Lors d’une rencontre de presse à Paris, lundi 18 décembre, les Témoins de Jéhovah ont divulgué les documents des Renseignements généraux les concernant, obtenus par décision de justice.
Ils s’étaient vu refuser l’accès à ces documents au motif que leur divulgation présentait ” des risques d’atteinte à la sécurité publique “.
Mais la Cour Administrative d’Appel de Paris et le Conseil d’État ont donné raison aux Témoins de Jéhovah, estimant que ces documents étaient constitués ” d’appréciations qualificatives très laconiques sur les effets de l’association sur les individus et la société ” et présentaient un ” caractère succinct et anodin “.
Pourtant, en 1995, dans son rapport ” Les sectes en France “, la commission d’enquête parlementaire avait présenté ces documents comme un ” travail d’un très grand intérêt ” et une ” analyse très complète et très fine “. En fait, il s’agit essentiellement de la liste du nombre d’édifices de culte par département. Aucune étude ou ” analyse ” n’y figure.
Une troisième commission d’enquête parlementaire, menée par une poignée de députés – les mêmes depuis dix ans –, va publier un nouveau rapport sur les risques sectaires menaçant les mineurs.
Les intervenants à la conférence de presse ont souligné que cette commission a récusé le contradictoire et la présomption d’innocence, et qu’elle s’est élevée avec véhémence contre tout témoignage infirmant son verdict préétabli.
Les travaux de la commission Fenech, comme les deux précédentes commissions, obéissent à la même logique marquée par le refus de prendre en compte les faits réels, et par la volonté de régenter les comportements sociaux, ignorant ce qui émane de la spiritualité ou du simple droit à la différence.
Or, les Témoins de Jéhovah apportent la preuve de la bientraitance de leurs enfants et de leur bonne insertion dans la société, et sont indignés par les accusations fallacieuses dont ils sont l’objet.
Il est à craindre que les déclarations de la commission ne créent de nouvelles injustices et des troubles durables.
On observe une recrudescence inquiétante des actes de vandalisme sur les édifices de culte des Témoins de Jéhovah, 78 Salles du Royaume ayant subi des actes de vandalisme depuis le début de l’année.
By JANESE HEAVIN of the Tribune’s staff
Published on columbiatribune.com Tuesday, December 19, 2006
A masked man opened fire on a group of worshippers outside the Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall last night, wounding a 36-year-old woman.
The victim, who has not been identified, was shot multiple times and was transported to a hospital with non life-threatening wounds, Columbia police said. She has since been released.
The suspect is thought to be a man between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-9, weighing roughly 160 pounds. The man, whose race is unknown, was wearing all dark clothing with a ski mask over his face, said Sgt. Ken Hammond of the Columbia Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit.
Police aren’t sure yet whether the shooter was waiting for the victim to exit the hall.
“We have no indication to believe this individual was specifically targeted,” Hammond said. “That being said, we also have indications that there were ample opportunities to fire at other people who had already left the building.”
Four different congregations use the assembly hall throughout the week. Normally, the South Congregation reserves the building from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays, but because of scheduling changes, the Hinkson Creek Congregation’s Theocratic School was there last night.
“It’s just shocking,” said Adela Todaro, a member of the South Congregation who learned of the shooting this morning. “It’s scary. We really don’t know who this guy was or why he started shooting at them.”
Congregations will continue to use the hall this week.
Les Témoins de Jéhovah prennent les devants. Alors que la commission d’enquête parlementaire sur les mineurs victimes des sectes doit dévoiler aujourd’hui son rapport, ce mouvement en conteste par avance les conclusions. Au point d’envisager des suites juridiques. Une conférence de presse était organisée hier pour critiquer les méthodes utilisées par les députés qui n’ont pas entendu les mouvements potentiellement sectaires.
« Nous avons été étonnés par le parti pris des parlementaires et leur refus du contradictoire », regrette Jean-Claude Pons, porte-parole du Consistoire des Témoins de Jéhovah. Et pour montrer que son mouvement n’est pas concerné par des dérives sectaires, il cite l’inspection générale de l’Education nationale expliquant devant la commission parlementaire que « les enfants Témoins de Jéhovah sont des élèves parfaits. Ce n’est pas d’eux qu’on va avoir des problèmes. » Quant à la question du refus de transfusion sanguine, le porte-parole rapporte les propos du ministère de l’Intérieur qui n’a pas « relevé d’incident » mettant en cause des enfants ou le fonctionnement de l’hôpital.
