Reiterating something I have covered before on this Sunday morning.
The idea that you can be a scientologist and a Christian is a lie, yet scientologists claim this all the time to try to appear “normal” or “non-threatening.”
You can see from the official IRS publication above listing the criteria the IRS uses to determine whether an organization qualifies for tax exempt status as a religious organization, that one of them is:
Membership not associated with any other church or denomination
During the quest to obtain exemption, scientology explained things to the IRS like this:
There is also another response to the IRS which is even more detailed — I don’t have a pdf of those pages, but the following quote is from “The Church of Spiritual Technology’s Explanation to the IRS As To Why It Qualifies As a “Church” Described in Section 170(b)(1)(A)(i)” reprinted in the December 1993 (Vol. 8, No. 6) issue of The Exempt Organization Tax Review.
The magazine gives as its source “Response to Final Series of IRS Questions Prior to Recognition of Exemption of CST Under Section 501(c)(3) As a Church on October 1, 1993. ”
Footnote 6: Although there is no policy or Scriptural mandate expressly requiring Scientologists to renounce other religious beliefs or membership in other churches, as a practical matter Scientologists are expected to and do become fully devoted to Scientology to the exclusion of other faiths. As Scientologists, they are required to look only to Scientology Scriptures for the answers to the fundamental questions of their existence and to seek enlightenment only from Scientology. Thus, a Scientologist who grew up in the Jewish faith who continues formal membership in his synagogue and attends services with his family violates no Scientology policy or tenet. On the other hand, such a person is not permitted to mix the practice of his former faith into his practice and understanding of Scientology so as to alter orthodox Scientology in any way.
Yet, as I have covered in earlier posts here, scientology routinely takes the public position that you CAN be a scientologist and a Christian (or Jew or Muslim etc). Joy Villa has made a career as a social media “celebrity” by claiming on one hand she is a devout Christian who has faith in Jesus and that she believes she is “going to heaven after she dies,” while also proclaiming herself a “dedicated scientologist.”
Recently, blogger Stefani Hutchinson’s did a piece on scientologist Ray Cassano, who in a meeting of the Clearwater Downtown Development Board took the lie to a new level. Not only did he proclaim he is “a Scientologist and a Christian,” he also announced: “Most Scientologists are Christian.”
You can see Mr. Cassano making his statement on the public record starting at 1:58 in the video below.
I have done some earlier posts debunking this common scientology lie:
Can Scientologists be Christians or Jews Too?
“I’m a Christian and I’m also a Scientologist”
Here is a posting that looks more deeply into what scientologists actually believe about Christianity: L. Ron Hubbard on Christianity
All of which leaves one obvious question.
How is it that the IRS will not do anything about the fraud that continues to be perpetrated against them by scientology?
If it gets the Dwunkindwarfer and $queezeyoudryofmoneyology what he wants then who gives a shit if it all lies and bullshit.
It’s been quite a while since the last time I came here, hello everybody. I don’t even remember which nickname I was using, so let’s start again with a new one.
A note on Aaron video:
I remember a Course Supervisor in Flag, when I was training there, who had served on the ship Apollo with Hubbard; he told us an anecdote of those days: someone of the ship had asked Hubbard “How will an OT Civilization be?” and he answered “Read the ‘Lensmen’ novels by E.E. Smith, there is a good approximation in there on how it will be”.
Well, it was not a smart move to draw that parallel, because in reading those sci-fi novels at a later time I was able to see how many of Scientology tenets were plagiarized from them.
The “Skylark of Space” novels by Smith are based on some intergalactic forces wanting to crush earth. In those novels one of the villain species is an evolved race of all powerful disembodied spirits with no mass, no wavelength, etc., capable of operating without bodies, controlling matter, emitting blasts of energy and so on. We can see here a very definite plagiarism: Hubbard reused this idea as the very basic Scientology concept of an Operating Thetan.
In the “Lensmen” novels, again, there is a “spiritual” race of villains wanting to invade our universe, so a police force has been created with enhanced powers (telepathy, telekinesis, and so on) to fight them back; many traits defining the elite Scientology group called Sea Org are copied from the “Lensmen” police force (except the super-human powers, only promised to Sea Org Members and never really achieved). So, again, here we have a plagiarism of Smith’s fiction.
