Giving too many chances

People can be very forgiving perhaps sometimes even too forgiving. Such is often the case in Scientology. We try to give a second chance whenever possible and that second chance often extends to third, forth, fifth and more chances.

Such was the case with Mark "Marty" Rathbun. Despite his really bad behavior he was given many chances but eventually he decided he didn't want any more chances and left the Church. It was his right to do that, no one can force you to be a Scientologist. But then he saw an opportunity to make a quick buck out of Scientology's huge popularity and his former position in the Church and so began his campaign of lies that culminated in a ridiculous news article (see "Inside the S.P. Times") and a TV show that really shows how bad journalism can get (see "A History of Lies")

Of course, there will be those who, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, will insist that Rathbun's unsubstantiated accusations are true. Unfortunately for such people, Rathbun just went out of his way to prove how untrustworthy he is by getting himself arrested (Mark "Marty" Rathbun arrest documents) and then took no responsibility at all for his actions.

This nine-day-wonder is nearing the end of his ninth day and will soon relapse back into obscurity along with his lies and money making hopes. Personally, I can't wait for midnight to strike.

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Anonymous Member Gets a Year in Jail

Brian Mettenbrink, of Grand Island, Nebraska is a member of the ... what shall we call it? Hate Group? Cyber Terrorist Group? I know, Yeah, let's call it the cyber terrorist and hate group Anonymous.

Two years ago he and his fellow criminals decided that they knew better than religious experts and courts and that in their infinite wisdom they were justified in breaking the law so as to harass and attack a religion they knew nothing about.

The sheer arrogance of these people is amazing.

Anyway, Mettenbrink has been caught tried and sentenced for his part in this criminal act and will be spending the next year of his life in jail. Read all about it here: Nebraska man sentenced in Scientology cyber attack.

He is the second Anonymous member to go to jail over these cyber attacks. The first was Dmitriy Guzner. Let us hope there are more to come.

Scientology Ex-Members

A small handful of ex-members of the Church of Scientology have been getting some attention in the media recently.

When you take "that species of journalist whose interest is more in sensational copy than in an objective statement of the truth."¹ and you connect them up with the noisiest of ex-members, each of whom is "likely to be suggestible and ready to enlarge or embellish his grievance"¹, you will understand why the resultant media attention occurs.

Of course, the truth is nowhere near as entertaining as the fictional accounts of a disgruntled ex-member who "acts from a personal motivation to vindicate himself and to regain his self-esteem, by showing himself to have been first a victim but subsequently to have become a redeemed crusader."¹

Courts and other official investigators ignore the testimony of such people because it is well known that ex-members "always act out of a scenario that vindicates themselves by shifting responsibility for their actions to the religious group."¹

Of course, not all ex-members have complaints. In fact, the majority have been found by sociologists to harbor no ill-will against their former faith and because of this, ex-members with an axe to grind have been given the name "apostates" to differentiate them from the benign majority of ex-members.

For a more detailed discussion of "apostates" and their recent allegations see this article: Defectors About Scientology - Breaking with Scientology

(1) Quoted from "Apostates and New Religious Movements" by Prof. Bryan Wilson

(2) Quoted from "The Reliability of Apostate Testimony About New Religious Movements" by Lonnie D. Kliever, Ph.D.

Another (anonymous) one bites the dust

Although I feel sorry for a guy who is most likely a pawn in the criminal hand of Anonymous, he still broke the law and now has to face the consequences:

Federal Crime Charges against Anonymous

Anonymous member indicted by US State Attorney

On Wednesday, October 28, 2009, a federal Grand Jury in Los Angeles indicted Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, a member of the cyber hate group Anonymous, for his part in the January 2008 attempted destruction of Scientology websites owned by the Church of Scientology.

Mettenbrink, 20, is charged with conspiracy and “transmission of a code, information, program, or command to a protected computer.” The indictment states that he obtained a computer program from an Anonymous website and executed a “DDOS” attack from his dormitory at Iowa State University against Church computers in Los Angeles. A DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack occurs where a large amount of malicious Internet traffic is directed at a website or a set of websites, with the intent to overwhelm and shut down the websites.

