A perfect storm of stupid
March 26, 2009 4:37 PM   Subscribe

Sarah Palin understands the importance of religion in politics. That's why the Political Action Committee preparing for her 2012 presidential bid is being run by John Coale - an OT-VII Scientologist.

Coale - who switched his support from Hillary Clinton to John McCain during the 2008 campaign - originally turned to Scientology to get off drugs. He later introduced to the faith his wife - fellow attorney Greta Van Susteren. Together they assisted in the Church's successful takeover of the Cult Awareness Network. (In her later role as a FOX News personality, Van Susteren has been an ardent defender of Palin herself.)

In 1986, Coale developed a plan to help Scientology gain influence in Washington. While he reports that nothing came of it, a Scientology PAC currently operates as Citizens for Social Reform - helping to fight the Church's war against psychiatry.
posted by Joe Beese (75 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I, oh, wow.

You know that feeling you get when you see a boil pop?
posted by The Whelk at 4:39 PM on March 26, 2009 [5 favorites]


And she still hasn't given her daughter's illegitimate love child up for adoption. She talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:42 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Greta Van Susteren

You know, it wasn't the murder, it wasn't the extortion, it wasn't the crime-syndicate-loosely-disguised-as-a-pseudo-religion: it was Greta Van Susteren that convinced me Scientology HQ needs to be glassed from orbit.

Are there any Scientology celebrities that aren't insufferable douchebag(ett)s?
posted by Avenger at 4:43 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Why must you discriminate against people of faith?
posted by box at 4:44 PM on March 26, 2009 [3 favorites]


This is great news.... FOR JOHN MCCAIN.
posted by ob at 4:45 PM on March 26, 2009 [10 favorites]


You know that feeling you get when you see a boil pop?

Primal revulsion mixed with a sort of morbid fascination?
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:46 PM on March 26, 2009 [4 favorites]


This puts Geithner's plan to give the banks "stress tests" in a terrifying new light.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:47 PM on March 26, 2009 [14 favorites]


Are there any Scientology celebrities that aren't insufferable douchebag(ett)s?

There's no need to add gender to such a great phrase. Douchebags come from all walks of life.

And, for some reason, they're really good at beer pong.
posted by JimmyJames at 4:58 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Together they assisted in the Church's successful takeover of the Cult Awareness Network.

Oh yeah, that's a good feeling I have right now. Right in the pit of my stomach. It's like puppies exploding. With happiness, naturally.
posted by DU at 4:58 PM on March 26, 2009 [2 favorites]


Why must you discriminate against people of faith?

Huh? Where's the discrimination?
posted by ericb at 5:05 PM on March 26, 2009


Oh, I get it ... crazy-assed sky/alien-believers feel oh-so-victimized. Right. Got it.
posted by ericb at 5:06 PM on March 26, 2009


Greta Van Susteren

Did you know her dad was best friends with Joe McCarthy? Urban Van Susteren ran McCarthy's '46 senate campaign.
posted by mr_roboto at 5:09 PM on March 26, 2009 [4 favorites]


Are there any Scientology celebrities that aren't insufferable douchebag(ett)s?

Beck?
Laura Prepon? <3>
posted by kid ichorous at 5:10 PM on March 26, 2009


"douchebaguettes" is an awesome mental image. It'd probably also make a great band name.
posted by heathkit at 5:11 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Uh, that is a bidirectional heart with eight chambers and fuel-injection.
posted by kid ichorous at 5:12 PM on March 26, 2009 [4 favorites]


Not a single MeFi post has disturbed me as much as this one has. It was one thing when Scientologists were just jumping on couches. I can dismiss their dogma because from my perspective it is pretty fringe. But as a healthcare administrator in a community desperate for qualified psychiatrists to care for its mentally ill patients, it is completely batshit insane to me that a respected health system like UMMS would let something like Coale's appointment to the freaking board happeb. This blog entry, however, suggests that it was a mass exodus, not just an appointment of a high-powered deep pocket to the Board of Directors. But who was chair of the BOD nominating committee who thought it would be a good idea to put a Scientologist on the Board of a health system? What???? Please, someone provide insight before I explode!
posted by njbradburn at 5:15 PM on March 26, 2009 [4 favorites]


Did you know her dad was best friends with Joe McCarthy? Urban Van Susteren ran McCarthy's '46 senate campaign.

