religious rights?
Question answered by FredricRice in Scientology
Anonymous asked this question on 9/14/2000:
Hi, I have been reading around in the religion rooms. This one
seems the most exciting but it never really has any religious
content.
I read some of your earlier answers.
Are you sure any of this is factual? Where did you get it just
online? Don't you know that doesn't always guarantee
truth--anybody can write that stuff. TV either. I'm no lawyer,
all that court codification and numbers don't mean a thing to
me. ***Is there a way to see the hard copies of any of these
alleged documents? Or is it your word against somebody else's?
If it were all true the way it is laid out, I doubt there would be
anybody left in the church. Seems to be pretty popular, for a
money-burning brain-washing scam. It's not a handful of dope
junkies in the back country trying to find themselves here,
there are churches everywhere.
You said nobody has ever come out defending the church--that
can't be right. But my parents were holy rollers when it wasn't
popular, and confronted in this manner about their religion, they
didn't have much chance at defending themselves. What do you
do? I have heard so much crap online about this, I'd be swayed
too, if I took any of it at face value. whether it's true or not, I
bet it isn't that popular to be on their side...wasn't popular to
be jewish or black sometimes. Oh those evil moneygrubbing
jews, those dirty black folks up to no good...
I find it hard to believe that a religion as large as this one can
be such a wicked thing. There are several stars that claim to be
of this religion, and proffessionals too...are they all criminal
loonies? You're sure on one about it, a little zealous.
I am also asking questions of the experts who claim to be
scientologists. If they are any good I would encourage you to
also, but I think you would only bait them.
FredricRice gave this response on 9/14/2000:
Everything that's known about the Scientology cult is from
court documents and internal documents which were seized
by Federal law enforcement agencies in the past. Some
23,000 once-secret internal documents were seized in 1977
by the FBI in a series of raids, and much of those damaging
documents have been made available.
But what's even more telling -- over and beyond the massive
amounts of court documents and internal documents which
show Scientology to be a criminal business enterprise, not a
religion -- comes from the racketeering activities of its
followers and its leaders.
One of the more horrible aspects of this cult is the fact that
it practices medicine without a license -- something that has
landed the cult's leaders in prison from time to time around
the world, and something that Madrid, Spain is currently
indicting the cult's mock "international president" Heber
Jentzsch for.
Certainly there is much opinion about the Scientology cult
however all of it -- every bit -- is solidly backed up by a
massive body of evidence that simply can't be contested.
One thing that the cult tried to do in the murder of Lisa
McPherson was to demand that they had the religious right
to kill their followers. The cult argued -- in court documents
as well as orally in court -- that Lisa McPherson signed up
with them knowingly and thus they had the right to kill her
since that was her religious right.
The Constitution of the United States grants religious
freedom however time and again the superior courts of the
United States have found that claiming religious exemption
from the laws of the country is an unworkable defense from
persecution under said laws.
Indeed, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that
religious exemption doesn't exist inasmuch as it would "make
every man a law unto himself."
Thus the Scientology organization is not allowed to demand
that its criminal history -- well documented in the courts
around the world -- can be dismissed as their religious right.
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