Jump to full article: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2008-07-17
Author: Bruno Waterfield
Intro: Dutch smokers are flocking to a religious movement known as "The Only and Universal Smokers Church of God" following a ban on tobacco smoking indoors.
Michiel Eijsbouts, founder and "Smokelighter" of the church he founded in 2001, has insisted that the Dutch smoking ban in place does not apply to members of his church under national and European human rights legislation.
"We think we have all the marks of a religion," he said.
"We will have to find out what the secular powers-that-be think. For us the constitution and European rules say we have the right to express our religion and we express our religion through smoking." . . .
"For a smoker with a small s it is just a bodily need. For a smoker with a capital S it is a spiritual need, you have to have a religious experience. When you are lighting up you have to think of God," he said.
"Converting people was not easy until the smoking ban started but now people are flocking to the church."
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