Great post: Behavior not belief is what's relevant

Greetings,

I wanted to compliment on you on your well-reasoned, thoughtful post. I’m new to OmniNerd (I just registered ten minutes ago) and accidentally replied to a poster instead of posting to the main thread. Please accept my apologies for duplicating a post; I just noticed my original response was “hidden.”

CogDissonance (post follows below)

There is large body of evidence that strongly suggests widespread abuse of parishioners by the Church of Scientology. A necessary distinction can be made between those who profess the philosophy of Scientology and the organization known as the Church of Scientology. The law has no prohibitions (and rightfully so) on what people believe. However, there are limitations on bad behavior. A distinction should be made between what the church professes in its PR and how it actually behaves.

The Church of Scientology claims to represent ‘total freedom.’ They even have front groups such as the CCHR, which are allegedly dedicated to bolstering civil rights by fighting abusive mental health practices. Admittedly, the CCHR has done some good things with respect to exposing psychiatric abuse. However, they have also contributed to a lot of misery amongst those with chronic brain disorders (e.g. mental illness) by lobbying against any and all mental health funding, attacking innocent psychiatrists, as well as spreading misinformation about the efficacy of various treatments. The CCHR promotes a black-and-white, dichotomous view of psychiatry that says “all psychiatric intervention is criminal, abusive, harmful, and wrong.” This seems to be a logical consequence of its intimate relationship with Scientology, which contends that psychiatrists have been around for millions of years creating all sorts of mayhem.

The Church of Scientology’s harm is not confined to misleading PR campaigns and attacks on the practice of Psychiatry. Unfortunately, the COS is hellbent on attacking ANYONE who shows public disapproval of their activities. They have a policy called FAIR GAME whereby critics and members declared as suppressive persons will be ruthlessly attacked, slandered, spied on, sued, and destroyed. Their treatment of their own parishioners is repulsive. They pay staff members fifty dollars a week (often less) and have them routinely work fourteen hour days and eighty or ninety hour weeks. Furthermore, they’re under investigation and have been criticized for coerced abortions, dangerous working conditions, human trafficking, and a litany of other abuses. The beliefs of their members are irrelevant. Criminal conduct is criminal conduct, even if it “is the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics.” The Church of Scientology must not be allowed to use religious cloaking as a means of perpetrating criminal conduct. We must all be held accountable for our conduct, irrespective of our religious preference.