I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian and I attend church, but even in my church there are messed up people who desperately want to belong, or to feel sure about something. And they are far more messed up than people outside the church. Jesus only lost his temper with church people. That says something.
shareI think you hit on the #1 reason people get sucked into cults. They usually say it's "because I wanted to help people," and that may be true, but it is a desire to belong to something. That is why, at first, a cult will probably "love bomb" you to make you feel special and that you belong.
shareI'm watching these stories and these people are not in normal circumstances. I think Leah R is trying to do service but I think the picture is not so bleak that we should throw out the theology.
I'm watching first episode On Demand and there is a story about a woman who was statutory raped and didn't tell her parents... she joined the Sea Organization.
The Church told her parents that she was doing something that presumably had to be far more dangerous, running away to Paris to become a model without meeting any specific person...
Someone might have trying to kidnap this teenager and no one was batting an eye.
Then she tells a story in the church where she saw other people getting physically abused. From the vibe I was getting the Leader is an angry person and has the potential for physical violence. Some of it may be justified and sometimes he might get carried away, and she basically stated she was having delusions of him abusing people more than what was already seen at face value so she knew this institution was not the best fit for her.
Think of how she joined. Think of all the people that joined. Those were probably the circumstances of many and that was her story. And it was not easy for her to leave a toxic situation but with a strong partner they were able.
And then I paused the documentary when I heard the statement that she was declared an enemy and people with ties to the church shouldn't talk to her... it's harsh but how else could she get away?
Whatever it is about Scientology, and now I have my mind to watch all ten episodes On Demand from the start, it appears that what they do is fairly civilized in the sense it can't just happen to anybody...
And then as far as religions go, there is more risk to some than others, but that needs to be weighed with the level of service. Whatever it is at least they don't pray/prey on the unknowing and the situation appears to be fairly civilized with much warning and/or planning so I believe that they believe that there is something to it.
The important thing though is that it's civilized. For example Leah was heavily involved in the church too but not from a beginning point of such abuse to join the sea org (that woman came to Scientology because her father was proud of a story where she was going off with a stranger to be a model in Paris which sounds like a kidnapping scheme). Since Leah did not have to cut all ties, she chose to leave when she was forewarned. So she can still talk to all these people because she chose to leave before they ejected her for being wrong for the organization.
But it was civilized... if her ties to the organization were so severe that she chose to make that move with warning, then maybe that is really what would be needed for her to be ejected.
But if the warning before the show about Leah is correct, then it was civilized how she chose to do it. Some people may just not be right for Scientology but at least since it's civilized, it can be discerned that plenty of warning is given regarding the level of ejection necessary to get past a certain level of involvement.
Yet, what they do is not civilized. If you watch the five episodes so far, you will hear that they do use violence and physical force to keep the members in line. It is even implied that no level of violence is off limits.
They also restrict the members' access to outside information. They brainwash their members.
But, as is mentioned many times, the most cruel and uncivilized method they use is the "disconnect". If you leave the group, everyone else in the group is required to shun you completely. That includes your own family members and all of the friends that you've made for the last decade. That isolation can be devastating. And, what makes it even worse is that, for the time you've been in the group, you are forbidden from having friends outside the group.
So, when you leave, you are completely alone. You have no money, no friends, and no place to stay.
That is not civilized at all.
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What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?