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[Alrus]

My reaction to this is similar to my feelings on The Master. The reality can never be as absurd as the 'parody' portrayed in South Park. There is nothing left to surprise. Everyone already knows these are incredibly weird people.

The issue is that people look at them as cooky weird people, thus not very threatening. But their way of recruitment is predatory, they are extremely powerful, and it's extremely hard to leave them when you're in. That South Park episode was fun but it didn't really show those part of Scientology. There's a reason some countries consider them a cult and not a regular religion.

 

[wanderingprostheyltite]

The issue is that people look at them as cooky weird people, thus not very threatening. But their way of recruitment is predatory, they are extremely powerful, and it's extremely hard to leave them when you're in. That South Park episode was fun but it didn't really show those part of Scientology.

Kinda like this? This is an ex-member being harassed by supposed top brass, but you can see the aggression pretty clearly. Predatory indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG70fhg0wL4

 

[Future Foundation]

Everyone knows they're weird, but not everyone knows about shit like Operation Snow White, Operation Freakout or the death of Lisa McPherson.

How many people know about The Hole? That shit still feels unbelievable to me, the article about it from last year is insane.

 

[RyanDG]

Mormons are also reformed Christians. Are they not? They hide lots of things, ask for 10% of your money, and don't freely let you in to their temples.

This is a huge theological argument in and of itself to be honest. There are quite a few people who would even go so far as to classify the Church of Latter-Day Saints as a cult. Hell, even growing up in a midwest Lutheran church, which some people view as pretty progressive in some ways, we were shown videos showing how mormons are members of a cult. Of course this was twenty years ago though, and beliefs may have changed, but there does seem to be a bit of distrust from the Christian community towards the mormon faith.

 

[Aiii]

Great book, really shows the inner workings of the organization and esp. how they use celebrities to further their cause.

Very interested in this film.

 

[daycru]

My reaction to this is similar to my feelings on The Master. The reality can never be as absurd as the 'parody' portrayed in South Park. There is nothing left to surprise. Everyone already knows these are incredibly weird people.

You can't even imagine how wrong you are on this. I follow Scientology very closely, and there is always a new tidbit that floors me. South Park didn't even touch on the fact that they have their own fake Navy.

 

[abrack08]

No true Christian, eh?

Mormons are also reformed Christians. Are they not? They hide lots of things, ask for 10% of your money, and don't freely let you in to their temples.

Not sure what the common opinion is among other denominations, but the baptist churches I went to in the mid-to-late 2000s didn't consider Mormons Christians, they (pastor, youth pastor, etc.) told us it was a cult.

 

[legend166]

No true Christian, eh?

Mormons are also reformed Christians. Are they not? They hide lots of things, ask for 10% of your money, and don't freely let you in to their temples.

Mormons are not Reformed, no. And I'm not going to argue with you about the cultish tendencies of Mormonism.

 

[Nether!]

I guess I'll just echo what everyone else is saying - the book Going Clear is fantastic and shows a completely different side of the organization than the fantasy aspect South Park highlighted.
The day to day organizational issues, leadership struggle and insane punishment situation were things I had no idea about.

 

[HK-47]

My reaction to this is similar to my feelings on The Master. The reality can never be as absurd as the 'parody' portrayed in South Park. There is nothing left to surprise. Everyone already knows these are incredibly weird people.

All the really crazy shit was never touched upon.

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

You can't even imagine how wrong you are on this. I follow Scientology very closely, and there is always a new tidbit that floors me. South Park didn't even touch on the fact that they have their own fake Navy.

They have a fully staffed cruise ship they use for members. Is there more or is that what you're calling a Navy?

 

[daycru]

They have a fully staffed cruise ship they use for members. Is there more or is that what you're calling a Navy?

The ship is the Freewinds. The fake Navy is the Sea Org.

 

[dr3upmushroom]

There's a reason why people view certain groups as cults and others as religions that has nothing to do with how acceptable they find their belief system, but rather how that belief system is acted out in the world.

Take Scientology vs Christianity on a few basic points.

- Take the beginnings of each religion. Christianity was started by a small group of Jewish people who endured hundreds of years of horrific persecutions from both Jewish and Roman society before becoming accepted. Considering there's no proof that any of those people gained any real power or wealth from being involved in Christianity, it's hard to argue that they had ulterior motives outside a genuine belief in what they taught. Alternatively, L. Ron Hubbard is quoted numerous times saying that the best way for him to become rich was to start a religion.

- I am a Christian of the reformed baptist persuasion. If you ask, I will tell you exactly what that means, every single detail of my theology. If you ask I will give you a Bible, the basis for my faith. I can show you confessions of faith from hundreds of years ago outlining the major doctrinal teachings of each major denomination in Christianity. There is absolutely no secrecy around my faith or the faith of the major Christian denominations. You can visit my church any time you like Alternatively, Scientology is completely shrouded in secrecy. There's different 'levels' of beliefs. All that stuff about thetans and Xenu was only ever found out due to leaks and whistle blowers. The Church of Scientology does not advertise what it believes and will not tell you unless you reach a certain level of their faith. Which brings me to my next point.....

- Most (I say most, as unfortunately there's a large number of Christian churches today who don't follow this. To me, that's the encroaching of cultist practices into the church) Christian churches do not require any monetary contributions of any kind to participate in the religion. That's not to say they don't ask for funds, because like everything, they need a certain amount of money to simply exist. You can go along to most churches, never give a single penny, and still partake to the same extent as the person who may be giving $1000 a week. You can still partake in the sacraments (in the Protestant case, communion and baptism), you can still listen to the sermons, you can still sing the hymns, and you can still have fellowship with the other church-goers. This is patently not the case in Scientology. Monetary contributions are required to participate. You can't join unless you give them thousands of dollars for an audit. You can't progress unless you continually provide thousands of dollars. There is an enormous amount of evidence of people being extorted and blackmailed for ridiculous amounts of money.

There are real and significant differences between Christianity and Scientology that extend way beyond "people only accept Christianity because it's 2000 years old, whereas Scientology is new", and "I'm a Christian and therefore Christianity is good, but I'm not a Scientology so Scientology is bad".

As a non-Christian (With Buddhist leaning beliefs) I deeply respect this perspective. I even find the use of a cross by Scientology offense, and find the use of the word "science" offensive as well.

From viewing that YTMND and plenty of other accounts, scientology sounds so much like a cult/ponzi scheme.

 

[Extra Sauce]

Cool, I'm excited about the film.

Almost as excited as I am about Mission: Impossible 5 and Jack Reacher 2.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Xenu be praised

I'm not sure what my reaction would be to dropping millions of dollars into these folks only to be told my reward is savior from an Alien that created our culture by nuking volcanoes.

 

[Elfforkusu]

Anonymous won.

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

The ship is the Freewinds. The fake Navy is the Sea Org.

Yeah that's a cruise ship. Sea Org is creepy, but why call it a Navy? It's not like they're armed soldiers on the ship, they're just members wearing camo on a cruise ship? What operations have they done?

 

[daycru]

Yeah that's a cruise ship. Sea Org is creepy, but why call it a Navy? It's not like they're armed soldiers on the ship, they're just members wearing camo on a cruise ship. What operations have they done?

I didn't call it a Navy, I called it a fake Navy. LRH was a naval failure. So, he made his own, and declared himself Commodore.

 

[OneEyedKing]

Do we know what these issues were? It's pretty interesting that he did this. I doubt it was really to rub it in his face or anything, he probably actually wanted an honest opinion, but if he felt that the concerns raised were non-issues then he is also free to ignore them and not change anything.

I don't know all of them but one of them was line where his son said he's making it all up as he goes along.