Scientology 2009 - The Year in Review

This has been an amazing year for Scientology. In fact it has been the greatest year of expansion in the religion's 59 year history (if you start from the publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health).

I won't repeat all the great wins here, I'll just link to places where other people are talking about it:

- David Miscavige presents 2009 for the Church of Scientology
- Church of Scientology: 2009 the best year ever
- All Scientology and Dianetics Materials have now been fully restored!
- Church of Scientology Announces Biggest Expansion in Scientology History

And as a special bonus, just to round out the year:

- The Church of Scientology Recognized as Public Benefit Charity in Spain

Have a Happy New Year!

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Scientology: How did you come to adopt the religion you practice?

I came across Scientology when I was at University. I read the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, took a basic course and found that it worked.

It was a course in Communication and it got rid of about 50% of my intense shyness. That wasn't the purpose of the course, it was just a side-effect.

The purpose of the course was to improve my ability to communicate with others and it sure accomplished that. So I decided to try other courses and I found that they delivered what they promised too and I continued from there.

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Scientology: Have you always belonged to this religion?

No. I was raised in the Christian faith. I went to Sunday School as a kid. You'd probably call the church Protestant. My mother was into it, my father didn't really care and by the time I hit fourteen or fifteen I was an atheist. The whole religion thing made no sense to me. I wanted proof. I wasn't into faith and belief.

So when I came across Scientology, I carefully ignored the fact that the organization was called the "Church of Scientology". A church was something I was not interested in being part of. But the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health made sense to me and I wanted to know more so ... onto the next question.
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Scientology: What happens in a typical church service? (5)

Yesterday I watched a really nice Christmas movie called The Preacher's Wife. Some of the movie takes place inside a Christian church and you see church services with a preacher who is inspirational and a congregation who joins in with "praise the lord" and "hallelujah", etc. As I was watching I thought about the Scientology Sunday Service and how different it is from that.

Some Scientology haters have portrayed the Scientology Sunday Service as a sham and other Scientology Church Services as window dressing.

So I thought, after seeing that movie, that I'd put in my two cents worth.

First of all, naming ceremonies, marriages and memorials are most definitely not window dressing. They are very important events and are treated that way. The Scientology ceremonies I've attended tend to be less serious than similar ceremonies I've attended in other, more traditional, churches. For example, at my mother's funeral at a very stuffy traditional church the minister talked about God all the time and my mother hardly got a mention.

I think the Scientology ceremonies are less serious because they are very much focused on the person or persons the ceremony concerns rather than on a deity. Also memorials are lighter because we know the person is coming back and so it's not such a heavy loss.

Now let's look at the Sunday Service. If you compare a Scientology Sunday Service to the one shown in "The Preacher's Wife", then the Scientology Sunday Services I've attended are very tame indeed. My take on this is that it is because Scientology is a religion of wisdom. It's main services are training people in that wisdom and then getting them to use that wisdom in their lives. It's a more analytical than emotional religion. So it follows that our Sunday Services, not being geared toward worship, would look quieter and more reserved, and because, as I said in my earlier article, most Scientologists will have been attending services most nights or days of the prior week, so they are less likely to feel the need to attend an additional service on Sunday.

As Scientology continues to expand, Sunday Service may morph into something bigger and more boisterous, or the fact that Scientology is open to people of all religions may mean that people who like a more lively service may simply continue to go to their traditional churches.

Personally I think having both the analytical side (as in Scientology) and the emotional side (as in, for example, a Baptist church) is a great combination: that way you get the best of both worlds.

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Scientology: What happens in a typical church service? (4)

We also have what you might think of as a "traditional" service on a Sunday where there is a reading from the writings of L. Ron Hubbard that is usually something applicable to the lives of those attending. There can be other things at the service, such as group auditing (auditing delivered to more than one person at a time also called "Group Processing") and live music. Other than the reading there are no set rules.

Sunday Service is not as big a deal in Scientology as in other western religions, but that is because we go to our church much more often than just on Sunday. As you read in my earlier articles on Scientology Training and Scientology Auditing, these are the "big two" and a person might be on course five evenings a week, so they might not attend the Sunday Service. But if you are not on course or getting auditing, then Sunday Service can be a nice thing to attend for the sense of community it gives.

There are also Scientology ceremonies that mark major points in life such as naming ceremonies (what you'd call christenings), marriages and memorials (funerals). Also other events are celebrated such as minister ordination.

One can also go to the Chaplain for help on personal matters or if one has a dispute with another Scientologist, marriage problems, etc.