List of groups referred to as cults in government documents

This list includes groups which government documents have referred to as cults. Government reports have listed such groups in Austria,¹ Belgium,² Canada,³ France⁴ (in 1995), Germany,⁵ and the United States.⁶

Groups appear listed alphabetically by country, with the date of their appearance in the respective government report noted in the section header.

Australia

Within Australia, the Parliament of New South Wales referred to Kenja Communication as a cult on November 24, 1992.⁷ Other names identifying the group include: Personal Evolvment Centre; Kenja Sydney; Melbourne Centre for Effective Communication; Kenja melbourne. Human Communication Centre; Kenja Canberra. Parramatta centre for Effective Communication; Kenja Parramatta.

Austria

Federal Ministry of the Environment, Youth and the Family (1996)

In 1996, the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Youth and the Family, in Austria published a list of 200 groups it considers to be sects.¹ According to the United States Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report 2006, as released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor¹ "the vast majority" of these sects comprise small organizations with fewer than 100 members. Larger groups include the Church of Scientology and the Unification Church.

Belgium

Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (1997)

The Justice Commission of the Belgian House of Representatives set up a parliamentary inquiry commission to work out a policy against cults. On April 28, 1997, the parliamentary commission issued its 670-page report² that contained a list of 189 movements, and stated that "[t]he fact that a movement is listed here, even if at the instigation of an official instance, does not signify that the Commission regards it as a cult". The parliament failed to adopt the report as such and only voted to accept the conclusions and recommendations (19 pages), and not the list. Despite the lack of adoption of the list, the commission published the whole report, including the list.¹⁴ According to Human Rights Without Frontiers International, a Brussels Appeals Court in 2005 condemned the Belgian House of Representatives on the grounds that it had damaged the image of an organization (the Universal Church of God's Kingdom) listed in the 1997 parliamentary inquiry commission on sects.¹⁵

The Belgian list of groups (French-language naming or primary naming, with numbering as in the original document):

Canada

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (1999)

France

In May 2005 the then Prime Minister of France, in a circulaire¹⁶ (which stressed that the government must exercise vigilance in continuing the fight against the cult-phenomenon¹⁷), 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,¹⁸ and that the government needed to balance its fight against cults with respect for public freedoms and laïcité (secularism). ¹⁹ The Prime Minister asked his civil servants to update a number of ministerial instructions issued by previous commissions, to apply criteria set in consultation with the Interministerial Commission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances (MIVILUDES), and to avoid falling back solely on lists of groups for the identification of cultic deviances.

Subsequent French parliamentary commissions on cults reported on specific aspects of cult activity in 1999²⁰ and in 2006.²¹

French parliamentary commission report (1995)

Opinion in France varies as to the applicability of the 1995 Parliamentary report. A provincial court case noted that all such Parliamentary reports have no juridicial impact.²² And as stated above, a Prime Ministerial circulaire warned that name-changes had impacted on the usefulness of this particular Parliamentary report.²³

Germany

Berlin Senate report (1997)

An official report of a Senate Committee of the city and state of Berlin in Germany listed and discussed cults (German: Sekten), 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-offerings⁵ — subdivided "selected suppliers" (ausgewählte Anbieter) of its objects of interest as:

The current (2002) Senate report (published as risiken_und_nebenwirkungen2.pdf), which bears the title-page Alles Sekte -- oder was?, does not contain such a list: its structure and title differ thoroughly from the 1997 report.²⁵ The list appeared in the Senate report of 1997, which bore the title-page: Sekten: Risiken und Nebenwirkungen.

United States

Committee on Government Reform (August 1999)

Project Megiddo (October 1999)

Project Megiddo consisted of an FBI analysis, with a report released on October 20, 1999.²⁷ The report warned against: "the potential for extremist criminal activity in the United States by individuals or domestic groups who attach special significance to the year 2000."²⁷ Its analysis focused on apocalyptic religious groups, doomsday cults and (New World Order) conspiracy theories.

The report discussed the potential for violence in groups that it called "biblically-driven cults" ²⁸

The report then went on to warn that "less time spent on “Bible study” and more time spent on “physical training” - indicate that the cult may be preparing for some type of action."²⁷ Groups singled out and analyzed in the report under the heading "Apocalyptic Cults" included the Branch Davidians and the Concerned Christians.²⁷

Assessing the Threat (December 1999)

The Advisory Panel was created through an Act of the United States Congress, Public Law 105-261 (H.R. 3616, 105th Congress, 2nd Section, October 17, 1998), and was directed to submit three annual reports to the President and the Congress, beginning in December 1999.²⁹ The Act of Congress establishing the Advisory Panel is titled Section 1405 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 1999.²⁹ The Advisory Panel was also referred to as the Gilmore Commission, after its chair former Governor of Virginia James S. Gilmore III.³⁰

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