I suppose the good news for the Church of Scientology is that Belgium is no longer calling it a cult. The bad news is that it has moved on to calling is a criminal organization in a comprehensive set of charges ranging from extortion to fraud to privacy breaches to the illegal practice of medicine. The charges follow years of investigation into labor contracts that led to raids on Church properties in 2008. In 2009, Scientology was convicted of fraud in Paris and fined almost $1 million.
Belgium has long treated Scientology as a cult as have other countries. However, this latest case strips away that controversy over the line between faith and a cult. Instead, the Church is defined simply as a criminal organization. The charges hit the Church in its European headquarters, which is based in Brussels.
The prosecutors in Belgium appear ready to strike at the very heart of the Church’s organization and revenue structure. That structure is deeply enmeshed with its religious beliefs, including a system of steps of higher awareness that gradually cost more and more to achieve. Past members have accused the Church of working them as virtual slaves with little pay and constant threats and intimidation as well as bribing officials or obstructing investigations into past deaths.
Source: Atlantic Wire
ID, Happy New Year to you and many more.
WOW, you folks are hot. Good tidings for the New Year?
Malisha, you are always there when we need common sense and brilliant insight.
NickS, a tip. Get away from sources and personalities and concentrate on the merits of the message.
MikeS,
In extenso as usual. Thanks. But think you and Dredd should confer over your creative force and his abiotic evolution which produced carbon and eventually life. I prefer the unknown as my answer. Particularly your ability to reconsider your words in midflight was outstanding. Wish that more of us could do that. Sign of a mind or opinion not cast in cement.
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My own view? Already expressed differenty in different comments.
A religion does provide free service, but at the cost of a hidden tax is my view.
Business which is criminal, no matter what they call themselves should be treated as criminals. Thus when do this we must deal with our war criminals like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Dubja? Not to mention the death for profits MICSP industries.
Not to forget the world of money sucking AKA international fraud, sorry finance I meant. That won’t happen until we stop paying interest to the FED on every dollar they print. Follow JFK’s execuive order and re-activate the printing of silver certificates by the Treasury Department.
As long as the money businesses control the money, they control our world.
A paraphrase on a Rothchild utterance. They’ve got us by the balls crudely put.
Tony C. –
The christian cults are like drug dealers. The first hit is always free.
It’s when they’ve got you addicted that they start threatening and extorting people for money (i.e. “Give to the church or you’re going to hell, because I – uh, ‘god’ needs money!”). It’s how they prevent people from leaving, how they keep them addicted.
I am an atheist but I know people sucked in by Scientology. I think the difference is that you can be a Christian or Muslim or Buddhist without ever contributing a dime to the church. Scientology appears (from reports of those in it) to require payment, you cannot get their version of counseling or spiritual guidance without paying for it.
But you can walk into a Christian church (and I presume a Muslim mosque or Jewish synagogue) and get a sympathetic ear and counsel from a priest without having a penny to your name. If you have to pay for those services, it is a business, not a religion.
Bev, Didn’t you get the memo? Only religious people are judgemental. I love your minimalist comment. “Brevity is the soul of wit.” You got to love the Sermon from the Mount. As a wise history professor told me, “If you want to understand people..and people are history, you have to appreciate irony.”
Malisha, LOL! You have a great perspective and are able to use humor quite well. There’s not an ounce of sanctimony in you, but probably a few pounds of guilt??
The amount of religious hate on these pages abounds. Okay. Fine. Religion bad. You guys good. Pot. Black. Judgemental much people?
When my kid was 18, some scientologists out on the street talking at folks accosted him and offered him a free psychological assessment. He went for it. He filled out some forms and then a pretty young woman sat down to speak with him about his questionnaire. She told him that she had determined that he was stressed. He said, “I told YOU I was stressed.” She went on to tell him that what they could do for him was to show him a video about how scientology would cure his stress. SO he left. He told me, “Isn’t it weird? The Mormons had a video that would cure your stress too. Do the Jews have a video that cures your stress?” I said, “No, the Jews have a video that GIVES you stress. Here, eat something.”
I hate to tell you this but Paris is in France and France is a separate coutnry from Belgium. Neither is in pirate territory so if they are fining the Church of Scientology they are probably doing it with some degree of due process of law and not some islamic Law notion of justice. There may be chumps out in society who are businssmen and actors and good neighbors who have belonged to this cult. But dont be fooled by these dumb schmucks. Scientology is one big con game. Put em in jail where they belong Belgium and let em con the other cons. Some of em are RepubliCons.
