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| SkygreenLeopard |
Scientology: Legitimate Religion or Sinister Cult?Many of you may have seen Scientologists on the news lately, but how many people actually know what Scientology is?Here's a brief history. The Church of Scientology was formed in December 1953 by sci-fi author L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard's stated claims of Scientology were: "A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology." It seems Hubbard had his own ideas as to the definitions of "honest" and "criminals." He is also quoted saying: "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion" Shortly after it's creation, the CoS came under attack by the media, which alleged that the "religion" was a commercial enterprise that harassed its critics and exploited its members. Before I begin on the CoS's criminal history, let's examine the official definition of a cult, provided by http://www.cultinformation.org.uk The 5 Characteristics of a Cult 1: It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members. 2: It forms an elitist totalitarian society. 3: Its founder/leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma. 4: It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds and recruit people. 5: Its wealth does not benefit its members or society. Now, let's delve into the seedy history of the "Church" that you more than likely won't hear from Cruise or Travolta. In 1979, Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, along with ten other highly placed Scientology executives were convicted in United States federal court regarding "Operation Snow White," CoS's name for a project carried out through the 70s. The operation was written by L. Ron Hubbard as an attempt to reduce or eliminate unfavorable reports on Scientology, the Church of Scientology, and LRH himself, especially those held by government agencies such as Interpol and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The project included a series of infiltrations and thefts from government agencies, carried out by Church members, including the single largest infiltration of the United States government in history. Critics and supporters of Scientology generally have different beliefs on whether the illegal acts committed to carry out Hubbard's orders were a misunderstanding of his directives or in fact exactly what he had ordered. Scientology documents known as "Snow White Operating Targets" described the agencies to be targeted. Other planned elements of the operation included petitioning governments and the United Nations to charge government critics of Scientology with genocide, on the theory that official criticism of the group constituted "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction". Federal Agents also discovered documents related to Operation Freakout, a covert plan intended to have the author Paulette Cooper(who wrote a book critical of scientology) imprisoned or committed to a mental institution by framing her for terrorist acts. Taken from wikipedia:
L. Ron Hubbard has made it extremely clear to his followers that anyone who is critical of the "religion" is to be harrassed into submission. "If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace." - L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 15 August 1960, Dept. of Govt. Affairs "The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly." - L. Ron Hubbard, A MANUAL ON THE DISSEMINATION OF MATERIAL, 1955 "ENEMY SP(SP = Suppressive Person a.k.a. critic of Scientology) Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." - L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967 "There is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves." - L. Ron Hubbard, KEEPING SCIENTOLOGY WORKING. 7 February 1965, reissued 27 August 1980 "This is the correct procedure: Spot who is attacking us. Start investigating them promptly for felonies or worse using our own professionals, not outside agencies. Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them. Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press. Don?t ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way." - L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 25 February 1966 The nature and legal status of Scientology continues to arouse controversy around the world. The governments of Belgium and Germany officially regard the organization as a totalitarian cult. In France a parliamentary report classified Scientology as a dangerous cult. In the United Kingdom and Canada the organization is not regarded as meeting the legal standards for being considered a bona fide religion or charity. In 1993, however, the United States Internal Revenue Service recognized Scientology as a "non-profit charitable organization", and gave it the same legal protections and favorable tax treatment extended to other non-profit charitable organizations. A New York Times article says that Scientologists paid private investigators to obtain compromising material on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner and blackmailed the IRS into submission. Six levels of indents down in the eventually leaked "closing agreement," the IRS is contractually required to discriminate in their treatment of Scientology to the exclusion of all other groups. "The following actions will be considered to be a material breach by the Service: ... The issuance of a Regulation, Revenue Ruling or other pronouncement of general applicability providing that fixed donations to a religious organization other than a church of Scientology are fully deductible unless the Service has issued previously or issues contemporaneously a similar pronouncement that provides for consistent and uniform principles for determining the deductibility of fixed donations for all churches including the Church of Scientology". In a legal case involving a married couple attempting to obtain the same deduction for charity to a Jewish school, it was stated by Judge Silverman: "An IRS closing agreement cannot overrule Congress and the Supreme Court. If the IRS does, in fact, give preferential treatment to members of the Church of Scientology—allowing them a special right to claim deductions that are contrary to law and rightly disallowed to everybody else—then the proper course of action is a lawsuit to put a stop to that policy." To date such a suit is not known to have been filed. So here we have a religion that keeps all it's doctrines secret (visit http://www.xenu.net to read the beliefs of Scientologists), that charges tens of thousands of dollars of it's followers to become "enlightened," that visciously threatens and harrasses any vocal critic, and believes that it's own ethics supercede that of the rest of the world. I believe that this is an extremely harmful cult, and I strongly encourage everyone to visit sites like http://www.xenu.net to research for yourselves. Also, watch the feature film The Bridge for free online to see life inside the cult based on former insiders accounts. Anyone have any thoughts, opinions, retorts..? |
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| Kestrel |
While I think it is hard to tell the difference between a cult and a religion, I consider Scientology to be more damaging to society than many other cults/religions. | ||||
| THE CURE |
As long as you can freely exit I wouldn't think it was a cult. | ||||
| SkygreenLeopard |
Scientology meets all the criteria, and I just brushed the surface on its encouragement of and direct involvement in illegal activities.. I'd encourage you to research "Scientology vs. the Internet" and "Scientology vs. Free Speech." Also, there are official Scientology policy letters/memos online that you might be interested in seeing. The entire organization is run with military strictness and secrecy, L. Ron Hubbard wrote entire training books on how to "subdue and utterly destroy" anyone who questions or brings negative attention to the "religion." They have their own "secret service" AND Navy. Check out the Sea Org if you don't believe me. I'd say that's pretty sinister, whether you label them a cult or not. |
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| PrinceOfNeptune |
I have been physically detained by the Scientologists (absolutely no joke) in their huge cathedral church in San Francisco. It was only through help from a special friend that I was able to escape.
They did this after I told them I was not only a psychology major and a pagan, but I took anti-depressants as well. (I was young and didn't know who/what they were at the time..they lure people in with these 'free psychology tests' and being a Psych major i was intrigued as to what sort of test it was...so I went and had a little 1 on 1 'counsel' meeting with one of their craaaazy people) I was called 'tainted by the Merchants of Chaos' and two large muscular men in suits grabbed each arm and held me as three other men went and shut and bolted the door (this was after I said I had to go). I was informed that I should go through 'spiritual detoxification' and that it was for my own good. I barely escaped. Again, no joke. It was possibly one of the most frightening times I have ever had in SF. Including three attempted muggings. |
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| Nighthawk |
Cult. | ||||
| SkygreenLeopard |
Thats a seriously disturbing story, but the scariest thing is, it's one I've seen over and over from multiple sources. I'm very surprised that there are people out there gullible enough to fall for that mess. p.s. Glad you took my advice and joined! Looking forward to your posting-future, if it's anything like the conversations we've had. 
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| PrinceOfNeptune |
Someone needs to validate me so I can look at the coffee and cocktails forum 
And yes...those people are sad. |
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| SkygreenLeopard |
I PMed admin a few days ago about approving you. perhaps he/she's just a bit busy of late. |
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| Kestrel |
Yeah, that's a pretty scary scary story Neptune. | ||||
| THE CURE |
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