esrosedotblog

THE CULT

Many years ago, I was walking on Boylston Street in Boston and a guy came up to me and asked if I would like to take a test.

There was some other folderol about what it would do and reveal and all. He was pretty good about it.

It wasn't like the Moonies where they wanted to take you to their place for a meal. But, to take the test, you did have to walk a short distance, I think to Commonwealth Avenue, to take the test.

I declined.

That was my first and only direct contact with Scientology or a Scientologist.

Since then, to my knowledge, I have never met anyone who has anything to do with this organization. And I have met and worked with a lot of people.

I certainly paid attention when I read about their emergence in to the public sphere. Sometimes in a positive way for them, publicity and all, but often not. They seem to attract negative attention.

Many people have written about "the church" with varying degrees of success, often attracting lawsuits. Many of these articles and books are by defectors with an axe to grind and documents that have been stolen. They are easily discredited.

It has been known for a long time that the Hubbardites seek to recruit celebrities and have worked very hard on this particularly in LA and Hollywood.

We know of some prominent but fading stars who have taken it up.

But most recently, the very prominent Paul Haggis resigned from the organization in a very public way. Now, in the New Yorker, a thoroughly researched and very long, almost exhausting but never boring article has been published.

The Apostate—Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology by Lawrence Wright

I bring this up because I found it fascinating on several fronts.

First and foremost is in the way that Scientology has evolved, like many churches, from a relatively informal set of principles by an interesting, if perhaps crazy guy, into a highly organized, very authoritarian organization with enforcers and lawyers and all the tools to maintain its "sanctity".

It is also interesting to read about Haggis indoctrination as a troubled young man and his failure over some 35 years to examine his beliefs in any way. Then, disruption and a failure to get answers to some pretty basic questions that he had about the outfit.

Third, I am interested in the celebrity angle. Except for a few people, the "celebrities" who belong to Scientology are not very well known. They are moneyed, very important to Scientology, but are, by and large, behind the scenes people who are given a special center to attend to their duties and, as bigger money makers, to burnish the church's image as well as to supply a whole lot of money.

Finally, I find the story of the young David Miscavige (above), the head guy, very interesting. An organization man, not a guru. A dictator, not a service oriented leader.

It is worth some time. It goes beyond the immediate sensationalism of the Scientologists and where they are going. It shows a great deal about human nature and our capacity to believe in the most outrageous stuff and to believe so much as to sell ourselves out literally and figuratively.

Labels: cults, culture, religion