These are just some of the recognizable creative ideas Hubbard has copied from Smith in describing his sci-fi universe called Scientology. More concepts from Smith and other “old time” sci-fi authors are visible throughout Hubbard’s cosmologic and spiritual depiction of the universe, especially in the higher levels.
Maybe after OT VII he didn’t know who else to plagiarize, so he used the Bible as his inspiration for the OT VIII materials. Maybe.
I’m still not sure OT VIII was really written by Hubbard, maybe the Evil Dwarf himself wrote that level; it would explain the change in literary style.
Joy villa is a joke. I sent my mostly conservative family plenty of articles on her. They thought she was just some trump lady. Not any more.
Sure you can be a Scientologist and at the same time participate in the CULTURAL aspect of the Christian holidays and the Jewish Holidays. Sure, you can have a Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols and send card and give gifts and decorate your house with holly and all the rest of it. And you can light Channukah (spelling?) candles and have a Mezzuzah or whatever.
BUT: You CANNOT be a Scientologist on the Upper Bridge and for real BELIEVE in Jesus Christ or that Christ even existed, and healed people, and was the Son of God, etc. etc. You CANNOT believe in the Virgin Birth or the Resurrection – NO!
You can have 12 Christmas trees and Bing Crosby singing White Christmas and you can hang stockings by the fire and have mistletoe and reindeers and Santas all over your lawn – that’s ALL fine. But you see, none of that, is actually BEING a Christian. You cannot BE a Christian by virtue of your belief in the New Testament scripture and faith in the Trinity. You can dye Easter eggs and make baskets with chocolate rabbits too. But believe that He came back from the dead? UH UH. Not if you’re a Scientologist on OT3, no way!
Nor can you believe in any Jewish magic. But the TRAPPINGS – sure. The meals, the fasting, wearing a yamulke if you want to. Light the candles, drink that special wine, eat apples and honey on Rosh Hashannah, all fine. But don’t think you’re going to be allowed to be a REAL Jew. Oh, no. Window dressing is fine – on the holidays. But if you’re on the OT levels, try, just try to hold onto your Jewish beliefs and you’re going to be spending time in Ethics getting “handled” – at your own expense. Very soon will you “cognite” on what is the “true data” – lol.
The only magic Scientologists on the OT levels are allowed to believe is Scientology magic.
Ray Cassano is FOS.
O/T. Lefigaro: “They come back with the will to evangelize massively”: how the Church of Scientology thinks of infiltrating French society
By Margaux d’Adhémar
Posted yesterday at 07:00
Use Google translation of:
https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/ils-reviennent-avec-la-volonte-d-evangeliser-massivement-comment-l-eglise-de-scientologie-pense-s-infiltrer-dans-la-societe-francaise-20210918
/
Joy is trying to frame the question by categorizing Christianity as a religion and scientology as a philosophy. She claims they’re two different things; therefore, you can have both. Really? By that logic, you should have no problem having both a wife and a girlfriend. Two different categories. Or, to really test the theory, imagine accepting this from your spouse.
OK then, Joy, religions typically get tax exemptions, and philosophies or life-improvement schemes do not. So let’s grant scientology beingness as a philosophy and yank that tax exemption already! And let’s make sure they pay us back for all those years that we mistook them for a religion. And while we’re at it, let’s indict them for lying to the IRS when they claimed they were a religion.
Christianity puts great emphasis on resolving your eternal destiny. In a copycat move, so does scientology. This is where religious promiscuity creates further problems: Joy seems to have herself convinced that as a Christian woman she’s all set to “go to heaven.” While scientology is nebulous on the subject, one thing is perfectly clear: You don’t just have one life. And you’re most certainly NOT going to any “heaven” after your first (and only) life. So Joy, where art thou bound?
Equally important, scientology teaches that, if they pay enough, people can attain something like godhood. Believers in all three Abrahamic religions believe that created beings vying for godhood is the most grievous possible sin. It’s the very essence of sin, the one that turned a former prominent angel into Satan himself. So it would appear that we are at a philosophical impasse here: Should you accept your role as a created being and worship God as Creator? Or should you reject such restraints and utilize scientology to become a god? An absolutely irreconcilable pair of alternatives!
