Scientologist win right to marry in their own Church

Scientologist wins court battle to marry in creed's own church
Supreme court rules Scientology chapel is a place of worship, paving way for marriages and acceptance of creed as a religion

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/scientologist-wins-supreme-ruling-worship-marriage


I think this is nuts, its a cult. A very large cult, but a cult none the less.

Sassy wrote:
Scientologist wins court battle to marry in creed's own church
Supreme court rules Scientology chapel is a place of worship, paving way for marriages and acceptance of creed as a religion

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/scientologist-wins-supreme-ruling-worship-marriage


I think this is nuts, its a cult.   A very large cult, but a cult none the less.

It is perfectly correct to describe the scientologists as a cult and I believe that I am correct in thinking that J Travolta and T Cruise are part of it.Are they not?

Are you religious Billion? I'd probably describe myself as a Pagan. I used to think I was an atheist who believed in a person having a spiritual side, but having talked about Paganism with someone who has been one for a long time, I realised that is exactly what I am. Some pagans believe in a 'god', some believe in multi 'gods', some just believe in spirituality.

Good for them.

Cult, religion- two different words for essentially the same thing- what religion doesn't begin life as a cult?

For me they should scrap all tax breaks and 'offical' roles for religions. They should be solely private affairs- but no mistake Scientology, wacky as it is, has as much right to call itself a 'religion' as Mormonism, Methodism, or Islam

Eilzel wrote:Cult, religion- two different words for essentially the same thing- what religion doesn't begin life as a cult?

For me they should scrap all tax breaks and 'offical' roles for religions. They should be solely private affairs- but no mistake Scientology, wacky as it is, has as much right to call itself a 'religion' as Mormonism, Methodism, or Islam

You think so Les. Having looked into some of the things they get up to, I don't, absolutely not.

Sassy wrote:

Eilzel wrote:Cult, religion- two different words for essentially the same thing- what religion doesn't begin life as a cult?

For me they should scrap all tax breaks and 'offical' roles for religions. They should be solely private affairs- but no mistake Scientology, wacky as it is, has as much right to call itself a 'religion' as Mormonism, Methodism, or Islam

You think so Les.   Having looked into some of the things they get up to, I don't, absolutely not.

Such as? To be fair however radical or sinister it can't be worse than what has been done by and in the name of, those of other religions.

There's loads of it Les. Try reading 'A piece of blue sky' by Jon Atack which Scientologists tried to stop from being published.

@sassy
umm.... you are comparing to organisations like the Catholic Church.....
at this point no one is accusing scientology of rampart instituionalised paedophilla.

So no one is saying they are 'good'. Just that the other aren't exacly 'good' either.

For me they should scrap all tax breaks and 'offical' roles for religions. They should be solely private affairs- but no mistake Scientology, wacky as it is, has as much right to call itself a 'religion' as Mormonism, Methodism, or Islam

or Christians, Jews and Catholics.
Lets face it beleiveing there is a Magic sky giant that sees everything and controls everything is pretty bat shit crazy.

veya_victaous wrote:@sassy
umm.... you are comparing to organisations like the Catholic Church.....
at this point no one is accusing scientology of rampart instituionalised paedophilla.

So no one is saying they are 'good'. Just that the other aren't exacly 'good' either.

For me they should scrap all tax breaks and 'offical' roles for religions. They should be solely private affairs- but no mistake Scientology, wacky as it is, has as much right to call itself a 'religion' as Mormonism, Methodism, or Islam

or Christians, Jews and Catholics.
Lets face it beleiveing there is a Magic sky giant that sees everything and controls everything is pretty bat shit crazy.

I agree Veya, and no-one is more vocal about the paedophile priests etc than me. But when you read up about Scientology, it not a system of belief, its a system of control over people, mind control, totally different to anyway a religion does it.

The way they control:

David Miscavige ordered a staffer to smack Debbie Cook, who did, knocking Debbie to the floor, and another to break her finger while she was at the Church's International Headquarters in 2007.

DEBBIE COOK: "We were made to do these confessions...one time in front of 100 people, yelling at you. I was put in a trash can, cold water poured over me, slapped. One time it went on for 12 hours...There were times I was accused of being a homosexual, a lesbian..."


The reality of coerced abortions

In 1997, in response to the high volume of Scientology staff sent to have abortions, the head of Planned Parenthood in Riverside, CA (Janet Honn-Alex) said, "I just felt that it was strange that they would all make the same decision. Independent of their individual circumstances, they had all made the decision to have an abortion, no matter how old they were or how many children they already had. We found that almost unbelievable. And when we started asking more questions, in order to find out their individual motives, because we were suspicious, they stopped coming to us altogether."


