Slashdot Mirror
Belgium May Prosecute the Church of Scientology
sheean.nl writes "A Belgian prosecutor recommended after a 10-year investigation that the government prosecute the church of Scientology. The church is accused of being a criminal organization involved in extortion, fraud, unfair trading, violation of privacy laws, and unlawfully practicing medicine. Both the Belgian and the European branches of the church should be brought to court, according to the authorities. The investigation was started in 1997 after former Scientologists complained about intimidation and extortion by the church. Other European countries such as Germany have problems with Scientology, but in the US it is officially recognized as a religion. Scientology has 10 million members including high-profile followers such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta." Scientology has long used heavy-handed legal and other tactics to suppress opposition on the Net.
We're Watching.
Oooooh....L. Ron Hubbard must be spinning in his grave....well...his thetans must be enturbulated around their next body host at least...
ORLY?
Tom Cruise to come out of the closet?
The Catholic Church, on the other hand... No so very hard at all
European Community trade commisionar Ms. Neelie Smit is currently looking doing just that. She'll be looking at the state support the Roman Catholics have been getting in Italy.
Here's an article in which it's argued that Scientology is not a cult: http://www.slate.com/id/2171416/
It doesn't so much make Scientology look better, as make other religions look bad...
I happen to think that talking unsubstantiated nonsence and practising extortion and fraud is a hallmark of all religion...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Geeks have long memories.
Plus, add in the "Scientology uses Technology" angle (debatable, at best...outright laughable more realizstically), and yeah, there's some geek.interest.to.be.had.
I have absolutely no problem with these guys believing what they want, or even doing as they please within the confines of the law. However, once they start over stepping the bounds of their local laws, individuals should be prosecuted. I stress individuals.
A religion doesn't become legitimate until the people are persecuted for a little while (see the Jews, Christians, Muslims, Mormons, etc)
Why don't we all just ignore the cult and let it die on it's own? Apparently the 10 million figure is highly exaggerated, which makes people think they are more of a threat than they really are. High up, Scientology WANTS to be persecuted so they can energize their followers and gain the sympathy of others.
Sue the Pope? Good luck with that. You can't sue the Pope. As the Bush administration rightly pointed out (and you have no idea how rare it is for me to agree with that administration), in the U.S. the Pope is considered a foreign head-of-state, with all of the legal protections that that entails. We could invade the Vatican and bomb the Pope, but we could not sue him in a U.S. court of law any more than we could the Prime Minister of the U.K.
That said, Scientology's accused of: "extortion, fraud, unfair trading, violation of privacy laws, and unlawfully practicing medicine." I'm not sure that you can accuse Roman Catholicism (as a whole, discounting fringe groups that aren't practicing core doctrine) of most of those.
It might be something to do with this. Scientologists issued a DCMA takedown notice against /. after part of OT III was posted on here by a random user.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
The US government does not officially recognize any organization as a religion. There is the definition of church under section 501(c)(3) of the US tax code as a simplified tax exempt body. But religious organizations themselves are not regarded as tax exempt, just the complicated definition of church as a non profit body. But there are no officially recognized religions in the US.
In 1998 or so they where already being cataloged as a sect, not a church, which is important here (state money and benefits I suppose). It is estimated that Belgium has 8000 Scientologists, which is pretty lousy on 10 million, but still, with the headquarters, it could be painful for them.
Scientology has 10 million members including high-profile followers such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
Don't forget
Beck
Jenna Elfman
Leah Remini (King of Queens, Old School)
Jason Lee
Juliette Lewis
and a bunch of others...
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
You can't sue the Pope. As the Bush administration rightly pointed out (and you have no idea how rare it is for me to agree with that administration), in the U.S. the Pope is considered a foreign head-of-state, with all of the legal protections that that entails. We could invade the Vatican and bomb the Pope, but we could not sue him in a U.S. court of law any more than we could the Prime Minister of the U.K.