Plus, let’s face it: What do you think scientology “chaplains” and regges will do when they find out that you are giving of your time and money to a Christian church?
If I belong to the Aftermath Religion will scienos let me in?
Trying being Rastafarian (which includes sacred smoking of cannabis) and a scientologist (which includes the sacred smoking of tobacco).
Trying to get this straight – so Christ is an implant. the “man on the cross” never existed. But oh, by the way, this person who never existed happened to be a lover of young boys and men, and had a temper. Yes, the Church of Cognitive Dissonance strikes again.
gorillavee, I think the idea is that Jesus was a common degraded being, who became revered because of an “implant” that causes some people to be worshipped as messiahs by the masses – not necessarily for any really good reason.
Which I think is actually worse, if you drill into what likely underlies Hubbard’s various statements.
It may be true that that there is a human tendency to put some figures on pedestals – which Hubbard himself happily accepted – but usually there is still some profound basis for doing so in the character and teachings of major religious figures. I suppose you could say that Hubbard did prove it could happen with someone who was just a criminal and a psychotic – though only on a small scale.
Peacemaker, in one of LRH’s tapes – I forget which one – a Congress, possibly – he states -or muses out loud, that Jesus Christ was so low toned and overt ridden that his dying on the cross for everyone’s sins, etc. was an act of EXTREME propitiation for his OWN sins. In other words, Jesus Christ the being was guilt ridden, sin ridden, a product of lifetime after lifetime of huge overts, and in this lifetime allowing himself to be caught, found guilty and crucified was his extremely low toned stunt to punish himself for all the harm that he had caused mankind. In brief, his crucifixion was an act of extreme propitiation on his part. Jesus was propitiating the 4th dynamic in this way. Again, I can’t recall what tape I was listening to except I’m fairly certain it was one of the Congresses. And I’ve paraphrased a good deal but Hubbard did use the word “propitiation” quite strongly, and we know where THAT is on the tone scale, LOL.
In Scientology, there is NO WAY that one can love or admire or actually believe in Jesus Christ and at the same time be a Scientologist in good standing, or make it thru a course or an auditing action.
Any viable attachment to Jesus Christ would mean False Data Stripping, Ethics handlings for mixing practices, specific rundowns, etc.; etc.
…..sorry, one more Hubbard “exception” policy which truly true expert policy nerds in positions of authority can and will get away with applying, should they do so, and I did so so I know with authority that this is the case.
The LRH local policy to Saint Hill to non Scientologist staff at Saint Hill, was for decades also a policy that gives leeway to people of other faiths, even working at Saint Hill.
The privisos are listed out carefully, and I have to say that this is also the reason that crossed my mind when approving the Catholic Berlin Dept of Special Affairs trainee her wish to go to Catholic Mass, on a Sunday, at the Int Training Org course room, in the HGB Building there in Hollywood, CA.
Chuck Beatty.
Mike,
To give a history exception, when I was Course Supervisor for staff administrator members, in the Int Training Org, I had a student trainee for the Dept of Special Affairs for Berlin, on course.
She was distraught that my fellow Int Training Org staff would not allow her to attend Catholic Mass on Sundays.
I knew policy better than anyone in the building, including all policy that OSA follows.
What I did was allow this Berlin Org trainee for Berlin’s Dept of Special Affairs, to leave my course room, go to Catholic Mass, on Sunday, and minutes before the nearby Catholic church Mass was to be held.
A simple paperwork “CSW” from the woman trainee, to me, I approved it, I let her go to Mass.
But, I did write a benignly and in no way patronising or nasty, “report” to OSA Int, that this woman might not be suitable for working in Dept of Special Affairs in Berlin, and that she ought be instead considered to change her training lineup courses to make her into a “coin” to replace another Berlin staff member who was more a full Scientologist.
The Catholic Berlin woman who was really happy and heartfelt thanked me to let her go to Mass, did not continue her DSA (Dept of Special Affairs) lineup and she did not do other staff courses at Int Training Org, but she returned to Berlin and I don’t know what happened to her.
I do know, that a policy stickler, out in the orgs, will do the same as I did. Policy says a person can be of another religion, and I took those lines literally.
