Supreme court judges in England have cleared the way for Scientology to be accepted as a religion and for its members to marry in their own church in England.

Louisa Hodkin, 25, a Scientologist from East Grinstead, Sussex, won a legal battle overturning a ruling by a high court judge who had said that services run by the Church of Scientology did not amount to acts of worship.

In a judgment published on Wednesday, it was ruled that a Scientology chapel in central London was a "place of meeting for religious worship" and that it would be "discriminatory and unjust" if followers were unable to marry using their own religious service.

Hodkin said afterwards: "I am really excited. I'm really glad we are finally being treated equally and can now get married in our church."

She hoped to marry her fiancé, Allesandro Calcioli, with a few months although they had not yet set a date. Calcioli said he was "ecstatic".

Hodkin's solicitor, Paul Hewitt, a partner at the law firm Withers, said the judgment was "a victory for the equal treatments of religions in the modern world".

He added: "It always felt wrong that Louisa was denied the simple right, afforded to members of other religions, to enjoy a legal marriage ceremony in her own church."

The ruling overturns a reading of the law from a 1970 case, which went as far as the court of appeal, which upheld the refusal of the registrar general to register the Church of Scientology chapel in East Grinstead as a place of meeting for religious worship.

In that 70s appeal court ruling, the judge, Lord Denning, said he did not find reverence or veneration of god or a supreme being in the creed of the church of Scientology, adding "there may be a belief in a spirit of man, but there is no belief in a spirit of god".

But Lord Toulson, in a written judgment on the case, heard by the supreme court in July and agreed by three other judges, suggested religion should not be confined to beliefs which recognised a supreme deity.

Such a position would exclude Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Theosophy and part of Hinduism; and Jains, Thesophists and Buddhists, among others, had got registered places of worship in Britain.

The court had heard evidence that Scientiologists did believe in a supreme being of a kind "but of an abstract and impersonal nature", said Toulson.

Ideas about the nature of god were "the stuff of theological debate", he said, but neither the registrar general nor the courts should become drawn into such territory when deciding whether premises qualified as a place of meeting for religious worship.

Toulson said: "I would describe religion in summary as a spiritual or non-secular belief system, held by a group of adherents, which claims to explain mankind's place in the universe and relationship with the infinite, and to teach its adherents how they are to live their lives in conformity with the spiritual understanding associated with the belief system.

"By spiritual or non-secular I mean a belief system which goes beyond that which can be perceived by the senses or ascertained by the application of science.

"Such a belief system may or may not involve belief in a supreme being, but it does involve a belief that there is more to be understood about mankind's nature and relationship to the universe than can be gained from the senses or from science. I emphasise that this is intended to be a description and not a definitive formula."

The judge said of the approach he had taken with regard to the meaning of religion that the evidence was "amply sufficient to show that Scientology is within it".

The government signalled that the judgment could fuel a political row now there was the prospect of the Church of Scientology avoiding business rates.

The local government minister, Brandon Lewis, said his department would be taking legal advice.

Lewis said: "I am very concerned about this ruling, and its implication for business rates. In the face of concerns raised by Conservatives in opposition, Labour ministers told parliament during the passage of the equalities bill that Scientology would continue to fall outside the religious exemption for business rates.

"Now we discover Scientology may be eligible for rate relief and that the taxpayer will have to pick up the bill, all thanks to Harriet Harman and Labour's flawed laws. Hard-pressed taxpayers will wonder why Scientology premises should now be given tax cuts when local firms have to pay their fair share."
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Bron: http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...orship-marriage
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Mening: Ik vind dit wel een interessant artikel op het vlak van wat een religie precies definieert. Dat is ook wel een theologische zaak waar ik mezelf niet het hoofd over ga breken. Toch denk ik dat het moeilijk is een onderscheid te maken tussen 'religies' en 'sektes', er zit een heel dunne grens tussen beiden.

Maar ondanks het feit dat ik Scientology een uiterst bizarre religie vind en het een belediging vind voor alles wat religieus is ( Voel je vrij het daar oneens over te zijn, geloof is iets persoonlijks dat als buitenstaander niet steeds te vatten is ), vind ik wel dat ze erkend moeten worden en het recht moeten krijgen huwelijken te sluiten.
Hierbij baseer ik mijn standpunt op het eenvoudige verschijnsel van hun toenemende populariteit en onze maatschappij die steeds hamert op aanvaarding en tolerantie. En aangezien hun religie geen haat verspreidt, zie ik niet zo meteen een probleem.

Ik zou graag mijn mening beter kunnen onderbouwen aan de hand van theologische verklaringen van religie maar dan zouden er veel gaten in mijn argumentatie zitten, dus doe ik dat liever niet. Noch ga ik me uitspreken of het al dan niet een soort van uitgegroeide sekte is.