Scientology - New Year's email is stirring things up

[doggie]

Russian court bans Scientology books

 

Published: Jun 30, 2011 10:45 PM

MOSCOW (AP) - A court in a Moscow suburb has banned works by the founder of the Church of Scientology, officials said Thursday.

 

The Shchyolkovo court ruled that "What is Scientology?" and other books by L. Ron Hubbard "contain calls for extremist activities," the Prosecutor General's office said in a statement.

 

It said that once the court decision comes into force, scientology books will be put on the federal list of extremist materials banned for release throughout Russia. The court made the ruling following a request by local prosecutors.

 

Attempts by Russian authorities to ban Scientology literature have been overturned recently. In May, the Russian Justice Ministry removed Hubbard's books from the list of banned literature after a decision by a court in Siberia was overturned.

 

Scientology officials said they would protest the latest court decision.

 

"There have been many legal violations, the case is unfounded and the trial was hasty," the group's attorney Sergei Korzikov told The Associated Press. "We could not defend our legal interests."

 

The group's spokesman in Russia, Yuri Maximov, said that Russia is home to "tens of thousands" of Scientology devotees. Russian media have claimed that some powerful businessmen and officials are among Scientology adepts.

 

Russia's dominant Orthodox Church has denounced Scientology as a "totalitarian sect," and the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Moscow city authorities infringed on the group's rights by repeatedly refusing to register it. In 2007 and 2009 the Strasbourg-based court issued decisions upholding the rights of Russian Scientologists to practice their religion free from unlawful government interference.

 

Hubbard, a science fiction writer, founded the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology in 1954. It teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems.

 

The group claims 10 million members around the world, including film stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

 

Scientologists say that there are more than 280 million copies of Hubbard's books distributed around the world.

 

Belgium, Germany and other European countries have been criticized by the U.S. State Department for labeling Scientology as a cult or sect and enacting laws to restrict its operations and monitor its activities.

[snickerz]

I don't follow Scientology but came across an article saying there may be an implosion beginning there. A former Scientology Exec sent a New Years email blasting scientology and caused a "freakout" within the organization.

The world of Scientology watching is still reeling after Debbie Cook's New Year's Eve e-mail landed in the inboxes of thousands of church members Saturday night.

A few minutes after midnight, we began receiving copies of the broadside, written by one of Scientology's most important former executives. Citing the words of L. Ron Hubbard, Cook trashed the church's current management under leader David Miscavige, complaining about a "new age of continuous fundraising" and "extreme over-regging."

Over the next couple of days, it was remarkable to watch the reaction of church members who received the e-mail and variously praised it, condemned it, or simply freaked out...

read entire article here: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninsca ... loding.php

[donks]

I don't know a lot about Scientology, just that Tom Cruise is involved and he's batshit crazy.

[shangrila]

I don't know a lot about Scientology

You are ONE lucky guy.

[donks]

Lol I'm a lucky lady ;)

[galaxygirl]

A former Scientology Exec sent a New Years email blasting scientology and caused a "freakout" within the organization.

I hope he has a good place to hide. Them scieno's are scary as hell when it comes to people leaving and spilling on them.

[So Many Lies]

You are ONE lucky guy.

Its so worth reading up on...theres so much weirdness. Interesting.

[bionicmlle]

I saw the letter and immediately thought of FJ. Here is another group of people with a secretive and strange religion and this letter is basically a call to get "back to the true word" and not focus on what the fundies might call "worldly" things. The parallels are frightening.

[MaroonMandy]

Are there any Scientology blogs like the fundie blogs we snark on here?

[Anxious Girl]

This is my personal opinion about "The Church of Scientology's" reaction: Don't make a big public deal about. The Vatican probably gets thousands of e-mails and or letters like this every year, as do the Church of LDS. Do they make a huge deal about it publicly? No. The only things they do seem to make a deal about sometimes if their religious nuns/priests did something that was against human rights, or is contradictory to church rules and got away with it. I view Scientology as a cult because it takes every criticism too seriously, making their "woe is me people who are perscuting us" arcticles a big deal every time somebody critizes them. People have been persecuting religious groups for thousands of years. The "Church of Scientology" should at least by thankful that people aren't violently persecuting them, or personally harming their members because the belong to the "Church of Scientology". Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about the above statement.

