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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