Posted on 06/30/2009 4:05:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In a groundbreaking case, a Paris court will decide for the first time whether to dissolve the Church of Scientology in France, which is facing charges of organized fraud.
The demand was made by French prosecutors on Monday (June 15) as they wrapped up their case against the church's Paris headquarters and bookshop. If found guilty, the institutions may also face a nearly $6 million fine.
Six members of the church are also on trial, and may also face heavy fines along with prison sentences if convicted.
The plaintiffs, two former Scientologists, claim the church conned them into spending tens of thousands of dollars in bogus products in the 1990s, including an "electrometer" that the church says can measure energy levels.
But the church, which claims a membership of 45,000 in France, rejects the accusations and claims it is being persecuted.
The plaintiffs, are "apostates who ... want to criticize their ex-religion," Fabio Amicarelli, a European Scientology representative, told French media recently.
While the charges pose the most serious challenge to the French church to date, they are only the latest clash in a nearly two-decade long battle against Scientology. Several fraud cases have already been judged and several members convicted of embezzlement in France, where Scientology is viewed with deep suspicion.
In one case, the head of the church's Lyons chapter was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 1996 for his role in a member's suicide.
Founded in 1954 by late American science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the church is considered a religion in the United States with adherents that include Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.christianitytoday.com ...
Just remove their tax exemption. We can ban people from associating with whom they wish.
Sorry but I'm in a crappy mood today.
Just remove their tax exemption. We can’t ban people from associating with whom they wish.
It is generally believed that L. Ron Hubbard founded Scientology to win a bet with Arthur C. Clarke. Robert A. Heinlein is sometimes mentioned as the other party to the bet, but he seems to have contributed to Dianetics (helping Hubbard win his bet), so this is very unlikely.
>>Just remove their tax exemption. We can’t ban people from associating with whom they wish.<<
Better to prosecute them for grifting, but at least we should pull the exemption.
It’s because this is not a religion, it’s a cult.
Now there’s another cult that masquerades as a religion. I wonder what that can be!
There are some serious horror stories regarding this cult on the web.
If the bet ever happened it was much more likely to have been with Heinlein then Clarke. Clarke didn’t live in the USA. Clarke served in the Royal Air Force from 1941 to 1946. Clarke lived in Sri Lanka since 1956. Although he did visit here in 1953, I have no idea if he met with Hubbard. Dianetics was being worked up by Hubbard already in 1949.
Clarke claims to never have known Hubbard in this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43YakGYQYGc
I’ll see their scientology and raise them islam.
"It all began 75 million years ago with a galactic federation of planets ruled by the evil Lord Xenu. Fearing overcrowding, Xenu rounded up countless aliens from all those planets and had those aliens frozen. The frozen alien bodies were loaded onto Xenu's galactic cruisers, which looked like DC-8s, except with rocket engines. They were sent to earth and dumped into the volcanoes of Hawaii. They were no longer frozen. They were dead.
"The souls of the aliens floated toward the sky, Xenu had built giant "soul catchers" to collect them all and unload them into a brainwashing facility he had built on earth.
The souls were forced to watch days of brainwashing material that tricked them into believing a false reality. Xenu then released the alien souls that roamed the earth aimlessly in a fog of confusion. At the dawn of man the aliens found bodies they could grab onto. They attached themselves to all mankind, which still to this day causes all our fears, confusions and problems."
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