Legal definition of religion:
“…a sincere and meaningful belief that occupies in the life of its possessor a place parallel to the place held by God in the lives of other persons. This religion or religious concept need not include belief in the existence of God or a supreme being to be within the scope of the First Amendment.”
If Scientology is a religion then it must be a religion of malice and deceit.
Destruction of family, revenge, intolerance; all closely held practices of COS and the antithesis of anything resembling acceptable religious tenets.
What occupies in the lives of Scientology adherents as a replacement for God is everything that true religion rebels against. Indeed, even those who have no religious beliefs whatsoever understand the basic human immorality of attempting to destroy another person. Hard core atheists understand child abuse.
Scientology’s actions defy any civilized social norms even beyond the question of religion.
Because the legal system of the United States has allowed for the replacement of God or a Supreme Being, it has opened the doors wide for cults like Scientology to flourish and practice their abuses, crimes and anti-social dogmas with freedom.
Being made up of humans, no religion is free from sin, abuse and crime. Wherever two or more are gathered therein lies the propensity for evil just as much as the propensity for good. The difference between true religion and Scientology is that Scientology embraces, promotes and vehemently protects their “right” to mistreat, harass and abuse.
Amongst so many other areas this mistreatment is glaringly apparent in the cult’s attitude towards children. Most especially in it’s attitude towards children with special needs.
During Leah Remini and Mike Rinder’s podcast of July 27 on iHeart Radio Leah commented on how Scientology regards children with autism.
“The other thing that I wanted to touch on was autism and children who are born on the spectrum. I mean I’ve heard Scientologists refer to this as a ‘degraded condition’, and have said things like: ‘what kind of Being, meaning Spirit, picks a body that’s degraded and doesn’t function?’ And in their view that person should pass away and start again.”
“And in their view that person should pass away and start again.“
Scientology’s front group, The CCHR, insists that mental illness as a whole does not exist because there are no, according to them, bio-diagnostic tests like blood tests or CT scans with which to diagnose them.
Scientologist OSA adherent Gemma Harris Wood recommends a booklet by Declan Henry about ADHD which makes such claims as: “ADHD was voted into existence as a mental disorder in the late 1980s by a group of American psychiatrists. It became the reason for behavioural problems in children and young people, despite the fact that it was not proven to be biological in nature. It has become a label that is quickly given to children and young people who display challenging and wayward behaviour, without doctors or parents investigating any underlying cause.”
“…there is no scientific evidence that can confirm if something is wrong with a young person’s brain, because there are no tests to diagnose ADHD in a living person.”
“Poor diet and lack of exercise together with inadequate parental control, problems at school, negative peer influences,
or substance misuse (in older adolescents), play a major part in the wrongful labelling of young people with ADHD.”
In fact, an article in Molecular Psychiatry published June 11, 2018 disputes the claim of no scientific evidence for ADHD: “Decades of research show that genes play an vital role in the etiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its comorbidity with other disorders. Family, twin, and adoption studies show that ADHD runs in families. ADHD’s high heritability of 74% motivated the search for ADHD susceptibility genes. Genetic linkage studies show that the effects of DNA risk variants on ADHD must, individually, be very small. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have implicated several genetic loci at the genome-wide level of statistical significance. These studies also show that about a third of ADHD’s heritability is due to a polygenic component comprising many common variants each having small effects. From studies of copy number variants we have also learned that the rare insertions or deletions account for part of ADHD’s heritability. These findings have implicated new biological pathways that may eventually have implications for treatment development.”
Various Scientologists, including Mrs. Wood, also promote unlicensed treatments for autism such as the Purification Rundown as well as the dangerous, potentially deadly, “cure” MMS.
This latter endorsement ironically supports Leah’s statement that some Scientologists feel the Thetan should drop it’s degraded body and start anew. Administering toxic bleach to a child is certainly a good way to push him or her in that direction.
Neither autism, ADHD nor any of the other childhood psychological/chemical afflictions that Scientology denies creates any shameful, negative burden on the child. That the cult would engage in such public displays of shame and intolerance towards innocent children is a clear reflection on the group’s mentality and it is far from religious.
For proof of the Scientology attitude towards special needs children one need not look any further than the case of Jett Travolta.
Such a celebrity family could have made tremendous inroads for Autism awareness given their own son was on the spectrum.
How many thousands of fans could have been educated and informed by the Travolta experience. Instead, his condition was kept secret until it had to be revealed in Court during an extortion trial after the teen’s death.
According to one CBS News report, “Bruce Hines, a former Scientology minister, said, ‘They believe that the only reason a person can get ill is because they are in some way connected to a suppressive person and a suppressive person is someone who is opposed to Scientology.‘”
Intolerance for children with these special needs coupled with Scientology’s practices of disconnection, their abusive teachings on child rearing, their questionable use of child labor and the protection of pedophiles all combine into one irrefutable fact.
Child abuse and neglect is an accepted, acceptable and taught practice within this so called religion. To COS it is both necessary and permissible for the “greater good” according to Hubbard scripture.
No other religion believes children are so expendable.
Such beliefs highlight just one of so many examples of how far off the traditional and understood mark of that which defines “religion”.
Government in the form of the Supreme Court has created their framework for what constitutes a “Church” in this country. The IRS is clear concerning the qualifications that must be met and adhered to in order to be granted a religious tax exemption.
It is hypocritical and dishonest for this Country’s law makers to create such a definition only to then ignore every displayed public action that flies in the face of those parameters. The strictures legally outlined could not have been made much more permissive and broad in their scope. Surely they cannot be that hard to follow.
After all in this country one must not even believe in God in order to be considered a religion.
Given the fervent fanatical obsession towards vaccinations that those who comprise the Anti-Vax movement vociferously embrace, the defined criteria applies. Their closely held beliefs endanger children every bit as much as Scientology’s Purif, neglect and abuse.
As such, the anti-vax community should then, by rights, be designated a religion.
So too, those Trekkies who dedicate so much of their time, energy and money to the Klingon Empire.
Every day that passes is another day that children trapped within Scientology’s iron fist can be exposed to abuse, shame, intolerance and labeling. There seems to be no end in sight for these most innocent, vulnerable members. It boggles the mind that there is no public outcry against the shaming of children with special needs.
That Scientology insists conditions like ADHD are behavioral and can be treated as such is without a doubt a form of shaming. It is making the child in part responsible for something he is entirely innocent of.
Certainly anyone who feels a child with autism is degraded and better off dead is someone who is capable of making such a child feel badly for not measuring up.
Where are these special needs children being cared for? Where are they being educated and by whom?
Does anyone know their circumstances and conditions?
Does anyone care?
Confront And Shatter 