Georges Fenech, député UMP et président de la commission d’enquête, réfute ces critiques : « Nous sommes allés plus loin que les commissions précédentes puisque nous leur avons adressé un questionnaire. »
Dans le rapport remis aujourd’hui, certaines mesures concerneront les Témoins de Jéhovah. « Nous allons mettre en évidence des complaisances à l’égard de communautés sectaires, dont les Témoins de Jéhovah, assure Georges Fenech. Il y a besoin de légiférer. J’ai une lettre alarmante du ministre de la Santé qui indique que les actions et le prosélytisme de ce mouvement sont à l’origine de dysfonctionnements dans le système de santé, ce qui peut être considéré comme du trouble à l’ordre public. » Une notion essentielle puisque c’est elle qui définit si un mouvement peut être considéré comme un culte ou non.
David Carzon
Dans le rapport parlementaire de 1995, les Témoins de Jéhovah ont été classés comme un mouvement sectaire, notamment sur la base d’un rapport des RG. Depuis dix ans, pour obtenir une forme de réhabilitation, le mouvement cherche à obtenir ce rapport et ils ont fini par obtenir gain de cause devant le Conseil d’Etat en juillet 2006. Ils l’ont transmis hier à la presse en dénonçant le « vide » de cette note des RG. « Il n’y a rien, hormis une liste de nos lieux de culte », explique Jean-Claude Pons.
Dix-huit enfants vivent coupés du monde dans une communauté pointée du doigt par la Commission d’enquête contre les sectes
Pour un spécialiste de la commission parlementaire chargée des sectes, “60.000 à 80.000 enfants” seraient concernés.
Cette commission rend ce mardi son rapport sur l’influence des mouvements sectaires. L’Eglise de Scientologie et les témoins de Jéhovah, ont exprimé leurs réserves sur ces travaux avant même qu’ils ne soient publiés.
Les enfants sont une proie de plus en plus facile pour les sectes et l’engagement des pouvoirs publics contre les conséquences des dérives sectaires “s’avère très inégal”, selon un rapport publié mardi par une commission parlementaire qui avancent 50 mesures pour protéger les mineurs. La “commission d’enquête relative à l’influence des mouvements à caractère sectaire et aux conséquences de leurs pratiques sur la santé physique et mentale des mineurs” présidée par Georges Fenech (UMP, Rhône), s’est intéressée à la fois aux enfants vivant actuellement dans les sectes et à ceux qui risquent d’être touchés par ce phénomène.
La commission s’est inquiétée du nombre d’enfants concernés. Un des spécialistes interrogés parle d’un “minimum de 60.000 à 80.000 enfants élevés dans un contexte sectaire”. Elle a travaillé à partir des témoignages d’anciens adeptes, de fonctionnaires en charge de l’enfance, de magistrats, d’un pédopsychiatre, etc et a mis en exergue les méfaits de l’endoctinement et de l’enfermement psychologique. Elle insiste particulièrement sur les conditions de scolarisation et sur le suivi médical (profil psychologique, accès ou non aux transfusions sanguines et à la vaccination).
Pas de listes
Les 50 mesures proposées concernent aussi bien l’éducation (redéfinition des critères autorisant l’instruction à domicile, contrôle des organismes d’éducation à distance), la santé publique (contrôle médical scolaire systématique quel que soit le type de scolarisation des enfants, unification des sanctions pour refus de vaccination des enfants, prise en charge des sortants des sectes, définition des “bonnes pratiques des psychothérapeutes), l’Intérieur (prendre davantage en considération l’intérêt de l’enfant dans le statut des associations cultuelles), la Justice (droits des grands parents, sanction de l’enfermement), etc…
La commission n’a pas produit de liste des sectes mais elle en a défini les caractéristiques, dont la déstabilisation mentale, le caractère exorbitant des exigences financières, l’embrigadement des enfants, sans oublier l’”abus frauduleux de l’état d’ignorance ou de faiblesse”. Avant même d’être citées, certaines associations sont montées au créneau. Les Témoins de Jéhovah estiment devoir se trouver hors du champ d’investigation de la commission. L’Eglise de Scientologie, elle, réfute toute référence au mouvement sectaire. La Coordination des associations de particuliers pour la liberté de conscience (Caplc), conteste déjà les statistiques qu’auraient utilisées les parlementaires.
