UNITED STATES: Scientologists See Bias in German Boycott Calls

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Aug 29 1996 (IPS) - Germany’s efforts to discourage the U.S.- based Church of Scientology, including a call to boycott two U.S. films, have provoked an outcry from U.S. officials.

Representative Carlos Moorhead of California this week protested statements from several German politicians calling for boycotts of the recent U.S. films ‘Phenomenon’ and ‘Mission Impossible’, both of which star prominent Scientologists.

“Serious questions continue to be realised about the German government, as it remains silent during a discriminatory attack against two American movies,” Moorhead said. “The boycott effort against ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘Phenomenon’…is misled and twisted.”

‘Phenomenon’ is the latest movie to star John Travolta, an outspoken follower of the quasi-religious philosophy, while ‘Mission Impossible’ both stars and is produced by Scientologist Tom Cruise.

The boycott call, made by politicians from both the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the opposition Socialists, is just the latest blow in Germany’s campaign against Scientology, which is regarded as a cult in that country, where the expression of cult beliefs is prohibited by law.

The latest flap started this month as German film distributors sought to show ‘Phenomenon’ and ‘Mission Impossible,’ two of the most successful U.S. films this summer.

The CDU’s youth group, the CDU Young Union, earlier this month called for a boycott of ‘Mission Impossible,’ citing Cruise’s beliefs. But the film has enjoyed considerable box office success since opening in Germany on Aug 8.

Last week, Renate Renebach, a Socialist politician, told the newspaper ‘Bild am Sonntag’ that ‘Phenomenon’ should be banned because of Travolta’s involvement. A spokesman for Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s CDU added that such a ban “should be considered.”

“This kind of bigoted remark, which receives the apparent implicit approval of Kohl’s government, suggests that in Germany a systematic glitch exists that tolerates intolerance,” Moorhead said.

The congressman compared the politicians’ comments to the censorship of artists in fascist Germany during the 1930s. “As a Second World War veteran, I have lived through the history of this century and I find these recent developments disturbing,” he said.

The Rev. Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, argued that the treatment of ‘Phenomenon’ and ‘Mission Impossible’ signalled “a return to the totalitarian oppression of art that characterised Germany during the Nazi era.”

In Nazi Germany, Jentzsch noted, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels decreed that no film could be shown which involved a single Jew in the production process. Similarly, he contended, the two U.S. movies are being attacked not for their actual content, but for the participation of Scientologists.

“Who will be the next target of these latter-day Goebbelses?” Jentzsch asked.

In recent days, the Scientology flap has led to several minor disputes between U.S. and German leaders.

Most recently, jazz musician Chick Corea, another Scientologist, claimed he was forced to seek smaller venues for a recent series of concerts in Germany because of pressure from German authorities.

The matter was deemed serious enough to warrant the intervention of U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who defended Corea’s right to perform abroad.

Corea at the time noted the irony that German authorities were attacking him for allegedly spreading “cult” information about Scientology, even though, as a jazz musician, he performs his concerts without using any words.

Cruise’s movie, an updating of a U.S. television adventure show, is similarly unrelated to Scientology, a mixture of self- help rhetoric and belief in personal divinity devised by U.S. science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.

Hubbard’s book ‘Dianetics,’ which forms the basis of the Scientologists’ faith, was a U.S. best-seller in the 1970s and has won many adherents to the religion, especially from the eccentric, California-based ‘New Age’ movement.

Of all the artists currently posing a controversy in Germany, Travolta is the only one who seems to be delivering a message similar to Hubbard’s. U.S. critics noted many parallels between Scientologist beliefs and the plot of ‘Phenomenon,’ in which Travolta plays a man who miraculously becomes more intelligent after an encounter with a meteorite.