Voltaire's Child
Fool on the Hill
This is a subject near and dear to my heart, since I was once a (non OSA, not an operative) CofS member who found a critical forum, found out the truth and stayed on, eventually ditching church membership then later getting expelled for it.
I see church members occasionally wandering in to various fora and generally generating a lot of conversation and interest and evaluation. From what I see, they fall into more than one category:
Church members who are operatives
Church members who found the forum on their own
Church members who are OSA staff
and then we have trolls who are probably not even affiliated with CofS but who are just playing everyone.
But there really ARE and HAVE BEEN church members who are not with OSA, aren't trolling, and are just trying to figure out what the hell is going on. And, even in the case of Tory, there was someone who WAS in there as an operative but ended up wanting to find out what was going on and ultimately left the building.
I'm not saying don't take them to task or not to call them on their bullshit. But if I had a buck for every time I've seen someone say "Oh, that person's not allowed to be here and they must be OSA because OSA doesn't let anyone but their operatives post here" and whapping someone in the face with that little tidbit, I could retire. Yes, OSA does not want anyone but ops on forums. But that hasn't stopped quite a few people who figured they were being lied to from finding message boards and newsgroups, lurking and even posting to them. I've received a lot of emails from people who were doing just that, and I've seen people come here and say they were still in CofS but were on their way out or something of the sort.
If the people on a.r.s. who I'd encountered hadn't bothered to talk to me about things (and, yes, I got yelled at, too, but I found then, as now, that the good outweighed the bad and I got plenty of info which is what I'd wanted) instead of pontificating about how I must be OSA because OSA doesn't want yadda yadda yadda, I might not have found things out when I did or have many of the friends I have now. Did OSA let me post to ars? Hell, no. But before I ended up in a position where I had to choose whether or not to stay in CofS, I had a hell of a great time talking to people and prying myself off the fence. I was rather party line in the beginning, too. That didn't make me an operative- that was just the indoctrination and I eventually ditched it.
The idiocy of various trolls and operatives is quite disappointing and does make it difficult for nice people who are in the process of trying to heal from their experience in CofS, certainly. But sometimes there are some nice party line types who are just a step or two away from being where a lot of us are now and who have no connection to Dept 20. It's hard to tell them all apart, but that's because indoctrination makes a person sound like a troll or an operative.
I see church members occasionally wandering in to various fora and generally generating a lot of conversation and interest and evaluation. From what I see, they fall into more than one category:
Church members who are operatives
Church members who found the forum on their own
Church members who are OSA staff
and then we have trolls who are probably not even affiliated with CofS but who are just playing everyone.
But there really ARE and HAVE BEEN church members who are not with OSA, aren't trolling, and are just trying to figure out what the hell is going on. And, even in the case of Tory, there was someone who WAS in there as an operative but ended up wanting to find out what was going on and ultimately left the building.
I'm not saying don't take them to task or not to call them on their bullshit. But if I had a buck for every time I've seen someone say "Oh, that person's not allowed to be here and they must be OSA because OSA doesn't let anyone but their operatives post here" and whapping someone in the face with that little tidbit, I could retire. Yes, OSA does not want anyone but ops on forums. But that hasn't stopped quite a few people who figured they were being lied to from finding message boards and newsgroups, lurking and even posting to them. I've received a lot of emails from people who were doing just that, and I've seen people come here and say they were still in CofS but were on their way out or something of the sort.
If the people on a.r.s. who I'd encountered hadn't bothered to talk to me about things (and, yes, I got yelled at, too, but I found then, as now, that the good outweighed the bad and I got plenty of info which is what I'd wanted) instead of pontificating about how I must be OSA because OSA doesn't want yadda yadda yadda, I might not have found things out when I did or have many of the friends I have now. Did OSA let me post to ars? Hell, no. But before I ended up in a position where I had to choose whether or not to stay in CofS, I had a hell of a great time talking to people and prying myself off the fence. I was rather party line in the beginning, too. That didn't make me an operative- that was just the indoctrination and I eventually ditched it.
The idiocy of various trolls and operatives is quite disappointing and does make it difficult for nice people who are in the process of trying to heal from their experience in CofS, certainly. But sometimes there are some nice party line types who are just a step or two away from being where a lot of us are now and who have no connection to Dept 20. It's hard to tell them all apart, but that's because indoctrination makes a person sound like a troll or an operative.