As Anonymous battles against the Church of Scientology, some people sympathetic to the Church of Scientology raise the issue of religious freedom. What those who protest the Church of Scientology should keep clear is that they are protesting against an organization, not a system of belief. The distinction is commonly lost when people outside of a system of belief look in, and not just when Scientology is the belief system under consideration.
Religion vs. Organization
Mormonism has a similar interesting mixture of belief system and organization. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or "LDS Church") is the organization in Utah, but there are many "Mormon Fundamentalist" groups who claim that the LDS Church has gone astray and that they better represent authentic Mormonism. Most people seem to realize that the actions of an occasional abusive polygamist should not be held against the LDS Church organization, but some assume that the LDS Church is 100% equal to Mormonism.
Christianity hasn't been a monolithic organization in more than 1000 years, splintering into too many small groups to count. Painting with broad strokes, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian organization, with 1.1 billion members. However, another billion Christians belong to different organizations or even to no organization at all. It is often difficult for non-Christians to identify which beliefs are intrinsically part of Christianity and which are only shared by some subset of Christian churches.
Islam (the religion) has at least two major branches of belief (Sunni and Shia), and each branch is further split into three or four "subsects." When one Imam or Mujtahid speaks, he does not represent the entire religion, and may not even represent his entire small group. Most of us have trouble tracking which views are inherent to Islam, which are part of Sunni or Shia, and which are simply isolated pockets based more on geography or politics or culture than religion.
Adherents.com labels the difference as "religion" (Christianity, Islam, Scientology) and "religious body" (Roman Catholic Church, Sunni Islam, Church of Scientology).
Religious Freedom
The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment states that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This is the fundamental declaration of religious freedom in the United States, but it does not protect every organization that claims to represent a religion. Various archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church are legally liable for illegal actions taken by their priests, for example. If any of the criminal allegations Anonymous makes against the Church of Scientology are true, then the Church of Scientology should face the legal consequences, though the practice of Dianetics or Scientology should not be prohibited.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - anonymous
great article
2 - Phillip Winn
Thanks. I've got a friend who left the CoS years ago and spent some time in the Free Zone. It all seems pretty wacky to me, but I'm sure my religious beliefs seem wacky to others.
3 - Enron Hubbard
Anonymous has spread some of the more outrageous Scientology texts, in the hopes of destroying the organization by discrediting the religion. This seems shortsighted. The best way to weaken the for-profit organization would be to widely publicize the lower-level texts -- the ones that suck people into the Church because following them actually works to improve lives. Anonymous should be trying to give away what the Church really charges for: a strict code of operations that, if followed, will probably lead to success. It isn't rocket science; it is stuff like "look up a word in the dictionary if you don't know it", "to make someone more cooperative, act just a little happier they they are", and "don't do illegal drugs". Obvious stuff, mostly, but occasionally insightful. Give that info away, and you take away the Church's true power.
4 - Dag
Slowpoke.jpg
The fact that anonymous is criticizing the organization and not the religious beliefs of scientologists has been one of their key points for some time now- half the news reports mention this. You're a little late with the advice.
5 - AtlLiberal
If I read this correctly only religious organizations are subject to criticism and not the underlying religion itself. The First Amendment guarantees that governments will not establish a religion. It also guarantees anyone's right to practice any religion they darn well choose. It says nothing about a people's right to criticize religion. There is no law or restriction concerning questioning the validity, rationality, or appropriateness of a religious idea. This article seems to imply that religions are granted a special privilege not offered to other ideas. This is simply not true. It may be impolite to question another's belief but no law prevents it.
6 - Jet in Columbus
The Church of Scientology used to have a headquarters here in Columbus. I don't think I can render a valid opinion of them because they were always ordering pizzas from us. Each time the bill'd come to $150 and the drivers would get "stiffed" every time for carrying a dozen or so pizzas up three flights of stairs...
7 - DukeDeMondo
Excellent, Sir Winn. Thoughtful and void of nonsense, as ever. The distinction tween belief and body is one that really needs to be taken on board.
8 - Matthew T. Sussman
If Scientology had factions, that would be amazing.
Tony Robbins Orthodox
9 - Anonymous
THANK YOU for elaborating on this subject! I've had it with reading articles saying that Anonymous is critical of the religion as a whole.
10 - Michael
A good and balanced article.
As an active freezone scientologist I can tell you that the philosophy and religion of scientology is as far from the official church (consisting of the private non profit company called Church of spiritual Technology, the Religious Technology Center and the Church of Scientology International) as it is possible to get and still be on the same planet.
When Hubbard was alive the church did indeed practice scientology and expanded and helped many people to become more aware as beings. The philosophy was promoted and people were welcomed into the church. Families and family life was promoted and the cost of the services were reasonable.
After his death, however, a new regime took over (evidence available upon request) and all that changed. The emphasis became, money, dedication to the exclusion of all else and a paranoiac obsession that anyone not with the church was against it. Church members were not allowed to look at the internet or anything the church management deemed contrary to church (not philosophic) doctrine.
Many of the original followers that assisted Hubbard with his research were booted out. Script and books were changed and a very effective 1984 job was done on the literature.
Even the wife of Hubbard, a tireless supporter, has become persona non gratis with the church.
The philosophy of scientology is not practiced in the church. The church is a vehicle for making money, not for "spreading the word".
It is a misnomer to say that that the church practices scientology because it does not anymore.