You know that feeling you get when you see a boil pop, and then a gangrenous maggot-covered liver fluke wriggles out of it?
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:15 PM on March 26, 2009 [3 favorites]


HA!
posted by leotrotsky at 5:19 PM on March 26, 2009


"There's no need to add gender to such a great phrase. Douchebags come from all walks of life. "

¿Qué es más macho? Douchebag or douchebagette?
posted by krinklyfig at 5:24 PM on March 26, 2009


Hang on, I just started reading Confederacy of Dunces. Don't go giving the ending away!
posted by quin at 5:27 PM on March 26, 2009 [2 favorites]


The Douchebag Express

That woman is batshit insane.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:29 PM on March 26, 2009 [4 favorites]


I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.
posted by crataegus at 5:37 PM on March 26, 2009


Sarah just can't get an even break, can she? She owes half a mill to the law firm that defended her against ethics complaints, too. It's ok, though. She's going to create a legal fund so you can bail her out.
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 5:45 PM on March 26, 2009


Start here.

Personally, I don't give a rat's ass what anyone believes. The Xenu story is just as good as walking on water or parting the Red Sea or riding into Heaven on a horse.

I for damn sure give a rat's ass about what people do.
posted by Xoebe at 5:56 PM on March 26, 2009 [5 favorites]




Wow, a twofer! We can make fun of the lolxians and the lolclams AT THE SAME TIME!
posted by Slothrup at 6:19 PM on March 26, 2009


Cult preys on the desperate and ignorant: You-know-what at you-know-when.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:24 PM on March 26, 2009


Ok, I'll bite the bullet and ask. I saw the Scientology South Park, I get the DC9s and the volcano and all that.

But why all the clam stuff? Operation Clambake, and whatnot? Why clams?
posted by paisley henosis at 6:26 PM on March 26, 2009


"Personally, I don't give a rat's ass what anyone believes. The Xenu story is just as good as walking on water or parting the Red Sea or riding into Heaven on a horse.

"I for damn sure give a rat's ass about what people
do."

I don't much care about the mythology, but anti-science, anti-intellectual political movements are concerning.
posted by krinklyfig at 6:28 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


paisley henosis: here
posted by krinklyfig at 6:29 PM on March 26, 2009 [2 favorites]


Oh. Oh my.

I cannot stomach this. At ALL.

At this rate, in four years I'll be a libertarian or back to a blue dog Democrat.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 6:42 PM on March 26, 2009 [2 favorites]


But why all the clam stuff? Operation Clambake, and whatnot? Why clams?

All will be revealed.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:45 PM on March 26, 2009


From the Operation Clambake wikipedia:

"The term for the organization refers both to a traditional clam bake, as well as the notion from L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology: A History of Man that humans follow a "genetic line" which includes clams, and that the psychological problems afflicting humans are impacted by past experiences."


Also

How do you make steamed clams?

- You make fun of their religion! (thanks Johnny)
posted by Midnight Rambler at 7:03 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


I don't much care about the mythology, but anti-science, anti-intellectual political movements are concerning.

As are organizations that imprison children in the chainlocker (anchor storage room, wet and cold and ratty) of their high-seas out-of-legal-dominion ship. Or who harass critics with the intention of causing them to commit suicide as the only means of escape. Or who infiltrate government organizations, so as to better protect themselves from prosecution. Or who lock sick people in a room, administer massive doses of vitamins as a "remedy" for the illness, until that person dies.

And so on and so forth.