I never was “corrected” on any of my policy judgements I ever made when I made them, rather I would eat anyone who tried not to give policy the exact or widest interpretations as were suitable.
I thought all during my years on Sea Org, and I had serious policy judgement job decision calling constantly in my most productive years in Sea Org (course supping, and then later in the “Routing Forms” checklists years).
———————–
Would I agree on the premise that a staff member entrusted to a fuller application of ALL of Hubbard’s policies and writings and especially Hubbard’s final strategic writings, to be held by full blown Scientologists, of course that is the case.
But lower totem pole staffer beginner jobs in Scientology, or the long runway still wet behind the ears “newbie” years Scientologists of course can be allowed any “co-religion” religious beliefs.
And that policy allows it.
It takes supreme judgement to play Hubbard’s piano of policies and do it decently, and is it all worth it, of course not either.
Even the more supremely gifted policy piano players of Hubbard’s regulations will come to failure, since Xenu’s “body-thetans” and the R6 implanting damage supposedly is all ultimately not true.
So no amount of the Hubbard sold and delivered pseudo-therapy and Ned for OTs exorcism and Solo New Era Dianetics NOTs exorcism will ultimately “fix” humanity, it’s all bogus and it’s all “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” deeper problem with ALL of Hubbard’s quackery sales operation scam.
The bigger problems of Scientology are the ultimately longer range truly bigger problems of selling quackery that WILL fail people who put their faith in it.
No matter if the Hubbard leeway exceptions and even these grander PR policies like the Hubbard allowance for persons to supposedly be of dual religions.
The A to J policy you didn’t mention, but that’s also a policy in support of the argument that Scientology doesn’t really truly allow for dual religion practitioners.
But also not mentioned by your above argument, is the Nation of Islam obviously having their members do Dianetics and even deeper level Scientology training.
I’d love to see the reactions of the NOI people when they get to OT 3, OT 4, OT 5, OT 6 and OT 7, and see what then NOI defectors say later down the road when they finally quit after getting to OT 7.
Since their “Supreme Being” seems to be Xenu, Lron, or David M…..& not necessarily in that order……& since “they” don’t seem to accept God/Jesus at all…………..just HOW is any of this “Christian”.
IMHO reality their TRUE Supreme being is CASH…………………
👏👏👏👏👏👏
Excellent reply
Now they are trying to be like us the Wogs ,human being.
Why?
They are getting exposed of fake promises and products by social media.
They were lucky in previous mellinium due no internet technology.
This millinimum stated with multimedia followed by Social media .
They discourage followers to check internet but when Apple IOS and Google Andriod make mobile phone part of life they started losing their followers.
Information is poison for Cults ,they need fear to feed their followers.
Now with dramatic decrease over the years and with The End by 2025 , it’s their last attempt to save the integrity of followers,who are now treated more like aliens 👽.
But by doing this they are also implying that their technology failed to provide survival for them and their followers.
A catch 22
Thank you Mark. As a “never in” even I can see, hear, feel the reality of it all. There is NEVER going to be enough money to keep this SHAM going.
This is IMHO NOT a “religion” it’s a Ponzi scheme that they keep building & building, sucking those that are IN dry of every cent they have….& if they don’t have that cent, there’s always “the option” of maxing out every Credit Card to feed the BEAST to keep this THING going relentlessly.
Got to show the IRS that they are “LEGIT” & the ONLY way to do that is to continue to feed the beast by purchasing or renovating useless buildings that will til the end of time be empty or nearly empty of “parishioners”, staff, old timers that even near the end of their life remain loyal to the cause.
Anyone notice how the Catholic Church is closing LEGIT church after church. Those same churches have lost dozens of former members, most of whom were elderly, because they’ve become to ill to attend church or have passed away. Now these churches which were on every few blocks HERE, have closed & COMBINED together, closing one or two churches into ONE central church.
WHY keep paying utilities, upkeep, for a church that is less than 1/4 filled every Sunday….so they CLOSED them & combined into another church.
Simply put, the IRS got TIRED of trying to fight COS off…..it cost too much $$$ & too much TIME to continue to battle the COS request to be “announced as LEGIT”……….so it seems the IRS bent to COS will & kissed their ASS giving them what they wanted………..ggeeeeezzzz
AAAAhhhhh……I call it as I see it……………this is a PONZI scheme….bilk people & the IRS out of MILLIONS of dollars.
