In a groundbreaking case, a Paris court will decide for the first time whether to dissolve the Church of Scientology in France, which is facing charges of organized fraud.
The demand was made by French prosecutors on Monday (June 15) as they wrapped up their case against the church’s Paris headquarters and bookshop. If found guilty, the institutions may also face a nearly $6 million fine.
Six members of the church are also on trial, and may also face heavy fines along with prison sentences if convicted.
As convinced as I am that following Christ is the only way to Truth, I must stand with the “church of scientology” in its struggle to remain as an alternative religion.
If they come for the scientologists, sooner or later, they are going to come for me. I have to defend the absolute right of a person to worship a walnut stump, if they are silly enough to want to do it.
2, except this was a creation of L. Ron Hubbard.
I agree with jkc1945. I have no appreciation for the theology Scientology, but if it is outlawed it will set a precedent. Next other churches will be tageted and they will be Christian churches.
Don’t the Scientologists actually claim that theirs is not a religion, but actually science?
ah the French… If I recall, they dissolved the Templars, too – and made quite a nice profit in the deal.
– RedHatRob
Dear brothers and sisters: PLEASE do NOT confuse religion with destructive cults.
Not all cults are destructive. Some are a little wacky, but more or less benign. Those which are destructive are characterized by mental, physical, psychological and spiritual abuse of people and the cold-blooded exploitation of all their personal and financial resources. Survivors of such cults take years to heal, and some never do. There is ample documentation by reputable psychologists such as Louis Jolyon West, Margaret Singer and Robert Jay Lifton of the practices and effects of destructive cults.
Scientology is just about the worst.
Their practitioners charge by the hour for “auditing” which is a severe and effective form of mind control. People are bilked out of every last penny they have in the world, and are forced to sign contracts which virtually enslave them to the organization. Information gained during auditing is used to blackmail people into committing illegal acts. People who try to get out are threatened and harassed to the most extreme degree in which some have actually died from stress related diseases. I am not inventing or exaggerating — this description barely scratches the surface.
Sure — fine — worship a hedgehog if you so desire. Ok. Defend the right to believe that we were created by evil scientists who used nukes to explode volcanoes stuffed full of spiritual fuzz-balls called “thetans” 75 million years ago if you want to. No problem. But do not allow a false sense of sympathy to protect outright con-artists who destroy people’s lives for money in the name of religion.
L. Ron Hubbard is on record as saying that the easiest way to make a huge amount of money is to start your own religion (paraphrase). He began by organizing a pseudo-psychology self-help organization in 1950 following on his publication of the book, “Dianetics” in 1949. He was quite open about the fact that his real goal was to get rich.
He tried to change the organization into a recognized “religion” when he got hit with an enormous tax bill from the IRS a few years later. Scientology did not gain tax exempt status in this country until the 1990s when there was a massive harassment and blackmail campaign against members of the IRS and the courts.
jkc1945, I don’t know you. You seem well intentioned. But don’t be led astray by the false pretenses of this destructive-cult money-making con.
No religion is entitled to break reasonable laws against doing harm to people. You can’t claim that your religion teaches you to kill, steal or harm and therefore you are entitled to break these laws in the name of faith.
It may be that secular governments come after us one of these days because we are faithful to God. However, holding Scientology to legitimate laws will not lead to persecution of real religions. It will simply protect citizens from the horrible devastation which is caused by this (and other) destructive cults.
And may I add my personal encouragement to the French:
Remove Scientology from your midst — save yourselves and your children from this evil.
On May 29 there was a previous article describing the beginning of the court procedures posted on T 1/9.
I would like to repeat my posting at that time for the sake of bringing the information to this discussion as well:
In the 1970s many of the top leadership of this destructive cult were convicted in U.S. Federal court of breaking into and stealing government files. This is a fact on record.
Other facts on record include mysterious deaths (including that of the founder, who was not seen by anyone for about 2 years before his “ascension†was officially announced), financial shenanigans and the relentless, “Fair Game Policy†persecution of anyone and everyone who dares to criticize them—including the former mayor of Clearwater, FL. who spent years fighting off multiple nuisance lawsuits by Scientology and various members against him until he had nothing left.