Tell that to Manuel Noriega
There are certain arguments that no one ever wins. Examples of such arguments are: Religion, Politics, Sexuality and the Infallibility of Cowboy Neal.
If you have a religious zealot who thinks what he is doing is "God's work", I doubt anyone would be successful convincing him otherwise.
Apply that same logic to the Church of Scientology. Here we have nutjobs who believe that space aliens are the cause of all the problems in the world today. If people are believing such nonsense, what else are they capable of believing?
This coming down on Scientology thing for doing business as usual won't stop their practices. It will just drive it underground in Belgium or spur international outrage over those "poor Belgian Scientologists".
The game.
The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet, 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the principal volcanos (Incident II) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged".
His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.
When through with his crime loyal officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confederation) has since been a desert. The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development.
One can freewheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "freewheel" (auto-running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep etc and one dies. So be careful to do only Incidents I and II as given and not plow around and fail to complete one thetan at a time.
In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but only that given here is needful.
One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or to the body.
One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I. It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing. You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some large, some small.
Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error. Good luck.
There was a comment posted Slashdot once that contained some "sacred text" of Scientologists. Copyrighted sacred text. Scientologists forced Slashdot to delete the comment, and so far that is the only comment ever to have been deleted from Slashdot. That's also the reason why "Comments are owned by the Poster." is part of the text at the bottom of the screen.
I can only imagine that that statement was referring to that episode. I'd hope so because I laughed out loud when I read that.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
I'm a Catholic but I deeply dislike the Opus Dei. I happened to be in a school where most staff had unofficial connections with them, and it was hardly bearable, mostly due to their overzealous and fanatical views on religious and related matters.
A CC-licensed illustrated horror novel
Similar to the upcoming US election results
Scientology is NOT a religion!
They believe that absurd fictional super-powered entities are controlling our lives.
They indoctrinate their believers to give up their common sense and rely on the group for 'truth'. They suck money out of their victims and they prosecute anyone who opposes their growth!
How dare they try to be considered a religion!
Umm.. wait a minute.. never mind...
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
The Pope and his representatives don't try to stifle critics with nuisance lawsuits. They don't threaten or harass opponents of Catholic theology.
While I'm willing to grant the status of "religionist" to the membership of the Church of Scientology, the organization itself is a money-making scam that uses the courts to intimidate anyone who dares speak up against it. I'm content to let the average moron who buys in Hubbard's pile of shit go his own way, but the actual organization needs to be taken down a few notches.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
No you want a REAL religion, you should be subscribing to Sciencolonogy.
It's the hottest new religion and all the big name Hollywood stars are taking part!
You see, 1,000,000 Jillion years ago, the evil alien overlord Xanus ruled the galaxy and a horrible plague of dysentery broke out among all of the populated planets. To eradicate the plague, he rounded up all sufferers of the plague and piled them into huge toilet bowl shaped vessels (see the Ori from Stargate, they stole the design from us and we will sue in internet court!!) and then dumped them into a huge septic tank he dug here on Earth. They died a horrible death in that pit and their souls came out and now cling to everyone elses souls on earth are all backed up leaving our spirits all gassy and bloated.
But have no fear... Sciencolonogy is here!
With our cutting edge soul plunging tech we can easily measure the brain to bowel flow of the bodies energies. By reading the life changing book Diarrhetics, written by our esteemed founder Elron Chubbard, you will learn how we can help you plunge your soul clear of these obstructive souls and allow your energies to flow freely. For a small fee of course. Your initiation will come with the first five pages of the book free and a free half roll of our patented toilet paper. If you run out, the free pages of the book should tide you over until you can get to one of our study centers to buy some more. Our study centers are fully stocked with everything you need, including newpapers, magazines and books, all for a nominal fee. Act now because we are having a special deal! You can get one hour in a stall with a door for the price of the ones that come without! Hurry, this offer won't last!