Make no mistake: Scientology is one evil mother-fucking organization that is absolutely intent on gaining political control. Ignore them at your own peril.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:09 PM on March 26, 2009 [9 favorites]


I really hope this is true since it would help squash any slim chance she has of running a successful campaign, but the 'being run' link says her PAC is being run by Becki Donatelli, and Coale is just rumored to be involved. Is there a more solid link? Van Susteren denies the claim.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 7:28 PM on March 26, 2009


Basically it's like they read all the conspiracy theories about how evil Jews and Catholics are a decided they were a blueprint for action.
posted by empath at 7:30 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Why didn't Anonymous finish the job?
posted by kldickson at 7:38 PM on March 26, 2009 [3 favorites]


They were distracted by sexting
posted by Tenuki at 7:43 PM on March 26, 2009


Maybe look at it this way: Would anyone in their right mind think Palin has a shot at the presidency? Given that, just how crazy do her campaign managers have to be?
posted by jester69 at 7:49 PM on March 26, 2009


After Obama got elected - what is this, the Moron Uprising?

And by the way - some of you might remember the comment I made in an AskMe thread about this - but only 35% of adults in the US (and percentages are LOWER in unindustrialized countries) ever reach the formal operational stage. My Google Scholar fu has not seemed to locate an article on this subject, but if you search for it on Google there's a handful of textbooks about tangential subjects that mention this.

This and Hanlon's razor simultaneously give me relief and depress me.
posted by kldickson at 8:00 PM on March 26, 2009


Thanks for the clam answers.

My favorite part: "We waited in the car, but apparently they started doing all these charts and crap for him. Elvis came out and said, 'F - - - those people! There's no way I'll ever get involved with that son-of-a-bitchin' group. All they want is my money.' . . . He stayed away from Scientology like it was a cobra. "
posted by paisley henosis at 8:26 PM on March 26, 2009


LOLXENUIANS
posted by hamida2242 at 8:42 PM on March 26, 2009


I think it's clear from this thread that a lot of you are out-Ethic. Report to your local org for false purpose and purification rundowns.
posted by chimaera at 8:46 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


It's a pity there's enough local production and lack of extra demand almost everywhere these days, because you could probably pay off all that nasty bailout stuff just by exporting all TEH CRAZY you have there.
posted by Iosephus at 8:47 PM on March 26, 2009


Meanwhile, Palin's War on Wildlife Continues.
posted by homunculus at 8:50 PM on March 26, 2009


Van Susteren frustrates me to no end, not only because she is so generally frustrating, but also because she's the most notable alumni of the (sort-of-kind-of) newspaper for which I am now an editor. (For what it's worth, I handle features and humor, and make vicious jokes a CoS's expense whenever I can, which isn't often enough.)

I'm consistently surprised and appalled at how much respect, or at least legitimacy, is given to CoS in DC. I haven't spent much time in California in my life (maybe a few months total) but in New York, the only contact one had with Scientologists was rushing to avoid them in the Times Square and Union Square subway stations. Say what you will about NY, but the busy lifestyle combined with calling bullshit as a cultural pride means that CoS never got much of a foothold there, as far as I can tell.

I've said this before, but we need people on the inside who can alert the authorities once they know exactly where shit like the chainlocker are going on. We need high-profile raids. We need fodder for otherwise useless talking heads like Nancy Grace to show incessantly so that people connect CoS in their minds with something more insidious than goofy couch-jumping, so that when people like Coale are involved in major political movements, that alone will be enough to dismiss the movements. This is what I desire.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:12 PM on March 26, 2009 [3 favorites]


Why, Banjo? Sarah Palin running for president makes me feel like Harry Joy in Bliss- I'm convinced I've died and gone to hell, only hell looks just like my real life...
posted by PuppyCat at 9:22 PM on March 26, 2009


won't end well
posted by Fupped Duck at 9:39 PM on March 26, 2009


Well, as this thread has veered into clambakes, I think I should point out that Scientology has undergone its own sort of Lutheran reformations:

"The Free Zone is the name used to describe the various individuals and groups who have broken away from the Church of Scientology, but who continue to practice Scientology-derived beliefs and techniques in an environment free from the control of the official Church.
posted by kid ichorous at 10:02 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Did some comments just disappear???
posted by stinkycheese at 11:02 PM on March 26, 2009


Scientology is one evil mother-fucking organization that is absolutely intent on gaining political control.
I'm not surprised. I imagine people have far less money to contribute for "courses" and so on due to the recession. Politicians provide an alternate route to power, and you can bet Scientology will be trying to get some of that sweet sweet economic stimulus money.