Prime-time state TV incites intolerance of religious minorities and religious freedom
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Protestants across Uzbekistan have expressed great concern to Forum 18 News Service about two prime-time national TV attacks on Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Almost the whole country watched it,” one Protestant – who preferred not to be named for fear of reprisals for talking publicly about religious persecution – told Forum 18. “We were accused of everything, including turning people into zombies and driving them to psychiatric hospitals. Everyone points at us on the streets.” The programme openly encouraged religious intolerance and attacks on religious freedom. Although they “had no impact on people without television or who have satellite TV or Russian channels,” one Tashkent Protestant told Forum 18. “But everyone else with only Uzbek channels who saw it was talking about it. This has led to an increase of intolerance.” The Protestant believes the programmes were screened to prepare public opinion for another clampdown on religious freedom.
Protestants in several regions of Uzbekistan have expressed great concern to Forum 18 News Service over a prime-time national television attack on Protestant churches, screened in two parts two nights running, and its impact on them. “The programme was very insulting. Almost the whole country watched it,” one Protestant – who preferred not to be named for fear of reprisals for talking publicly about religious persecution – told Forum 18 from the capital Tashkent. “We were accused of everything, including turning people into zombies and driving them to psychiatric hospitals. Everyone points at us on the streets.” Also accused in the programme were Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Another Tashkent-based Protestant – who likewise requested anonymity for fear of reprisals – told Forum 18 that one Protestant shown in the programme has since faced severe problems at work. “They wanted to dismiss him as a ‘sectarian’.” The Protestant also reported that in a town away from the capital – preferring not to name the town for fear the church will suffer – one registered Protestant church which had previously enjoyed good relations with people in the neighbourhood had been subjected to abuse and condemnation by local people since the broadcast. “The programme has damaged good relations between faiths.”
The broadcasts came as the authorities in the Andijan [Andijon] region instituted a new ban on the Muslim call to prayer from mosques, as another court ordered confiscated Christian literature to be burned and as the government’s Religious Affairs Committee banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses from importing Bibles (see forthcoming F18News article). The broadcast was also part of a government campaign to justify its restrictions on religious freedom, while claiming to be religiously tolerant (see forthcoming F18News article).
Forum 18 was unable to reach Uigur Gapurov, the only official of the Religious Affairs Committee said to be still at the office in Tashkent, to find out why the government is restricting religious freedom even further and why the state-controlled media broadcasts programmes inciting hostility towards religious minorities. The woman who answered the phone at the Committee on 19 December told Forum 18 that all other officials had already left for Saudi Arabia for the haj pilgrimage (see F18News 7 December 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=884). However, another employee later told Forum 18 the Committee has no employee named Gapurov and said no other officials were present.
The previously unscheduled two-part programme, entitled “Hypocrites”, was broadcast on national state television’s first channel in Uzbek on the evenings of 30 November and 1 December, with each programme lasting some 30 minutes.
“Although our people have left behind the afflictions of the Soviet system, the dangers and attacks – which are directed against our historical memory and national feelings and which aim to turn people into zombies that are alien to our people’s spirituality and national identity – have not yet ended,” the announcer began the programme. “On the contrary, even more dangerous afflictions are emerging. For instance, the fact that certain missionary communities are trying to achieve their hypocritical goals by taking advantage of the religious freedoms guaranteed in our multi-faith society raises serious concerns.”
Jewish and Russian Orthodox representatives spoke of what they claimed was the country’s religious freedom, then Zulhaydar Sultonov, chair of the government’s Religious Affairs Committee, and Begzot Kadyrov, a specialist at the Committee, attacked missionary activity. The presenter alleged that Protestants use bribes to attract converts and described them as “swindlers”. “On the pretext of financially helping people in need, they instil their own teachings in these people’s minds. As it turns out, soon the targeted people become complete zombies.” The programme described the Full Gospel Pentecostal Church – which the government recognises as a registered religious organisation – as “illegally operating”.