[dawbs]

Are there any Scientology blogs like the fundie blogs we snark on here?

They are HYPERAWARE (and dangerous) w/ their image...so I think this is the closest I'm aware of:

myscientology.blogspot.com/

and

scientologyparent.com/guest-post-silent-birth-a-pleasant-alternative/

[shangrila]

Its so worth reading up on...theres so much weirdness. Interesting.

1. My apologies to Ms Donks!

2. It is interesting but I hope neither of you will meet any of them.

[Alecto]

I hope he has a good place to hide. Them scieno's are scary as hell when it comes to people leaving and spilling on them.

She is actually doing a smart thing - being very open. Because so many people in Scientology know and respect her, it will be VERY hard for them to fight this one.

It would be very hard for Scientology to ignore this. It's akin to one of the highest cardinals sending this kind of letter to every Catholic.

[shangrila]

BTW scientology ads keep showing up in a bulletin on this site : ) They found the right place to advertise.

[Anxious Girl]

I was hoping that one of the scientology experts could help me out here: Is it true that somebody else founded the Church, not L.Ron Hubbard because someone was inspired by one or more of his books? Is it also true that L.Ron Hubbard meant for the books that the scientologists use for their religion (it's something akin to the Bible/Qu'ran/Torah, but not of the Abrahamic religions) was originally meant for fictional entertainment and not to be taken seriously as a type of new cultish/religious truth?

[Alecto]

Is it true that somebody else founded the Church, not L.Ron Hubbard because someone was inspired by one or more of his books?

Scientology was founded by L Ron Hubbard

Is it also true that L.Ron Hubbard meant for the books that the scientologists use for their religion (it's something akin to the Bible/Qu'ran/Torah, but not of the Abrahamic religions) was originally meant for fictional entertainment and not to be taken seriously as a type of new cultish/religious truth?

While LRH was a science fiction writer, he intended Dianetics to be a revolution in psychology, and ended up morphing that into a religion.

[shangrila]

Anxious Girl: I break it to you, with all due respect. Experts can only be indoctrinated ones, to my best knowledge. And there is no way out. Escaped or 'former' scientologists are either in prison or 6 feet under. They are like the mob, only meaner.

And yes. Hubbard was a sci-fi writer.

[deelaem]

Anxious Girl: I break it to you, with all due respect. Experts can only be indoctrinated ones, to my best knowledge. And there is no way out. Escaped or 'former' scientologists are either in prison or 6 feet under. They are like the mob, only meaner.

And yes. Hubbard was a sci-fi writer.

This is erroneous. There are living people who have gotten out of Scientology. And why would someone go to prison for breaking free of a religion?

[shangrila]

False charges. Framed. Mostly. And the ones that have gotten out are the lucky few ones.

[deelaem]

False charges. Framed. Mostly. And the ones that have gotten out are the lucky few ones.

And where did you get this information?

[shangrila]

Where everyone else can. I know someone who's sibling ended up in a mental isstitute after spending a few years with them and wanted out. The rest I researched. I don't like the tone that you are using.

[deelaem]

Where everyone else can. I know someone who's sibling ended up in a mental isstitute after spending a few years with them and wanted out. The rest I researched. I don't like the tone that you are using.

Uh, tough shit. You're talking out of your ass with nothing to back it up. I have yet to read anything to make me believe you.

[formergothardite]

Where everyone else can. I know someone who's sibling ended up in a mental isstitute after spending a few years with them and wanted out. The rest I researched. I don't like the tone that you are using.

Are we back in school. LOL :naughty:

[shangrila]

Definitely not. He or she maybe, I'm not.

[galaxygirl]

Link to the story the St Petersburg Times did on Scientology a few years ago: http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1012148.ece