From CBC Canada: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/01/29/f-rfa-macdonald-scientology.html
By Neil Macdonald
Jan 30, 2013
Scientology is a religion. Of that there is no doubt.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service says so, and in this country, that’s pretty much the final word.
The designation means a lot legally, but as a matter of objective fact it is neither a laurel nor a pejorative.
It merely lumps Scientology in with all the other belief systems, from the Big Three of monotheism, with their billions of followers and hundreds of sub-sects, right down to self-proclaimed prophets seeking to found new faiths.
To each his own gods and rituals. For those of us who live wholly in the secular world, no religious doctrine is more or less credible, or worthy of ridicule, than any other.
The law must look upon all religious belief with indifference, and does, at least in most Western nations.
But, after reading Lawrence Wright’s searing new investigative book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, my usual indifference has given way to concern.
On second thought, make that fright. And not just about L. Ron Hubbard’s secretive army of adherents.
Because Wright’s book demonstrates in granular detail what an organization with enough money and zealous acolytes can do once it has wrapped itself in a religious cloak: assault, conspire, burgle, forge, perjure, spy, bully and intimidate anyone who gets in its way.
Continue reading at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/01/29/f-rfa-macdonald-scientology.html
