"One of the most remarkable legal hearings in Scientology's history" set to begin

[Nova]

Here's the Voice's article with updates on the recent doings; as VV has covered Scientology quite extensively over the years, I should have looked for and posted this earlier, sorry, all apologies, "old age settling in," etc. etc.

Scientology settles with Debbie Cook

Interesting stuff.

So the Church has again used litigation to silence criticism of itself. Pretty much par for the course with Scientology. (If I seem to be contradicting myself, my argument above wasn't that Scientology is without faults (its extreme litigiousness and oversensitivity to criticism are good examples), but that all religious organizations have their faults.)

What is interesting at godot's link are the brief and mysterious references to "independent Scientologists" and the fact that even the defendant, Ms. Cook, still counts herself as a believer in the faith. Since all of these people have broken with the Church hierarchy, yet remain believers, how can we explain their beliefs as "brainwashing"?

 

[wfgodot]

Interesting Voice blog piece:
Lisa Marie Presley Says "So Long" to Scientology

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I also called up Jason Beghe, the Californication actor who became well known for very vocally defecting from Scientology in 2008. While he was still in the church, he was a favorite at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre, and he knew other famous Scientologists -- such as Presley and Kirstie Alley -- very well.
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"The honesty and the passion are clear, and it seems as though she's woken up," he says.

"It's what I would expect, having spent time with her," he goes on to explain. "Some people, when they leave Scientology, get very sad. Some get scared. But some, like me and apparently like Lisa, get [bleep]ing pissed. It has the same tone as my own thing, when I said publicly, show me a mother[bleeping] 'Clear'."
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the rest at link above

 

[Nova]

Thank you, as always, wfgodot. I think Jason Beghe is a very good actor, but somehow I missed his participation in Scientology as well as his departure.

 

[Nova]

BTW, since we've been discussing religious faith, indoctrination and the like, I ran across a very interesting movie currently "on demand" at HBO. It's called Higher Ground and it stars and was directed by Vera Farmiga (who starred with George Clooney in Up in the Air).

It's a small, independent film that treats religious faith very thoughtfully. Yes, it raises questions about children and belief, but it also acknowledges many of the benefits of religious faith discussed in this thread.

 

[wfgodot]

Figured this thread could use a re-boot:

Why Do Scientologists Accept the Xenu Story? (lengthy Tom Ortega VV blog)

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The reason why Scientologists accept the story about Xenu and disembodied alien beings infesting this Earth is actually much simpler, and much more mindblowing, than I ever realized.
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