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Tell that to Manuel Noriega
To be fair, he wasn't sued in court. He was extradited for trial on some drug charges after a little war. A state of war, originally declared by Panama, existed between the countries. I will certainly grant you that the timing was WAY too convenient, but it wasn't a suit brought against a foreign head of state.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
That is a $cientology front site you posted. They even use the same stupid font for their logo as all their other sites do.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
I mean, look at this crap:
...
1. Check for any BTs (E-meter, theta perceptics, intention, pressure areas, telepathy is HOW) on and in:
1. Body surface (WHERE)
2. Body inside
3. In thetan's space (Approx. 40' X 60')
4. On thetan
2. Run Incident 2, then Incident 1, until BT(s) have gone and are released. Then, check for additional Incidents 1's and 2's until dry (on the meter).
3. Return to Step 2, to find new ones to run. Use ruds while running if necessary. There is an effort to stop and hurry on Incident 1.
4. When complete, exact date and run both of the incidents on self.
5. If a bog, do Millazo Pack. Write down some 'mutual associations'. Re each one on this list, FIND THE INCIDENT THAT MADE THEM ONE, and run that. Then, run OT III, Incident 2 and 1 after that cluster is broken up. Occasionally, BTs will have an incident that made them one other then Incident 2, thus this action.
It just keeps going on like that. I hope they get sued for every penny they're worth.
I see what you're trying to get at, but I think you have to remember one thing. "Islam" is not an entity, like say the Church of Scientology or the Catholic Church. Like "Protestantism", Islam is decentralized religion with many sects. There are certain entities within the Islamic world that will try to have you killed for what you say, but at the same time, there are lots of non-radical groups of Muslims (encompassing hundreds of millions of people in several countries around the world), in which this sort of thing doesn't happen. This is especially true in Muslim countries where the legal system is not based on Islamic law.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Tell that to Manuel Noriega Manuel Noriega was not sued in a U.S. court of law. He was deposed by military action. His trial occurred after his deposition.
If you're suggesting that we use military force to depose the Pope and then bring him back to the U.S. to stand trail... well, what you're suggesting is an act of war, just be aware of that.
When it comes to Scientology, however, there's no nation to deal with. They're just a modern, fringe religion. Thus, they have no immunity in a U.S. (nor, I imagine, Belgian) court.
You might just want to know what all the noise is about.
Scientology is the 20th Century production of pseudo-religious scientificism in America - much as the LDS church was it's 19th century production. I expect Scientology to be at least as virulent - and ultimately compromised into the mainstream - as its Mormon predecessor. It will even gain them "martyrs" as LDS fallaciously claim for Joseph Smith - beaten to death by a mob he defrauded.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Scientology is the creation of a science fiction writer's imagination. When he had a best seller with "Dianetics", he decided he could make some money (and keep the money) if he made a religion out of his dreams.
As a teenager in the late 1960s I investigated Scientology as I did many other things. They sent me literature which I read. It quickly became apparent to me (a teenager) that money was the real object of L. Ron's religion. And I (a teenager) wanted no part of it.
If a teenager can understand that Scientology is hogwash, bullshit and the work of Satan, what does that tell you about adults who believe it? I've lived a successful life without Scientology. And I got to keep my money (except for that portion that the government steals from me.)
Fata viam invenient.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
That is not true.
Co$ and IRS fought a battle for years over religious tax exemption. The IRS revoked the exemption with the justification that it was a profit earning business. Every court supported the view of the IRS.
The IRS submitted only after it was blanketed with thousands of petty Co$ lawsuits and it did not have the resources to defend all those lawsuits. The Co$ also infiltrated IRS staff at their offices. This is just one of thousands of examples how Co$ abuses the legal system through deception and half truths. Hubbard encouraged his members to abuse the legal system and to lie.
The agreement between IRS and Co$ remained confidential until it was brought to light via a FOI filing from the WSJ. When it was published there was a lot of outrage over the perks that the IRS granted to Co$ which are not available to other religions.
