Federal Constitutional Court upheld the governmental right to provide critical information on religious organisations being referred to as Sekte, but stated that "defamatory, discriminating, or falsifying accounts" were illegal. When classifying religious groups, the Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) use a three-level hierarchy of "churches", "free churches" and : (churches) is the term generally applied to the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church in Germany's member churches (Landeskirchen), and the Orthodox Churches. The churches are not only granted the status of a non-profit organisation, but they have additional rights as statutory corporations (), which means they have the right to employ civil servants (Beamter), do official duties, or issue official documents. (free churches) is the term generally applied to Protestant organisations outside of the EKD, e.g. Baptists, Methodists, independent Lutherans, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists and others. However, the Old Catholics can be referred to as a free church as well. The free churches are not only granted the tax-free status of a non-profit organisation, but many of them have additional rights as statutory corporations. is the term for religious groups which do not see themselves as part of a major religion (but perhaps as the only real believers of a major religion). Every Protestant (church whose canonical jurisdiction extends over one or several states, or ) and Catholic episcopacy has a ( delegate) from whom information about religious movements may be obtained. See also Religion by country Heathenry (new religious movement) History of Germany Roman Catholicism (especially the Catholic Church in Germany) Protestantism (especially Protestantism in Germany and the Evangelical Church in Germany) Lutheranism Calvinism United and uniting churches (especially the Prussian Union of churches) Landeskirche and Freikirche Anabaptism Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation Max Weber (the Protestant work ethic) State atheism in the former East Germany References Notes Further reading Büttner, Manfred. "On the history and philosophy of the geography of religion in Germany." Religion 10#1 (1980): 86–119. Drummond, Andrew Landale. German Protestantism since Luther (1951). Eberle, Edward J. "Free Exercise of Religion in Germany and the United States." Tulane Law Review 78 (2003): 1023+. Elon, Amos. The Pity of It All: A History of Jews in Germany, 1743–1933 (2002). Evans, Ellen Lovell. The German Center Party, 1870–1933: A Study in Political Catholicism (Southern Illinois UP, 1981). Evans, Richard J. "Religion and society in modern Germany." European History Quarterly 12#3 (1982): 249–288.