Mettenbrink is the second member of Anonymous to face criminal charges relating to this attack. In May 2009, Dmitriy Guzner, then 18, pleaded guilty to computer hacking charges for his role in the attack on Church computers. He is currently awaiting sentencing.

Scientology is a worldwide religious movement with more than 8,000 Churches, Missions and groups in 165 countries. The Church and its members dedicate their time and resources to numerous humanitarian programs that Scientology has become known for around the world, including combating drug abuse, immorality, illiteracy and human rights violations.

How pathetic is Anonymous?

I just came across an article that demonstrates the criminality and twistedness of "Anonymous". The article is about how they hacked the Time.com "Most influential person" online poll.

They built auto-voting programs and modified them as the Time.com people changed the poll in an attempt to stop the hacking. Eventually when Time added a feature that stopped the auto-voting the nut-jobs of Anonymous started voting by hand. To keep the manual voters happy the masterminds of this idiocy provided porn to keep the faithful voting.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article: "To further optimize their voting they created a poll front-end that allowed you to enter votes quickly while giving you an update of the poll status (and since it is a 4chan kind of crowd), they also provided the option to stream some porn just to keep you company while you are subverting one of the largest media companies in the world."

And this: "Some of the most hardcore voters (I call them ‘devoters’) spent 40+ hours voting. At their peak, they were casting about 200 votes per minute."

It's rather pathetic if you ask me. It shows you the mentality of these people and how pointless their lives must be. Why not spend 40+ hours doing some volunteer work? There are thousands of worthwhile causes out there. But no, rather than do something to help their fellow man, the pitiful members of Anonymous prefer to mess with a pointless Internet poll.

Read the complete article: moot wins, Time Inc. loses.

Anonymous member faces 10 years jail

Thanks to my blogging pal Casperize, I found out that the first member of Anonymous ever caught has pleaded guilty to felony charges involving a series of January 2008 Distributed Denial of Service attacks on the official websites of the Church of Scientology.

You can read the full story here: Not so anonymous Dmitriy Guzner faces 10 years in prison

Here is an extract:
19-year old Dmitriy Guzner has pleaded guilty to felony charges involving a series of January 2008 Distributed Denial of Service attacks on the official websites of the Church of Scientology.

Guzner is part of the Internet hacking group Anonymous, which targets groups and individuals just for the sake of fun. This is the first time a member of Anonymous has been convicted on computer hacking charges.

Anonymous started harassing the Church of Scientology last year, not only attacking their websites, but waging real life demonstrations and stunts on the religious group.

Other victims of Anonymous have notably included Florida Republican Nancy Detert and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

New Jersey native Guzner faces 10 years in prison and is set to be sentenced on Aug. 24 in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Sources: United States Attorney, Central District of California and CIO.com

An outsider's view on the Travolta Tragedy

I've long been a reader of NaturalNews.com and I've found a lot of great data on health and nutrition there. I've also followed the site's exposes of the Pharmaceutical Industry. The guy who runs the site seems to have his finger on the pulse of the health sector.

Anyway, I was browsing on the site last night and I came across this: Baseless Accusations against John Travolta Demonstrate Cruelty, Intolerance of Pill Pushers and Religion Bashers. I thought it was a very good article and very enlightening if you follow some of the links he gives (especially the link to the famous "Death by Medicine" article - I recommend that everyone in the country read this article).

Anyway, check it out and tell me what you think.

Bigotry and Discrimination

This weekend I saw a great movie. It was released in 1947 and is called Gentleman's Agreement. It stars Gregory Peck as a journalist who decides to write his story about anti-Semitism by pretending to be Jewish for 8 weeks.

He encounters discrimination in obvious, not-so-obvious and downright subtle ways. It's a very entertaining movie that avoids preaching but gets its point across.

