February 11, 2008
Anonymous Vs. Scientology
It was Guy Fawkes versus L. Rob Hubbard yesterday on Beacon Street. More than 100 people were outside Boston’s branch of The Church of Scientology yesterday, protesting the practices of the church, Boston NOW reported. Led by the Anti-Scientologist internet group Anonymous, word was spread about numerous protests worldwide through You Tube, message boards, and e-mail. Anonymous had previously announced that February 10th would be a day of mass protest of all Scientology churches from here to Berlin.
The church director told the Globe (who estimated the number of protesters at 50) it was business as usual at the church . The only difference was the four policemen they had outside the doors to make sure members didn’t have any trouble entering the facility.
Scientology, which was founded by science-fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard in 1954, has been coming under fire a lot as of late, and it's not just because of Tom Cruise's couch-bouncing on Oprah. Politicians in Berlin worked on getting the religion banned and, in Belgium, attorneys wanted to have the church brought up on extortion and fraud charges due to illegal business activities, violation of privacy laws and practicing medicine without a license. In 1995, Lisa McPherson, a member of the church, died while under the church’s care, and Anonymous' protest was held on her birthday.
The -Ist-a-Verse followed the protests if you want to find out how Anonymous went over in other cities. Check out Gothamist, Seattlest, LAist, and Austinist.
Post contributed by Jocelyn Celeste. Image of protest in Boston posted by anon617. This was posted under a Creative Commons license on Flickr.
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"Cults are bad! Let's all wear comic book masks together...fer serious!"
Middleman said.....
"Cults are bad! Let's all wear comic book masks together...fer serious!"
I suggest doing some research before making uneducated attacks like that. The reason masks were worn was to conceal our identities as the Church of Scientology is known to harass, threaten and smear anyone who criticizes them. Google Lisa Mcpherson, check out xenu.net. These will give you a better idea on what Scientology can do to those who oppose them.
We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. We WILL come again. Expect us.
I'm glad that Anon responded in such a non-threatening fashion.
I for one am a card-carrying athiest, but I do not like the idea of people standing in front of other peoples' churches wearing masks.
The problem with all the anti-Scientology conspiracy theory sites is that they start with the basic assumption that Scientology is inherently evil, and then they set about searching high and low for every nugget of negative spin they can find to support their agenda. In their desperation, they usually reach for very old news ("Fair Game" from the 1960s, "Snow White" from the 1970s) or they try to present any wrongs committed by any individual Scientologist as reflecting directly on the religion as a whole (like the death of Lisa McPherson). Anti-Catholic propagandists do the exact same thing in their sick attempts to blame the Vatican for the acts of any individual priest on the planet.
The people who have turned hating Scientology into their own little cottage industry have hoodwinked a lot of well-meaning youths into committing illegal acts (harassing phone calls, hate speech, slander, hacking) and even terrorism (mailing white powder to churches). They lack even the basic clue to understand that prank-calling orders for pizzas and taxis to Scientology churches don't really harass the church as much as it harasses the innocent pizza company and taxi company. Proof positive that they couldn't care less about wronging innocent parties in their zeal for "lulz".
Anyone who posts any opposition to the anti-Scientology freaks or doesn't take a hard enough line against the cult immediately gets insulted, slandered, and accused of being a Scientologist themselves. The Anti-Scientology people have become a dangerous and harmful fringe group that put its own mission above all else and ruins innocent lives - in short, everything they ever accused the CoS of.
for real, Anonymous? for real, i guess. sheesh.
We are not a hate group.
We want you to be aware of the very real dangers of Scientology. We want you to know about the gross human rights violations committed by this cult. We want you to know about Lisa McPhearson. We want you to know about former members of Scientology's private navy, SeaOrg, who were forced to have abortions so that they could continue in service to the church. We want you to know about Scientology's use of child labor and their gulags. We want you to know about Operation Freakout and Paulette Cooper. We want you to know about Operation Snow White and Scientology's efforts to infiltrate the government of the United States of America (L. Ron's wife did time for this).
We want you to know that you cannot be a Scientologist and any thing else because the goal is to audit god out of you. The cos won't tell you that untill you are "ready", but it's true
Go to xenu.net for more truth.
Anonymous is not against anyone's religion. And they have every right to call attention to the crimes committed by the upper level management of the "Church" of $cientology.
$cientology is truly a dangerous cult. I was a true believer for 25 years and I'm so happy that I'm on their SP list.
Ask a $cientologist what has happened to the President of the Church, Heber Jentsch. Ask a $cientologist what has happened to the Executive Director International, Guillaume LeSevre. These two men were part of the top level of the "church" but have disappeared. Where are they?