Scientology What?

I was wandering through Central London yesterday and stumbled upon a group of people handing out slips about their protest of Scientology because, they said, of the Church's "fair-game policy, their tax-exempt status and their history of human rights violations." I had always heard some interesting things about said "religion" (usually about aliens and space ships), but was not all that familiar with these more serious charges. A quick google search revealed the following:

With regard to "Fair-game policies," it appears that in 1965 L. Ron Hubbard (the founder of Scientology, formulated the "Fair Game Law", which states how to deal with people who interfere with Scientology's activities. These problematic people, called suppressive persons, could be considered "fair game" for retaliation. He declared:

"The homes, property, places and abodes of persons who have been active in attempting to: suppress Scientology or Scientologists are all beyond any protection of Scientology Ethics, unless absolved by later Ethics or an amnesty ... this Policy Letter extends to suppressive non-Scientology wives and husbands and parents, or other family members or hostile groups or even close friends."

Basically, if you say something bad about us all ethics go out the window and we can destroy your life if we want to. WHOA. Although he was forced to rescind that statement in 1968, "The Church has retained an aggressive policy towards those it perceives as its enemies, and argued as late as 1985 that retributive action against "enemies of Scientology" should be considered a Constitutionally-protected "core practice" of Scientology. Double WHOA.

As for the other charges, it is indeed classified as a non-profit, despite raking in upwards of one billion dollars, according to some estimations. One site I found said that full membership costs $380,000. You know, it's just like other religions. Oh wait, no it's not.

Eek, should I be worried about this post? Am I now "fair game?" Oh well, at least these video clips are funny. My favorite moment is when Tom Cruise salutes a portrait of Hubbard while mumbling something in secret Scientology language.

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Kyle Taylor