Fighting on Foreign Soil: Religious right groups prepare for European legal battlesAuthor(s): TERRY CARTERSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 84, No. 6 (JUNE 1998), pp. 30, 32Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27840277 .

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H NEWS

Fighting on Foreign Soil

Religious right groups prepare for European legal battles

BY TERRY CARTER

When large numbers of Euro

peans left for the Americas several hundred years ago seeking religious freedom, it wasn't long be fore they were exporting goods and crops back to the old countries. But some more recent American exports

?the religions they cultivated?are running into strong legal resistance in Europe.

Most European countries have never known the kind of church state separation?and tolerance of religious beliefs?that is an anchor point in the U.S. Constitution. And established Euro pean measures, such as state reg istration and reg ulation of churches, have been stepped up in a battle against reli gious cults that includes churches considered mainstream here.

Exporting Religious Rights That has led to yet another

American export: Legal offices of the Christian right have moved into Europe to join the battle.

"Discrimination against peo ple of faith is an international issue," says Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Cen ter for Law and Justice, cre ated in 1990 as a spinoff of the ministry of televangelist Pat Robertson and his Re gent University School of Law to litigate First Amendment issues.

"Part of the problem is that some of these [new] churches are becoming big and pulling members away from the established church es," says Joel Thornton, senior as sociate counsel for the aclj. "A lot of the fight is over financial and po litical power."

Last summer the Christian liti gation boutique based in Virginia Beach, Va., opened a similarly named international arm, the Euro pean Center for Law and Justice. By hiring a prominent British barris ter and evangelical theologian who already was working a religious

peo

? Jay Sekulow freedom case, it quickly was able to claim a big victory in February.

The European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, France, found that the convictions of two Greek military men for prosely tizing violated Article 9 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Case of Larissis and Others v. Greece, No. 140/1996/759/ 958-960, available at the court's

Web site, www.dhcour.coe.

The ECLJ also represents the relatively large, American-led Chris tian Church of Cologne in its bat tle to be recognized by the German

government, which declined to re new its tax-exempt status. And it has taken on another Greek prose lytizing case.

The infusion of American law yering on religious freedom issues probably will be a good thing for European countries, says Jeremy Gunn, who often has opposed the ACLJ and other Christian-right groups in church-state litigation here, including battles over school vouchers. Gunn, who also has a doctorate in religion from Harvard,

is former general counsel for the ^ National Committee on Public

^cr Education and Religious

^BF^X Liberty. In the U.S. courts,

Hu^Jft^^ according to Gunn, |HH^^^ the liberals he repre

j^^^r sented sought a strong establishment clause for

the creation of a bright line between church and state,

while the religious-right conserva tives want the free exercise of reli gion to trump.

"It's very interesting that when Americans look at Europe, that

^ divide disappears," says Gunn. BL "Americans tend to agree on 8?T the problems in Europe, such

^ as government registration of churches, and [there is] a real

I difference in the way we and Europeans approach this issue."

? In the European way of thinking, Gunn explains, govern

mental power is necessary for workable democracy. The American lawyers, on the other hand, view the European regulations as imped ing religion.

"And the way American law yers approach this is exactly what the European system needs to have happen," he says.

Handling the Court Gunn and his former oppo

nents on the Christian right agree on another thing. Although the Eu ropean Court of Human Rights? which has authority over all coun tries in the European Union?is the best and last resort, it is timid.

In the case of the proselytizers, the court decided to build its opin

30 ABA JOURNAL/JUNE 1998 ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN SCHMELZER

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NEWS

ion carefully on the facts of the case rather than offer a sweeping con demnation of the Greek anti-prose lytizing law. "Any U.S. judge would have ruled it violated the European Convention on Human Rights, so it's unconstitutional," Gunn says.

But the court itself is a delicate balancing act. While countries very much want to belong to the Euro pean Union and to do so must ac

cept the court's authority, judicial opinions strongly condemning a

particular state's laws could feed resistance to the fast-movine integration under way in Europe. So the eclj

expects to bring many more cases to the court.

The law is "going to develop slowly and we're prepared for the long haul," says Sek ulow, who is chief counsel for the eclj as well as the aclj. He has argued six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court involving religious rights and anti abortion issues. J

"We think we've reall||

got a chance to help shan the law there, especially ? the European Court of Hipl man Rights, which will b?fj the final arbiter on what "\ happens with religious liberty," Sekulow says.

Suspicious of Newcomers The infusion of new

and sometimes exotic re

ligions has troubled Europe for more than two decades, but govern ments and established churches have shown increased concerns about the newcomers during the past few years.

The established Catholic and Protestant churches have lost mem bers to newer ones that demystify and popularize religious teachings, often with informal pastors who offer more personal relationships with church members.

And there have been notorious incidents such as the ritualistic

mass murder/suicide by Order of the Solar Temple cult members in recent years in France, Switzerland and Canada.

But the targets aren't all as exotic as the Solar Temple. Away from the headlines about the battle between Germany and the Church of Scientology, with a Hollywood A

list and the White House weighing in for religious tolerance, govern

ments have gone after other fair ly well-known religions. In April 1997, the Belgian Parliamentary Commission on Cults issued a 600 page report that listed 189 undesir able cults. Among them were 21 evangelical denominations, includ ing the Religious Fellowship of Friends (Quakers).

The ecu and others fear Bel gium may follow the lead of Aus tria, which knocked eight churches

European governments and established churches

have become more C -aboutthe

- U.....

off its list of 12 officially recognized ones last December.

Last year the Italian govern ment-funded Center for Studies on New Religions issued a report that found increasing intolerance in Eu rope for imported religious minori ties, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mor mons), Hare Krishnas, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Unification Church, and the Church of Scientology.

"They're resentful of what they see as American cultural imperial ism, much as ... with Coca-Cola and

McDonald's," says John Warwick Montgomery, an American with dual citizenship who heads the eclj office in London.

A barrister and theologian, he argued the Greek proselytizing case before the European Court of Human Rights, and during the 1980s succeeded in a similar case

at the appellate level in Greece. In the summers, Montgomery also teaches human rights and theology classes in Strasbourg for Pat Rob ertson's Regent University.

"There are going to be many more of these cases," Montgomery says, "because there is no such thing as active Christianity with out evangelism."

Thornton says the eclj is care ful to keep a low profile and is de veloping a network of like-minded Christian lawyers throughout Eu rope to handle cases.

"We can't go in as Ameri cans trying to save the day,"

he says. "And we are care

ful to approach this as re

ligious discrimination, not persecution."

; Letters and a Conference A higher profile has

[ been assumed by another Christian-right litigation group, the Rutherford In stitute in Charlottesville,

I Va., which also moved

?l^y into Europe to do battle.

jfej??'. It has offices in Eng

mM??-, land and Hungary. r Last summer it spon

H| sored a conference in

HBr Paris on "21st Cen tury Challenges to

H^Pf Religious Liberty in " When its presi

dent, John Whitehead, strayed from his normal

course of business to help bankroll and champion the case

of Paula Jones against President Clinton, the Rutherford Institute gained notoriety.

In April the institute issued news releases announcing letters it sent to both the king and presi dent of Spain, complaining about the government's decision to shut down the Madrid-based Trinity Broadcasting Network affiliate, which carries evangelical Christian

programming. It accused the Span ish government of violating rights to religious freedom and freedom of expression guaranteed in its own constitution.

Says Gunn, "Europeans tend to be suspicious about American at titudes toward church and state, and for Americans there promoting religious freedom it would be a good idea to keep a low profile. I think it's important that they tread light ly there."

32 ABA JOURNAL / JUNE 1998

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