>Why didn't Anonymous finish the job?
They're still at it. But I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you how to voice your opposition if you're so inclined.
posted by Monsters at 11:45 PM on March 26, 2009


VOTE CRUISE/COUCH IN 2012.
posted by Tom Cruise at 12:38 AM on March 27, 2009


Oh, I get it ... crazy-assed sky/alien-believers feel oh-so-victimized. Right. Got it.

Noo, I think you're missing the sarcastic dig at the way you can always find someone popping up in any thread that mentions religion in anything other than a shining light to claim their faith is being victimised.
posted by rodgerd at 1:18 AM on March 27, 2009


Did some comments just disappear?

It's for the best if you don't ask.

(They're everywhere.)
posted by rokusan at 2:08 AM on March 27, 2009


I think it's clear from this thread that a lot of you are out-Ethic. Report to your local org for false purpose and purification rundowns.

Aw, hell, we barely rate SP1.


huh huh, you said "clear"
posted by lysdexic at 4:22 AM on March 27, 2009


So, what are you going to do about it?

Remember all those people you went to high school with? The ones who didn't go to college, or if they did, probably didn't have at all the same experience you did?

Whether it's because their parents didn't support their thinking quite the way yours did, or the educational system didn't teach them as well, or people picked on them, or nobody ever picked on them - they don't think the same way you do. They probably never would have, but who knows?

Anyway, they can all vote now. The law says that their opinions are just as important as yours when it comes time to actually vote for president - or governor, or town council.

And a lot of them are in love with Sarah Palin.

You can talk about how this makes you feel, or you can come up with a plan. I'm pretty sure violence and suppression aren't the way to go on this one. And talking about it is a good first step; you can see that others feel the way you do. Helpful. But if you only interact with those who already agree with you, what will you accomplish?

So, what are you going to do about it?
posted by amtho at 5:40 AM on March 27, 2009 [1 favorite]


Never mind that, what about the Reconciliation Process for passing legislation in the Senate? Hello healthcare!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:21 AM on March 27, 2009


Did some comments just disappear?

We got an email asking us to nix a long comment because the user wanted to do some revising. So maybe he'll repost it? That's the dish, anyway.

posted by cortex at 7:06 AM on March 27, 2009


You can talk about how this makes you feel, or you can come up with a plan. I'm pretty sure violence and suppression aren't the way to go on this one.

Murder isn't working, and it's all we know how to do!

I don't think we really need to have a plan to deal with the VP candidate from a failed campaign who is involved with multiple ethics investigations and who can barely speak. If, in four years, the economy is bad enough that people are willing to throw out Obama for Sarah Palin, we've got a lot bigger problems. Like finding canned food in the wastelands with our telepathic dogs.
posted by 235w103 at 7:11 AM on March 27, 2009 [1 favorite]


I disagree. Her popularity -- or rather, the great difference between her popularity with one group versus with another(s) -- is symptomatic of vast differences in opinion between real people. You can dismiss those people, or you can engage them. The latter would involve a great deal of problem solving and cleverness and openness, because the two sides don't seem to be communicating very well at all.

I guess my point is that dismissing them isn't a good idea. Isn't that what the old White House policies seemed to do with certain points of view?
posted by amtho at 7:20 AM on March 27, 2009


I also think that there's a real chance that either she could be elected, or a slightly-smarter (or more likely, better-connected) version of her could be.
posted by amtho at 7:21 AM on March 27, 2009


I love a good butter and brie sammich on a douchebaguette.

And Jason Lee is, by most accounts, not a douchebag, separate of his religious beliefs.
posted by SpiffyRob at 7:26 AM on March 27, 2009


> Are there any Scientology celebrities that aren't insufferable douchebag(ett)s?

I was really disappointed when I learned that Will Smith was possibly a Scientologist (or at least started a school based on it).