The Holy Bible is free to anyone who asks for one. Co$ is the only cult who charges their members for access to their "scriptures" which are split into multiple tiers and the charges increase exponentially as you advance through each tier. They pressure their brainwashed members to sell their homes, cash in their retirement accounts, deplete their children's inheritances, and go into crushing debt through credit cards to pay for their "scriptures".
One of the terms of the IRS agreement is that all Co$ course and scripture expenses could be deducted from income taxes. No other organization enjoys this perk and the IRS is forbidden to extend it to anyone else. That's just one of the terms that has raised a lot of outrage over the Co$.
The Co$ extorted the religious tax exemption from the IRS, plain and simple. Once that was in their hands, they waved that tax exemption at other countries hostile to their interests, but they were not easily fooled.
Hubbard filed for the exemption way back in the 50s to shield his quackery from government agencies like the FDA. Hubbard has been well established as a charlatan, a professional liar, and a barrater who has exploited the system at any opportunity.
The official definition of a cult is an organization that rejects Jesus Christ, uses their own "scriptures" as superior to the King James Bible, discourages their members from reading the Bible, and then poses as a religion. The Co$ fits that definition to the tee, and they are also a criminal organization in many peoples' eyes, despite the celebrity attachments. Good to see the Belgium is brave enough to prosecute Co$ as such.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Speaking from personal accounts, those who take on the $ciclos must be greatly prepared. My good friend Keith Henson is still serving his sentence for "Interfering with a religion" in Riverside, CA. He's a good example of what the $ciclos can and *will* do to keep those who would oppose them in check.
I personally disagree with the fundamentals of scientology, I'm Wiccan.
Thomas A. Knight
Author of The Time Weaver
Atheists are not a singular group with a common theological stance. In fact, our common world view amounts to "We don't accept the existence of gods". Beyond that, atheists can diverge pretty heavily. his is unlike Scientologists, Catholics, Muslims and the like.
It is unlike them in the content of what is agreed upon - not the divergence. How many different sects of Christianity and Islam are there? Some of them are extremely different from one another and many of them have some really brilliant people in their midst. Just because you can find a few daft theists hardly makes all theists, or even the majority, daft.
Your reaction to the criticism in the gp is a great opportunity to learn how this argument looks from both sides.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
And yet you read this far and replied to a nested post... Slow day at work?
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Just saw a message on alt.religion.scientology, Keith reportedly posting from Arel's account:
Hi *****, this is Keith using Arel's email account. I am out, Amber
picked me up and Arel and I have not been followed by cult PIs.
More in a day or two.
Best wishes,
Keith
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Well, how many tanks does the pope have anyway?
END COMMUNICATION
There, fixed that for you. Please don't quote people and modify the quotation.
I did not, in fact, mean to use the word "cult", as that word is rarely used by any two people to mean the same thing. It can refer to any small religion (which is arguably the correct usage in the modern sense). It can refer to any body of religious practices (this is an archaic usage). It can refer to organizations that use religion purely as cover to perform illegal or immoral acts (Jonestown comes to mind) or otherwise separate membership from the rest of society (e.g. the Unification Church). It can refer to religions which are not considered "acceptable alternatives" by the mainstream (e.g. Christians in the U.S. referring to Paganism). It can refer to any religion that is not the speaker's (I've heard many U.S. Baptists refer to Roman Catholicism this way). It's just not a useful word.
Plenty rich. However, the Church's wealth was accrued with somewhat more complexity than $cientologies, as anyone with even the vaguest understanding of the lengthy (and sometimes horrific) history of the Church would know.
The Church most certainly was not founded as a money-making scheme, but rather was the scion of some semi-legendary 1st Century holy man's ramblings. It's wealth was gained, by and large, not by forcing its members to pay big bucks (let's remember, for most of its history, the vast majority of Catholics did not possess anything approaching a disposable income), but rather because it became politically intertwined with the various European principalities, for which it (and the principalities) managed to accrue rather large fortunes in money, treasure and art (in some cases by pillaging other people, notably those poor Eastern Orthodox bastards).
