Youth religion

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The terms youth religion and youth sect were especially common in the 1970s and 1980s for religious and ideological groups that particularly addressed young people . Friedrich Wilhelm Haack , the representative for sect and ideological issues of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church in Bavaria , coined the term “new youth religions” since 1974 and contributed significantly to its spread. He expressly rejected the term “youth sects” because it described the phenomenon inappropriately.

Common characteristics were a syncretistic doctrine from elements of Christianity and Far Eastern religions, the veneration of a central leader, a totalitarian organic structure, elite consciousness and community of life and property. The following were specifically classified as youth religions in the 1979 report by the federal government:

The topic received enormous media coverage. There were numerous reports in magazines and newspapers about young people who became estranged from their parents and joined such a sect. These communities were accused of humiliating their members and isolating them from the outside world, especially their own families.

The phenomenon was seen less as a religious than a social problem. In 1979 , the Handbook Religious Communities of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany gave the section of youth religions the subtitle Protest religions on the fringes of society . In the same year, the Federal Ministry for Youth, Family and Health under Minister Antje Huber declared the turn to youth religions expressly as a form of escapism and as a reference to “deficiencies in the communication of values ”.

In the 1980s, there was considerable public controversy regarding youth religions. Numerous committees of the Bundestag as well as a study commission dealt with the matter. Above all, there were disputes over the issue of demarcation. For years , the Transcendental Meditation fought against the labeling as a youth sect. The Church of Scientology also rejected this classification, while the other groups have at least changed their public appearance significantly.

The Federal Constitutional Court declared in 1991 that when exercising the fundamental right to freedom of belief and professions under Article 4 of the Basic Law, it is not just the self-image that matters, but also the intellectual content and the external appearance. On June 26, 2002 it admitted that this fundamental right does not offer any protection against the state and its organs from publicly - even critically - dealing with the bearers of this fundamental right and their goals and activities. Got this argument

“However, to maintain the religious and ideological neutrality of the state and must therefore be done with restraint. Defamatory, discriminatory or falsifying representations of a religious or ideological community are prohibited to the state. "

- Federal Constitutional Court : Az. 1 BVR 670/91 of June 26, 2002.

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  1. ↑ http://www.religio.de/jugendr.html
  2. ↑ a b Joachim Keden: So-called youth sects and the occult wave . Ed .: Joachim Keden. 5th edition. Aussaat Verlag Neukirchen- Vluyn, Neukirchen- Vluyn 1989, ISBN 3-7615-4825-7 .
  3. ↑ http://trancenet.net/research/1985.shtml
  4. ↑ Federal Constitutional Court - 1 BvR 570/96
  5. ↑ http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/entscheidungen/rs20020626_1bvr067091.html

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