I'm not a big follower of celebs, but he'd seemed like a pretty stand-up guy.
posted by clerestory at 7:40 AM on March 27, 2009


Aren't most of the cast and guest stars of My Name Is Earl Scientologists??
posted by minifigs at 7:55 AM on March 27, 2009 [1 favorite]


I'd like to see the Mormons and the Scientologists go to war against each other. The explosions would be pretty entertaining and we could just sit back and watch both religions go bust funding the ensuing arms race.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:41 AM on March 27, 2009 [1 favorite]


If only our own Scientologist member would comment on this story! Unfortunately, she never, ever comments in Scientology threads, here or on Metachat.
posted by interrobang at 8:46 AM on March 27, 2009


You can dismiss those people, or you can engage them

I know you're right. You are right, but at some point it becomes almost impossible to engage with people who believe that science is just opinion and at worse, scientists are symptomatic of a shadowy cabal intent on depriving them of their belief that dinosaurs roamed the earth a couple of thousand years ago.

When the starting point of the engagement is negotiating from a fact back to some middle ground with a stark raving loony tunes belief you've already compromised more than your own intellectual standpoint.
posted by MuffinMan at 9:43 AM on March 27, 2009


If only our own Scientologist member would comment on this story!

Who, Konolia?
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:47 AM on March 27, 2009


Muffin Man - So find a way to a different starting point, or a different way to engage. You may be approaching the problem the wrong way.

Emotions are important; it's possible to engage emotions, too. I'm not saying this is the right way to approach the problem, just suggesting that this might be one (very vague & broad & useless unless refined) among many alternative approaches.
posted by amtho at 12:56 PM on March 27, 2009


I pulled this for an issue I had with theory over fact. Things are now corrected.

Mea Culpa: The last time I waded into an argument about Scientology it involved an ad that Scientology had placed on Metafilter for one of its products. I said "You are the bigot" to the Original Poster. I left that conversation and I went to work. this is the result.

Whether you like it or not, Scientology is a licensed Religion in America with tax-free status and a lot of name recognition coming from the fact that it has some famous members and a small number of regular people, perhaps 10,000 in eight to ten cities in the U.S. This is a phenomenon that religions have built their foundations on for countless millennium.

This is their Do-or-Die time. Scientology must recruit ordinary people in large numbers to survive through the next 50 years. They are now trying to do this by moving into politics. Other churches, most famously in the US the US-Founded denomination the Assemblies of God (1983-2003), were known for this tactic and other faiths and practices have done so as well.

They must show they are vital to the conversation and deserve support. This is why Anonymous works as it does. Until I realized it, I thought: "These people are bigots." It made sense analytically through my own interactions with Scientologists and Sociologists of Religion. The other insight I found amusing is how many of their most famous celebrities either adopted children, had children with brain disorders, had IV fertilization in their 37-44 period, but rarely if ever married into situations where children are present.

I am beginning to form the picture from my most devout contacts that the in the levels after "Clear" in the Scientology literature, people get to manage pre-clears themselves in small cohorts, Clears are made to to feel like a leader and a contributor and are told the church has worked with a group of rural orphanages where the children are at advance stages in the movement already. Many Clear have agreed to adoption, some numerous times.

Often less than one per year hold out. They are sometimes threatened to move back a stage, they will have to achieve Clear all over again. Some leave altogether, like the actor who was on Youtube a few months ago. He was desperate to start having kids but Scientology would not allow him and finally he decided if he stayed he would never get what he wanted. Some have argued that three or four famous members have had children or had IV fertilization, but I disclosed this. I argue they do something so spectacular in business that they can overpower the staff and move on. These tactics do not at all increase public appreciation of Scientology. From the caustic and frankly strange ritual to the resulting issues with how these children are raised show clearly Scientology is still in its theology hinterland and for some people feels it must remain inward-looking and without real public definition. The idea of a church tailoring and refining its ritual may seem new as a result of my work, however, in 1969, the Roman Catholic Church introduced an English mass for its faithful Americans in an attempt to gain relevance over a bevy of small, heretical religious movements. The Roman Catholic example is doubly worth discussion as it was a response to internal pressures that brought the Second Vatican Council into its Senate. The response actually created splinters in Europe that are still being dealt with today.

