Commission on Religious Movements
The Commission on Religious Movements (abbreviated as the CRM) was a commission created by the National People's Congress in 2016 to analyze, investigate, and regulate the activities of new religious movements and unsanctioned religious groups within the United Commonwealth. One of its primary goals was to prevent and punish instances of child abuse within religious groups and organizations. It also focused attention on other forms of abuse such as sexual abuse of adult members, human trafficking, and fraud. The commission was created in response to the rise of the underground church movement (mainly in the Appalachian region) and the clandestine activities of outlawed or banned groups.
Members of the Commission included Livia Perrier and more than a hundred expert witnesses, child abuse victims, former cult members, and representatives from religious groups were summoned to provide testimony across several hearings. The main methodology used by the Commission was a modified version of BITE Model by Continental psychologist Robin Helpman.
International reception to the Commission was mixed. Some non-Continental citizens and organizations including the Church of Scientology and the K.S. Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the Commission as a "witch-hunt" against religious groups that relied on methodology that was dependent on no truly objective basis. The anti-cult movement and cult watchdog organizations supported the Commission's findings.
The Commission was active between 2016 and 2018 during which time it investigated over 55 distinct religious and political groups. Notable groups that were reviewed by the Commission were the Catholic Church – Avignon, the Jehovah's Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church of Scientology, the United Church of Universal Reconciliation, the Bhuvanesh movement, the Branch Davidians, and the Nation of Islam. At the conclusion of the Commission, more than 25 individuals (mostly religious leaders) were charged and subsequently tried in the Continental legal system based on the findings of the Commission. In addition, the Commission issued a report that listed which groups were considered benign and safe or cultic and dangerous.
History
Freedom of religion in the United Commonwealth has fluctuated throughout the United Commonwealth's modern history as a Marxist–Landonist state. During and following the Continental Revolutionary War, organized religion and religious activities were heavily discouraged by the Continentalists. Although orthodox Landonism was ambivalent, if not amicable towards religion in general, the main leaders of the United Commonwealth were mainly nonreligious and anticlerical. Religious persecution and state atheism was adopted during the leadership of Seamus Callahan. During the early 20th-century, various religious communities including Protestant churches established prior to the Revolution were displaced or liquidated. Religious groups that remained in the United Commonwealth were subject to harassment and surveillance by the Continental government. Following Callahan's death and the subsequent shift towards Decallahanization, the Continental government's attitude towards religion relaxed and the Continental government began to allow certain religious groups to practice as organized, ecclesiastical communities again freely.
The gradual relaxation in Continental religious policy resulted in a resurgence of new religious movements within the United Commonwealth, especially among the Continental Christian community. Numerous churches and congregations were founded independently from previously established churches within mainstream Christendom. The Charismatic movement and Restorationist groups were prominent examples of Christian new religious movements that gained a foothold in the United Commonwealth. Concerns over the rapid growth of new religious movements as well as high-profile cases of abuse and fraud led to the rise of the Continental anti-cult movement during the 1980s and 1990s. The Continental government responded with stricter laws which restricted governmental non-interference with the activities of religious groups to only state-recognized ones. Non-recognized religious groups were liable to government forfeiture, prosecution, or surveillance. This led to the development of the underground church movement where small religious gatherings or groupings of banned or monitored groups were conducted at secret meetings, circumventing the law and law enforcement.
Groups investigated
The groups investigated included:
- Bhuvanesh movement (International Society of Bhuvanesh World Peace)
- Branch Davidians
- Breath of Life Ministries
- Catholic Church – Avignon
- Christian Church (Antilles)
- Christian Science
- Church of God and the Three Angels' Messages
- Free Temple of the Goddess
- Jehovah's Witnesses
- Mennonite Church Appalachia
- Moorish Science Temple of America
- Nation of Islam
- New Pentecostal Church
- Paradises People
- Seventh-day Adventist Church (Devonite)
- Seventh-day Adventist Remnant Church
- Scientology
- St. Joseph's Hill of Hope
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)
- United Church of Universal Reconciliation
- White Order
Criminal prosecutions
Criticism
The Commission received criticism and concerns from both domestic and international observers over the hearings' purpose and the methodology employed by the Commission. Several religious organizations, including some whose Continental branches or congregations were under investigation, expressed concern that members identified as part of a "cult" would be ostracized or punished.
The K.S. Ministry of Foreign Affairs questioned the intentions of the Commission and called the Commission's work as an "affront to religious liberty". It also stated "the government should have no business policing the activities of communities of faith and certainly no business deciding which communities should be labeled pejoratively as 'cults'". It suggested that cases of abuse be focused on individuals rather than entire organizations themselves.
The International Alliance of Christian Churches, a Christian ecumenical organization, expressed concerns that some of its constituent members were being investigated as possible "cults" by the Commission and urged the Commission to be "transparent" with its findings.