Sermon from the Mount.
Corrupt organized religious entities abound and almost all skirt close to the line of fraud and exploitation. I think Scientology though has one unique characteristic that takes it past the religious freedom issue and into the criminal enterprise category. It was founded specifically as a tax dodge to take advantage of our laws. The other religions were founded in the wake of some prophet and the religious zealotry engendered and once becoming organized became corrupt by the possibilities of wealth and power. Hubbard was a man whose life had been spent as a huckster and weaver of tales and the concept of forming a phony religious organization for tax benefits was well-known in the 50’s, coming mainly out of California.
However, now that I’ve written the above I’ve had some second thoughts.
Joseph Smith was a “Dowser” and came from a family of “treasure finders”.
Jesus was probably a reformer, whose message was distorted by Paul, a man he never knew. Paul’s message was then distorted by Constantine seeking power as an Emperor. The prophesy’s of the Hebrew Patriarchs and prophets were made into a centralized temple, that nurtured a “priestly class”. The ancient (perhaps the oldest extent) Hindu writings were used to define a system that separated the Indian society into rigidly defined castes, with another Priesthood and Upper Class reaping the bounty and the benefits. Confucius proposed the earliest version of the “Golden Rule” to end the endless warfare and strife of his time. He became an icon, but his “Golden Rule” became a memory. The Buddha sought to relieve human suffering, but his teachings were perverted in India to make him part of the Hindu Pantheon and thus relegate him to irrelevance. The Zen offshoot gained popularity, but within 500 years developed into bitter warfare between those who interpreted it differently. Zen also became revered in Japan, especially by the Nobility and Samurai’s. Martin Luther sought to relieve Christians from the power of the RCC, but by the end of his life added his own version of intolerance. His “liberation of Christianity” led to sects like the Calvinists, etc., who presented their own “life killing” version of Christianity and our own Pilgrim’s who escaping religious intolerance the tried to impose it on these shores.
I could go on, but why bother. I actually respect some of those with religious belief and piety. I am myself a Deist, rather than Atheist or Agnostic, since I do believe there is a Creative Force at work in the Universe, but its nature is such that it is beyond humanity’s grasp, except as a faint glimmer. The true basis of all religions is simply treat other humans as you yourself would be treated. All else, as Rabbi Hillel put it,
is the commentary on how to best accomplish it. However, once religious belief becomes cemented into an organized structure it is, like our politics, taken over by frauds and sociopaths who have learned through the years that it is an excellent way to warp people’s longings into profit.
Lot’s of relgious stuff today from Mr. Turley. I was born this day @ 11:30p. My old man was religious thanking the Good Lord for the tax deduction. Mom was praying for a New Year’s baby.
All religions are criminal organizations practicing fear, extortion & fraud. I’m glad to see that lots of people are turning away from that racket but unfortunately too many have been brainwashed. They won’t get over it until they lie rotting in the ground like every other living thing that has been on this planet.
Does this mean the Belgian government will go after all religions engaged in criminal activities? Or only the small, less established ones?
The catholic cult needs to be targeted as a criminal organization, as a pedophile ring.
Well, we just had a Mormon bishop take a crack at the presidency and it seems we have a number of Mormon bishops in Congress.. Does anyone know how many clerics of whatever variety we have in government positions including but not limited to Congress?
Snake oil comes in many flavors. Human sheep come from all pedigrees.
The wolves dressed in the clothes of power feed and fatten the minds of the sheep with sugary confections that clog all individual worth and self determination. Scientology will just move on to greener pastures.
They are mere infants at massive manipulation thus far. To seek greater legitamacy they really should run one of their priests for President of the USA.
Finally some ‘GOOD’ news….. How soon do we start to dismantle the damned Catholickass church?
Unfortunately for Scientilogy it does not have its own sovereign state to fall back on. Nothing like sovereign immunity to protect your assets.
I think the RCC has a longer history of slavery, pediphiles ans status. Now what will they do to the RCC?
Don’t get me wrong. I think Scientology is a criminal organization. Not a particularly well hidden one either. However, other than the Xenu, what separates their organized criminal activities from say an organization that systematically keeps pedophiles from being brought to justice in order to limit their liability? I’m just sayin’ . . .