That is an extreme example. Scientology is so new that it bases its beliefs on New and Old. New: Masons, Christian Scientists. Old: Irish Catholicism, Caste Hinduism. It's based on their now-dead prophet's love of military science and fantasies of intrigue in survival settings.

This speaks of the wild conservatism of this Scientology as a faith. It is violently Conservative. Reactionary in practice and occasionally in focus. They oppose abortion, they oppose gay marriage, they oppose counsel of almost any kind they do not have a part in. Most of all, they love going out in public and comparing themselves to every other 20,000, 5,000, 2,000, 1459, !!!~, or 200 years-old religion. The latter I cannot stress the most. They are so nervous when they are put into situations where they are pushed by agitators or journalists to answer a question and they begin to yell about human rights abuse and terrorism. They simply have no easy answers yet for their ideology. So they must compare themselves to everyone else while still putting on little recorded stage shows for their members to remind everyone how great they are to be around every day.

The Scientologists have twice had amazing strategies. The first was in Clearwater, Florida.

I must admit that I often think of Florida as a kind of Mecca. I say this with no irony. The fact that the feds cannot seize your real estate is pretty inviting if you are trying to turn an alleged mail and personal fraud scheme into a religion. At least if everyone left we could still sell the buildings, they decided.

Scientology came to the city under the guise of a church group. Their leader, L. Ron Hubbard decided he would need someone on the town council in order to get anything done. This was the most successful election campaign by any non-Christian Conservative voting block in American history. Hubbard, who used to brag about being a king and constantly reminded people he was very young to be an Eagle Scout, was completely taken with the town because they matched his ideology eye for eye. He threw all of his nicest people at the city government and it was only after they were able to gain control of the council that anyone was able to put their heads together to realize they were "duped" out of office by a rival Conservative religious movement.

This spurred a huge up swell in the rising Moral Majority. They were feeling blessed: Southern Baptists had acquired enemies in the form of the Iranians, the Lebanese, the Egyptians, the Chinese and now this tiny little ministry that showed up like a pimple. It would have been exciting if it have been an ingrown hair - in that it was formed by people in the state. This would have given it some cachet to be considered novel and worth a second chance as they were only going to be in Clearwater for 20 or so years and die out. I am convinced that in the early years - for fact or fiction - the Moral Majority continued to consider Scientologists a Christian cult rather than a religion based on different principles of Origin.

The second chance was Hollywood. They had to go there at the same time. This was the last big money that Hubbard saw until the year before he died. He went to LA and literally started on the street with a few of the young people he had met in Florida. Scientologists missioned in Los Angeles and pulled young people who were excited about this mysterious faith believing there are alien spirits inside of you.

In all, perhaps 200 well-known people of all qualifications joined. They stayed or they did not. They have only two or three of the original squad of actors that were given the chance to take a starring role in the birth of the "greatest, most exciting religion in the world."

This cash-flow allowed them to buy property and start a little colony with houses and doors that locked from the outside. It got attention from a press and a city that had gotten used to this kind of thing and knew it would flame out fast. In my opinion, by the end of the 1960's, LA had really seen everything that could be believed for just longer than 21 weeks and seven free or scaled cost seminars. The press was almost complimentary. The people Scientology trotted out for Entertainment Tonight interviews got to explain how just as much alike he is to every Regular Joe, he even prays regularly for the sanity to take on this crazy world.

I am told that there is a shrine for him that is revealed to the most trusted people who have passed Clear+Adoption. There is dispute as to the atmosphere but most think it's very bleak in order to convey the road ahead. Their leader is dead and they cannot even make a proper burial with our own traditions in the way they see fit. For now, cremation to finally expel the Thetans from the Pre-Clear human; later when acceptance is better that in a lush public park that the new Clear must now fulfill the leader's prophecy of a "great ritual where many Pre-Clears will be cleansed and the gentiles will witness our rejuvenation and seek to be purified."