Kadyrov of the Religious Affairs Committee state that “Turning away from the religion of one’s ancestors is not only one’s own mistake but this conditions also lead to certain conflicts and very bad situations between brothers, sisters and between parents and their children.”
“Freedom of faith has been fully provided in our sacred homeland of Uzbekistan,” stated Sergey Statsenko, a deacon of the Russian Orthodox Church, who claimed that “this is especially clearly reflected in the conditions provided for our fellow followers, that is, the Christians.” He went on to state that “the spreading of sects can be compared to cancer. Members of such a system, whose mind has been poisoned by false religious ideas, try to lead other people to this wrong path.”
Financial inducements were claimed to be one practice of missionaries. Against a video backdrop of chanting and clapping worshipers, the presenter stated that “those who use religion to achieve various goals firstly make good use of one’s economic situation. On the pretext of financially helping people in need,” the presented stated, “they instil their own teachings in these people’s minds. As it turns out, soon the targeted people become complete zombies,” he said.
To a background of pictures of two apparent xxx addicts, the presenter also alleged that Protestants turn their adherents into xxx addicts. Feruza Alimova, captioned as a psychologist, said that drugs are “certainly a universal way to capture young people with a weak will and character” and alleged that missionaries use hypnosis to attract new members to their “sects”.
The presenter complained that some Protestant churches hold services in Uzbek – although this is the state language – and that they use songs and dance in worship. “A Khorezm [a region of north-west Uzbekistan] song and dance at a Christian house of worship? Honestly, we weren’t expecting this,” he said.
Uzbek-language services are, the presenter stated, “undoubtedly evidence of a serious intent to convert local people to Christianity. As you can see, the people who turned away from their forefathers’ religion of Islam and chose Christianity are coming to the house of worship and congratulating each other over their holidays. These are the fruits of the fact that religious missionary work is well underway,” he said.
The second programme focused on the Full Gospel Church in Tashkent, stating that the church operated “illegally,” which the church denies. One church leader had been “brought to account,” the programme claimed, for his “illegal” religious activity in 2005. The presenter complained that foreigners were visiting Protestant churches to preach, adding that law-enforcement officials at airports watch for foreigners arriving to conduct “illegal missionary activity”. He said one Korean charity worker was recently deported for such missionary activity.
Deportation is a weapon that has been recently used more frequently against religious believers (see eg. F18News 6 September 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=838) and religious-based charitable and humanitarian activities have been under attack in Uzbekistan (see F18News 10 October 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=852).
Worship involving singing in Protestant churches was particularly targeted by the programme. Kadyrov of the Religious Affiars Committee stated that a mosque was usually quiet. But in Protestant churches, Kadyrov claimed, “songs and music are the main means of worship. Of course, young people would prefer the latter and they more quickly absorb this false idea.”
He also stated that, under Uzbek law [against international human rights standards], propagating religion in public or in private homes is illegal. “Some Christian Protestant organisations either do not want to know this or intentionally try to violate it. And they still distribute literature in the streets or stop people and propagate their religion by other means.”
Kadyrov claimed that religious organisations “do not care about how the lives of people, whom they have subjugated by leading them astray, will be and what will happen to them. They only [think of] increasing the number of followers and getting more money,” he claimed.
Ilhomjon Bekmirzayev, an alleged “researcher,” was quoted as saying that the US Peace Corps funded missionary activities through student scholarships and providing humanitarian aid.
Also attacked in the programme were a Protestant church in Angren in Tashkent region and a Korean-founded Christian church in Tashkent’s Mirobod district. Also attacked were Jehovah’s Witnesses for holding a meeting in a private home in Khorezm region, as the presenter likened the group to the murderous Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo.
The goal of missionary activities, Kadyrov of the Religious Affirs Committee claimed, was “to instil dogmatic ideas, which are distant from pure religious doctrines, to people’s minds and, through this, to turn them to spiritually poor zombies.” The programme’s presenter claimed that “failure to more clearly explain Islam to people is leading to widespread missionary activities.” Kadyrov agreed with this, claiming of one convert to Christianity that “family, neighbourhood and society have lost that young person,” that “we failed to teach Islam’s advantages” and that it was “better to prevent than to cure religious conversion.”