The main message I got from the movie is that you can't just silently sit by watching discrimination and saying to yourself "that's not okay." You have to actually do something about it or you become part of the problem.

When you hear "horror stories" about how "bad" a group is (whether religious or ethnic) you have to stand up and tell the person spreading the lies to stop. You have to make it clear that you don't agree and that you will not support their hatred in any way.

Another more subtle form of bigotry is disparaging comments or "jokes" directed against people's race or beliefs. Once again, you must not stand for this sort of covert discrimination.

If we were all a bit less reasonable about the ethnic jokes and the religious stereotypes that are promoted by bigots and the media, then this world would be a better place.

A Question from "Magnolia"

Hey Magnolia,

Thanks for your question. You say: I'm curious by nature. I've been searching for a while sites about Scientology. The majority of them, no offence intended, say it is "trash". I can't help but ask myself "why?".

There are sites on the Internet attacking Scientology, but they are not the majority. I just did a search on the word "Scientology" on the three leading search engines and I found 69% of the sites that came back on the first page of results were positive and 14% were neutral. So that leaves only 17% negative. That is not a majority.

There are millions of Scientologists all over the world who are very happy with their religion and how it helps them in life compared to a small number of very noisy people who attack it. The majority who like it are busy getting on with their lives and helping others. The minority are so consumed with hatred that they spend hours and hours each day spreading lies and distortions.

Here is a video of Scientologists giving their opinions about their religion

So now the question, "Why do they attack my religion?"

There are a several answers:
First is the fact that any religious movement and any group that seeks to improve the world and help their fellow man will be attacked by a small minority of bigots:

• The Jewish religion has a huge website devoted to defending itself: Anti-Defamation League.
• According to the "Watch Unto Prayer" movement the Roman Catholic Church is actually a renewed version of the cult of Mithra and other extremist fundamentalist Christians say the Pope is the Antichrist.
• Examples of attacks on the Internet on well known people.

Scientology is just another group being attacked by the same type of Internet crazies.

There are those who make a living out of attacking new religious movements:

• Article on The (old) Cult Awareness Network
• Why do some people oppose Scientology?
• Anti-Religious Extremists

One of the main methods used by these bigoted extremists is to spread lies about a new religion on the Internet. In a paper presented at the annual conference of the Association for Sociology of Religion (ASR), in Chicago in August 1999, Massimo Introvigne said:

Authoritative scholars of information terrorism via the Internet, such as Denning (1999, 101-129), include "perception management" in their studies, in the form of "offensive operations [which] reach the minds of a population by injecting content into the population’s information space". She lists systematic "lies and distortions", fabrications, hoaxes, social engineering, "denouncement" ("messages that discredit, defame, demonize, or dehumanize an opponent"), and -- strictly related to the latter -- "conspiracy theories". Denning also includes harassment through hate mail or "spamming", and even systematic copyright infringement (90-94). The latter, she argues, may in fact become part of a terrorist "offensive information warfare" when aimed at destroying an organization or corporation through the destruction of copyright as one of its most valuable assets.

The sites you have come across calling Scientology "trash" are using "messages that discredit, defame, demonize, or dehumanize an opponent" as described here.

In the same article Introvigne says:

The Church of Scientology is the subject of the largest number of such assaults.

He describes one of the largest websites that attacks Scientology:

Among hundreds of pages, one can hardly find any reconstruction of Scientology’s beliefs, or a philosophical, or theological, criticism of its worldview.

