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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Scientology's Justifications

I discovered, over the years, that when I found myself spending a good portion my time thinking up reasons why "it really is OK that I did that", it was always a sure sign I really shouldn't have done that.

Doesn't make any difference how very, very good my justifications were, if I found myself looking for reasons why something is OK, deep down, I knew, it wasn't.

Which is why I find it so very interesting that so much of any discussion with a Scientologist ends up being about all those wonderful justifications they have for what the Church of Scientology is doing and has done over the years.

And, oh! Do they have good ones! Hundreds of them. They don't make much sense, there isn't any proof for many of their justifications, but they cherish them and defend them with great passion. You risk their terrible anger if you dare question any of these vital justifications!
  • Their primary justification is that those people have been out to destroy the church since before it even existed. Oh, yes! Those people. You know, the evil psychiatrists, teamed up with the evil drug companies. Now, you do have to ignore the fact that they have never, ever, ever come up with any proof of this, but they do love this one. It's the church's favorite justification for their bad behavior. Go ahead, ask them -- but don't ask them for any proof, none exists.
  • Another really nice justification is that the evil U.S. Government with their CIA, FBI, IRS, XYZ agencies are plotting against the Church of Scientology. Oh, yes. Plotting. (Of course, the fact that the FBI raid on the church found tons of evidence of the worst domestic spying operation ever against the U.S. Government which was carried out by the church, and that L. Ron Hubbard fled the country--must be ignored.) No, no, it's the government that is evil, not the church!
  • How about the famous International Bankers conspiracy, mentioned by Hubbard in his "OT III - Wall of Fire" tape. These wealthy folk are, even today, funding all the anti-Scientology activities. Oh yes. No proof. No evidence. But "Ron said it" so this one is a keeper. (Hmmm, there are a lot of critics who are still waiting to receive those checks. LOL!)
  • "Other religions have done it!" This is a true classic. I used this one myself when I was growing up, "But Joey did it too!" The way I work it out, it seems like because other religions have committed crimes, fraud, abuses, lied, trampled people's rights, the Church of Scientology gets to do those things too. Say what? You'll see Internet trolls using a variation of this one: "Why single out just the Church of Scientology? All religions are bad!" Somehow, the logic of this one escapes me.
  • "How can you spend any time criticizing the Church of Scientology when children are starving in war-torn Slobovia?" (Or any other horrendous things happening in the world.) What the church is desperately trying to do is distract and divert attention from their crimes. They are saying we are only allowed to criticize one thing at a time -- and the Church of Scientology isn't the worst. Sorry, we're multi-tasking critics! The fact that something truly evil is happening somewhere else, does not give the Church of Scientology a free pass to do a lot of not-quite-so-evil stuff.
  • "All those who dare to criticize the Church of Scientology are just anti-religious [or bigoted or mean] people." It is rather difficult for the church to explain why these "anti-religious, bigoted, mean" people are only criticizing the management of the Church of Scientology, not Scientology, not any other religion, just the organization of the Church of Scientology. This "justification" isn't working too well outside of the church. Internally, to Scientologists, it might be working just fine.
  • Those damaged by the Church of Scientology "pulled it in". This is a Scientology twisted version of karma, where the victims cause the bad things (meaning being screwed up by the church) to happen to themselves because they were "bad". Note that this is never applied to all the bad things that happen to the church -- no, they never "pull it in"!
  • We're on a mission from L. Ron Hubbard to save the universe. If all else fails, this justifies everything. If you're saving the universe, well, that's pretty much a blank check to do any crimes, abuses, fraud, lies, anything you want! I think this might be David Miscavige's favorite.
And there are many more. Get into a discussion about Church of Scientology crimes with a True Believer and you will get bogged down in endless justify-justify-justify. Do you think they feel guilty? Yes, they do. Their endless justifications show it. Many of these justifications, those directly from Hubbard, are built into the Scientology belief system.

So, it seems quite obvious to me, from all the evidence, that the church knows, deep down, that what they're doing is wrong. They obviously know they are breaking the law, since they work so hard to cover it all up. They know they are trampling peoples rights to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion because of their endless justifications. They know they need lots of justifications for what they've done.

An organization that uses criminal means to carry out their plans, like the Church of Scientology does, is, by definition, a criminal organization.

That's the bottom line. Church of Scientology is a criminal organization.

Boy, do they need lots of justifications to try to make that come out right.
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6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the great article! Another thing Scn needs to justify is the Gulag Re-education Camps they run known as the "RPF". I noticed that the cult's current in-force policy issues on the RPF have just been leaked on Wikileaks. I am hoping that you might find time to read these issues and write an amazing article on this heinous subject.

    If you copy the below and paste it into the top search bar of your browser, you should find where this leak is located:

    http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Scientology_cult_unlawful_imprisonment_RPF_order_3434RE_2008

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another excellent piece! And here's a second vote for Anonymous comment #1 , i too would love to read your take on the latest RPF leak.

    Also, there's one common comment i get from trolls that isnt really a justification, more of a diversionary trap... "Why Do You Hate Scientology". Took me awhile to think up what originally felt like a good response, however it doesnt work very well. My response has been "I dont hate scientology, I hate the negative & harmful effects LRH's policies have had on it's ex-members".

    This response causes instamatic rage, which isnt what I'm aiming for... got any suggestions for a better response? TIA!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another great post. Thank you. May I make a topic request? As a wog, when I bring up scientology in conversation, the most frequent response is, "Well, it's no worse than any other religion. And look at all the bad things that religions X, Y and Z have done." So, here's my request: Would you post your responses to these statements (and any others you think fit into this line of reasoning)?

    Thanks,
    WagTheWog
    http://www.youtube.com/WagTheWog

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks anonlover. There are a lot of RPF documents there. Pretty scary stuff, too. It is certainly worthy of a post, I've just got to find the time.

    As far as the "Why do you hate Scientology?" question ... I usually say, "I don't hate Scientology, I hate Scientology management's crimes" but that isn't quite accurate either because the abuses of the church are rooted in the policies of Hubbard, as you noted. Where he boasted that his organization was "self-correcting", the opposite is true -- it is self-corrupting.

    However, a person chooses to apply those policies abusively. It's always a choice, so saying it is management who is criminal, is, essentially, correct.

    I understand not wanting to create problems, but if the person flies into a rage at the truth, there isn't much you can do. You're not going to lie "just to keep the peace", are you?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks WagTheWog.

    My favorite answer to the "Why single out Scientology? All religions are bad!" troll is rather simple. Just repeat it back.

    "So you're saying that nothing should be done about any ONE religion's abuses, because you believe they're 'ALL bad'?"

    Nothing more needs to be said, because the position is obviously insane.

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  6. Another one I love is that criticism from ex-members is "standard apostate behavior." If pressed on what they mean, they will cite a study by the late Lonnie D. Kliever. When you look into this study, you find out it was commissioned and funded by - oh, no, it couldn't be! - the Church of Scientology. Hmmm... a good way to dismiss anyone who leaves and dares to speak out.

    ReplyDelete

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