Legal Standing
State Churches
In a number of nations in the European Union, there are state churches, legally recognized and financially assisted by the state. State churches have significant influence on the legal treatment of minority religions: for instance, witness the pull the Lutheran Church has in state treatment of Scientology in Germany.
Registration
In many countries religious movements must register with the state in order to receive legal standing and other benefits (like tax exemptions in the US). Of course, the flip side of registration is being subject to legal strictures governing recognized organizations. However, unregistered religious organizations can be subject to strict legislation, such as the anticult laws on the books in countries like France and Belgium. Sometimes there is no distinction between various types of associations, so NRMs are legally treated no differently from, for instance, sports clubs. In other instances, there is a list specifically for religious bodies.
Religious Practice v. the Law
Another issue wherever we look is the negotiation between the practices of religious organizations and legislative regulation of individual and corporate action. Even in relatively laissez-faire legal environments like that of the US, NRMs can find restrictions on practice--for instance, laws against animal sacrifice. Some things that NRMs might categorize under "practice" or things that facilitate practice, however, fall under a secular legal category. Chen Tao members attempted on several occasions to build a gazebo that would figure in certain rituals. They were repeatedly turned down by the Garland zoning board, citing codes that prohibited construction near the creek at the back of Teacher Chen's lot.
For governments, the major issue seems to be balancing the rights of citizens with the requirements of law. This is especially true in gray areas where the applicable laws are not clear or do not yet exist. For NRMs the trade-off appears to be fidelity to their beliefs and practices versus a demanding (perhaps even hostile) government.
An example of the clash between these two positions can be found in legal disputes between NRM members withholding conventional medical care to their children due to their religious principles and representatives of the state trying to enforce laws on the treatment of children. This has happened a number of times recently in the US. Such cases usually involve groups that teach that illness is either illusory or caused by spirits, and is therefore more amenable to spiritual rather than medical treatment. Certain federal and state laws governing the treatment of minors demand that parents seek approved forms of medical treatment or else the state will step in. This can lead to lengthy court battles, lengthy because frequently this is a legal gray area.
Case Studies
Those cases that I have chosen occupy admitted extremes in the field of NRM-state relations in their own ways, but are illuminating precisely because of their extremity.
Jehovah's Witnesses
Though they have sustained challenges by governments wherever they go, I focus on the particular challenges Jehovah's Witnesses have faced in Italy because of the excellent work of Dr. Massimo Introvigne of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) in Turin. Introvigne writes of the trouble JW members get into by being conscientious objectors and by refusing blood transfusions from other people. This was a pattern begun in the US; many male members were imprisoned during both World Wars. Naturally, this draws JWs into court against the state, and the group doesn't always win.
Falun Gong
Falun Gong - or Falun Dafa - provides a stunning case of opposing portrayals of NRMs, and how NRMs have political implications often in spite of themselves. The People's Republic of China, whose record in dealing with religious organizations is decried by a number of foreign agencies and governments (including the US), has mustered every tool at its disposal to demonstrate that Falun Gong is a dangerous, subversive doomsday cult. PRC officials cite members' deaths after being refused institutional medical treatment, self-immolations at protests, and a millennial bent to the group's doctrine as evidence of danger. Leaders of Falun Gong, including leader-in-exile Li Hongzhi, claim adherents are merely practicing a more effective form of qigong and only carry out demonstrations when their rights as citizens are violated by summary arrests and baseless convictions. That the group can field several thousand demonstrators at Communist Party headquarters without tipping off the intelligence services understandably alarms a government bent on maintaining a high level of social control.
Branch Davidians
I have chosen another potentially overexposed example to illustrate how, even in a liberal democracy with wide legal protections for religious groups, the potential for violent confrontation between NRMs and agencies of the state exists. The government may discover, as in the case of the Branch Davidians, resolution of a confrontation by force takes care of one problem only to create other unforeseen problems. The inferno at Mt. Carmel ignited resentments already smoldering among those in so-called "patriot" or "militia" groups, providing a significant boost to the biggest act of domestic terrorism ever seen in the country, the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. The repercussions of this incident are still being felt within the federal government; the FBI has publicly revised its policies on standoffs, and academics who study NRMs are more frequently and deeply involved as consultants to that and other agencies.