I was a member of the Church of Scientology for decades and was married to the President of the Church of Scientology, Heber Jentzsch. Our son was Alexander Jentzsch. When I started to speak out publicly about abuses and horrific on-going violations of human rights within the Church, they retaliated by coercing my son to "disconnect" from me. Within 3 years, in 2012, he subsequently died of neglect while inside the Church. He was only 27 years old. To make matters worse, Church of Scientology executives blockaded me from seeing my own son's body and attending my own son's funeral. David Miscavige who has run the Church of Scientology for three decades is a corrupt evil psychopath responsible for the deaths of many people who, like my own son, succumbed to oppression. This blog has been established to protect the public by blowing a whistle of fire on CoS corruption, exposing their crimes and atrocities. - See more at: http://www.scientology-cult.com/karen-de-la-carriere-blog/610-full-version-texas-court-monique-rathbun-vs-david-mscavige-et-al.html#sthash.JPuoOEMQ.dpuf

That's just the tip of the iceberg.

veya_victaous wrote:@sassy
umm.... you are comparing to organisations like the Catholic Church.....
at this point no one is accusing scientology of rampart instituionalised paedophilla.

So no one is saying they are 'good'. Just that the other aren't exacly 'good' either.

For me they should scrap all tax breaks and 'offical' roles for religions. They should be solely private affairs- but no mistake Scientology, wacky as it is, has as much right to call itself a 'religion' as Mormonism, Methodism, or Islam

or Christians, Jews and Catholics.
Lets face it beleiveing there is a Magic sky giant that sees everything and controls everything is pretty bat shit crazy.

Certainly, I was just rolling off a few; but I include all religions including all forms of Christianity and even Buddhism, which is not strictly a 'god' religion   

John Travolta's son died because Scientology is against conventional medicine and he wouldn't let him be treated.

@sassy
same with how many 7th day adventist that don't beleive in blood transfusions.

their all crazy, Eilzel is Right lets just ban them all      

I agree about the 7th Day people Veya, but they don't go round mind bombing etc as in the post before and physically assaulting until people can't resist anymore.

There are a few things that distinguish Scientology from mainstream religions, to be sure -- they mandate very large payments from members to the organization (more than any other religion I've heard of); they (try to) keep their central beliefs a mystery until you've paid an awful lot in, and though most religions exercise an amount of control over their followers, I think Scientology is rivaled perhaps by only the hardcore fundamentalist strains of Islam and Christianity in the sheer amount of control exercised.

So sure, it seems weirder and worse in some ways, but that's probably because it's more novel. There isn't a whole lot of difference between being made a slave to Sea Org and being told that people with vaginas don't get to learn to read, or being told that your creator hates you because you turned out to love the same gender as yourself ...

And sure, Scientology persecutes a lot of its critics, but that's not so different from the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie, or from American preacher-stars blaming gay people and feminists for everything from hurricanes to 9/11.

Basically it seems that all codified, institutionalized and enforced belief systems pretty much suck

Yeah that sounds about right to me Ben

Eilzel wrote:Yeah that sounds about right to me Ben

Hi Eilzel

Agreed as well with Ben.

Sorry off subject, who is your avatar a picture of?

PhilDidge wrote:

Eilzel wrote:Yeah that sounds about right to me Ben

Hi Eilzel

Agreed as well with Ben.

Sorry off subject, who is your avatar a picture of?

Hi Didge i think its Ronaldo   

Thanks Sexy

SEXY MAMA wrote:

PhilDidge wrote:

Eilzel wrote:Yeah that sounds about right to me Ben

Hi Eilzel

Agreed as well with Ben.

Sorry off subject, who is your avatar a picture of?

Hi Didge i think its Ronaldo   

No, it's a Man City player - Sergio Aguero. Winning goal 2012.

Ben_Reilly wrote:There are a few things that distinguish Scientology from mainstream religions, to be sure -- they mandate very large payments from members to the organization (more than any other religion I've heard of); they (try to) keep their central beliefs a mystery until you've paid an awful lot in, and though most religions exercise an amount of control over their followers, I think Scientology is rivaled perhaps by only the hardcore fundamentalist strains of Islam and Christianity in the sheer amount of control exercised.

So sure, it seems weirder and worse in some ways, but that's probably because it's more novel. There isn't a whole lot of difference between being made a slave to Sea Org and being told that people with vaginas don't get to learn to read, or being told that your creator hates you because you turned out to love the same gender as yourself ...

And sure, Scientology persecutes a lot of its critics, but that's not so different from the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie, or from American preacher-stars blaming gay people and feminists for everything from hurricanes to 9/11.

Basically it seems that all codified, institutionalized and enforced belief systems pretty much suck

That is it exactly, they all come from a need to control the population

SEXY MAMA wrote:

PhilDidge wrote:

Eilzel wrote:Yeah that sounds about right to me Ben

Hi Eilzel

Agreed as well with Ben.

Sorry off subject, who is your avatar a picture of?

Hi Didge i think its Ronaldo   

How very dare you      

Ronaldo is a smug pillock who plays for Real Madrid and tbh really don't find him attractive...

As Irn says; it's Sergio Aguero in the greatest moment in Man City history (least in my lifetime )

Didge, if my memory serves me right you're a Gooner- so this would be the guy who scored goal number 1 past you today  :D 

Hahaha! Sorry Lez