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Unlike Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, many Unitarians do not claim to be Christian. As I understand the church, you can be Christian and a Unitarian, you can be Pagan and a Unitarian, etc. Last year there was some complaining about the Unitarian Church putting fliers in kid's backpacks regarding a Yule time Pagan celebration. The beauty of it was that Falwell's efforts the previous spring (to force the school to allow religious literature so that they could advertise vacation Bible school) made it all possible.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
That's the thing isn't it? Scientology is bizarre and ridiculous, and yet how can one criticize it without casting doubt on all religions? How can one say that stories about volcanoes, space ships, and H bombs are silly, but being swallowed by a fish and then regurgitated after 3 days is not?
Scientology serves as the "Reductio ad absurdum" for all religion. This may explain why so many feel so uncomfortable about it.
Try to ask a mathematicians about their beliefs. You need to be thoroughly initiated to understand their religion. Not everything could be shown to the profane. Only the trivial religions, like Baptism, are simple enough to be grokked by anyone. More advanced religions were always a initiation cults, since the first pythagorean sects.
He doesn't need tanks. He has Holy Hand Grenades.
There is something profoundly wrong with societies where somebody like Keith who has lived a productive, generous, pioneering life can have their liberty curtailed because they piss off somebody with greater access to The Law's capacity to pursue single dubious issues against anybody who has really lived.
But we should place more blame on the personal empire builders who are ensuring untrammeled expansion of The Law-Politics-Mass Media axis of evil^Hauthoritarianism than even the criminally motivated cult which has become so good at exploiting our excessive 'authorities'.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
Of course, it is very un-PC to point this out. Watch the replies to this comment for gratuitous attacks.
Scientology is a racket, but they have a ways to go before they catch up to "mainstream" religion.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
While Belgium's treatment of Opus Dei and other 'cults' may be hard, I don't see how this is relevent to Scientology. This action doesn't look to be about the religion. It seems to be about the church itself. If I started a buddhist sect that killed people, conducted violent "mediation" sessions, threatened anyone who left, broke up families and drained peoples bank accounts and did all for profit, I would expect to be prosecuted in any country where the rule of law is respected. And the prosecution wouldn't be a persecution of religion, buddhism would still be perfectly acceptable but the church would be prosecuted.
Bringing freedom of religion into this discussion is bullshit, because the CoS is not the religion, it is the church. If the CoS renounced persecution and violence and not required payment for instruction, they wouldn't be charged with being a criminal organisation.
You may not be able to separate church and state, but at least try to separate church and religion.
I don't therefore I'm not.
You don't go to hell for posting stuff, you go to hell for postings that disagree with mine!
Standard disclaimer: Yes, I firmly believe God has a sense of humor, at least I firmly hope so.
Back in my day when we chiseled our bits into stone and sent them by mule train from village to village...
Though an argument could be made otherwise (crusades, inquisition, etc.), for the most part (IMO) religion has benefited mankind as a whole.
The main points (in major summation) to most religions are: Be nice, and worship X deity. Only the former really matters.
I like the way Douglas Adams puts it: And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, one girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything. Though I don't agree with any given religion's beliefs, I do agree that being nice to yourself and others is a good thing. If a religion says that it does such and practices doing so, I'm cool with that religion.
Romans v. Christian converts
Catholic v. Protestant
Sunni v. Shi'a
Shi'a v. Baha'i
Hundu v. Sikh
Christian v. Mormon
Jew v. (please select one from Column B)
Southern Baptist v. Fossils
Zoroastrians v. (too lazy to Wikipedia it)
Communist v. Other Communist (cults of personality are no different than religions except where their god lives)
Just to point out, I'm not defending Scientology, just making sure that the playing field is level. Makes it easier to set the goddam field on fire and bury it.