You wrote:
They discourage followers to check internet but when Apple IOS and Google Andriod make mobile phone part of life they started losing their followers.
Yeah, I do think you got a point there. Never underestimate the power of boredom to send someone on some fucked-up Wikipedia diving tour, either at 2am in the morning or on public transport! Lol
Maybe some even initially wanted to read some of “all the good news about all the good work” the chult is doing… because of having doubts and wanting to see finally what their donations “accomplish”. Doh!
PS: it’s “millennium”, not “mellinium” or “millinimum”. Although either does sound like some tasty kind of jam, perhaps with whole chult berries and gobbledegook and nuts, slowly cooked in a crackpot. I’d like to buy some jars!
You got it.
In urban culture, where advertisement pushes us ,” they can have it why don’t you” increase curiosity about things kept away or declared taboo.
Young generation cannot be stopped from Google search,
Truth is out there.
About typos ,well typing from thumb has its own fun and misery.
It same for you , as it is not chult but Cult ( 2nd Para 14th line).
That’s the cost we have to bear for keeping info travel fast and faster.
Well Mark, “Chult” was intentional, as in, Cult + Church 🙂 🙂 🙂
There is the PR aspect of this which Villa is promoting here , as of course LRH did during his life.
But as someone who was in for 35 years and CS ‘d thousands and thousands of sessions , I can say that this is in practical terms, a NON ISSUE.
It is not a matter of any prohibition that says Scientologists cannot also attend a God based church or believe in Jesus. It is simply that when one “cogs” on Scientology, one now has the answer to the eternal truths of the spirit and has no REASON to be a believing Christian. In all my very active years in, I don’t recall meeting even one person on lines who was interested in actually pursuing Christianity or ever mentioned believing in it.
Joe,
In practical terms, it’s a major issue: scientologists and scientology organizations and their executives routinely and intentionally LIE about scientology orthodoxy to the world. It’s an intentional misrepresentation that aligns with scientology public relations policies. It’s an example of culty bait-and-switch.
Oh, I certainly agree with you on that Mark. What I meant was that IN the CoS itself, this was not an issue that I EVER saw come up with staff or public, and I was in for 35 years, most as a CS and Course Supe at a very large org with a lot of students and pcs (especially in the 1970s) …
Hey Joe,
Ah, okay, I see what you mean: WITHIN “the church” it was a non-issue.
What I saw aligns with what you saw: the “real” scientologists didn’t “mix practices”. Anyone who came into scienbollicky as a real Christian usually didn’t stay very long…
Aside from the fact that christianity and scientology are both theologically and philosophically incompatible, scientology’s deceptive nature is the very issue here. Scientology’s central teachings are hidden from newbies and never discussed publicly. Even lower level scientologists are instructed to “lay off the whole track stuff” and lie (by ommission) when discussing the subject (ref PAB 61, 16 Sept 1955 SELLING).
Joy Villa isn’t describing how uncovering her squillion year history as an immortal superbeing makes her a better christian. When she makes it through OTIII, she will be forbidden from sharing how exorcising the ghostly victims of an ancient galactic holocaust allows her to bask in god’s glory. And especially not that christianity evolved from said holocaust as a form of spiritual enslavement/misdirection. No, she’s claiming it’s just a way for her to communicate better.
The attitude is “just get them through the door and let nature take its course.” The end justifies the means. There doesn’t need to be any prohibition. Adherence is obtained “therapeutically” (the alteration of beliefs via suggestion and induced dissociation) and culturally (the alteration of behaviour via operant and vicarious institutional conditioning).
Hubbard designed scientology to be psychologically effective. And as with any placebo, scientology’s therapeutic value is rooted in its deception. A doctor’s code of ethics typically prohibits their prescription unless the patient is informed and agrees to take it anyway. This is my attitude to scientology. Caveat emptor.
That’s true, Joe. And when getting auditing if they get wind of you doing another religion besides Scn, they C/S you to receive the Other Practices Repair List. I did Reiki ad other Eastern things in college and they had to do that Other Practices list on me because those were considered bad if you also do Scn.. Never mind that I did these things decades before I found Scn and was not actively doing them at the time I found Scn. The IRS should re-look at this because Scn flunks that portion of the IRS checklist to be considered a religion.