The only scientology you will find is practiced outside the church in the Scientology Freezone.
Most of the current critics are critical of the church, not the philosophy, much of which they are probably unaware. But what is of concern is that many critics, and the fellow in the street does not have a clue about what scientology is. All one gets is rhetoric and a diatribe of, "its bad", "Scientology kills people" or "scientologists eat babies" and other such claptrap. No, the church may participate in dubious activities but certainly any self respecting scientologist does not and scientology does not kill anyone. The bald ignorant statements of, "they be all bad over there" is not a sound approach for adjudicating the merits or otherwise of any philosophy
How many people know what the ARC triangle represents, or what is a stable datum or what the eight dynamics are and they would not have a clue. How many people actually know what scientology is? Not very many! They do not even know the basics of real scientology.
But their criticism of the church is very different and very understandable. In the eye's of the freezone scientologist, the church has committed the ultimate crime of suppressing the philosophy and, instead, imposed an authoritarian dictatorship totally at variance with the original philosophy.
THAT is why it is attacked so much. Unfortunately the baby often gets thrown out with the bath water.
11 - RandomComment#53b
$cientology reminds me of high school when my buddies and I would get bored and do stupid little experiments. Sometimes they were simple little things like going to the mall then gather around at some random moment to look at a spot on the floor. Soon people would start walking up to see what we were looking at, then a small crowd would form - then we’d walk away and see how long it would take for the crowd to disperse.
One time we made up a religion but then got a little carried away trying to top each other on what we could get people to believe - we had to stop cuz it was getting mean. Good lord, we were idiots…
we never even thought to make money off it!
Is it possible hubbard just “left his body” before he got a chance to call off the experiment something?
12 - Phillip Winn
Dag (#4), you tell me I'm late with this advice, and yet comments that come long after yours, like #11, seem to still lack understanding of the distinction -- or possibly just don't care. Hmm...
13 - Phillip Winn
AtlLiberal (#5), I never suggested that it is illegal to criticize religions, and I'm sorry you got that impression. I only suggested that it is counterproductive and pointless.
I did say that such protests *threaten* religious freedom, but I believe that any protest threatens freedom. That doesn't mean that the protests shouldn't happen! People protesting injustice in the Sudan threaten the freedom of the Sudanese government to treat their people unjustly, and that's a *good* thing. The freedom of the government, in that case, should be considered to be of far less importance than the freedom of the people to life and liberty.
Let me put it this way: if protests do not constitute a threat to freedom, there is no point in protesting! That people engage in protest means that they recognize the power of protest.
Does that make sense? I've been up all night with a toothache, so I may not be expressing myself well.
14 - moneen
Scientology knowledge is fine when a person can discriminate what is wanted & what is rejected.
Scientology churches though have policies that can be very undemocratic & despotic.
Keep a watch over Scientology so that it is never allowed to take any democratic right from any person.
15 - Rosemary Thyme
It is not true that when the Miscavige took over Scientology changed.When Hubbard was alive back in 1967, he was paranoid,he thought the whole world was against him and guess what they were.
Hubbard was thrown out of Rhodesia,on The Royal Scotsman he ran a totalitarian regime with daily overboardings,children were put in the chain locker,heavy ethics was enforced,crew worked long hours and were often put in lower conditions with little food and sleep.The ship,by then name changed to Apollo was thrown out of Corfu.Disconection and the splitting up of families was rife.
Hubbard set up the Guardians Office,run by MSH to infiltrate governments,media,banks and he aimed to obliterate Psychiatry.In the 70s 11 members of the Guardians Office including Mary Sue Hubbard were jailed owing to the biggest infiltration of USA government in history.It was during this investigation into Scientology that the plot to ruin Paulette Cooper was discovered.She had written a book exposing Scientology and the Go(Guardians Office) had tried to frame her for making bomb threats against the church.The "Church" of Scientology has always been a money making enterprise.Hubbard got fed up only making a penny a word writing Science Fiction books.
For more information visit xenu.net and xenutv.net.
16 - CultHater
Nothing can change the fact that Scientology is a cult
17 - alessandro
There's a new Church of Cult on the block. It shall be called Fictionology.
Who's in?
No gnomes allowed.
18 - Phillip Winn
CultHater (#16) You're probably referring to the Church of Scientology and not the Free Zone, yes?
19 - AF
Phillip --
I'm sorry, but your article seems badly flawed because you are (as far as I can tell) using "freedom" to mean something far different from what any of your readers will think you mean by it. A human being's freedom is considered (by most of the First World, anyways) that human being's right; therefore, that which is not that human being's right is therefore excluded from being their "freedom". I may have the capacity to rob a jewelry store; if I am clever and lucky, I might even get away with it. This does not mean that I have the "freedom" to rob a jewelry store, which is being infringed by the police who would prevent me, because I do not have and never had the right to commit that robbery.
I think that perhaps you may want to rethink this subject after you've recovered from the toothache. Civilization is built upon the idea that we can recognize and respect boundaries, and an aphorism that is often cited to illustrate this concept is that "my right to swing my first ends where the other fellow's nose begins." But if you talk about having one's "freedom" "threatened", I feel certain that no one is going to understand that your use of the word "freedom" deliberately includes behavior which transgresses those civilized boundaries, which represents not the acting party's exercise of his rights, but his violation of another's rights.
20 - orthodox
scientology is the most random thing i've heard of - jesus was an alien???