It is part of the Church of Scientology allying itself with religions, churches and people of faith generally, which has been going on for a very long time but has accelerated recently. (See my numerous posts re: the Church of Scientology National Affairs Office signing onto various letters concerning religious and civil rights worldwide.) The Reinhold Neibuhr quote is Marty's and Scientology's way of signaling to other religions, churches and people of faith that while atheists, agnostics and critics of religion and spirituality are coming for Scientology now, they will be coming for them later.
Under the guise of stamping out religious bigotry, hatred and discrimination, Scientology is uniting all religions. Right, it's probably one of their more successful "religious angles."
Scientology thrived under secrecy, while using a wide variety of ploys to entice and trap people. A lot of these ploys are failing because of the voluminous information on the Internet. For example, convincing people that the only way to understand what Scientology is about is for a person to do it themselves, read Hubbard books, take courses, do Scientology and embrace it. That's no longer working. People want to read about the experience of others, even listen to people talk about what they believe. Choosing to dive into Scientology would be like buying a product on Amazon without looking at the reviews and ratings.
So as their old ploys fail, the stress test, the allure of advanced tech like the e-meter, the personality test, the mystique of Dianutty (what the hell does it mean?), naturally, they are going to put their efforts into things which can work for them, like uniting with other struggling religions or sects, which also may be feeling the effects of the Internet. In effect, other religions are in the same boat. It's one thing Scientology legitimately has in common with other fringe religions and sects, and even some of the major religions.
I don't think it is important, necessarily, to react to that. Better to keep on exposing the bait and switch, brainwashing and abuses. If you do want to react to their uniting with other groups, remind others that Scientology is not as tolerant about the practice of other religions as they pretend to be, and also remind people how Hubbard came to take religious cloaking in the first place, after the failure of his science of the mind.
Part of that religious cloaking involved insisting Scientology is at the top of the heap, above all other religions, and that not being a Scientologist means shivering in darkness for the next trillion years. This is preying on the spiritual yearning of people. Make people understand that with Scientology, they're trying to hit all angles -- it's a science, a philosophy, a religion, a floor wax.
It is important that people who have been stewed in any religion since they were born, understand that just because they were born into it, it doesn't mean it is the only true religion. Atheists can bring people that rather obvious message, which is something everyone brought up in a religion thinks about anyway, but can't quite reconcile. They keep trying to ignore it.
For centuries now, people did not have easy access to the real facts about the history of their own religion, let alone the beliefs and practices of others. Because of the Internet they do. And for the first time they can listen to or read the thoughts of atheists, or members of other religious groups, find out how they think, what they believe. I think this is a positive transformation.
I like Sam Harris, an atheist whom I consider to be very kind, compassionate and thoughtful about religion and spirituality, and an articulate speaker. Some people think he's a hater and religious bigot. He makes more sense to me than some blowhard like Hubbard blabbering on about beingness, havingness and knowingness, and his former life on Venus.
Is Scientology extending their ecumenical outreach to embrace an SP psycho-apostate like Marty Rathbun? Probably not. They're probably just using him. And his attack isn't spiritual at all. Marty is an example of what Scientology can do with their money. It's like spending millions on following Pat Broeker around, not very spiritual.
Unless Scientology starts giving money to people for taking courses instead of charging people for them, it's going to continue to fail from exposure, even with Marty's special ability to keep talking but be incomprehensible.