I really hope the outrage over the “Church’s” activities snowballs into some real action but I’ve been hoping that for a years. I doubt the IRS will do anything without some national political figure pushing and that probably doesn’t happen unless a significant portion of the public gets outraged.
If Scn goes full fair game on Aaron Smith-Levin (a quick check shows the ‘who-is’ website is up) that will get the Scn back into the public eye which can only be bad in the age of Google. Not that I wish that on Aaron – or anybody for that matter – but I hope with a little extra mass the years of bad publicity will coalesce into a giant round coprolite so we can roll it downhill and flatten CoB and all of his tacky MEST. (Next stop: TC)
I nearly spit water on my keyboard when I read this: “Joy Villa has made a career as a social media “celebrity” by claiming on one hand she is a devout Christian who has faith in Jesus and that she believes she is “going to heave after she dies,”…” I don’t know what will happen when she dies but she ought to heave when her accountant tells her how much she donated to Scn. (As an engineer I like to think I’m not a grammar-Nazi but deep down I know I’m lying to myself.)
I thought it was a brilliant tactical move on Aaron’s part that he revealed the hate web site directed at him during his announcement video. Obviously, it’s not unusual in a political campaign that dirt is dug up and either promoted openly by a competitor or leaked to the press for deniability.
What’s different here is that the dirt comes from close family members such as in-laws.
This is certainly NOT typical for political campaigns as families, regardless of how they may feel about each other, generally publicly stand together for such an effort.
At some point, Aaron may have no choice but to clarify for the public why his is not a typical case. For example, that close family members are “speaking out” about him because the cult leaves them no choice. Or that his parents-in-law won’t get to see the grandchildren because of disconnection. And that disconnection is not a choice that Aaron or even the in-laws get to make but one that is part of the cult’s “scriptures.”
Equally, the claim that the cult kicked him out for being a terrible person collapses in light of the fact that Aaron worked for the Feshbachs, prominent scientologists, for four years right after leaving the sea org (a fact that even the hate site acknowledges albeit without naming the Falcon Research firm). Even under normal circumstances, his alleged disgrace would make him unemployable to people who would be in the know. But even more so in an environment where employment is contingent–illegal as that may be–on “religious” subservience.
Aaron’s transparency about the attacks puts the cult into a catch-22. They will believe that they have no choice but to attack (especially since hubbarf says so). But these attacks will also show the CW residents who don’t already know what a cancer they really have in their midst.
Now that Tony Muhammad is clear, how far up the OT levels will he get before:
a) he quits NOI
b) he quits scientology
c) he’s allowed to grift his way through both as a protected asset and O/L.
🤔
mwesten,
It appears that he is currently engaged in pursuing option (c).
As federal agency the IRS is subject to The Iron Law Of Bureaucracy. What is The Iron Law Of Bureaucracy? If an action isn’t necessary to collect a paycheck it won’t be performed. I discovered The Iron Law Of Bureaucracy directly in The Army when I stationed at Fort Benning. I had a dermoid cyst that to be removed and the receptionist at the troop medical clinic had said I had already missed two appointments to have it removed. The receptionist notified the clerk at my company headquarters but I wasn’t notified. As far as the receptionist believed I was notified when in fact I wasn’t. I had to work around the clerk to make my third appointment.
les, I think Hubbard proved that can apply to any sort of organization. He established one of the most inefficient and unadaptable bureaucracies known to man – for a business and/or a religion, depending on how you want to look at it.
A company that supplies internet in my area (one of two that nominally compete) gave us exactly the sort of runaround you’re describing recently. But every different crew or subcontractor that showed up without notification, went ahead and completely redid the outside cabling all the way up the pole each time while they were there, undoing the work of the one that came before. The pros that finally made proper contact and came out, said the company keeps farming out work to subcontractors with cheap rates but who often just make more work for the real employees. Our city, which is slowly doing water and sewer work on the street, is efficient in comparison.
Thanks so much for posting this information. It is very, very helpful. Bless you!
L. Ron Hubbard: ” … The man on the Cross. There was no Christ.” (at 2:01)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc9HjgXdWBw