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Church of Scientology Enlisting Followers In Censorship

Posted by Soulskill on from the good-luck-with-that dept.

DrEnter writes "Apparently, the recent very public divorce of Katie Holmes and devout believer Tom Cruise is reflecting negatively on the Church of Scientology. Adding to this are other recent issues causing problems for 'church' leadership. In response, the 'church' has decided to encourage its followers to censor online chatter and comments about the 'church' and the divorce. This Yahoo blog post sums it up nicely. In short, they are encouraging members to complain about people posting negative comments about the 'church' as violating the Code of Conduct' in the posting venue. I can only imagine they are hoping these complaints will just be rubber-stamped and respected without investigation, but I think the campaign deserves a bit more attention."

36 of 628 comments (clear)

  1. First Thetan! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Book 'em, Xenu!
    --
    Posting anonymously because the Church of Clams still uses vexatious lawsuits against their critics.

    1. Re:First Thetan! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Book 'em, Xenu!

      Please remove the above post as it violate's Slashdot's code of conduct which requires the exact phrase "Frosty Piss" to be used in all first posts.

    2. Re:First Thetan! by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Frosty Piss was unavailable to this poster as he has not reached OT$10M. His devotion is insufficiently funded, so he's basically darned to heck anyway.

    3. Re:First Thetan! by jcr · · Score: 5, Informative

      Anyone who doesn't hold that criminal enterprise in contempt is just not paying attention.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    4. Re:First Thetan! by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Then you haven't looked very hard. Big difference: Christianity doesn't require you to pay money before they will reveal all of the church doctrines. Sure, some Christian churches are pretty much scams, but even those don't take it to the egregious level of Scientology.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    5. Re:First Thetan! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The difference is that a religion is a large, popular cult, while a cult is a small, unpopular religion.

      (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.)

    6. Re:First Thetan! by ByronHope · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... Christianity doesn't require you to pay money before they will reveal all of the church doctrines...

      True, but once they suck you in all Christian organisations want your money and they want it tax free.

    7. Re:First Thetan! by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also Christianity does not specifically target those suffering from psychological illness and to compound that target psychologists and psychiatrists and their professions with a vilification campaign in order to ensure people suffering from psychological illness will end up trapped with in the corporate for profit cult of Scientology. This corporate cult of greed also goes to any disaster event to target people at the weakest, people when they are most vulnerable with a scheme or providing aid only to try take everything those people own. Far better to be called the Church of Corporate Psychopathy a for more accurate description.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    8. Re:First Thetan! by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... Christianity doesn't require you to pay money before they will reveal all of the church doctrines...

      True, but once they suck you in all Christian organisations want your money and they want it tax free.

      But it is still a believer's choice to give or not, unlike scientology. And you should be glad that they are tax exempt. That's the only thing that keeps them from being able to tell their followers who to vote for. Being tax exempt means they can only speak on the issues, not the candidates.

    9. Re:First Thetan! by Nyder · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ... Christianity doesn't require you to pay money before they will reveal all of the church doctrines...

      True, but once they suck you in all Christian organisations want your money and they want it tax free.

      But it is still a believer's choice to give or not, unlike scientology. And you should be glad that they are tax exempt. That's the only thing that keeps them from being able to tell their followers who to vote for. Being tax exempt means they can only speak on the issues, not the candidates.

      Ya, except some church's go on and on about giving, and Give to God and God will Give to You. tithes and offerings, and tithes means like 10% plus you got to give more for offerings.

      They badger you so much on Sundays and if it was a holiday like easter or Xmas that pulled people in, omg, they would keep harping about it. Sort of like when you get them "free" vacations but you have to listen to them timeshare seminars while you are there? It is exactly like that.

      That of course, was like 30 years ago when I was forced to go to church. Has it changed since then? I doubt it. It's a way of some Christians to feel even better about themselves because they give to the church and are religious.

      What I do know is, the pastor bought a new car ever 6 months (caddies of course) and most the upper church management lived very very very comfortably.

      Pretty good for a bunch of people who used to be drug addicts and "got religion".

      In case anyone wonder who am I talking about, I'm mostly referring to Christian Faith Center in Seattle, and the red headed paster, Casey Treat.