The individual will be promised a place in the new order and made a bishop of the church, part of the executive team that will help to manage the endowment of the church to build its reputation as worthy of respect (this has been flailing since Obama has come into office) and to fund the search for new members. I have no numbers because Scientology is so small they are still able to do an accurate count and so must waffle to sound like they have any chance at all.

The small numbers are not historically rare for a religious movement of any kind. In the pockets where Christianity grew in the first one hundred years, it was still mainly a daily meeting Jewish practice and persecuted by everybody for being a native anti-everybody sect. Naturai Karta is a good example of this except for their tolerance of some Muslims who they have made a truce with for reasons that can only be explained by their interpretation of the Talmud.

In conclusion, Scientology has entered the Lion's Den and because they are so powerless in politics they only can muster one Clear Leader to care for Sarah Palin. That campaign must bring her into the Congress to possibly make a difference.

Palin is ideologically perfect: strongly religious but tolerant from being from a small town with a lot of traffic from all directions but only one nice place to go to eat, Big C Conservative, and a family that is going to need help and direction sooner or later. Palin is also very dumb but quick when she's angry.

I have followed whole conversations that explain Scientologists plan all outcomes at once and then pick the most likely to succeed in the shortest amount of time with the money that is available at that moment. This is one of the things about Laying it all out in front of a person that Tom Cruise talks about in his leaked Scientology Awards program.

Even if you do not believe Scientology to be a religion, I urge you to watch the actions of this very-Conservative religious movement that is really trying with its last available strength to break through into politics.

Like the Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when it chose to join the Union, Scientologists are growing more and more desperate for favors. I find interesting parallels between Latter Day Saints and Scientologists. Neither, funnily, are interested in putting their rituals out to the open. They are very afraid of adverse publicity. But they have earned an enormous amount of respect and are at an acceptance for survival without the use of force far beyond every New Religious Movement in the history of the world.

I forecast that if Obama rights the economy and Democrats are able to mount a win for a democrat or a landslide for any Palin opponent Scientology will count itself lucky to last another 20 years with a dwindling number of members. The bets they are making cannot be made back simply. This will cripple members who backed this plan. I am not saying they will exit. This answer is as yet unknown. Their most ambitious public ritual, The Great Planning Session, does not work.

I put forward this theory now, after careful thought, that Scientologists are broke - their accounts done in almost completely. After leveraging real estate and putting their investments into questionable hands they must spend without regard for very desperate causes in order to find a way to its survival. They are a religion that like the Shakers will decline for their seeming unwillingness for natural children and their feelings that salvation will come for those who solve of the riddle of the faith.
posted by parmanparman at 6:38 PM on March 27, 2009 [4 favorites]


Everyone who wishes to have an opinion about Scientology should read — online and for free, if you wish — A Piece of Blue Sky, which does a nice job of documenting the foundation of the "church" and the horrendous abuses they have committed to gain and retain power over their membership and world governments.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:13 PM on March 27, 2009


I was really disappointed when I learned that Will Smith was possibly a Scientologist (or at least started a school based on it).

I got in one little fight, and my auditor got scared. She said:
"I am sending you to Sea Org for Ethics Training."
posted by kid ichorous at 8:46 PM on March 27, 2009 [2 favorites]


Equally appalling as finding out who in Hollywood is a Scientologist is going to Sarah's Facebook page and seeing who among your friends is a supporter.
posted by that's MISTER drunk to you at 8:50 PM on March 27, 2009



Equally appalling as finding out who in Hollywood is a Scientologist is going to Sarah's Facebook page and seeing who among your friends is a supporter.


You are on a different wavelength completely. This is alarmist.
posted by parmanparman at 8:55 PM on March 27, 2009


But as a healthcare administrator in a community desperate for qualified psychiatrists to care for its mentally ill patients, it is completely batshit insane to me that a respected health system like UMMS would let something like Coale's appointment to the freaking board happen.

And a post script to my comment above, I live in Binghamton. It's stuff like this that can make a girl go all activist and shit.
posted by njbradburn at 10:16 AM on April 4, 2009


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