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A&S Newspapers: COLUMN: Scientology: A Criminal Enterprise

imSPecial

Patron with Honors
http://www.sourcenewspapers.com/articles/2015/04/10/opinion/doc5527dcaef0466439302534.txt

By MATTHEW FAHR
After watching "Going Clear," an HBO documentary on Scientology, I am now convinced that their "religion" is not a cult, as I had thought for many years, but actually it is an organized crime operation.

It is a "religion" founded by a huckster (L. Ron Hubbard) and is currently run by a despot (David Miscavige). Their methodology for keeping people brainwashed is simple, but there is a complex system at work to build on a brand and keep cash flowing in.

Scientology does have its cult-like qualities such as its own special lingo for simple terms such as "suppressive persons" for those who doubt them and "auditor" for a person who basically acts as a psychiatrist. But you do not amass a billion-dollar empire without instilling fear, cravenly keeping secrecy at a high level and having an effective way of getting other people's money into your pockets.

To make your way along "the bridge to total freedom" toward some sort of enlightenment, those who join Scientology have to pay to learn about your own "religion."

To talk with an "auditor" and achieve the next level in the Escher-like set of steps it takes to learn about Xenu, it will cost you. One former "auditor" said some sessions can cost as much as $1,000 an hour and people have been drained of their life savings along the way.

Just like any good crime syndicate, you want to keep your business model under wraps lest someone rat you out for being the criminal you really are while you soft-peddle yourself as some kind of saint.

Scientology has perfected the practice.

Do you see advertisements for their "religion"? Are they on street corners handing out flyers? Are their announcements in the papers or online encouraging you to come on in and see for yourself if their brand of spirituality is right for you?

Of course not.

Yet they are somehow self-sufficient enough and bring in enough business that they can remain out of the public eye while they bankrupt their own members. Continued...
 
Just one aspect left out - Scientology collects all your "confessed" misdemeanors through security rundowns etc., to enforce compliance and for future blackmail.
Mike
 

Sindy

Crusader
My comment didn't get through moderation. I think it may be because I said that there were a couple of things that I might have minor disagreements with but that the overall concept of the piece I agreed with 100% and said that people would do better to compare Scientology to the Mafia as it would create a much better understanding than to compare it to other religions.

If this writer or this site don't allow statements that don't agree 100%, that's disappointing to me.

That said, I appreciated the guy calling the cult for what it really is and said as much. No one else has described it exactly this way and it needs to be described this way more and more and when it's finally described this way by all the media outlets, it's game over.

It IS a criminal enterprise and nothing else.
 
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