The "Church" of Scientology's Anti-Gay views and Human Rights Abuses

[PokeAnon]

For the past 4 months I have been part of the collective known as "Anonymous" which has been peacefully protesting against the unethical and criminal abuses perpetrated by the "Church" of Scientology (CoS).

The more I read about Scientology, the more disgusted I get with them. Last month I learned that they claim to be able to "cure" being gay, as attested to by former CoS member Michael Pattinson. Aside from this reprehensible practice, they also consider homosexuals to be completely without ethics or morality.

Within Scientology there is a measure of a person’s wellness and their level of moral competency (with higher numbers equating more ethical actions). 1.5 in this scale encompasses those who threaten and rape. Homosexuals are labeled 1.1; lower than rapists. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology said "Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics...No social order which desires to survive dares overlook its stratum 1.1's. No social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst."

Furthermore, according to Scientology practices, continued contact with anyone they deem unethical will stunt a church member’s spiritual advancement, and may even cause them physical harm. In a recent interview, actor Jason Beghe has said that the Church of Scientology blamed a life threatening car accident he was in on Beghe’s continued friendship with a gay man.

This is obscenely bigoted and outright false even on first glance. To make matters worse the CoS also claims to be compatible with any sexual preference of lifestyle choices. I think all sorts of bigotry based on sexual orientation is horrible, but to deceive one's own members on the very belief system they practice is just disgusting.

There is unfortunately a LOT more information on the CoS and their abuses. I would hate to flood all of you good people with too much information all at once.

The following is my favorite video on basic introduction to Anonymous:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4d...-vers_politics

I must warn that the Anonymous culture is crass and full of slurs of all sorts. This is not at all intended to be hateful in any way, it is just some strange sense of humor which has originated in order to push taboos to the extreme. In fact, despite use of terms like "f*ggot" in my own local Anonymous affiliate at very least 35% of all members are either homosexual or bisexual.

I look forward to your questions and further involvement will all of you

[Pablo Rafael]

I must confess that I am not very well aquainted with many details about the church of Scientology even though I worked right across the street from its headquarters in LA. (A hideous blue-painted building).

I know that there are many levels of Scientology and a person must work to ever higher levels. Working up the ladder is very expensive. "Religions" that require people to spend money and are founded and run by one person or small group always make me nervous.

Is Scientology a large group? I always assumed it had just a few followers.

[PokeAnon]

Originally Posted by Pablo Rafael

I must confess that I am not very well aquainted with many details about the church of Scientology even though I worked right across the street from its headquarters in LA. (A hideous blue-painted building).

I know that there are many levels of Scientology and a person must work to ever higher levels. Working up the ladder is very expensive. "Religions" that require people to spend money and are founded and run by one person or small group always make me nervous.

Is Scientology a large group? I always assumed it had just a few followers.

In terms of actual numbers of Scientology Parishoners it is very tricky to pin down a number. CoS lies so often it'd make your head spin, and they most certainly lie about their numbers. They regularly claim to have over 8 million members worldwide, however there is nothing even remotely similar to that in terms of census results. Math is not my forte, so take my estimate with a few pounds of salt, but my guess would be they have somewhere between 1 and 2 million members.

The real danger to the general public is not their numbers as much as it is their wealth. As you mentioned, they operate like a business, charging for courses and materials to advance in their faith. They are however classified as a relgious organization and are therefore tax exempt in the United States. The deal they cut with the IRS to get this status is very shady.

Furthermore their influences can be seen in far more places than one might think, including several front groups, which act as "charities" but in reality do very little except to promote the agenda of the "Church" of Scientology. Some of these larger groups include: Narconon, The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, Criminon, and WISE (not the potato chips).

The issue with these, and many other of their so called "charitable" organizations is they frequently target people in vulnerable situations in need of help, and attempt to get more members into the CoS. If you ever see a "Free Stress Test" table on the streets, that is Scientology attempting to recruit.

[antiochian]

I have studied many religions, but $cientology is something I know little about. It simply doesn't interest me. I remember watching an episode of 48 Hours or some similar program which featured the "church" and some of the things it did to its own members--scary. Funny how this group attracts all sorts of Hollywood types.

[RedneckDyke]

I have seen stuff on TV and in the news about them. About how they send people to boot camps to do manual labor if they aren't good enough. I heard they have cruises where bigwigs get star treatment while the backsliders are also aboard and do the scut work. I dont know if this is true though.

If I wanted to be in a religion founded by a sci-fi novelist I think I'd rather have Ray Bradbury or Heinlein. Anybody but L Ron Hubbord.

[Rick336]

Originally Posted by RedneckDyke

If I wanted to be in a religion founded by a sci-fi novelist I think I'd rather have Ray Bradbury or Heinlein.

Yes. That would be cool.

Or what about a religion founded by George Lucas where we could be storm troopers in outer space and fight the dark side of the force with laser guns?

And James Dobson could be Darth Vader.

Rick

[PokeAnon]

Originally Posted by antiochian

I have studied many religions, but $cientology is something I know little about. It simply doesn't interest me. I remember watching an episode of 48 Hours or some similar program which featured the "church" and some of the things it did to its own members--scary. Funny how this group attracts all sorts of Hollywood types.

The "Church" of Scientology doesn't really "attract" Hollywood types, it hunts them down. They have "churches" called "Celebrity Centers" which are there specifically for celebrity members. Ex-Scientologists have publicly said that they were literally given lists of celebs to get to join, and then were told to get them involved. I can't think of any true religions which openly hunt for celebrities.

Originally Posted by RedneckDyke

I have seen stuff on TV and in the news about them. About how they send people to boot camps to do manual labor if they aren't good enough. I heard they have cruises where bigwigs get star treatment while the backsliders are also aboard and do the scut work. I dont know if this is true though.

If I wanted to be in a religion founded by a sci-fi novelist I think I'd rather have Ray Bradbury or Heinlein. Anybody but L Ron Hubbord.

In short: The "Church" of Scientology is much worse than you think.

Their doctrine is discriminatory based on race, sexual orientation and gender. They suppress the free speech rights of their critics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Freakout), they tear families apart (http://www.videosift.com/video/Road-...-protest-video ), they deny their memebers proper psychiatric and medical care, in some instances leading to death (www.whyaretheydead.net), exploit the mentally disabled and the emotionally unstable with their front groups (DAN! and Narconon), and they force labor on both their adult and child parishoners in the RPF and EPF (http://youtube.com/watch?v=X1kMONflsNs).

If I had to recomend a single video series to watch, by the end of the following video I was openly crying, and knew absolutely for sure I was doing the right thing fighting against the CoS:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bZYGE5jx6VI

I urge you to do research on this attrocious group, if only to protect yourselves and your loved ones. I would of course love to have more people involved in our worldwide pickets, but all in all I just want people to stop getting hurt by their abusive policies.

I truly appreciate the questions. CoS tries with all its might to suppress information, and we as Anonymous believe that knowledge is free. Both groups understand that knowledge is empowering.