The programme concluded with the presenter claiming that “what if today’s missionaries achieve their goals and our people divide into groups in regard with their faith? Who can guarantee that one day the Uzbeks with different faiths will not start to fight against each other? No one. In fact, this is the main goal of missionaries, and the worst consequence they want for us,” the presenter said.
“The programme had no impact on people without television or who have satellite TV or Russian channels,” one Tashkent Protestant told Forum 18. “But everyone else with only Uzbek channels who saw it was talking about it. This has led to an increase of intolerance.” The Protestant believes the programme was designed to prepare public opinion for a further clampdown and to warn people not to attend Protestant churches.
Television and media attacks on Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses occur intermittently (see eg. F18News 28 November 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=878), but television attacks have previously generally been confined to local television channels (see eg. F18News 16 September 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=653).
However, in what has become a routine practice in the Uzbek media, the “Hypocrites” broadcast repeatedly referred to religious freedom and religious extremism and violence together. This is an apparent attempt to establish in viewers’ minds the idea that religion is a dangerous force, which the government is right to control and restrict. (END)
Times-News correspondent
WENDELL – David and Elizabeth Rodriguez danced with one another for the first time 66 years ago at their wedding on Nov. 30, 1940, in Texas.
They are dancing still, and have no plans to stop anytime soon.
“We met for the first time at ages 14 and 15 at the wedding of a relative. We knew right then that we were the ones for each other. … We lived about 60 miles apart, were not allowed to date and could only correspond from a distance before we married. … We were 19 and 20 years old when we married,” said Elizabeth, 85.
David and Elizabeth moved their family of six children from Texas to the Magic Valley in 1949. Two more children were born in Idaho.
David worked for the Amalgamated Sugar Company as the manager of its labor camp, which averaged between 20 and 100 people at any one time. His responsibilities included maintenance work, supplying farmers with laborers, tracking workers’ wages, billing farmers and passing along the pay to the workers. Elizabeth helped by doing the time-keeping, but, “with six small children to look after, the labor camp job was just too much,” she said.
So, David took a job in construction and Elizabeth went to work at care center in Wendell.
“I worked for 87 cents an hour scrubbing floors, cleaning walls and washing windows,” Elizabeth said. “I was soon transferred to work in the kitchen, then to work with the patients and trained to be a nurse’s aide.”
Years later, after David had started his own construction business and working in Logan, Utah, Elizabeth went to school and obtained her licensed practical nurse degree.
The Rodriguez family may be one of the first-culturally mixed families to settle in Magic Valley. Elizabeth’s father was of French and Yugoslavian origin, having moved from Eastern France to Montreal Quebec, Canada, then to Texas, where he worked as a telegrapher for the U.S. Army in the early 1900s. Her mother was born to Mexican parents and lived in Texas all her life.
David’s mother was born in Spain and migrated to Mexico where she met and married Daniel Rodriguez. After the marriage, David’s parents moved to Texas where they settled in Sanderson. David’s parents became affluent through hard work. While farming, his father did construction work for other farmers, hauled hay and built fences and roads. He eventually owned a 400-plus acre ranch.
“My parents started with one hen and one calf and eventually, moved the family and herd of 500 chickens, 150 head of cattle, 5,000 Angora goats and 450 head of sheep to a ranch near Bullis Gap, Texas,” David said.
In the early days when David and Elizabeth first settled in Magic Valley, life was not easy. There were cultural differences, prejudice against Hispanics and mistrust on the part of many locals, they said.
Whenever the children met with cultural resistance and prejudice Elizabeth told them, “Don’t let anyone tell you they are better than you are. You are no better than others and nobody else is any better than you. So, do not let them treat you as if they are.”
“My children always understood that,” Elizabeth said.
The family lived in a two-story tar-papered shack with no plumbing when they first moved to Wendell. David built the family home on the same lot and would rise early, wake the older boys and they would all work on the house for a couple hours. Then, David went to work at Rodriguez Ready Mix and the boys went to school. In the evenings, they would again work for another couple of hours every day.
Once the basement was dug and the cement poured, friends and neighbors decided the open air basement made a great dance hall, and David and Elizabeth spent one summer hosting dances there.
The couple refused to accept public assistance during the tough times, yet made sure the family never went without. They grew their own food by gardening and raising animals.
