Palin, Van Susteren and Scientology
Monday March 30, 2009
This is really weird. Our Sarah stopped the Bridge to Nowhere ... but can she keep herself from taking the Bridge to Total Freedom? Heh....
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Gosh - if Greta and her husband were Catholics and her husband was advising / supporting a politican who was against abortion, would the same ruckus arise? I think not.
Scientology is a strange belief indeed. I've known a few, and they were living in a science fiction novel. The founder L. Ron Hubbard was a failed pulp sci fi writer who was put in prison for abusing his wife and child, and later committed to a psychiatric facility with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Guess what, Scientologists are taught that psychiatry and psychology are fraudulent and that mental illness can be overcome with Scientology practices. Go figure. Ergo, Tom Cruise's critique of Brook Shields because she was taking antidepressants for post partum depression. To get to the higher levels of scientology costs hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, so only rich people can get that far. The average individual who wants to join up is bascially worked to death to come up with the money to buy the secrets of the next level. Hubbard's behavior was bizzare to say the least and obviously he was the ultimate thetan since he came up with new advanced teachings when he needed more money. Without recruiting celebrities, scientology would probably have died out a long time ago. Read "Madman or Messiah" by Hubbard's own son, who was part of the leadership in scientology before he and his father parted ways for a good look at this con game.
Gosh - if Greta and her husband were Catholics and her husband was advising / supporting a politican who was against abortion, would the same ruckus arise? I think not.
Yes and no. Of course part of the ruckus is over the weird, culty religion of Scientology. I'm not going to pretend all religions are equal, or to put a fine point on it, equally benign. But the question of media ethics would be just as valid.
I am very disappointed to learn that Greta and her husband are Scientologists. I have always respected her, and enjoyed her show occasionally. I thought she was too smart to fall for something like that.
Is there any link between Van Susteren's choice to remake her face via plastic surgery and her membership in the Church of Scientology? Just wondering, because I thought she looked much prettier before.
Sarah Palin and Scientology seem like a perfect match.
As a conservative Christian who protests Scientology, any involvement with Scientologists will cause me pause when even thinking of voting for Palin.
Scientology became a religion purely for the tax exempt status. They've used that to advantage by buying up lots of real estate and other business interests under the guise of church investments.
Think about it. The top scientologists who have reached the ultimate Operant Thetan level are Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and a handful of other movie stars and celebrites along with whoever actually runs scientology. By their fruits you will know them. If these folks are so enlightened, why aren't they running the world. They are actually having a hard time getting parts in movies and such and their lives are not necessarily all that spritual or uplifting to others. Why haven't they produced a world leader who can call the aliens back to save us?
"Gosh - if Greta and her husband were Catholics and her husband was advising / supporting a politican who was against abortion, would the same ruckus arise? I think not."
I do not think abortion has anything to do with it. Sarah Palin has not shown any indication of wanting to stop abortions.
Sarah Palin makes headlines because of who she is and because she has sought headlines. She had Greta and others into her home to make headlines.
I do not remember ever hearing her make any promised to not make any changed in the abortion laws when running for govenor.
She recently appointed a pro-choice judge to the highest court in Alaska.
Palin used McCains words of making abortion a state issue - why not a federal law if they were serious.
While Rod focuses on abortion, I think it is important to acknowledge that Palin lied about made things during the campaign.
She made a mockery of Christianity that drives people away from churches.
Steven Waldman wrote several good blogs about the McCain campaign lies.
Maybe Palin inciting crowds with Obama "palls around with terrorist" draws attention to her associations.
My final post on this. I'm sure you're glad. This is from comments for a Rolling Stone article about Scientology available on the web. This is a secret that could cost you a lot of money to get through the church itself.
"1.
The following is the sacred document in Scientology known as OTIII. Scientologists deny it exists as part of their Operating Thetan literature. It was written by L. Ron Hubbard in 1967. Hubbard wrote that if you read this document before you have achieved a level of scholarship, you will get pneumonia and die. The cost to get to that level: $360,000.
2.
3.
“The head of the Galactic Confederation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 yrs ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet -- 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb on the principal volcanoes (Incident 2) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic Area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged." His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants. When through with his crime (R/)Loyal Officers (to the people) captured him after 6 years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confed.)has since been a desert.” - Hubbard
Nuff said?
Scientology is based on the principal that people who believe dead folks live in the sky, and they too can do that if they eat the right cracker or make a certain one of the dead folks their imaginary friend will believe anything, and are sheep to be fleeced.
OK...Here's the link to the Rolling Stone article. If anyone wants a good sense of Scientology, please read this.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9363363/inside_scientology/1
I agree that all religions rely on beliefs that are non-rational and seem crazy to non-believers, but I say scientology is not a good thing. After reading the above article, make your own judgement.
Scientology is a money-driven cult, and has used political influence many times against its detractors, protesters, and anyone who questions its operations. It paid into the campaign funds of Jeff Stone, a supervisor for the area in California where they have their work labor camp, and he suddenly proposed an ordinance limiting picketing there, so you can picket in front of the White House but not a Scientology compound. They've given millions of pounds to the London police fund, who arrested protesters at Tom Cruise's premiere of Valkyrie, even though the video shows the protesters being attacked by Scientologists while the police stood by and did nothing. A Bahamanian minister was removed from officer over a connection with the Scientology-related death of Jett Travolta. In 1993, when Scientology was trying to get its tax-exempt status returned (it was removed after the IRS discovered Scientology wiretapped their phones - google 'operation snow white'), celebrities lobbied to Congress and paid into the Clinton campaign.
SCIENTOLOGY IS NOT A RELIGION. IT IS A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION AND YOU DO NOT WANT POLITICIANS NEAR THEM. THEIR GOAL IS TO MOVE LAWS IN THEIR FINANCIAL FAVOR.
That is the real issue here.
xenu.net
whyweprotest.net
whyaretheydead.net
^^^
"SCIENTOLOGY IS NOT A RELIGION. IT IS A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION AND YOU DO NOT WANT POLITICIANS NEAR THEM. THEIR GOAL IS TO MOVE LAWS IN THEIR FINANCIAL FAVOR."
I absolutely agree, and would only add ...'politicians of ANY description'.
Criminal, cult, weird, tax evasion, scheme and on and on. Why is it that in 30 plus years of studying Scientology I don't agree with these opinions.
What I do see is others purposely misquoting the subject then some one else quoting them and on and on until you get this gobbly goop of wild fanatical opinions. The best part is the people who read one short article on a subject then feel they "know" all about it and could never consider that there may be other data or the article could be slanted or incorrect. Talk about mind control.
If 1/100 of the accusations were true Scientology would cease to exist, anyone with any sense of how our society works knows this, yet it expands. I think it is time you either drop it or read the actual books written by L Ron Hubbard yourself.
Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin both foresaw this kind of thing when they insisted that freedom of religion be amended into our constitution. They had to hide their religious beliefs for fear of being ostracized in the very country they were key to creating.
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