Since some of the materials which describe the $cientology cult could be
considered to be copywritten materials, I have censored myself and The
Skeptic Tank by deleting any and all possible text files which describes
the cult's hidden mythologies. I have elected to quote just a bit of the
questionable text according to the "Fair Use" legal findings afforded to
those who report. - Fredric L. Rice, The Skeptic Tank, 09/Sep/95
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From: barnowl@blkbox.com (Ken Williams)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,misc.legal,misc.legal.computing,misc.taxes,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: The Noose is Tightening on CoS (was Big Suprise - 79K) (LONG)
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 23:48:49 GMT
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jmaass@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Jeffrey Maass) wrote:
>R. Urban (a#urban@ccmail.ceco.com) wrote:
>: noring@netcom.com (Jon Noring) wrote:
>: (sniP)
>: This is not intended to start a flame war, but you need to have more
>: tolerance for beliefs that are different than your own, particularly
>: those that are shared by minorities. (In case you are wondering, I was
>: born and raised a Catholic.) And, if we don't protect the religious
>: freedom of the minority, then the religious freedom of the majority will
>: eventually be jeapordized.
>: Regardless of whether or not you agree with your neighbor's choice of
>: religion, if you are hell bent on destroying it, sooner or later the rest
>: will suffer like domino's falling.
>: If you and your gang succeed in getting the IRS to tax minority
>: religions, then that makes me wonder how long it'll be before the IRS
>: goes after the rest of the religions. The assets alone of the Catholic
>You say that like it's a bad thing!
>Sorry, religion is just another business that should be taxed. Doing
>otherwise encourages and supports it, in violation of the Establishment
>Clause.
>Tax them all equally, and the IRS can get out of the business of defining
>what is a "valid" religion.
>"Religion: Virtual Reality Without The Computer."
>--
>Jeff Maass NW of Columbus Ohio Amateur Radio K8ND
>USPSA/IPSC # L-1192 NROI/CRO
I think the reason so many prople want to see CofS taxed is because
they don't operate like any other organization that claims to be a
religion that I know of. Any other religion tries to bring people
into the fold. In any other religion most if not all of the
religion's teachings are accessible with or without a donation. In
fact it is one of the tenets of christian religions that you can't
charge for religious teachings. I'll grant that sometimes the
pressure for a donation is pretty intense.
Scientology OTOH does not provide any of their teachings without a
fixed charge. From what I've heard the charges are pretty high. To
me this sounds more like a business than a religion. Kind of like a
training school claiming to be a religion and therefore not taxed.
They even offer free samples (personality tests).
This impression is based on fairly sketchy eveidence and rebuttals are
welcome.
Ken Williams
barnowl@blkbox.com
PGP Available On Request