When they moved from Texas, the Rodriguez family did bring its most prized possession — the TV set. This gave the Rodriguez children a much needed boost, socially.
“In 1949, not many people in Idaho had televisions, and Wendell was no exception,” said their daughter, Pascualita Rodriguez, a registered nurse. “We had the only TV set in town. … Dad put up a very tall aerial to pick up whatever signals were available. … Our home became the favorite spot for neighborhood children after school. They’d make popcorn and watch the one and only channel available. It came from Boise and reception was fuzzy at best.”
With perseverance and outgoing personalities, the older children gained popularity and became cheerleaders and athletes in high school. That helped ease the way for the younger children.
David and Elizabeth are now retired. Elizabeth still gets up early to build a fire in their wood-burning stove and makes the morning coffee. David, 86, still chops their firewood.
And, the couple dances at every opportunity – wedding receptions, anniversary celebrations, family reunions, parties, or any other social event where dancing occurs.
Pascualita told about one example. She said she was feeling a bit blue because she had to work last Easter and was concerned that her parents “were stuck at home all alone.”
When she stopped by their house to check on them and cheer them up, “I found them in one another’s arms, drenched in sweat dancing around and around the living room as Mexican music, turned up to full volume, filled the air,” Pascualita said. “I had to laugh because they were having a blast and I’d been feeling sorry for them. … I joined them and danced.”
Church is important to the couple. David, a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, helped to establish new congregations in Hailey, Salt Lake City, Heyburn, Twin Falls and Wendell.
The couple is proud of their eight children, 23 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren who carry on the tradition of hard work, honesty and perseverance. Among their descendants are concrete workers, carpenters, contractors, home builders, a doctor in marine biology, a chef, six nurses, a doctorate student, school teacher, coach, a soldier in Iraq, an anthropologist, store manager, Pentagon worker, a fallen Vietnam war hero, cheerleaders and athletes, with more grandchildren on the way.
“A year ago while attending Pioneer School, a church-related resident preachers training, he (David) had a bad heart attack and the doctors sent home to die,” Pascualita said. “But, he fooled them, he lived and is still hanging in there.”+
PARIS, 16 déc 2006 (AFP) – La commission parlementaire sur les sectes présente son 3e rapport mardi
La commission parlementaire d’enquête sur les sectes présentera mardi son troisième rapport, intitulé “L’enfance volée. Les mineurs victimes des sectes”, qui comporte 50 propositions visant à mieux protéger les enfants.
Plusieurs de ces mesures concernent vraisemblablement les conditions de scolarisation et le contrôle médical, ces sujets ayant été abondamment abordés au fil des 65 auditions qui ont rythmé le travail de la Commission mise en place le 28 juin 2006.
Présidée par Georges Fenech (UMP, Rhône), la commission a entendu des représentants de l’enseignement, des juristes, des spécialistes du phénomène sectaire, des défenseurs des victimes, le directeur du bureau central de Cultes du ministère de l’Intérieur, un pédopsychiatre et d’anciens adeptes.
La dernière audition a ainsi été consacrée à un couple d’anciens de la communauté biblique de Tabitha’s place. Ils ont insisté à plusieurs reprises sur le fait que les enfants de cette communauté seraient beaucoup moins coupés du monde s’ils allaient à l’école à l’extérieur.
La question du suivi médical et de la transfusion sanguine a également été longuement étudiée par la Commission. Les témoins de Jéhovah, hostiles à la transfusion, s’en sont émus et ont écrit aux membres de la Commission pour rappeler qu’ils respectaient les lois de la République et que leurs enfants allaient à l’école publique, invoquant aussi la liberté de culte. Ils estiment devoir se trouver hors du champ d’investigation de la “commission d’enquête relative à l’influence des mouvements à caractère sectaire et aux conséquences de leurs pratiques sur la santé physique et mentale des mineurs”. Les Témoins de Jéhovah avaient été considérés comme une secte dans un précédent rapport parlementaire en 1995.
D’autres associations ont exprimé leurs réserves sur les travaux de la Commission avant même qu’ils ne soient publiés, notamment l’Eglise de Scientologie, qui réfute toute référence au mouvement sectaire, et la Coordination des associations de particuliers pour la liberté de conscience (Caplc), qui conteste les statistiques qu’auraient utilisées les parlementaires.
