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It's unfortunate that most Scientologists will simply tune out any criticism of their Church, as Larry Wright predicted in his perceptive New Yorker article. The reaction of this person is typical: "they are attacking my Church."

I say this is unfortunate because the movement to reform the corrupt leadership of the Church of Scientology should come from the rank and file Scientologists, much as the reform of the Catholic Church came from lay Catholics, in the wake of the priest abuse scandals. This sort of popular reformation simply will not happen in Scientology as they willfully blind themselves to any negative information about their Church. They don't look, and they will not see it, and thus they actually enable and perpetuate the abuse - in essence, tolerating the destruction of their own Church from within. Reform of the Church of Scientology can only come from outside pressure.

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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The Church of Scientology did their standard boilerplate handling for whistleblowers or critics: deny everything; attack the critics personally.

Their lame attack on me is to say I am associated with or running with or even leading Anonymous, which they brand as a "terrorist organization." 

I was able to read the following reference on the air, which is from Hubbard's Church Policy Letter of 17 February 1966, "Public Investigation Section":

"Associating the attacking group's activities with reprehensible groups in the past by using familiar descriptive words will be found very effective. For example, if the word "white" has been made hateful to the public by some past criminal group we use "white" in our descriptive terminology concerning the group that is attacking us..."

They've chosen to use the word "terrorist" to associate with me. "See? He pals around with terrorists. Therefore he's a terrorist."

Anonymous, of course, is the loose term used to describe the community of online activists who oppose internet censorship. It is not "an organization" as such. They have no leaders, no meetings, no structure. Factually, anyone who does anything anonymously on the internet can call themselves "Anonymous."  And any authoritarian regime that wants to censor the flow of information on the internet and keep their own misdeeds secret hates "Anonymous," of course, whether that is Mubarak's government in Egypt or the Church of Scientology.

My entire connection with Anonymous is that I showed up at one of their protests at the local Portland Church of Scientology. The Church's intelligence arm, OSA, photographed me from all angles and then concocted their story to try to smear me by association.That five minute chat with peaceful, law-abiding protesters then became, with the Church spin, "palling around with terrorists."

It's the standard Church handling. Deny everything. Attack the critics personally. Try to discredit them with negative buzzwords, implied associations and vague allegations.

Rather than attacking their critics, Scientologists should be looking for ways to reform their church and cease the abuses of human rights.

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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