Par Régis Dericquebourg
The population of France and the persons that govern it have variously adopted diverse social innovations. Let us cite several examples. Ecology, long considered the concern of backward-looking opponents to progress in the decade of the 1950’s, is now accepted by politicians as a necessary element of the electoral platform. Homosexuality has ceased to be seen as an offence against the “natural order”. The union of homosexuals has been legalized, and discrimination against homosexuals is punished by judges. Many feminist demands have been granted. Conscientious objection has been accepted. The autonomy of adolescents is recognized, voluntary interruption of pregnancy has become legalized and regulated.
However, if France like other countries has assimilated a number of new opinions and social practices, she remains reticent, perchance opposed to the presence of religious minorities (so-called sects). That this is nothing new has been demonstrated by historians who have traced it to the middle ages (See the work of Norman Cohn, Christopher Hill, and others.) Of course one no longer murders marginal believers, but their presence is still unsettling. All it takes is to survey the press on the subject and count the number of parliamentary reports consecrated to sects since the 1980’s. Or again consider the attention and funding given to anti-sect militants by the public powers.
The critical question is what place should be granted to these religious movements if one refuses to acknowledge them as religions.
