u2bonogirl said:
My sister lives in hollywood and knows a lot of scientoligists. Basically her take on it is that its a fad among them, and some people actually convert to it to get an "in"
Giovanni Ribisi has family with some hollywood power or something, and theyre more willing to help out scientologists
That's exactly what it is: a fad cult. I keep hearing Tom Cruise say "It's helped people I know get off drugs." So what. Many things do. That doesn't legitimize it as a belief system you should gamble your life and eternity on.
This is something I found on
www.watchman.org, which is an organization that seeks to expose cults for what they really are.
"TIME magazine's May 6, 1991 cover story described the Church of Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), as a "cult of greed" adding that it "poses as a religion but is really a ruthless global scam" (p. 50).
The eight-page TIME article, written by Richard Behar, described Scientology as a "hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner"
Some of the charges the article made included:
Illegal Activities including financial scams, forgery, holding followers hostage, and criminal operations such as "infiltrating, burglarizing and wiretapping more than 100 private and government agencies in attempts to block their investigations" (Ibid, pp. 50-53).
Legal Harassment of its critics including 71 active lawsuits against the IRS, 14 lawsuits against attorney Michael Flynn, who represented former members (all dismissed), and 19 lawsuits against journalist Paulette Cooper who wrote a critical book in 1971.
Cooper was also the victim of what a church document titled "Operation Freak-Out," a church sponsored attempt to frame Cooper for bomb threats which was uncovered when a 1977 FBI raid recovered church memos.
Mental and Physical Abuse of followers through expensive manipulative sessions that "can produce a drugged-like, mind-controlled euphoria" employing schizophrenic and paranoid behavior which promotes psycho¬pathic response and suicide (Ibid, p. 52).
Sounds great, Tom. Sign me up. I want to be like a movie star.