This particular website also attacks individuals who are Scientologists, attempting to encourage others to discriminate against them:

It is difficult to be amused when reading Hausherr’s Web page laundry lists of individual Scientologists and of "companies and organizations owned or managed by people listed as Scientologists". Some are well-known Scientologists such as Kristie Alley or John Travolta. Most, however, are private individuals unknown to the general public. Companies "owned or managed by people listed as Scientologists" (an ambiguous concept) range from law firms to architects, computer businesses, and to Elvis Presley Enterprises (Priscilla Presley is a Scientologist). Finally, there is a list of "miscellaneous support for Scientology", including both academics and other scholarly "cult apologists" (Hausherr maintains an encyclopedia of cult apologists in the form of a FAQ, and posts it regularly to Usenet groups), as well as others accused of being "soft" on Scientology. The latter include the CNN (accused of having "a long record of supporting Scientology"), the IRS (because of the 1993 settlement), the Los Angeles Police Department, and even a lawyer who actually fought against Scientology but settled in terms Hausherr did not approve of. It is unlikely that CNN or Elvis Presley Enterprises will really suffer from being listed in Hausherr’s Web page. A doctor, dentist, or architect in a small town, or a small business, on the other hand, may be easily discriminated against. If "Scientology is evil", nobody should associate with an "evil" business. And who would want a Scientologist as a doctor or architect if Scientologists are "often mentally ill"? Although no actual violence is advocated, the list, a main feature of Hausherr’s site, becomes in fact a "hit list".

Why Tilman Hausherr maintains his hate site is a difficult question to answer but then hatred and bigotry are difficult to understand in this modern world.

Then there are those who see Scientology as a threat to their livelihood:

• This article talks about the motives behind the attacks of "Anonymous" on the Church of Scientology.

Does that answer your question?

Boston "Anonymous" leader in trouble with the Law

Thanks to Louanne for bringing this to my attention. It seems a "leader" of "Anonymous" in Boston has to stay away from Church of Scientology buildings or face prosecution for "disturbing an assembly of worship and disturbing the peace."

Apparently Gregg Housh entered the Church wearing a Guy Fawkes mask "disturbing the proceedings and alarming those inside." Now, to put it in simple terms, he is sort of "on probation" for a year and has to stay away from Church buildings in Boston. For all the details:

Scientology Protester’s Case Continued Without Finding
Church of Scientology owns Boston Anonymous

One last comment. I find it abhorrent that these Anonymous guys go around violating Human Rights (specifically the right to freedom of belief) while wearing the Guy Fawkes masks worn by the hero in the movie "V for Vendetta".


In the movie, "V" fights against an oppressive government to bring rights back to the people. (One of the two rights highlighted in the movie is freedom of religion.) Anonymous on the other hand fights to take rights (and specifically freedom of religion) away from people.

In the words of Shakespeare (and as used by "V" in the movie to characterize one of the bad guys): "And thus I clothe my naked villany, With odd old ends stol'n out of holy writ, And seem a saint, when most I play the devil." (From Richard III - I recommend the play to all members of Anonymous. It describes very clearly how your "leaders" are using you.)

Anonymous hacker faces up to 10 years in prison

Earlier this year the Internet entity that calls itself "Anonymous" launched attacks on Church of Scientology and related websites in an attempt to take them off the Internet. This type of attack (called a "ddos" attack) throw so much bogus traffic at a website that it can't display pages for legitimate users. These attacks originate from hijacked computers. The attacker manages to install some "trojan horse" software on someone else's computer and then uses that computer for these attacks, sending spam, etc.

So who or what is Anonymous? Its ranks range from the criminal to the immature. If you ever wondered where all that spam comes from that advertises drugs or who it is that creates viruses and spyware that forces you to install anti-virus software so your computer isn't hijacked and used for promoting drugs and porn or for launching ddos attacks, then there is a high probability the source is a member of Anonymous.

You can see that people who make their money from drugs and pornography are not going to be very happy with an organization that promotes a drug free and moral lifestyle. And that probably explains why the attacks earlier this year were not only against Church sites but included the Foundation for a Drug Free World, Youth for Human Rights, Citizen's Commission on Human Rights, The Way to Happiness Foundation, Narconon, and others similar groups.

The activities of the Church of Scientology and its members cuts into the income of these people, and they don't like it. The hard-core criminals of Anonymous recruit help from the ranks of the gullible and hateful. They spread black-propaganda against their intended victim, the gullible fall for it and the hateful see it as a great excuse to express the hatred that boils inside them.