      I could tell you stories about them and their fake beliefs. Life how they would have someone speak out in "tongues" then someone "randomly blessed by god" with the interpretation of what they said. One day, some guy says the interpretation of it, and I see by the look on Casey Treats face, that this guy isn't supposed to be talking. So what does Casey do? He says that god just told him that wasn't the interpretation we were to hear and then one of the deacons (and good buddies of Casey) said what the interpretation of the tongues where. Apparently they think I'm stupid as the rest of them, because I'm supposed to accept the blatant lie that just went on?

      Ya, fuck that.

      In these times of economic struggle, the Government should just take away the Tax Exemption for Religions. It would only be fair and if the religions have a problem with that, then they can pray to their gods for help with money.

       

      --
      Be seeing you...
    10. Re:First Thetan! by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Funny

      "I heard you got big stones."

      No, Moses had the big stones.

      Smith had the plates. But we're still waiting for the guy with the silverware.

    11. Re:First Thetan! by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "As always, most of my contempt falls onto the suckers. Entirely there fault. Just like people who respond to spam."

      While as a generalization I would be inclined to agree with you, it doesn't so much apply to this church. And here is why:

      The church leadership -- especially early on, including Hubbard -- were very, very good at PR and BS. That's why they established a completely separate part of the church for rich and famous people, where they get treated completely differently than everybody else.

      As a result, you have lots of rich and famous people thinking it's a GREAT institution, and telling everybody about it. But those who fall for all the hype, and aren't rich and famous, get bled of their possessions and shipped off to a work camp.

      As I say, if it were just up to individual judgment, I would tend to agree with you. But they have this very well-engineered PR machine set up to make people believe.

      Morally, that's fraud and deception. So far, they seem to have avoided legal consequences.

    12. Re:First Thetan! by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "In these times of economic struggle, the Government should just take away the Tax Exemption for Religions. It would only be fair and if the religions have a problem with that, then they can pray to their gods for help with money."

      There be monsters in them there woods.

      The REASON churches are tax exempt, is that we have a practical separation of Church and State in this country.

      The reason we have a separation of Church and State, is that our Founders, through experience of very recent (for them) history, knew very well the consequences of either having a Government-run Church, or a Church-run Government. Either case ALWAYS (over the last 800-900 years or so) ended in disaster.

      So they decided: government will stay out of Church affairs, and Churches would stay out of Government affairs. And it has turned out to be, in the long run, a very healthy way to run that relationship.

      But once you start to allow Government to tax Churches, you must then allow Churches to have some say in Government ("no taxation without representation"), and you have just re-created the mess that everybody fought wars to get away from.

      NO. No taxing of churches. And no influence by churches on government. No.

      No. No. No.

  2. Standard Scientology practice by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Call all your critics liars (and wife-beaters and child molesters if possible), send private detectives and Sea Org types to follow and harass them, sue them and anyone who supports them, cry religious persecution to the cops and govt officials, rinse, wash, repeat...

    Read all about it, and more.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Standard Scientology practice by Kenja · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Name one other "religion" that charges you to read the "bible" and forbids you to tell anyone what they teach under pain of law suite.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    2. Re:Standard Scientology practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Name one other "religion" that charges you to read the "bible" and forbids you to tell anyone what they teach under pain of law suite.

      The closest I can think of is Pythonism which typically utilises a comfy chair to punish aspostacy but in extreme cases may apply an entire three piece suite.

    3. Re:Standard Scientology practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is false. They have been indicated in a number of murders and convenience suicides of people who speak out about either, or the Church itself.

      They are, in short, very much like extremist Muslims, except without the benefit of their religion having been created far enough back that quasi-rational people might give it the benefit of the doubt as being legitimate.

      It also helps that Islam doesn't have actual documents with its founders talking about making a fake religion to bilk people out of their money.

    4. Re:Standard Scientology practice by PlastikMissle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why? They are both based on belief of the metaphysical and the scientifically un-provable.

    5. Re:Standard Scientology practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Look. Up there, in comment 40570317 at 06:18PM, where an AC posted:

      Sounds just like what "climate scientists" are doing to scientific skeptics.

      And then look up there, at comment 40570443, at 6:28PM, where another AC posts as soon as the 10-minute window is up:

      I really hope that everyone who comments here, do not follow any other (moronic) religion?... Because if you do, you are just as utterly underdeveloped as the rest of them.

