In the annals of strange and bizzarro stuff, Scientology is in a class by itself. Concocted in the 1950s by the ample imagination of Science Fiction writer l. Ron Hubbard it became a font for abuse and torn families world wide.
Scientology embarked on a campaign to recruit movie stars and TV personalities with the logic that they would be the best advocates for the so-called religion. This worked to some extent, what they didn’t understand is that it could also work in reverse if the movie stars left the organization. Scientology is nothing if not an organization shooting itself in the foot over and over.
Jilted and disillusioned member Leah Remini is a prime example.
She entered Scientology when she was eight years old, joined the Sea Org and signed a lifetime service contract. (sorry; A billion year contract.) Later her mom pulled her out of the Sea Org, but she remained a “public” Scientologists for many years. In 2013 she left the organization and began to speak out. Even going so far as to help produce an Emmy winning TV show called Leah Remini – Aftermath.,
It’s hard to know what effect this had on the organization, It’s pretty clear that they have massive problems recruiting in the US . After the Chanology protest in 2008-2009 and after the disaster of SouthPark revealing “This is what Scientologists actually believe”
This of course was a bit of hyperbola. Most Scientologists don’t really believe the Xenu story, or even know about it since one is supposed to instantly get pneumonia if you learn about him without paying Scientology around 400k. How that works exactly I have no idea! (Xenu knows!)
But Scientology has been under some stress lately. There was the Danny Masterson trial where he was convicted of raping members. The organization tried to cover this up of course. Scientology is the “most ethical group on the planet!” This is a two edged sort of declaration. It’s kind of like telling people to behave themselves. Everyone “behaves.” Everyone has some kind of ethics, they are not always good ethics you see. Scientology by defending Masterson have declared to the world that they are OK with criminal behavior by influential members. Not a very good look.
Of course; “not a good look” is putting it mildly for Scientology. Pretty much nobody outside the organization thinks highly of them or thinks much of them at all. Other than politicians getting bribes from the organization and police officers on the take.
However; in the mist of time, everything more or less can be waited out. Scientology as an organization is nothing if not patient. The problem with this is; there is always something new. Enter the so-called “first amendment audits.”
Most people have smartphones which are telephones, computers and high powered video cameras, all in a compact form. Not only that. Smart phones have the ability to stream video in in real time to the Internet. This has resulted in a lot of people just showing up at crime scenes or police stations to “exercise their first amendment rights” to assemble and film whatever is going on.” Most of the time this has been about filming (and annoying) the police. There have been a lot of arrests by police officers mistakenly believing that filming theme in a public place is illegal. Well; Xenu knows that it’s legal in the United States! Other places, not so much.
How does this relate to Scientology? Well; it seems one of the street audit people (named “Street” strangely enough) started filming in front of the Scientology recruitment centers and witnessed the aggressive “body routers” (recruiters) there. Scientology of course responded in a negative fashion, which (surprise surprise) made “Street” pay even more attention to them and he started to interfere with the Scientology body-routing. Mostly by telling people that the Body Routers were lying to them and that Scientology was a cult.
This caused Scientology to react even MORE strongly. They started calling the LAPD, they started confronting Street and his growing group of protestors. They hired counter protestors and began infiltrating the group. They called in fake bomb threats. Of course this got the LA Streets group even more members and the protest became a nightly affaire with dozens of participants.
There are at least two groups in LA currently, there is one main group in Clearwater Florida comprising of about a dozen camara wielding streamers. Many of the protestors in Clearwater are Ex members! That’s certainly a new spin on this marry-go -round.
I mean it’s one thing when a protester makes and edits video of a protest. This is raw video streaming in real time. I’m pretty sure the Scientology Office of Special Affairs didn’t expect that.
I’m wondering how they plan to handle this kind of thing. Right now they are just hiding from the protestors and trying to make the protests as boring as possible. This is THE most effective tactic BTW, but it’s dead against Scientology doctrine. Scientologists according to their “scripture” (the murmurings of a 1950s pulp fiction writer) are supposed to confront any dissent and crush it. According to Ex member Mike Rinder;
A Scientologist is nothing without excellent confront. The old Scientology tech dictionary lists four definitions for the word. 1. An action of being able to face. 2. The ability to be there comfortably and perceive. 3. Confront itself is a result and an end product. It itself isn’t a doingness, it’s an ability. 4. –v. to face without flinching or avoiding.
They are not flinching because they are just avoiding! This would be like a Christians not witnessing or a Mormon not riding a bike in a dress shirt, slacks and a tie. It’s UNTHIKABLE for a Scientologist to avoid confront. And yet, that is in fact what they are doing. When the ‘audit” protestors show up, they flee. The streets around their compounds empty out and become like a ghost town.
However; Scientology is like a broken record. They will react and they are reacting. Their Office of Special Affairs (OSA) is likely watching this closely. They are matching up names with faces. They are creating dossiers on protestors, finding their places of work, their families and friends. They will be sending PIs to do “noisy investigations.” Sending people around to their workplaces to inform their employers that they are “religious bigots” and how Scientology is a helpful, charitable organization.
“All of this has happened before, and it will happen again.” That being said. It is fun to watch!
— The Odd Emperor