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
Because one of the tenets of this cult is to infiltrate federal governments throughout the world to increase the power and influence of the cult. They also do a host of personal intimidation tactics to critics and former members of the cult.
I'm not saying they should get the attention of law enforcement groups because they're a cult. But I am saying that when a cult acts like a criminal organization, they should not be ignored just because they are a cult.
That's not the quote. The quote is more along the lines of "the lowest animals in god's sight are unbelievers" (ie: those that do not believe in God). Not much different than, say,
"In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:" (2 Th.1:8)
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible has a pretty nice laundry list of all the horrible things in the Bible (and the Quran and the book of Mormon too, by the way). The bottom line is that these books were all written by a bunch of angry people living in the desert (christ, if I lived in the Middle East I'd be pissed too), and people should pick and choose the bits of them that don't suck.
The real problem is that the Muslims actually believe all the crap in the Quran, while most Christians these days only pay lip service to the crap in the Bible.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I have no problem with that. As soon as humanity shakes off this ridiculous notion of supernatural rubbish we might actually get somewhere as a species. I admire the Quakers' take on community, but it's doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Using the word "intolerance" doesn't automatically make something wrong. Doctors are intolerant of disease, the police are intolerant of crime, and pilots are intolerant of airplane crashes - should they all stop being so intolerant?
The only source of the number leads straight back to the cthurch of Scientology which can provide no meaningful data to support that. It's highly suspect that they claim they can't, because the whole organization is obsessed with "stats" thanks to Hubbard, and every Thurdays at 2pm a report goes uplines of how many people on course, how much money, how many new people signed up, how many Stress Tests, how much money, etc.
Even one of their apologists, Dr. J. Gordon Melton said: Ref: Elaine, Jarvik, Scientology: Church now claims more than 8 million members, 2004-09-18.One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I refer you the storming of The Golden Temple. You can argue that it was a political act against a separatist movement, but I don't think Indira Gandhi's guards would agree with you. As to the general tolerance of Hinduism in the context of being better at accepting "insults" than other faiths, it's a pity that Deepa Mehta doesn't have a slashdot account to make a few points.
Regardless, I think the original point of my post was muddied; I was not referencing the current level of conflicts between religions and offshoot sects, but rather the usual level of violence seen by those offshoots in their infancy. The argument being that the vehemence of Scientology's attacks on its critics is typical for such a young, um, "religion." Soon enough they'll settle into the usual routine of calmly spouting their bullshit in public in the course of political campaigns and pissing me off with their constant stupidity like all the rest of them.
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
ISNT THE ONES THEY STOLE GOT THEM AS NON-PROFIT TAX-FREE BULLSHIT?
Yes indead it does seem fishy that they broke into the IRS and the IRS still declared them a non-profit, and I'm sure that many of the IRS agents as people hated doing that but if they met the legal requirements than their hands were tied
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
My people have been persecuted since the great purge known as Order 66. I have been pursued halfway across the galaxy by a sinister former Jedi named Darth Vader. Please purchase my manifesto and join the Jedi order, all for the low introductory price of $19.95. As you evolve as a Jedi Knight, I will continue to educate you. This crucial second course is a bargain at $599.99 and the third may require you to get a home equity loan, but you NEED it!) Together, we will defeat Lord Vader and the evil mastermind Darth Sidious, and we shall bring harmony in the Force and peace to the galaxy.
That's my religion. You got something to say? I have an army of lawyers waiting to sue you left and right. And I require tax exempt status. Thank you.
With a strong-arm over the town he ran like a fiefdom.
Except that Hubbard lived in exile, isolated aboard a yacht and not killed, there are many parralells of someone defrauding the gullible with a false religion to personal advantage.
Smith's followers have tried for more than 150 years to cover up his origin in the New England Spiritualist/Seance movement.
Real religion I have no quibble with. "False gold exists, only because real gold can be found".
CoS and LDS are pseudo-religions, who's origins are related more closely to the material gold of coins, than the spiritual gold of inner experience and vision.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."