Boy, them Scientologist beliefs sure is funny!
Reminds me of other silly belief systems I’ve heard, like the one where they think that people have something called “a soul” that lives on after you die, and if you were good it goes to a good place and if you are bad it goes to a bad place.
It takes all kinds, I guess!
Sentinel:
Excuse me? At one time? You mean that’s no longer the case?
::slinking off to dispose of my straws, and learn to be Mary Sunshine::
Waste
Flick Lives!
The connection between Manson and Scientology is fairly weak. Apparently, he took a few of the early “audits” but never joined the church. Just as well. Try and imagine how much “clearing” he would have needed.
Ordinarily, no. However, should the organization be proven to be constituting or supporting a criminal conspiracy, the “religion” defense would not be effective against any sanctions against the group as a whole or criminal prosecution against its members.
Against stupidity the very gods / Themselves contend in vain.
Of course, individual members of religions should be liable for their criminal actions, but for a government to tell members of a religion that they may not organize sounds pretty tyrannical.
Here’s another little something regarding this happy little ‘church’. This is a policy of theirs called ‘fair game’. This clip is from a policy letter:
ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by
any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the
Scientologist. <b>May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.</b>
Emphasis (if the codes work, that is) mine.
This basically means that Scientologists are not discouraged from messing with any declared enemies of the church, aka Suppressive Persons (SPs) even if that means “destrying” them. And some ex-members claim that some foul play is encouraged, and possibly even mandated.
The CoS says that they took this particular policy off the book years ago. But their harassment of prominent opponents of the church suggests otherwise.
"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. "
– L. Ron Hubbard in 1949
I think that pretty much sums up the intentions of Hubbard and the sincerity of the religion…