Security Intelligence Service report of 1999 discussed "Doomsday Religious Movements espousing hostile beliefs and having the potential to be violent.." Groups classified as "Doomsday Religious Movements" included:
In 2005, the Hate Crimes Unit of the Edmonton Police Service confiscated anti-Falun Gong materials distributed at the annual conference of the American Family Association by staff members of the Calgary Chinese Consulate. The materials, including the calling of Falun Gong a "cult," were identified as having breached the Criminal Code, which bans the wilful promotion of hatred against identifiable religious groups.

China

The General Office of Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China maintains a list of "heterodox teachings," entitled "Information Regarding Organizations Identified as Cults e.g. the White Lotus Sect and the Red Lantern Sect."
Buddhist-based proscribed sects include Lu Shengyan's Taiwan-based Lingxian Zhenfozong, Ching Hai's Guanyin Famen, and Yuandun Famen.

France

French parliamentary commission report (1995)

In 1995, a parliamentary commission of the National Assembly of France on cults produced its . 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 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, 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 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 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", 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 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, 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.

French parliamentary commission report (1999)

The French Parliamentary report of 1999 on cults and money concentrated its attention on some 30 groups which it judged as major players in respect of their financial influence. It underlined the non-exhaustive character of its investigations, seeing them as a snapshot at a point in time and based on information available.
The groups examined included:

Berlin Senate report (1997)

An official report of a Senate Committee of the city and state of Berlin in Germany listed and discussed cults, emphasizing with its sub-title their categorization as "entities espousing a world view and new religions". The 1997 Berlin Senate report — entitled Cults: Risks and Side-effects: Information on selected new religious and world-view espousing Movements and Psycho-offerings — subdivided "selected suppliers" of its objects of interest as:
In 2008 the Russian Interior Ministry prepared a list of "extremist groups". At the top of the list appeared Islamic groups outside of "traditional Islam", which is supervised by the Russian government. Next listed were "Pagan cults".
In 2009 the Russian Ministry of Justice set up a council which it named "Council of Experts Conducting State Religious Studies Expert Analysis". The new council listed 80 large sects which it considered potentially dangerous to Russian society, and mentioned that there were thousands of smaller ones.
Large sects listed included: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, and what the council called "neo-Pentecostals".