      Hello, Scilon operative! Welcome to the Internet. (Don't worry, we won't bite. In fact, when you finally blow, we'll be here to help.)

      The internet is a big place, with millions of other threads for Theists-vs-Atheists, and Global Warming-vs-Deniers, and Obama vs. Romney, or whatever you'll be posting in your next round. But this isn't one of those threads. This is a thread about the abuses your organization has been conducting against free discourse on the 'net for the past 20 years.

      And no self-respecting theist, atheist, environmentalist, nor climate change skeptic, will fall for this classic attempt to threadjack the discussion. (Next time, try Apple vs. Microsoft, or emacs vs. vi. You'll still fail, but you'll provide us with much more amusement on your way down.)

      "Standard Scientology Practice" indeed.

    6. Re:Standard Scientology practice by XCDBFPL · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not true. For only $400 I've learned frost trap and my next spell for $800 will be how to handle car wrecks.

    7. Re:Standard Scientology practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      They are, in short, very much like extremist Muslims, except without the benefit of their religion having been created far enough back that quasi-rational people might give it the benefit of the doubt as being legitimate.

      This.

      Scientology's been caught blackmailing politicians, breaking into government offices to steal records, forging papers used to indict and jail people, and sent in infiltrators incredibly deep in near critics to try to break them, dig up dirt, or even get them to commit suicide. They've been caught breaking into doctors' offices for private medical records, breaking into psychiatrists' offices for anything they can find against their critics or targets.

      This doesn't even deserve to be called a cult. Scientology is nothing but a mafia, a criminal enterprise. This is the Cult of Scientology in action, how they really operate. The BBC did an absolutely great documentary on how they still operate in 2010.

    8. Re:Standard Scientology practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm the first anon above, and I have no idea what your post is about.

      (I'm a very self-respecting climate skeptic though)

      "Then why'dja bring up climate change in a thread about Scilons?" :)

      If I mistook you for one, please accept my apologies.

      Those of us who've been in the trenches have seen this before. Basically, when something comes up that's embarassing to the cult, the cult tries to make it about anything other than the topic at hand. The easiest way to accomplish this is for the Scilon to pick a similar inflammatory topic, about which many people hold sincere and impassioned beliefs, and to sit back and munch on popcorn as both sides of the (climate change | abortion | religion-vs-atheism | emacs-vs-vi | mac-vs-PC ) debate jump in on their respective sides and tear each other apart. (There's a guy a few posts down who tried to drag Israel-vs-Palestine into it, and for bonus points, he mentioned abortion, LOL!)

      As long as everyone's talking about that, nobody's talking about the cult, and the cult wins.

      To give a non-Scilon-related (and therefore off-topic!) example, governments use the same technique; the PRC has the 50 Cent Party, Russia has Web Brigades, and I'm sure our adversaries have their own word for the web equivalent of VOA. But I'm not interested in talking about those. At least not today.

      This thread is about how Scientology is enlisting its followers to report discussion of its practices as "off-topic" and/or "abuse" in order to sway the perception of Scientology on discussion forums. Not about the practices of other groups, however repugnant.

    9. Re:Standard Scientology practice by Mal-2 · · Score: 5, Informative

      While they may harass and sue you, they don't often go with the "Kill the Infidels" if you say something nasty about their Ronnie or Tommy.

      I suppose you've never heard of Auditing Process R2-45.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    10. Re:Standard Scientology practice by LordLucless · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not exactly the same, but pre-reformation Catholicism almost fits the bill. They just had all their texts in latin, and forbid translating it into any language the common people knew. The only people who had the time or opportunity to learn latin were the priests, so the reading and interpretation of their holy texts was exclusively the domain of the clergy. They didn't have law suits back then, but they did issue legal bans against the translations.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    11. Re:Standard Scientology practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How does all of these tactics, including infiltration of government, not qualify as terrorism?

  3. Then let me violate the Code of Conduct on /. by sandytaru · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm glad Katie dumped his ass and is doing her best to protect Suri from that cult.

    --
    Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
    1. Re:Then let me violate the Code of Conduct on /. by Kenja · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well... the kid is named after the voice on my iPhone isn't it?

