German fear of Scientology leaves jazz musician short of gigs

c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) American jazz musician Chick Corea has been the subject of bans and boycotts in Germany because of his membership in the Church of Scientology, the controversial group that is currently an object of public scorn in Germany. Corea, an internationally acclaimed musician who has won several Grammy awards, has […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) American jazz musician Chick Corea has been the subject of bans and boycotts in Germany because of his membership in the Church of Scientology, the controversial group that is currently an object of public scorn in Germany.

Corea, an internationally acclaimed musician who has won several Grammy awards, has been blacklisted in the state of Bavaria and has been the target of a politician-led boycott. The musician said promoters are refusing to book him and newspapers are refusing to interview him.


Corea said he does not proselytize at concerts or imbue his melodies with secret messages, as some German politicians have charged.”All I know is it feels nuts,”Corea said Saturday (July 20) in an interview from Marseille, France, where he was touring.”It’s just basically a kind of scene that the German government seems to have with minority groups and especially Scientology.” Authorities in several German states, along with some associated with the central government in Bonn, have been angered by what they say is Scientology’s secret agenda to convert German youth, swindle money from the unsuspecting and create havoc in a country facing religious and ethnic challenges in the Cold War’s aftermath.”Scientology seeks world domination and has the destruction of our society as its goal,”said Claudia Nolte, the Bonn government’s minister for family services, women and youth affairs.

Nolte is a Roman Catholic, and some members of the German chuch have been the source of much of the opposition to Scientology.

The Church of Scientology denies it engages in illegal or improper tactics and says it merely seeks religious freedom for its members. But such denials do little to remove the deep mistrust that German Christian society has for Scientology and other such”new religious movements.” Germany is not the only European nation dealing with what for the continent is a relatively new phenomenon _ the arrival from abroad of non-traditional religious groups that practice everything from mysticism and occultism to benign self-help philosophies.

The response to these groups is as varied as the languages and cultures of the nations that form the European Union. But authorities on new religious movements say Germany _ along with Finland, Greece and Bulgaria _ are among the least tolerant of European nations toward such groups.

On the other end of the spectrum, Switzerland, Britain and the Netherlands have some of the most relaxed rules regarding non-traditional groups and religions. Predominantly Catholic Portugal and Spain remain suspicious of new movements, but have relaxed regulations on their activities.

Italy and France, meanwhile, take a middle-of-the-road approach, said J. Gordon Melton, executive director of the Institute for the Study of American Religions in Santa Barbara, Calif., who has also studied Europe’s new religious movements.

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However, Massimo Introvigne, who heads New Religions, a research institute in Turin, Italy, said the growth of Europe’s new religious movements _ many of which are imports from the United States _ is much slower than might be assumed from the steadily increasing attacks on them.


He noted that the number of Europeans belonging to such groups has remained flat at about 1 percent of the total population over the past five years.”We see a rise of concern and attacks, but not really figures,”Introvigne said.

The traditional dominance that Christianity has had in Europe is often at the root of opposition toward new religious organizations. That’s the case in predominantly Catholic France, where a recent parliamentary commission report labeled virtually all non-Catholic religious organizations _ from Baptists and Pentecostal Christians to Hindu Hare Krishnas _ as”sects,”a word that many Europeans equate with dangerous cults.

Ironically, the report was released in January when President Jacques Chirac was in Washington meeting with President Clinton, a Baptist.”There is some confusion in Europe because different countries have different definitions about what is a sect and what is a denomination,”Introvigne said.

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Scientology was founded by the late American science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. The group”comes out of an esoteric cult tradition,”Melton said, in which members, who believe in reincarnation, have a relationship to a personal deity. Church members can pay thousands of dollars to take courses in which they learn about the group’s beliefs and practices.

A church statement defined Scientology as”an applied religious philosophy that provides an objective means by which a person can achieve traditional religious goals of spiritual enlightenment and salvation.” The church teaches no particular concept of God, leaving that up to the individual. Some Scientology beliefs have their roots in Buddhism, such as the concept that spiritual salvation is connected to freedom from physical attachments.

The Church of Scientology claims about 30,000 adherents in Germany, though government sources put the figure at 10,000 to 20,000. Either figure pales next to the 28 million Germans who are Catholic.


A handful of politicians from the states of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hesse have made opposition to Scientology their personal crusade. They contend the group should be stripped of protection afforded religions in Germany’s Constitution because its singular agenda is to enrich itself.

In recent months the church has been accused of using possibly illegal tactics in the real estate markets of Berlin and Hamburg. Officials say Scientologists have attempted to force tenants out of rental apartments that the church owns and is seeking to sell as condominiums.

In response, Bill Walsh, a Scientology attorney in Washington, D.C., said that in all of Germany the church owns just one property, which is used as a church.”The Church of Scientology does not own any apartments,”Walsh said.”Individual Scientologists may own property, but anything they do with them they do as individuals.” Corea has not been accused of any wrongdoing in Germany. Rather, he appears to have become the lightning rod for German distrust of Scientology.

The Bavarian state culture ministry recently said it would ban Corea from future performances at state-sponsored events. One politician led a boycott against a Corea concert earlier this year, though the musician said the effort fell short.”It was sold out,”Corea said.

The crusade appears to be hurting Corea, however.

Corea once performed 12 or 14 concerts on German tours but promoters can now only get him two or three shows, he said. German newspapers that used to interview him about his music and his ties to Scientology have ceased calling him, Corea said.

Virtually every major political party in Germany has said members cannot also be Scientologists. Some party members who revealed ties to the church were forced to step aside. There have also been several boycotts against business leaders who were Scientologists.”There’s a real systematic program of ostracizing Scientologists,”said attorney Walsh, who represents Corea.”It’s being used as a way to curry favor with political voters.” Last week, five U.S. congressmen _ led by Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y) _ complained to Secretary of State Warren Christopher that Corea was”one of several American citizens who have apparently been the subject of discriminatory actions by German government officials.” The lawmakers asked Christopher to address their complaint with German officials.


Corea said the incidents have been annoying and upsetting.”Look, I can’t tell people in another country what to do with their country. But I don’t think the people who are putting this on the line are the country. I have a real affinity with my fans. The access to the people I want to communicate with is being cut.”

MJP1 END HEILBRONNER

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