From: September Virgin Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Opposition to Scientology Date: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 04:57:03 -0700 Organization: The Avant-Garde of the Now, Ltd. Lines: 96 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: network.ucsd.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Scientology qualifies as a hate group by its selective murders, its pandering to blackmail, and its destruction of life. Scientology does not hate anyone but its critics and eliminates who it can. It is a hate group by these definitions and so I will essay to make suggestions to those people who wish to allay its power in their area or at large. More, I will urge others to avoid joining the Church and if they can, to disarm the potential threat Scientology poses. The reasons to oppose Scientology are manifold. The Church is a powerful organ and an international force at the time of this writing. Many countries seem to recognize Scientology as dangerous to their government and constituant populace, but this recognition is slow and is acted upon feebly. I cannot suggest that stronger measures be taken, simply because enacting prohibitary laws against the Church of Scientology would mean restricting the endevours of other innocuous small religions, most of which do not demean human freedom, and most of which are symptomatic of freedom at its greatest allowance: the freedom to believe and to live based on belief within the law. Still, there is a snake in the village well and this snake is not whispering wisdom, it is lying to us and asking many among us to commit crimes against our fellows. Why would we listen to Scientology? Why do we permit the snake to slither within our fresh water? Here is the test of freedom and of democracy: how do we rid our village of a single snake that is a snake composed of humans who are as deserving of respect and of their liberties as we? The grassroot or citizen resistance to Scientology mirrors the international situation to some extent. Mature people do not act as vigilantes and restrict their aggressions to legally and socially acceptible vehicles of action. There are protests in front of Churches worldwide, yes? However, we are stuck in the dilemma that protesting an entity in some fashions offers advertisement for said entity. We have encountered that issue in the United States when an outraged community would march directly before a cinema playing a film they disliked, or similarly denounce a media within the forum it is merchandized within; and would find to their dismay that this uproar would popularize the media entity rather than discourage anyone from supporting it. Ineffective are the methods of marching and of writing letters as expressing subliminated aggression against a thing we do not like. We have a problem and the solution is always contained within an unexamined portion of the problem. Our problem is a serpent in the well, but it is a serpent of human flesh, a human organization, and we must regard these humans as siblings to the extent that not all of them wish harm upon other people; I would hazard to claim that even the criminal element within the ranks of Scientology do not wish to hurt humankind at large but rather employ the paradigmal tactic of dehumanizing their victims, making their targets seem worthy prey. We have a serpent and stare either at its precious eyes, exclaiming, "A joy unto the world!" or witness its subtle sting and moan, "Monsters breed among our own!" Both exclamations could be said to be true of us. It is important to connect with the human frailties within churchmembers, find their sorrows and loves, touch upon those common points to solicit them away from harming any other. This is the method of love, which must be preserved. However, Scientology has been said to traffic illicit items over national borders, and it has been said that Scientology has indulged even encouraged the murder of innocents whose sole sin lay in divulging cult secrets and downsizing the reputation of the cult of Scientology. If Scientology is also ruminating over international secrets, it would seem there is in the Church of Scientology a new rival to the information clearing houses (like Mossad) who sell national secrets and profiles for a price, and a competitor vying with the great underground empire of druglords and arms dealers. In any case to prevent Scientology from gaining too strong a public power, we must utter a literature to the public that is easy to understand and eyecatching. We must list their crimes in a simple, honest format that will appeal to public fancy and place these lists in public view. We must list embarrassing questions to ask Scientologists, questions that might be easily referred to at a library or Dianetics bookstore; such questions can be seen as "Does Hubbard write that a problem with crying is due to a bad reincarnation from clams? (list book name and chapter title and page number of current publication)" or "Does Hubbard write that homosexuals are incurably evil?" Remember to aim the questions and criticism to the specific audience: point Christians to those portions of Scientology antithetical to Christian interests. Point homosexuals to those portions of Scientology antithetical to homosexuality. Point youth towards those restrictive and silly things they can make fun of in their spare time, but try to avoid interesting the young in Scientology simply because they are too easily captivated by any fascinating thing, no matter how wrong. Cajole feminists with the sexist statements of Hubbard as well as the accusations of his children and his ex-wife. Etc. Scientology will blow over. Do not make too large of a deal out of opposing this thing, simply because we are dealing with a paper tiger. We might be cut by its sharp defined claws, but we must not worry that it will remain prowling the world for longer than two centuries; it's too rigid against change and too verifiably false to avoid the translucent nature of the world and the penetrating vision of Truth. Until then, be creative, live a life away from the burgeoning Church, and stay with love. No faith or creed is stronger than your will to live and your unearthly love. So live and love and do both in truth.