MIVILUDES is, in France, an official State-sponsored mission designed to identify religious sectarian/cultic drifts.
MIVILUDES published its report for the period 2022-2024 on this April 8, 2025.
The number of reports has "more than doubled" between 2015 and 2024, increasingly mentioning evangelical churches. T
hese figures call for four observations:
First, reports to Miviludes, often criticized for a lack of transparency and methodological clarity, have no legal value. And their increase does not necessarily indicate a rise in criminal acts. To draw such a conclusion, one would need to count complaints—which are rare—and, above all, lawsuits (even rarer) won by victims.
This caveat does not prevent us from reminding once again that the danger of cult-like behavior, abuse of authority, is real within some minority local churches (Evangelical or not): identifying these deviations, based on the alerts provided, is an imperative to address the issues and better protect the victims who have had the courage to speak out.
Second, since its creation, Miviludes has primarily targeted minority religions, almost entirely excluding Islam. Among these minority groups, evangelicals, who are experiencing significant growth in France, have become the most numerous practicing believers, with around one million followers today, including overseas territories.
It is therefore unsurprising that evangelicals account for the largest number of reports and inquiries regarding cult-like deviations among the identified religious groups.
On another note, it should be emphasized that these reports occur in the context of a welcome liberation of speech. On the evangelical side, this liberation is facilitated by their decentralized structure, a bottom-up culture, and their strong familiarity with social media.
Over the past ten years, there has been a massive investment by evangelicals in social networks. This overrepresentation of evangelicals on social media makes it easier for information about potential cult-like deviations to surface.
Facing this, the two main protestant networks in France, the French Protestant Federation (FPF) and the National Council of French Evangelicals (CNEF) took also safety measures in order to identify and help the victims of abuse: they seem to refuse denial and cover-up (although this should be verified in detail). By choosing the victim's side, they facilitate the liberation of speech and help to address properly the issue of church abuse.
Finally, let's not forget that "no practice, no accident". Reports come if there is practice. Among the religious faithful, French Evangelicals display a particularly high level of regular (weekly) religious practice, a trend further confirmed by the latest IFOP poll on Protestantism. When one doesn’t practice group gymnastics or play football, there are no accidents.
It’s through regular practice that risks arise, including coaching abuse. Because French Evangelicals practice much more than the average Christian, particularly among the youth (who are very active on social media), quite logically, the proportion of reported issues increases as well.