It was an illuminating article - at least to get an inside view of someone who was not a devotee.
Since its inception and incorporation in the USA in 1953, Scientology has never been far from controversy, which I guess is par for the course for anything a bit out of left field. What makes Ron L. Hubbard, science-fiction author, a religious guru?
The first big controversy came in 1957 when Scientology was granted in the USA the same tax-exempt status as a church. This required the IRS being satisfied that Scientology was a bona fides religion and enable its members to claim as tax-deductions all their contributions to the church, just as Episcopalians and Catholics and Muslims can do there.
Once it was established in Australia, the Church of Scientology sought similar tax-benefits here, although regular donations to a church are not tax-deductible in Australia. Some tax-benefits were obtained on the basis of the Australian Tax Office's acceptance of their claim to be a religion engaged in benevolent activities. There were misgivings in many quarters when this happened but nothing was done.
This year, an Independent Senator, urged on by reports to him from aggrieved former members of the Church, guided through the parliament a bill seeking a review of the tax-benefits offered to any religious bodies, requiring a "public-good" test to be established before tax-benefits could be obtained. While this is to be generally applied, the impetus for it related to the view that The Church of Scientology would not be able to demonstrate any "public benefit" and so would lose their privileges.
It is in this context that I make two observations about the Church of Scientology.
Firstly, the symbol they use for their church has hijacked the Christian symbol of the Cross. Ron Hubbard has never claimed to have started a Christian sect. In fact they are completely vague about the deity - people can make up their own minds. They claim it is an eight-pointed cross representing the 8 dynamics of Dianetics. If this were really the case, I think their symbol should have been much more like a compass.
To anyone with a slightly cynical mind - like me - it could be suggested that the use of a Christian-like symbol was a strategy designed to strengthen their case and public perception that they are a religion.
My second concern relates to what is actually involved in AUDITING. The rationale is that deep-seated memories of events in our past interfere with our capacity to function at our best, and the quest of Auditing is to identify and neutralise the power of those barriers. This sounds to me like a fairly high level of psychotherapy that requires a high level of competence to administer, yet it seems one can be trained as a counsellor using a simple on-line training course. The thing that worries me about this is that very often, when someone probes around in the deep recesses of another's mind quite unexpected things may arise that need high skill-levels to work with.
As an analogy, I suggest that if you go around lifting the rocks in people's lives, don't be surprised if you discover some worms. Sometimes these "worms" have no detrimental effect on a person's life, but once they are exposed they have to be dealt with.
I know that most Christian pastors, and others in the church, engage in counselling as an intrinsic part of their work, but in my nearly thirty years of experience as a pastor we generally deal with might lighter aspects of people's lives such as inter-personal relationships they are struggling with, or their relationship with God. Most trained pastors will be given basic training in pastoral care and counselling in the context of a ministerial degree - a bit more rigorous than a short on-line course.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts. What do you think?
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