Ce rapport parlementaire sera le troisième du genre : celui de 1995 était consacré au phénomène sectaire et celui de 1999 à l’argent des sectes.
La commission d’enquête compte 30 membres. Martine David (PS, Rhône) et Alain Gest (UMP, Somme) en sont les vice-présidents, Jean-Pierre Brard (app-PCF, Seine-Saint-Denis) et Rudy Salles (UDF, Alpes-Maritimes) les secrétaires, et Philippe Vuilque (socialiste, Ardennes) le rapporteur.
“… En ce qui concerne l’engagement de l’Arménie d’adopter une loi sur le service alternatif «conforme aux normes européennes» et «à amnistier les objecteurs de conscience purgeant […] des peines de prison», l’Assemblée constate avec déception que la loi en vigueur, telle que modifiée en 2005 et ensuite en juin 2006, ne garantit toujours pas aux objecteurs de conscience un «véritable service alternatif de nature exclusivement civile, qui ne doit être ni dissuasif ni punitif», comme les normes du Conseil de l’Europe le prévoient. Elle se déclare fortement préoccupée du fait, qu’en l’absence d’un véritable service civil, des dizaines d’objecteurs de conscience, des Témoins de Jéhovah pour la plupart, continuent à être emprisonnés, ayant préféré la prison à un service alternatif qui n’est pas véritablement civil. L’Assemblée demande instamment aux autorités arméniennes de réviser la loi sur le service alternatif en conformité avec l’expertise en cours du Conseil de l’Europe et, entre-temps, d’amnistier les jeunes objecteurs de conscience purgeant actuellement des peines d’emprisonnement…”
Los invitamos a conocer más de este grupo religioso.
Escrito por Paula Orellana Morales
Todos los sábados, se puede ver en las villas de Rancagua a los Testigos de Jehová. Con sus sombreros característicos, la Biblia en mano y muy bien vestidos, van recorriendo las casas entregando una palabra de aliento. El calor, el frío, la indiferencia, los portazos, nos los detienen.
La historia moderna de los Testigos de Jehová, empieza en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Al principio se llamaban Estudiantes de la Biblia, pero en 1931 adoptaron el nombre bíblico de testigos de Jehová. Desde sus modestos comienzos, la organización ha crecido hasta contar con millones de Testigos que predican en más de 230 países.
En la Sexta Región, son alrededor de 3.500, presentes desde Pichilemu hasta San Francisco de Mostazal, son 48 congregaciones donde celebran sus reuniones, donde no hay imágenes ni crucificos.
Aliro Valencia, es Superintendente de una congregación, eso significa que lleva la delantera en la enseñanza, en cuanto a edad no está por encima del resto. No reciben salario por su trabajo, sólo suministran consuelo y dirección en momentos de dificultad.
“Cumplimos con el mandamiento de amar al prójimo, y una muestra de nuestro cariño hacia ellos, es predicar y entregarles una palabra de apoyo”.
Hombres, mujeres y niños predican las buenas nuevas, se acercan a la gente, invitándola a conocer el reino de Dios.
Los testigos de Jehová, celebran anualmente asambleas multitudinarias, donde se reúnen muchas congregaciones para escuchar un programa especial de instrucción bíblica.
Este año, el lugar elegido fue la Medialuna de Rancagua, lugar que acogió a todas las congregaciones de la región. Un aspecto que llama la atención dentro del programa de la asamblea, es el bautismo de los nuevos discípulos, quienes se sumergen bajo el agua, para recibir el mensaje de Jehová.
Sus enseñanzas son prácticas, ya que educan hacia un comportamiento sano basado en la convivencia y la solidaridad.
“En un mundo donde domina la violencia, la lujuria, el egoísmo, la falta de orientación, se necesita un camino que abra hacia la paz, para eso estamos nosotros, para ayudar a la gente”, señala Aliro.
Estando presente en la asamblea, pude ver la alegría de la gente, la cooperación entre todos, unidos por la vida. Así es que cuando pasen por su casa, escúchelos porque tendrá ese apoyo, que muchas veces falta en los hogares.
As Testemunhas tem a alegria de se reunir em Grandes Salões de Assembleias construídas por elas mesmas voluntariamente, locais de bom gosto,onde glorificam a Jeová.
Comentarios recientes