Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is it more damaging to a person than fundamentalist Christianity? Does it preach hell and damnation for those who leave the religion?
I have to agree with this.
I have had several scientologist friends over the years. They were quite sincere in their beliefs, as sincere as any Christian or Moslem that I have known. (All the Jews of my acquaintance have been very secular).
Their sincere belief in Scientology does not mean that the leaders of the religion are sincere, or anything other than predatory. The same seems to hold true for the catholic hierarchy who live in opulent palaces, engage in money laundering, and have a conspiracy to abuse little children. Creflo Dollar, Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson. and the other congegationalists seem notable for their private jets, theme parks, and African gold mines rather than their religious convictions.
Why should we hold the leaders of Scientology to a different standard? All religion is exploitative, scientology is simply more extreme.
I would argue that we remove not only tax exemptions, but also other laws protecting religions at the expense of others, such as the ability to skirt zoning laws, ignore child care regulations, discriminate on the basis of their religios biases, etc. these loopholes are only going to be exploited more often in the future, and there is no good way for a secular society to determine what is a religion, and what is not.
Churches should be able to have non-profit status for relief efforts and other humanitarian aid, but any rational person would have to look around and see the excess that is taking place tax free.[/font]
I believe that churches should have to segregate humanitarian and social justice efforts from their other activities -- meetings, proselytization, publishing, etc -- and pay taxes on anything that is not pure humanitarian / charitable activity.
There is a church in Buffalo NY that runs a franchise restaurant on-premise ... a Subway if I recall correctly. It is so successful from Subway's point of view that Subway plans to promote it to other churches and non-profits. The rationalization is that they use it as a job training / vocational rehab device for the disadvantaged. Such blurring of lines needs scrutiny. It seems to me that it is questionable enough for churches to get off tax free for all their activities but when those activities start including running ordinarily for-profit businesses, regardless of the noble intent, it is ripe for abuse and muddies the waters still further.
I have little doubt that megachurches in particular have many aspects to their operations that are questionable in this regard, too.
Whether my particular example above would stand up to scrutiny is beside the point; I am pretty sure there IS no real scrutiny, at least not timely and consistent, and I'll bet my wife and firstborn that even the IRS would be reluctant to risk being accused of attacking religion by actually policing this kind of thing.
Is it more damaging to a person than fundamentalist Christianity? Does it preach hell and damnation for those who leave the religion?
I know that fundies will call you on the phone and use wirdy dords to express their disapproval but I have not heard of fundies actually forcibly returning people to camps and holding them as prisoner for leaving.
This is one corrupt organisation through and through...it is nothing but a money making machine designed to both brainwash and blackmail to stop people from leaving.
I know that fundies will call you on the phone and use wirdy dords to express their disapproval but I have not heard of fundies actually forcibly returning people to camps and holding them as prisoner for leaving.
Not strictly a fundie phenom, but they have been known to do cult deprogramming. In the messy Real World, you have grey areas like cult deprogramming and addiction interventions, where there's an understandable desire to fight fire with fire.
Even there, though, Scientology's "holes" (prisons) stand out as vehicles of abuse and the creation of mindless assent, without even a patina of liberation as an impulse behind it. It's the very thing that cult deprogramming tries to get a person AWAY from.
I've got my suspicions about some of our mainstream denominations as well.
Particularly, in the deep south, there are so many new "churches" popping up, some with a tiny congregation. I know that people are looking for a more customized way to assemble, something closer to their own belief systems. Further, a lot of these new churches are having their congregations meet on weekends in public school gyms and cafeterias, presumably because they don't have their own building yet. I would like an accounting of how this public, taxpayer funded building, is being reimbursed for the space, the power and the light, by these churches. I have a sneaky suspicion they aren't paying anything.
I'm a Christian, and I'm grateful to be a saved person. But I am intolerant of taking advantage of anyone, and hiding it behind the guise of "faith".
Did anybody see this powerful documentary last night?
I don't know where to start. This is one corrupt organisation through and through.
It's really about time it lost it's tax exempt status. This is not a religion, it is nothing but a money making machine designed to both brainwash and blackmail to stop people from leaving.
How people choose to spend their money and what they believe is up to them, but we are all essentially supporting and allowing it to grow because the organisation pays no tax.
There should be some re-assessment of what constitutes a 'religion' under IRS guidelines.
The Cherch of Scientology is a profit motivated cult that is operating under the guise of "religion". It is called religious cloaking. I was involved in Scientology for almost 30 years and left in 2006. Alex Gibney did a good job on the HBO doc. However, there are aspects of the Scientology experience that are not well understood or conveyed by those who were never in. It's mixed bag, and there are some effective counseling techniques in Scientology but that is really only practiced outside of the cult now, by "Independent Scientologists".
They also encourage members to 'disconnect' from their families, and have previously engaged in criminal harassment against detractors (the most infamous example being Operation Freakout).
The Church of Scientology makes the worst Christianreligious nut look positively tame.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
