WHY is the Watchtower Society suddenly allowing
French and German JWs to vote?

THIS official U.S. government report published on the State Department's webspace at http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/970722_relig_rpt_christian.html may shed some light:

United States Policies in Support of Religious Freedom: Focus on Christians
Report Consistent with the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, Fiscal Year 1997,
House Report 3610
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Affairs, July 22, 1997.
Foreword by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright

[excerpts from the sections on France and Germany:]

France
A Parliamentary Commission on Sects identified 172 groups as sects, including Jehovah's
Witnesses, which was categorized as a "criminal sect" for its prohibition against blood
transfusions. The Commission's Vice President has stated that certain elements characterize
sect behavior, including the mental manipulation of members especially as pertains to money
and sex, and the cultivation of an anti-social mentality that leads to rupture with the family.
The Commission is studying legislative proposals to regulate sect activity without intruding
upon individual liberties.

Germany
Recently, a federal administration court in Berlin denied Jehovah's Witnesses the status of a
"public body" on the grounds that the church did not offer the "indispensable loyalty" towards
the State, because, for example, it refused to acknowledge public elections. Jehovah's
Witnesses are appealing this ruling in the Constitutional Court. Scientologists, including
American citizens, have reported discrimination and harassment in Germany. In June 1997,
German authorities placed the Church of Scientology under observation for one year, a
decision Scientologists indicated they would appeal.

"Commission of Inquiry on So-Called Psychogroups and Sects" is preparing a report on sects
and the potential dangers they may pose to society and to individuals. One Christian
Charismatic Church led by an American pastor reported that it had been subjected over
several years to vandalism, threats of violence, and public harassment or scrutiny by sect
commissioners. The church is challenging a 1995 ruling by authorities in Cologne, who
revoked its tax exempt status on the grounds that it was not a charitable organization and did
not contribute to the cultural, religious, or spiritual value of German society.

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