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    2. Re:Then let me violate the Code of Conduct on /. by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's hard to feel sympathy here; she chose Tom and his wacky religion. She decided he was good father material. Now she's changed her mind, but you know what? She doesn't get to do that. That's not how it works.

      Her decision that scientology sucks NOW does not negate her decision that scientology was ok back THEN.

      What she did is called "growing up" and "maturing" and"learning from experience." Generally speaking, this is a positive thing. I hope you come to experience it in your life. Otherwise, you will spend it being exactly as you are now. That would suck.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  4. Re:In fairness to Scientology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let me say first that I find Scientology repulsive and a particularly greasy form of pyramid scheme. However, compared to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic trinity, they are responsible for much less evil and far fewer deaths.

    Because they had a late start.

  5. Please delete this story by Ecuador · · Score: 5, Funny

    It obviously violates the Slashdot code of conduct.
    It is not related to bitcoin or raspberry pi, it is not a dupe and has links to multiple articles that have a lot of text per page, requiring very few, if any, "next page" clicks. It might fool some that it has merit to be on slashdot by being a rather lame story that might appeal to people who like getting pissed at reading stories they don't consider "news for nerds", but I am sure you will agree that that alone is not enough.

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  6. Re:Why is 'church' in quotes? by natophonic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because any 'religion' with an eschatology that reads like (bad) science fiction is illegitimate and false. A true religion has an eschatology that reads like a dragons and wizards epic fantasy.

  7. Re:In fairness to Scientology by rudy_wayne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me say first that I find Scientology repulsive and a particularly greasy form of pyramid scheme. However, compared to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic trinity, they are responsible for much less evil and far fewer deaths. Between those three religions you have tens of millions slaughtered in pointless wars over minor differences in doctrine. You have sexism that runs deep through the dogma of all three. You have churches who have officially sanctioned everything from genocide to sexually abusing children to slavery. This stuff isn't even in the distant past. I can find examples in the last century where each of these religions has committed terrible atrocities.

    Scientology is easy to hate because it is so ridiculous, so absurd, and generally unpopular. It's an easier target than Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. But if you really take a step back and look at the doctrine of those three faiths, they are equally as ridiculous.

    All those other religions had a 2000 year head start on Scientology, so the Scientologists are way behind in the killing and other stuff, but that is irrelevant. Scientology is not a religion by any reasonable definition of the term. They only use the word church in their name for tax-avoidance purposes and so that they can claim "religious persecution" if anyone tries to challenge their absurd nonsense.

    Scientology is a lot of things -- scam, dangerous cult, organized crime -- but one thing it is not is a religion.

  8. Oh Tee! by Nethead · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not nary two years ago I stood upon a roof top in Clearwater FL as a superhero of justice (network engineer) alongside my sidekick (general contractor) and peered (as we setup a Clearwire cell site) upon all those that had dedicated 1,000,000,000,000 years of their existence to serving the word of Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer of some modest renown. We, in aghast awe, watched as they boarded their numerous bus vehicles to travel far to partake in what we would call lunch. What manor of noontime evil feast, we could not imagine. For they looked grim and uninspired.

    I bared my being to him at that time and allowed that for some short time in the early 80s I had once myself, this bastion of all that is right with network protocols, had fallen suspect to the siren cry of their teachings I related the trial and tribulations of having to buy their manuscripts and attend communication training (which, sadly, they did not impart the truth of a single RFC.)
    Fortunately I escaped by the narrowest means of not having enough money to buy the next book. For ages (about 2 hours) I beat my brow over not having the manly integrity to fight through my engrams and discover the universal truths of the Xemu protocol (RFC-infinity) and thereby understand, just my laying the wires upon my tongue, the truth of every communication protocol in the universe.

    But now that I've gone through deprogramming I'm much better.

    Now just if we could get everyone that believes in sky faeries to take deprogramming.

    --
    -- I have a private email server in my basement.
  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Frank Zappa was right by jamrock · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own." — Frank Zappa

  11. Re:In fairness to Scientology by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 5, Funny

    The problem isn't religion, the problem is mankind.

    True, but advocate eliminating the problem and suddenly you're the bad guy...

    --
    Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.