Child faces prosecution for calling the Cult of Scientology a cult
May 24, 2008 – 8:34 pm by JohnJacob Sullum reports at Reason‘s Hit and Run that a British teenager has been summoned to court and faces a fine (and, presumably, a mark on his criminal record) for holding a sign outside of the Cult of Scientology London headquarters with the word “cult” on it. I don’t understand why that’s so bad. That’s an L, not an N.
Contradicting the trend observed by Randall Munroe and millions of others on YouTube and lots of other sites, the comments by readers at Reason‘s blag are intelligent, informed, and quite funny. The vast majority of the comments on Sullum’s post address the question of whether the Cult of Scientology is a religion or a cult. You might as well read the post and the comments because there aren’t a ton of them, but here’s a sampling:
“In one of his books (“Expanded Universe” I believe), Heinlein thanks L. Sprague de Camp for providing the best definition he’s seen. Basically, a “cult” is a faith that has gotten most of its followers as adult converts, while a “religion” is a faith that most of its followers were born into.”
“Scientology calling itself a religion is insulting. Where’s their summons?”
“Stop attending your local Lutheran church, and compare that with trying to leave Scientology. You’ll get a pretty good idea of what a cult is.”
“Religion, cult, who cares? All I care about is that Scientologists believe in this, which is fucking hilarious.”
“I stopped attending my local Lutheran church for a couple weeks, but then they sucked me back in with their Oktoberfest party featuring Schnitzel, Bratwurst, Sauerkraut and a delicious Hefeweizen. Now that’s my kind of cult!”
“These British hate crime laws seem to be applied very oddly.
Channel 4 in England recently did an expose called Undercover Mosque (the whole thing’s on youtube) in which they filmed British imams spewing hate and threatening violence on every imaginable group of people.
Not only was not one imam procecuted, but they tried to prosecute Channel 4.”
“You do know the basic underpinnings of Scientology, right? I mean, Christianity is crazy but Scientology is CRAZY, like, totally Gollum crazy.”
“Stupid England. Sometimes insults are appropriate and factual. If you meet a douchebag in the street and call him a douchebag, it doesn’t really matter if he suffers emotional distress or not. Fuck him.”
“England is known for its free speech traditions?”
“But how long after L. Ron Hubbard’s death until it graduates into a religion? I have no idea.
Maybe when they stop acting like a totalitarian state: sending problem cases to squalid re-education labor camps (the RPF), pressuring members of their paramilitary organization to have abortions (Sea Org), routine polygraph examinations to detect doubt and disloyalty (E-Meter ‘sec checks’), forced confessions with the threat of blackmail (‘overts’ and ‘withholds’ kept in ‘Ethics folders’), encouraging members to inform on each other (‘Knowledge Reports’), screening incoming and outgoing mail and blocking Internet sites (‘Scieno Sitter’), using KGB-style dirty tricks and plain old thug violence to silence critics and dissidents (Paulette Cooper, Keith Henson, Mark Bunker, …), full-scale espionage operations (Operation Snow White), hostility to the press involving litigiousness and physical intimidation (Richard Behar and Time Magazine, John Sweeney and the BBC, …), a cult of personality centering around Hubbard which has transitioned into Stalin-style hagiography since his death (L. Ron the Poet, the Philosopher, the Artist, the Music Maker, the Humanitarian, the Adventurer, the Freedom Fighter, the Yachtsman), and in general an attempt to control all information about the Church by any means necessary.
Maybe then they won’t be a cult anymore.”
“Nah, Co$ is legit.” [I don't know why I found that one so funny, but I laughed out loud at it.]
“Scientology is a pyramid scheme masquerading as a cult masquerading as a religion.”
“To me, the main thing that sets Scientologists apart from all real religions is the fact that they hide their beliefs from outsiders, and indeed even from low-level Scientologists.”
Note that all of those comments are copied and pasted with no editing—Reason‘s readers actually know how to write with proper punctuation, grammar, and spelling.
I was going to add a comment that would have said, “Two words: Tom Cruise.” But some people already brought up Tom Cruise and his image and stuff, so I didn’t. Nobody would have read it anyway.
As a final side note, in this one discussion thread at Fark.com that I read, back in my darker days when I hadn’t sworn off Fark.com threads in the interest of my blood pressure, my faith in humanity, and my sanity, a Farker recounted the story that L. Ron Hubbard founded Scientology on a bet with Robert Heinlein. Heinlein had bet Hubbard, who was his friend, that Heinlein could found a successful religion before Hubbard could. (Maybe success was measured in revenue or followers…I’m guessing revenue. I think the bet might have included a dollar figure, namely, $1 million.) I never heard any evidence that Heinlein attempted or even intended to carry through on his own bet, but Hubbard certainly took it seriously and ruined the lives of millions of people. Well, at least thousands.
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