Scientology’s Chilling Effect

[KamaAina]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/opinion/joe-nocera-scientologys-chilling-effect.html

When I was at Fortune magazine in the 1990s, one of my colleagues was a reporter named Richard Behar. He had a special lock on his door, and he wouldn’t even let the janitor in to empty his wastebasket. He used a secret phone, which he kept hidden in a desk drawer, so that calls made to sources couldn’t be traced back to him.

At first, I just thought he was paranoid. But I soon learned that he had come by his paranoia honestly. In May 1991, as a correspondent for Time magazine, Behar had written an exposé of Scientology, calling it a “hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner.”

Before the article was published, Behar says, he was followed by private detectives, who also contacted acquaintances, asking whether he had financial problems. After its publication, that sort of harassment continued, he says — along with a major libel suit. Although the suit was eventually dismissed, it took years, and cost millions of dollars to defend. Behar’s deposition alone lasted 28 days....

It is virtually impossible to tell the story of Scientology without getting into the issue of intimidation. As the film notes, going on the offensive against its critics is part of Scientology’s doctrine, handed down by its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. “It is the antithesis of turn the other cheek,” says Marty Rathbun, a former high-ranking official who left the church in 2004 and has since been subjected to Scientology harassment, as the film documents. It also retells the story, first reported in The New York Times, of how, in 1993, Scientology won a 25-year fight against the Internal Revenue Service, which had refused to grant it nonprofit status. Scientologists filed several thousand lawsuits, against not just the I.R.S. but individual I.R.S. officials, and hired private detectives to look for dirt and conduct surveillance operations.

[madfloridian]

1. His great grandson. Jamie DeWolf expose. Video. Outstanding.

[Warpy]

2. The cold, dead hand of religions pushed by zealots have a chilling effect on everything.

It holds science back, especially medicine. People have cutoff points installed in their heads that prevent them from going just a little too far in education because if they do, they might start to ask a few questions and questions kill faith. They have been used to sell rich men's wars to the poor population that will have to fight them.

Scientology is just one of the newer ones and probably the most vulnerable to people who start to ask questions, which is why the inner circle who are cashing in on it bigtime react with such extreme paranoia when anyone who has risen within it starts to talk.

It's especially vulnerable because it lacks the ancient roots of all the Bronze Age gods and has no cultural pedigree. At some point, most people have got to feel a little disquieting WTF at the backs of their minds when they start to find out they're acting out a science fiction novel that was too ridiculous for publication.

The BBC documentary is a fun thing to watch:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. Cannot wait to see this.

Back in the 80s I had a girlfriend was was in an abusive relationship. When she reported to me that she had attempted to leave the relationship and her boyfriend had threatened to kill her and her family, I immediately went to the front of the phone book (where "official" emergency resources like 911 and the FBI info was located) to look for domestic violence resources. I called the first one listed (something like "Women in Crisis&quot and they said they would send out someone right away to meet with my friend.

I was there when a woman arrived at my friend's workplace. She spoke with her briefly about her situation and then handed her a book to read. It was "Dianetics". She told my friend to read it and then call her to set up an appointment to come by her "agency".

Not once did this woman say she was with Scientology.

My friend needed information on how to file for a restraining order. She needed resources on finding emergency housing. She needed guidance on how to leave this relationship without her or her family ending up dead.

And all she got was a shitty book.

I contacted Pacific Bell (at that time) to complain about how the hell Scientology was able to get itself listed as an official domestic violence resource. I guess I wasn't the only one, because in the next edition of the phone book they had been removed.

I will never forget that, and never forgive that organization for its scurrilous attempt to take advantage of women at such a vulnerable time. >