by Wild_Thing 6 Replies latest jw friends
There are more JWs than Scientologists. JWs shun their ex-members, too, and have beliefs just as weird. We also have had our celebrities .... Michael Jackson, Prince.
So why don't JWs have the spotlight in the media as much as the scientologists? It doesn't make sense. I guess since the JWs become tight-lipped and refuse interviews on any controversial topics, it makes for a boring news story. The Scientologists come out with all claws, and the TV cameras line up to get the shot.
I think a big part of it is that JWs appear to be Christian on the surface and, especially in the US, being seen as attacking a Christian group is a big risk to take. Because of the large Christian population, Scientologists are seen as being obviously wrong in their beliefs. In essence, the Scientologists' bible was written recently and that makes it less mysterious and people are less inclined to see it as divine.
They also have more (and less insane) celebrities, and celebrities that are leaving and speaking out. It's a smaller group, which also makes criticising it less risky, but they have just as much public awareness as JWs so doing a piece on them is still worthwhile from a viewership standpoint.
Because Scientologists are completely whacko batshit crazy. It makes documentaries about them more compelling, less nuanced.
JWs are just quirky and nuts, there is nothing that makes them very unique, certainly not in the world of evangelical / conservative Christians.
They are also at different life-cycles. If Scientologists get to be 150 years old and gain a few million members they would then be equally accepted and ignored because then they wouldn't be new and obvious.
I know, right?
It bugs me that we were sort of in the third place cult of America.
Mormons are huge, practically own Utah. They have that Tabernacle Choir and all the fringe break away groups with polygamy still existing.
Scientology is batshit crazy and has all those current Hollywood types.
With JW's, someone's gotta die to even get a mention.
Hey, don't forget that the JW's are loaded with pedophiles. That ought to get them into the news more.
1. They are a cult not based on any of the abrahamic religions. This makes them more of an outsider. Sometimes peoples minds are obscured from the lunacy of most religion because it was "mainstream" for ages. Scientology is really new in a way that it takes nothing from past religions except the cult model.
2. Lots of active high profile celebrities. I don't think you can compare it to jw in that way. It was a Hollywood religion in a way.
3. More mystery more controversy more conspiracy. The media makes its darlings from scientology to trump.
Before there was a Lafayette Ron Hubbard, there was a Joseph Franklin Rutherford, to be sure! Each in his own way was a nasty piece of business.
If we (all of us today) were living during the Rutherford era, the Judge could easily have been exposed as a cult leader. However . . . the modern concept of a cult has been slow to develop and it takes the era of the internet and World Wide Web and Television to reach enough people with such an expose'.
The newspapers were the only tool in the toolbox way back a century ago for exposing reckless, crooked, pathology in organized religion.
The newspaper, The Brooklyn Eagle, led the charge against Russell and Rutherford. You can visit the archives and dig out all sorts of remarkable revelations about these hucksters.
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Today, the tolerance of the public at large for wacky religious racketeering is rather high and it is difficult to shock anybody with revelations of malfeasance. TV evangelists and their money-mongering is old news.
Child molestation by priests is old news.
Doomsday cults with failed predictions are old news.
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What makes Scientology such an interesting subject is as others have commented here.
Science Fiction writers don't often invent religions based on Gnosticism and pure imagination.
Religious practitioners don't usually employ gizmos with galvanic skin response detectors to uproot and expose hidden demons.
Religious leaders don't usually hide from the limelight like Howard Hughes or make war against the I.R.S. and win!
Religious dissidents aren't usually imprisoned by their leaders for years at a time voluntarily!
How many religious centers in big cities have successfully co-opted the local police department?
Top box-office stars aren't usually spokesmen for religion.
And on and on. . .
