racial and religious tolerance

[Paul Salamanca]

Mr. Henderson:

        I think you and I are talking at cross-purposes.  If you think of
cults as groups deserving absolute equal protection, I completely agree with
you that the Germans do not give it to them, as such.  But you can look at
it another way.  My impression is that the Germans would not tolerate a
religion that itself is racially *in*tolerant.  If this is true, I would
still maintain that the Germans subordinate free exercise and expression to
equal protection.  By the way, I believe they do something very similar in
the context of abortion.  Abortion is not readily available in Germany
because of what strike me as equal protection considerations and notions
about the status of a fetus that we do not share.

                                        Paul Salamanca

At 08:46 AM 2/19/98 EST, you wrote:
>In a message dated 98-02-19 08:41:42 EST, Paul Salamanca wrote:
>
><<  I may be wrong about this, but it is my impression that, due to the
>experiences of WWII, the Germans subordinate free exercise and free expression
>to equal protection.  They do not play with the doctrinal fire that we play
>with. >>
>
>The existence within the German government of a "cult" office suggests
>otherwise.  I may think Scientology is a load of hokum, but I don't think that
>Eq. Pr. concerns predominate when a government identifies and tracks "cult"
>religions as Germany does.  Hidden behind the hyped coverage of John Travolta
>testifying before Congress about the situation in Germany, by the way, was the
>fact that "charismatic" evangelical groups were being subjected to similar
>treatment.
>
>Jim Henderson
>Senior Counsel
>ACLJ
>
>