by neverendingjourney 21 Replies latest jw friends
I have not got opportunity now to watch the links provided but this came up also in the media today :
Scientology centres convicted of fraud in France
Church fined over £500,000 after case brought by former members who were pressured into handing over money
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/27/scientology-church-fraud-france
As Hubby and I watched this, and I learned they have approx. 10 million followers, I kept remarking how in the world could anyone buy into such teachings. What kind of mind set would a person have to have, to believe something that came from a Sci-Fi novelist ?
The more we watched and discussed it, my husband looked at me and said... "Isn't that basically what you did?", (he had never been a JW).
I was rather taken aback by that, my only defense was the same as stated below.
Same here in many ways. For one thing, the JWs at least pretend to base their nut-ology on the bible and semi-traditional christianity, which has been around for centuries. Most of us have been involved in it to some degree and thus are kind of de-sensitized to some of the extremism.
This bunch is actually worshipping and conforming themselves to the far-out ideas of a 1950s science fiction author!!!
It does occur to me that this news could all be a very good thing for JW people sitting with a leg on either side of the Watchtower fence.
I know that Jonestown sure was one back in my day - for a few.
Sadly, far fewer than I would have thought could see the obvious similarity and implications.
Edit - many authorities think that 10 million figure is grossly exaggerated. Deliberate deception is something they have shamelessly done before.
Here is another link from the deep end of this cesspool:
http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=438801>1=28101&mpc=2
Seems that some of the insiders who have left think that the Davis guy who went off on the niteline interview may not even be a high-level Scientologist!
Turns out he is the 37 year old son of actress Anne Archer. With a 7 series BMW and star related power, he was assigned as "permanent handler" for Tom Cruise sometime in the 90s - up until he fouled it up in 2005. Insiders allege that he probably never finished the high-level courses required to get up to the Xenu stage, and thus might even have freaked out of ignorance. At any rate, discussion of Xenu is strictly verboten.
In 2005, Davis had a blowup with the Org and was called back to HQ to scrub toilets with a toothbrush for a full week! He denies it, but there are multiple sources of higher-ups who left that fully verify this plus many incidents where David Miscaevage (the supreme leader) punches people in the stomach or face as part of their training. Guess he got rejuvenated up to spokesman afterwards - wonder what screwing the pooch on this interview is going to land him as punishment?
Quite a few fresh ideas here for the service department in Patterson, eh?
Seems that some of the insiders who have left think that the Davis guy who went off on the niteline interview may not even be a high-level Scientologist!
It makes perfect sense, really. Can you imagine Ted Jaracz being put into a corner by Martin Bashir?!?! Miscavige sends out a lower-level underling to field questions that way there's room for the church to say that the spokesman went outside the bounds of what he was authorized to say if something goes wrong. It also saves the church leader the potential embarrassment of having a Sarah Palin like moment on national television.
Nightline is ABC, right? Wonder if they are going to keep on this, the Crash director, and the France stories?
I am seeing nothing on FOX, but that may be due to van Susterain being a Scientologist herself (I think she denies it).
Yeah, Nightline's on ABC. My guess is that this story will fade soon because there's nothing really new to report. They'll probably pick the story back up if any other high-profile Scientologists decide to ditch the religion (John Travolta?).
By the way, I think the cat's out of the bag as far as Van Susteren is concerned: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/popup?id=1882601&contentIndex=1&start=false&page=9
I'd agree, it takes an awful lot to "take down" a cult.
But I don't think the COS is unaffected, let alone comparable to wts.
For one, COS lost at least one multi-million dollar lawsuit for harassment and lies.
For another, they've had scathing documentaries about their cult activities. (IMO, people dismiss wts child abuse scandals as the actions of individuals. They do not see those crimes as indicative of a mind control/psychologically abusive culture.)
And...their opposers have been high profile in a very organized way, and have used the media, unlike us (for the most part). (In the US we've had basically one thing on national news.)
As a result, COS has a total lack of credibility with the public and are almost globally viewed as a cult. I suspect most Americans think dubs are just weird, like Amish, but harmless.
The difference between us and them is really our unwillingness to act as a team. (Ironic, because wts accuses us of doing so.)
Check my old threads and you will see I have come up with ideas people could do easily and anonymously, but people just don't want to. Which is ok, it's their life. I'm just saying....and others have tried to coordinate efforts to no avail, too.
Here's one you can watch crash and burn, live:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/183571/1/Need-your-help-May-2010
Rebel8 makes some excellent points. The double edged sword now against Scientology is the combination of eerie secrecy, combined with an almost pathological need to attract new celebrity members at any cost. These celebrity people could now become a ticking time bomb. We have practically NO potential exJWs who could come anywhere near what these people could do.
Remember this: that Caballa (or was that the fishing gear store) Kabala (?) thing with the red string that Madonna got into has pretty much faded from view.
Nobody turns on an embarrassment as quickly as Hollywood. Ask Kevin Costner. Ask the producers and star of Gigli.
Or, ironically, Tom Cruise - for that matter.
Good point re celebrities.
The few celebrities we have are semi-dubs who appear to be kept on the straight and narrow by the wts. wts never acknowledges them, so no one is ever sure they're really in the borg.
They don't look like couch-jumping, seizure-medication-depriving nutjobs like the Scientology glitterari.
I think someone else made the point about the wts being Xian while Scientology isn't. That alone makes it more "mainstream" in the American public's eye.
