Scientology Blog

Getting Closer to the Truth about the Church of Scientology…

February 14, 2008 on 2:48 pm | In church of scientology, tech alterations | No Comments

Ok, I found another youtube video message to the church, although it doesn’t say it’s from Anonymous. It’s a message to auditors (skilled practitioners in Scientology) in the church. It asks them to look at the out-tech being done in the church. This is the type of message that needs to get through to members of the church of scientology.

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Anonymous, A Scientologists Viewpoint

February 13, 2008 on 6:26 pm | In anonymous, church of scientology, scientologist, scientology, tech alterations | No Comments

As a Scientologist who isn’t a member of the church, but who uses scientology independently in the freezone, I have a unique perspective to give about Anonymous.

It was Anonymous’ protests on Sunday that spurred me on to start posting my views in this blog. I had already decided to create a blog and bought the domain a few months ago, but the protests gave me the inspiration to act and raise my voice.

I could be overly critical of Anonymous or praise them too much, but my considerations rest somewhere inbetween. I think they’re doing some things correctly and are a positive activist group. But on the other hand I feel that they need to streamline and focus their efforts in a way that will be more effective, and less hypocritical. Let me start at the beginning, when Anonymous started to create some effects…

The first action they did was to take down some of the Church of Scientology’s main websites. Okay, now this isn’t legal, but I see that they’re just displaying their power, and that it’s an act of civil disobedience. A way to kick off their campaign. I personally disagree with this type of action, as it’s illegal and to put it simply, makes them look bad. As far as I’m aware they’ve ceased this illegal action, but it may hurt them in the long term…

So what are Anonymous’ aims and purposes?

They simply state that they want to destroy the Church of Scientology, as per their Youtube videos.

And they give valid reasons why too. Personally, I would like to see the church REFORM back to how it was in the 70’s (before it was taken over), minus the Guardians Office, (I don’t think a church should have an intelligence department and still be able to call itself a church.)

Anonymous arrived with a big purpose and a big threat, and so far they’ve delivered on it. Their protests on the 10th showed they were strong in numbers, about 7,000 protesters. That’s quite impressive and no protests on the church have ever been that big. Well done Anonymous!

But it wasn’t just the numbers that impressed me, it was the energy. These guys and girls seem to be quite young, mostly late teens and early 20’s, and they truly believe in what they’re protesting about. I have no problem with people protesting in the peaceful manner that they did.

But I do have some criticisms to make of their protests…

Firstly, Anonymous state that they want to destroy the Church of Scientology, and have nothing against scientology itself or the belief system. Yet, looking at some of the signs displayed from youtube videos and picture galleries, I did notice a few “Scientology Kills” messages and lots of Xenu type stuff. If Anonymous REALLY believes what they say, then this needs to be avoided in future protests, otherwise it comes across as being a lie, saying one thing, doing another – just what the church often does!

Anonymous needs to focus their protest MESSAGE so that they are more effective in winning over the general public AND having an effect on the CofS members too. They need to remember that the majority of church members are good people, intelligent people, compassionate people, and very driven. It is only a few bad eggs in the management that are causing the troubles. And so the management needs to be addressed…

This requires that Anonymous does the research necessary to understand what happened in the church in the early 80’s, how David Miscavige gained power, and what he’s done with it since.

It also requires, in my view, a look at the US governments interactions with the church since the early 50’s. The church is basically run from the top, by a very few people – and everyone else in the church has to follow their orders, even if they’re non-scientological (otherwise you pretty much have to leave.) I can also recommend Pat Krenik’s book “Scientology(tm) vs. Scientology(tm)” which can be bought from eBay as an eBook.

So what slogans can I recommend that will have an effect on the church members?

“Church of Scientology = CIAology”
“Church of Altered Tech”
“Disconnect From David Miscavige”
“David Miscavige Declared SP”
“Where’s Heber Jentzsch?”
“Get Standard Tech Outside the Church”
“F/N Alteration + GAT + High Prices = Squirrelled Tech & Off Policy”

These messages might stand a chance of affecting church members to look at important questions, questions which if answered will lead them out of the church.

Whilst these slogans have meaning for Scientologists, what about messages for the general public who aren’t scientology literate?

Well, again I don’t recommend attacking the beliefs or tech of scientology, but concentrate on crimes committed by the church, of which there are many.

One last point that’s worthy of mentioning is the association of masked protesters and activists to the Ku Klux Klan. It is very clever of the church to create this association in their statements about Anonymous…

The problem is that by being masked, it does look freaky and scary from an outside perspective. It looks threatening and fear-inducing, which Anonymous obviously has no problems with, but looking scary might backfire in the long term by losing general public support. I’m not sure I have a solution for this…

…But as long as it’s Anonymous’ only weakness in the future, and as long as they focus their protests in a more productive manner, the fact that they look freaky and scary probably won’t make much difference, IMO.

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