The viciousness with which people who try to leave the cult are treated is legendary—and also on public record.
They were banned in Germany because of all people the Germans know totalitarian subversion when they see it.
This is not just another new, slightly eccentric religion. Opposing them is not some kind of religious bigotry. If they want to think that we all have many multitudes of “spiritual†beings inside us called, “Thetans†(which they do) they are certainly free to do so. If they want to think that these Thetans were trapped inside physical bodies when some evil scientists stuffed them into volcanoes and blew them up with “thermo-nuclear devices†75 million years ago (which they do) they are welcome to do so.
Heck, the “tech†of the Operating Thetan Level VIII even says that L. Ron Hubbard understood himself to be the AntiChrist. Ok—you can think that. Woops, reading that before you have been prepared by thousands of hours of very expensive “auditing†is supposed to make you get sick and die—sorry folks.
They can believe all this if they want, and everything I have stated above is merely factual reporting of their own beliefs.
However, when they start blackmailing, threatening, lying, cheating and even following people’s children into day care centers to scare them near to death (all of which is also on public record)—well, then that’s not religion.
That’s evil. If you google the topic you can begin to read the long and horrid history of the real harm they have done.
Why do I care about this? Because I have seen first hand the damage done in the lives of survivors and personally witnessed the bullying and threats they use to intimidate people into allowing them to continue to damage people’s lives. Only by standing up to evil can it possibly by stopped.
Not everyone who has been helped by Hubbard’s teachings is crying over this. Many students of Hubbard would see the dissolution of the Church of Scientology in France as a [i]good[/i] thing, since they view the CoS as having corrupted Hubbard’s teachings:
[blockquote]The International Freezone Association (IFA) is a group of individuals, auditors and groups who believe they should be free to practice the original philosophy of Lafayette Ron Hubbard.
They believe that, since the death of the founder of the movement, the Church of Scientology(tm) has strayed from the original philosophy and purpose of the group which Hubbard first researched and developed.[/blockquote]
http://internationalfreezone.net/
Posts 6-8 have it right. It’s a mistake to reflexively turn every news story like this into “left wing secular conspiracy to outlaw Christianity which is just the beginning of the arrival of the Antichrist.” (Though I admit that the Left Behind books are a lot of fun.)
It sounds like France is just taking action against a very dangerous group of criminals — which is basically what the C of S is. I am all about vigorously defending religious freedom, including seemingly wacky belief systems, but there’s a big difference between extremely dangerous groups like the C of S, Jim Jones, and so on, and say hippie worshippers of Gaia or Native Americans getting high on sacred marijuana while they worship local gods or whatever.
The Left Behind books are a lot of fun but
I said nothing about it being the arrival of the AntiChrist or Left Behind Books. (I haven’t read then) . I do, however, think that secualr countries are moving against Christianity and will continue to do so not that Scientology was remotely Judeo-Christian.
I appreciate the sharing of what is happening in respect to Scientology in France and Germansy and it does give me a different persepective; Thanks.
I will stand by what I said in the earlier post. The correct approach, for Christians, is to call scientologists to Christ, and His Truth. We should not stand with a government, any government, if it attempts to curb or “punish” a life-philosophy or a ‘religion,’ no matter how hokie or ‘dangerous’ that philosophy is. Please remember – – the original charge against Christians was, that we were atheists. I do not defend scientology, never would consider becoming one, never would consider trying to convince anyone else to become one – – on the contrary, I would speak against the false philosophy. But it is not my calling to forcefully keep others from doing whatever it is they think they ought to do. And that even includes such idiocy as scientology.
As I understand it the French prosecution is against financial fraud and coercion by Scientology, not against the ideology itself.
To make one last clarification: the French are not moving against the beliefs, or the right to believe in your Faith — or even in “idiotic philosophies”.
They are moving against actual, specific criminal activity such as blackmail, fraud and harassment.
We can stand for religious freedom without supporting criminal acts done in the name of religion.