I entirely agree; the French have gone even further than the Germans and condemned CoS as a criminal conspiracy.
But if Gibney is right, and he strikes me as a man who means what he says, anyone in the US can create any kind of weird belief system and call it a church.
And when it's done by a commercial enterprise that operates on the model of a destructive mind-control cult - which has more in common with 1960s Communist China then with any Church - it might be a good idea to remind people of that, rather than ignore that and acquiesce to its wish to be regarded as a genuine religion and a "Church."
The religious cloaking adopted by CoS is fraudulent
Sounds like a major act of fraud. Don't you think it's worthy of being mentioned and described?
but legal as it is aimed at members and potential members not at the IRS.
Have you read the IRS closing agreement?
Religious cloaking is aimed, primarily at the "wog world." The mind-control system functions with no need of religious cloaking and, in its internal activities, Scientology Inc.'s religious cloaking is irrelevant. Once a few documents are signed as a protective measure, there is no religious cloaking in sight, just an occasional obligation to repeat the protective PR line of "religion" "Church," and "my religion" when in situations where "wogs" might be watching.
The IRS are concerned with what happens to the funds raised by a non-profit "church", how they are spent, and if it breaks the law in other areas.
It's likely that the IRS is reluctant to bring to the attention of the general public, or before Congress, that it was cowed by a criminal enterprise and, possibly, blackmailed by one.
None of us are know exactly what the "IRS is concerned with" re. Scientology. Something very peculiar occurred that led to the IRS caving. Almost a billion dollars in back taxes and fines was forgiven. Does the IRS want that investigated?
As far as I am concerned churches are all equally nutsy and manipulative and bad for the human mind
Sorry, but Churches are not all equally bad, and Scientology only pretends to be a Church and would never have identified itself as a Church if it had not been for the benefits afforded by doing so.
You're letting your general dislike of churches lead you to a place where you're - unintentionally - forwarding some of Scientology's PR lines. This is not a criticism. Angles are hard and pointy and stick out and easy to trip over.
but the American constitution gives Americans the right to believe in whatever they want.
Does the Star Spangled Banner start playing at this point?
This is not so much about the beliefs of Americans as it is about the abuse of the Constitution and of the law by a Destructive Cult. Ordinary criminals play the system in much the same manner.
It doesn't give a church the right to spend tax-exempt money on motorcycles, private chefs, PIs and other perks or to use slave labour. As I understand it.
It's a little more complicated than that.
If there are 100 cases a year where tax-exempt status is withdrawn it ought to be easy enough to find out the reasons why. But how do you get the IRS to act?
How to get them to act? First, educate the public as much as possible. The areas of address are the dubious IRS deal, Scientology's tax payer funded outrageous behavior, religious cloaking, and Destructive Cultism.
Over the last several decades, Scientology has been working hard to erase the idea of Destructive Cultism from our minds, and the term Destructive Cult from our vocabulary. Have they succeeded?