So, what has been the outcome of these attacks? Well, all Church sites and the sites of related groups were back up and running, some within hours some within days, and the attacks, being criminal actions, are being investigated by the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

The people who carry out such attacks really believe they are "anonymous" but the apprehension of Dmitriy Guzner for his part is these attacks shows that this belief is fallacious. You can read what is happening to Dmitriy here, New Jersey Man Charged With Attacking Church Of Scientology Websites In The Name Of ‘Anonymous’ and here, Hacker Admits to Scientology DDOS Attack: Faces up to 10 Years in Federal Prison.

The investigation of these attacks is not over. I look forward to seeing more criminals apprehended.

Scientologists are not breaking any laws by following their religion, but those who attack them for their beliefs are committing crimes and will face the consequences.

Weird ideas about Scientology

A friend of mine who is not a Scientologist recently encountered someone who claimed to be a member of "Anonymous". This person had even demonstrated outside a Scientology Church.

The subject came up when the person was critical of Star Trek because (according to him) it had been written by L. Ron Hubbard. When my friend told him that wasn't true the anonymite insisted it was.

Next he told my friend that Scientologists worship Dianetics or something to do with Dianetics (it was hard to understand what he was meaning). When my friend told him this was not correct he still insisted it was.

He said a bunch of other incorrect things, one of which is a misconception I've come across a lot in comments that have been made on my blog - he completely misunderstood the term "thetan". (I cover what it really means here: The Secrets of Scientology, the anonymite had the same weird "alien ghosts" idea that I cover in the linked post.)

The bottom line is that this anonymous guy has fallen into the same trap that people have been falling into for millennia: Someone doesn't like some other person or group so he tells lies about them and tries to make them seem weird so that others will help him to attack them.

Unfortunately there are many people out there who are easily led. When they encounter a group being demonized they just join in. If I were to be kind I would excuse them by saying that maybe they don't have any concept of history and how often this "demonizing" method has been used in the past or maybe they are not very bright and can't easily tell truth from lies. If I were to be less charitable then I would say it is just an excuse to unleash their hatred and if it wasn't Scientology then they'd find something else to attack.

But whatever the reason behind it, I would request of these people that they at least find out what they are attacking before they attack it.

Scientology and "Anonymous"

I got a comment from "Louis" who has a hidden profile. Louis claims to be a member of "Anonymous," a cyber gang whose activities range from puerile pranks to crime and outright terrorism.

Louis said:
We don't want to discuss if scientology is a religion or not. It's not our goal to destroy the practice ... there are wrongs being made, there is a need to right them. We are attempting to right them- we do not intend harm to any person.

Louis, please explain to me how the following activities of "Anonymous" a) are attempting to "right" anything, b) are not trying to destroy the practice and c) don't harm any person:

• Bringing down Scientology related web sites with DDOS attacks.


• Bringing down the Human Rights educational website of a group that was started by some Scientologists


• Bringing down the website of an organization that documents and reports psychiatric abuse.


• Bringing down the website of an anti-drug campaign.


• Bringing down the website of a drug rehab organization.


• Spamming Scientology related web sites with millions of emails.


• Sending envelopes containing white powder (possible anthrax) to Churches and Missions.


• Calling up and threatening receptionists at Churches.


• Making Bomb threats.


• Making arson threats.


• Making death threats.


• Picketing outside Churches whilst wearing intimidating masks.


• Painting graffiti on Church buildings.


• Creating web sites that use long disproven lies to attack Scientology


• Creating web sites that make unsubstantiated and unproven accusations against Church members, leaders and founder.


• Creating obscene videos with the heads of Church members, leaders and its founder superimposed on obscene figures.


• Creating videos that mock Church members, leaders and founder


• Creating videos that spread long disproven lies.


• Creating videos that make unsubstantiated and unproven accusations.


