I haven’t read every post in this thread so excuse me if someone has already posted the following link. It’s an interesting article about Scientology titled, “10 Bizarre Snapshots From The World Of Scientology”.
I was struck by the similarity between Scientology and another famous organization.
I recently saw a show called “Gangland”. It’s a documentary about many things. But the first episode is about Prison Gangs. The first gang they showed was the “Aryan Brotherhood” aka “The AB” or “The Brand”.
They interviewed a former member who said that when someone is indoctrinated into the “AB”, the first thing they are told is, “The AB comes above everything else. Above your family, above your religion, even above God.”
When I read the above article about Scientology, I found it to be chilling.
“Scientology comes above everything else. Above your family, above your religion, even above God.”
Did anybody notice just how tiny Miscavige is? Even Tom Cruise towers over him. Google says Miscavige is 5’1", which makes it almost comical to picture him administering all the beatings described in Going Clear.
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I have thought that was one of the elements of Cruise’s friendship with Miscavige. The book Going Clear describes him as being completely ripped though.
If you’re that small, I don’t think “ripped” is going to help you much. The only reason Miscavige gets to administer these beatings is that the victims are too psychologically cowed to retaliate. The beatings sound like a manifestation of Miscavige’s own insecurities (or possibly 'roid rage, given what you’ve said about him being ripped).
And Congress (esp the GOP) has a long history of cutting the IRS budget for political reasons, which effectively is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
One thing is not clear to me about the IRS settlement. Can the IRS revisit Scientology’s tax exempt status at some point based on changed circumstances, or does the settlement foreclose the issue forever?
This whole thing sounds like a good argument for eliminating tax-exempt status for religion altogether. Why should religions get preferred status over, say, a social organization of atheists?
The granting of tax-exempt status was a re-visitation. From Wikipedia:
From 1952 until 1966, Scientology was administered by an organization called the Hubbard Association of Scientologists (HAS), established in Arizona on September 10, 1952. In 1954, the HAS became the HASI (HAS International). The Church of Scientology was incorporated in California on February 18, 1954, changing its name to “The Church of Scientology of California” (CSC) in 1956. In 1966, Hubbard transferred all HASI assets to CSC, thus gathering Scientology under one tax-exempt roof. In 1967, the IRS stripped all US-based Scientology entities of their tax exemption, declaring Scientology’s activities were commercial and operated for the benefit of Hubbard. The church sued and lost repeatedly for 26 years trying to regain its tax-exempt status. The case was eventually settled in 1993, at which time the church paid $12.5 million to the IRS—greatly less than IRS had initially demanded—and the IRS recognized the church as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.
They did it once, they can do it again. The most obvious point is that they publish a catalog of services with “mandatory donations” that have to be paid to reach each level.
An excellent question, but one that seems far better suited to Great Debates.
I have to wonder if it is cause or effect? Could you put a decent, empathetic human being in that getup and produce a vicious petty thug, or is this just how they choose to dress? Most of the decent military leaders I have known choose to wear the least ostentatious version of their uniform whenever possible.
On the other hand Pol Pot and Kims 1, 2 & 3 wore plain uniforms.
In the book Going Clear, it’s mentioned that Miscavige was pretty ripped even when he was kid.
It’s also mentioned that when he was a kid his parents left him with a caretaker, and that they warned the caretaker to never ever touch him if he was having an asthma attack. I don’t recall if they tell him specifically what would happen if he touched Miscavige during an asthma attack, but it’s pretty clearly implied that he would beat the shit out of them.
When Lawrence Wright’s acclaimed Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief was published in 2013, it debuted at number three on the New York Times harcover non-fiction bestseller list. Its publisher hasn’t sold a single copy in Canada.
That’s because Random House chose not to distribute the book here. It was generally assumed that this was out of fear of a libel lawsuit from the notoriously litigious Church of Scientology. Canada and the United Kingdom, where the book was also witheld from stores, share rules that make it easier for plaintiffs to win libel suits. Fear to speak up as a result of potential lawsuits is often called “libel chill.”
Now Wright’s book has been adapted into a film by director Alex Gibney. This past Sunday, it premiered on HBO in the United States and, as John Doyle noted on Friday, not in Canada. Doyle asked HBO Canada why they weren’t airing the doc. They told him it was simply a matter of distribution: their agreement with HBO in the US does not include all of their documentaries, and some of them need to be negotiated with other distributors. They did not specify whether they hope to air the documentary at a future date.
Interestingly, HBOCanada also didn’t show an episode of Real Time With Bill Maher that featured Lawrence Wright as a guest.
[QUOTE=Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief]
…pointed out that the reason no one outside of the executive circles knew about the abuse … was that people were terrified of Miscavidge - and not just physically. Their greatest fear was expulsion. “You don’t have any money. You don’t have any job experience. You don’t have anything. And he could put you on the streets and ruin you.”
[/QUOTE]
At this point, Scientology had been going on for decades. There were people raised in it. It offered no education. It was all they knew. And there’s this total dick in charge who can point at you and say, “Leave.” Not only do that, but then actively attempt to ruin your life from then on - he’s done it before…