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Scientologists harassing defector?

Elizabeth I

Philosopher
Elizabeth I
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
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Location
Defending the Alamo
INGLESIDE ON THE BAY, TEXAS — The first time Charlie Orr saw the group of men outside his home, wearing odd helmets and sky blue shirts with a “Squirrel Busters” insignia on the chest, he assumed a neighbor had a rodent infestation.

“I thought, ‘Well, we had a termite man out here. Maybe we have a squirrel problem I didn't know about,'” he recalled.

But as Orr, 70, and other residents of this idyllic coastal community of palm trees, elegant white skiffs and pastel-colored homes soon learned — to their continuing regret — the Squirrel Busters had no interest in tree-climbing varmints.

Instead, they were targeting Orr's next-door neighbor, Mark Rathbun, 54, a high-level defector from the Church of Scientology who has become an outspoken critic of the church, denouncing its leadership as despotic and abusive.
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- San Antonio Express-News
 
Very frightening people.
http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/

Apparently they're now aiming at opera singer Plácido Domingo's son


Wiseman lead the charge against Placido Domingo Jr. Here is Wiseman’s message sent far and wide across the Facebook community:

From Bruce Wiseman:
It’s come to my attention that Placido Domingo
(http://www.facebook.com/pfdo1021) has left our group and aligned
himself on his Facebook page with people who hate our church. I
suggest dropping him from your friends list and letting any mutual
friends on Facebook know about this. If you have any questions
regarding this information check with your Dir I&R or DSA.

To “unfriend” someone go to their profile page and scroll down
beneath their picture to the “unfriend” link. They are not notified
that you have done this, you are just taken off their list. Before
you do this, look on the top right of his page to see if you have
any mutual friends, and let them know by private message as well.

Let’s keep our field clean and keyed out by applying Price of
Freedom to our Facebook accounts. A connection to SPs is a
connection to SPs even if it’s a “virtual” one.

Placido’s crime? He refused church of Scientology orders to disconnect from the mother (the inimitable Samantha Domingo) of his three lovely daughters and thus from the daughters themselves. The cult applied all manner of pressure and threat to break Placido. It is Placido who deserves a medal for applying the Code of Honor despite every invitation not to. When Wiseman turns his medal over to Placido he will be fit to be trusted by real Scientologists.
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That's over the top of weird.

Gerry Armstrong spoke at the Vancouver Skepticamp 2010. He claims to be a top level Scientologist that defected. They successfully sued him under a copyright or contract law. He has a lot to say about them including having to hide in Canada because if he comes back to the US he can be arrested or something. I don't recall the details but I do recall the Church went to incredible lengths to harass him and his disclosures about the current leader were the reason. Here's his webpage that does have them.
 
some of this may come back and haunt scientologists. Who would want to join them if they know this will happen when they decide to leave?
 
rjh01 said:
some of this may come back and haunt scientologists. Who would want to join them if they know this will happen when they decide to leave?
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People who never heard about it, which is what happens in practice.
 
rjh01 said:
Now anyone who does any research on the topic via the Internet will find out about this issue and be able to take appropriate action. I hope.
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This will work for some subset of the group of people who do a lot of research about Scientology before they join.

I have to think that this number isn't large.

Or particularly critically inclined in their research.
 
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I would agree that they would have to do some research to find out anything. However those that do not do the research and get recruited would not be much more than mindless drones. The future leaders will be missing.
 
rjh01 said:
I would agree that they would have to do some research to find out anything. However those that do not do the research and get recruited would not be much more than mindless drones. The future leaders will be missing.
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The future leaders of scientology? They will be there, never fear. There are always people who lust for power and money. They don't have to believe any of the nonsense.
 
rjh01 said:
I would agree that they would have to do some research to find out anything. However those that do not do the research and get recruited would not be much more than mindless drones. The future leaders will be missing.
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Complexity said:
The future leaders of scientology? They will be there, never fear. There are always people who lust for power and money. They don't have to believe any of the nonsense.
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If I were a cynic I would be apt to suspect that the strength of their conviction tends to bear an inverse relationship with their position in the church hierarchy.

I am. A cynic, that is.

Of course, I feel that way about most churches. The more influential in society they are, and the wealthier, the more I'm inclined to suspect it to be true.

The really successful drug dealers don't indulge in their product, either.
 
quadraginta said:
If I were a cynic I would be apt to suspect that the strength of their conviction tends to bear an inverse relationship with their position in the church hierarchy.

I am. A cynic, that is.

Of course, I feel that way about most churches. The more influential in society they are, and the wealthier, the more I'm inclined to suspect it to be true.

The really successful drug dealers don't indulge in their product, either.
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I very much agree.
 
Complexity said:
The future leaders of scientology? They will be there, never fear. There are always people who lust for power and money. They don't have to believe any of the nonsense.
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In other words the future leaders will be recruited AS leaders, rather than internal promotions. That is risky. But I do agree that would be one way to get leaders.

Another way would be children of members.
 
More follow up on Placido Domingo, jr's harrassment:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ns-cult-favour-ex-wife.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

From the article
Domingo and Samantha met through the church of Scientology in 1994, and eventually had three daughters.

They divorced but remained on good terms as they raised their children. Samantha lives in Kent, England while Domingo lives in Miami.

Samantha, a member of 20 years, left the church and Scientology leaders allegedly ordered Domingo to 'disconnect' with his family - a common tactic that is used to isolate followers.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...andons-cult-favour-ex-wife.html#ixzz1RnDjQy7W
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Really strange that they think they can get away with doing these kinds of things so publicly.
 
truethat said:
Really strange that they think they can get away with doing these kinds of things so publicly.
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It would be strange ... if they didn't routinely get away with doing these kind of things so publicly.

It is only on occasions when such actions brush up against the celebrity gossip machine and manage to become a focus of tabloid journalism that it ever even becomes an issue in the minds of the public. And then only briefly, and only with a small fraction of that public.

For the most part people don't really care about what they perceive as internal squabbles among religious cultists.
 
quadraginta said:
It would be strange ... if they didn't routinely get away with doing these kind of things so publicly.

It is only on occasions when such actions brush up against the celebrity gossip machine and manage to become a focus of tabloid journalism that it ever even becomes an issue in the minds of the public. And then only briefly, and only with a small fraction of that public.

For the most part people don't really care about what they perceive as internal squabbles among religious cultists.
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Also, Scientologists tend to have an exaggerated opinion of the importance of their religion. They think they're bullet-proof because of Scientology's influence and magic powers. It doesn't matter in the long run whether it's really a case of "no one cares", they get away with it either way.
 
Scientology reminds of Big Tobacco in a way. Huge and mighty and used to winning -- until they lose. Someday they will lose big and fall hard. And it really only takes one loss like that to mess up their whole deal.

Time to revisit their tax-free status.
 
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