• Urinating on the door of a Church and then posting a video of it.


• Going onto blogs and news sites to post reams of lies, attacks and obscenities against the Church, its members, its leaders and its founder.

I'd really be interested to hear your explanation.

Also Louis, can you tell me what steps you personally have taken to actually engage in dialog with Church members or leaders to address the accusations you have made in your comment?

Reply to a Comment from "Titch"

Here is my reply to a comment from Titch. He had the goodness to actually include his name and location in the post, which I appreciate because it says to me that here is someone who is willing to engage in a real dialog and not cower behind anonymity.

Titch: im 18years old and happy to say ive read everything i can get my hands on to do with scientology. Could you tell me which Scientology books you've read?

Titch: i believe we all look for answers to do with the universe and the meaning of life and so forth. but i cant help but think scientology isnt the answer. i do not wish to harm your faith or your beliefs but a man has a right to free speech in this world.

grahame: I have no problem with that. The right to believe as one decides for himself is a basic human right. (Human Right #18: Freedom of thought)

Titch then went on to relate a story that anti-Scientologists claim is the basis of Scientology.

grahame: That is not the basis of Scientology. Actual Scientology is what you read in the Basic Scientology Books. But even if that story were the basis of Scientology then we are just as entitled to believe it as you are to disbelieve it. Human Rights are a two way street. If you allow a right to others then you also get that right yourself. Take a right away from others and you lose it too.

Titch: i do not wish to harm your faith, or your beliefs. but i do not agree with your "religion" forcing scientology on everyone else. a man must make up his own mind about how he lives, and he must change in ways himself, not be indoctrinated into doing something because one of your fellow scientologist says so.

grahame: At this point I would make a guess that when you said "everything i can get my hands on to do with scientology", you didn't mean actual data on Scientology or what Scientologists do in the world (e.g., human rights, drug abuse, illiteracy, disaster relief) but that you have been reading anti-Scientology propaganda that accuses the Church and its members of all sorts of outrageous things. If you had read actual Scientology, then you'd know that it is not something you can "force" onto anyone and I personally don't know any Scientologist who would ever think of doing such a thing. Look at the bloodshed and suffering caused in the last couple of thousand years by people trying to force their beliefs onto others. Every person must make up his or her own mind when it comes to religion. There is a quote in this blog post, Scientology - What got me interested, from L. Ron Hubbard which says what the Scientology attitude is about forcing beliefs onto someone. Please take a look at it.

Titch: i also dont agree with the fact that as a religion you make people spend money to help themselves and become part of your community

grahame: Once again Titch, you have not been reading facts about Scientology. Please look at the posts on my site relating to the cost of Scientology. This should cover them: Scientology Donations, Why do you have to pay for Scientology?, Question about cost of Advanced Levels in Scientology, Questions regarding the cost of Scientology. And just to address what you said specifically: no one is "made" to spend money to help themselves or become Scientologists. If anyone told you this then you have been misinformed.

Titch: i will understand if you do not wish to approve my comment, but i wish people to know that all things in life has a choice and that covering up peoples right to free speech and indoctrinating them into your society is wrong, if people wish to join you, i say let them, but not by cohertion but by choice, and let it be free.

grahame: I absolutely agree with you. Something you have probably not read about Scientology in the places you've been looking, is that a person is not allowed to take part in Scientology services unless they are doing it under their own determinism. It's something that gets checked every time you start any course or counseling in Scientology. If you are there because someone made you then you can't do the service. You have to make up your own mind and decide you want to do it yourself.

Free speech is also looked upon as very important in Scientology. The right to free speech is actually part of the Creed of the Church of Scientology. If you have been told that Scientologists are somehow against free speech then you have been misinformed.

Thanks a lot for your questions. I do appreciate them. If you (or anyone else) have more questions then feel free to post them. See the link at the top of this page.

"Open your eyes" says santarosa

Since I put up my post about Answering Questions About Scientology, I've gotten plenty of questions from individuals who are actually interested in finding out what it is all about and I want to thank the people who asked them and say - ask more!

However, it is interesting that a few of the questions I have received have not been asked to get an answer at all but to "open my eyes". I suspected this when I got the question from santarosa regarding something that happened in the 1970s. I did answer it, but I took a few days and santarosa was impatient, so before I had answered, he sent me two more comments which showed that he asked the question purely because he wanted to prove to me that there was something wrong with the Church of Scientology.

He started with a closed mind and it seems he ended with a closed mind because he hasn't asked me any other questions since I answered that one. It is sad that "critics", as they call themselves, are so small minded and are unwilling to look at anything that shows the Church of Scientology in a positive light.

Personally I don't think the people in the Church are some kind of perfect beings who never makes any mistakes and I don't think that Church leaders are somehow infallible. Sorry to disappoint you, santarosa, but no one is infallible. The true test is can you make a mistake, learn from it and not make it again? Yes, people in the Church make mistakes but when we do, we try to learn from them so we can do a better job next time.

An example is the incident santarosa asked me about. Some people in a rogue department of the Church did something incredibly stupid and illegal 30 years ago. So did the rest of us learn from it and did we do something to make sure it didn't happen again? If we didn't then it means we condone their behavior and might still be committing such acts. If we did learn from it then that indicates we aren't perfect, but we are doing our best to do the right thing.

Well, it's been 30 years since "Operation Snow White" and nothing like that has happened again, so I think it is fair to say that we do indeed learn from our mistakes and we are trying to do the right thing. I guess "critics" like santarosa don't like the truth when it puts Scientologists in a good light. Personally I call the obsessed and close-minded viewpoint of the santarosas of this world "fanaticism" and "extremism" and I regard it as dangerous both to the fanatic himself and to anyone connected to the target of his fanaticism.

santarosa said in his final comment "Don't fear the truth. The truth is your friend even if it hurts sometimes. Lies will only bring damnation in the end even if it feels less threatening now." I couldn't agree more. Perhaps he should practice what he preaches.

Anti-Religious Extremists

Answer to a question about "critics"

This answer can also be found on my "Questions about Scientology" page.

SouthernBread said:
I support the progression of man-kind, and the resolution of one's problems by being totally honest and dealing with them head-on. I support the many charitable acts the church has done. I do not support the way the church has treated critics.

Grahame replied:
Thank you for recognizing that the Church of Scientology and Scientologists do a great deal of charitable work. Also I agree with you about honesty and dealing with things head-on.

On the "way the church has treated critics". First of all, this is a generality. To answer the charge we need to know which specific individual or individuals treated which specific critics in what specific way?

On a more "general" note, I'm afraid the complaints of "critics" just don't hold water as far as I am concerned. If a tenth of the claims of these people were true then half the management of the Church would be in jail right now.

I think Andrew Morton is a great example of a "critic" who claimed he was being harassed and it turned out he was lying. In November of 2007, Morton was quoted in the British paper, Sunday Express, alleging harassment by the Church. He stated "I have received threats from the Scientologists and things have become pretty heavy - to the extent that it is more than my lawyers can handle. I have sold my flat and I am not telling anyone where I am moving. I intend to disappear for a while." This statement was a total lie and the Church had never threatened Mr. Morton in any way. So great was the evidence of the falsity of Morton’s claim that the newspaper printed a retraction and apologized to the Church for the falsehood. See The Church of Scientology: An Apology

More data: Church of Scientology statement: Response to Andrew Morton's unauthorized Tom Cruise biography see "8. Are Scientologists taught to harass people who oppose them?"

Related data:
Anti-Religious Extremists - including some "critics" of Scientology
What does the term "fair game" refer to?
What does "suppressive person" mean?
Why do some people oppose Scientology?
Why do some people oppose Scientology? (2)
Can Scientologists come and go as members of the Church if they wish?
Why has Scientology been to court a lot of times?
What is Scientology’s view of democracy?