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Scientology has long been embroiled in controversy. When Dianetics was introduced as a “mental therapy,” physicians and psychiatrists accused the church of practicing medicine without a license. Church leaders in turn charged psychiatry with denying the spiritual side of man's nature. Thus began a long-term conflict with the medical and psychiatric establishment, especially the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which centred upon the church's opposition to the use of any consciousness-altering drugs and to procedures such as lobotomies. Conflict with the APA, including a crusade against the popular drug Prozac, has been pursued by the church's Citizens Commission on Human Rights.
In 1958 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began revoking the tax-exempt status of individual Scientology churches for, among other reasons, their practice of selling counseling courses. While the church dealt with IRS questions, agents of the Food and Drug Administration raided the church in Washington, D.C., in 1963 and seized its E-meters on the grounds that they were unauthorized devices for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. These actions by the U.S. government brought attention to the church in both Australia and the United Kingdom, where government agencies also moved against it.
In response to these attacks, the church created the Guardian's Office in 1966 and assigned it the task of vigorously defending the church. It brought legal actions against publications it deemed libelous, and in the 1970s it launched an extensive intelligence operation to gather information about attacks on the church around the world. Reportedly frustrated at the lack of response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act for documents from the U.S. government, some leaders in the Guardian's Office approved a plan to infiltrate various government agencies in the United States. As a consequence of this plan, agents of the Guardian's Office were arrested in 1979. According to the church, these agents had violated church policy; they had also committed several illegal acts for which they were tried and convicted. These events alerted church leaders to problems in the office, and, following a widespread investigation, several people associated with it were fired or expelled from the church and the office was disbanded.
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Several former members have become intense critics of the church, charging it with financial fraud, illegal practice of medicine, harassment of journalists critical of the church, and vindictive actions against its former members. Scientology is under special scrutiny in France and Germany, the two countries most affected by contemporary anticult activity fueled by the murder-suicides in 1994 of 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple, a French-speaking group that believed in an imminent apocalypse. Former Scientologists have taken their cause to the Internet, not only attacking the church but also posting copyrighted material on their Web sites. Especially harmful in the eyes of the church has been the posting of instructional materials for the OT levels, which are considered confidential sacred scripture.
In the 1970s the Church of Scientology spread across Europe and began translating Hubbard's writings into many languages. Its growth continued through the 1980s, and, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, it quickly spread into eastern Europe. Today the Church of Scientology remains a subject of controversy but operates in more than 150 countries."
(I used both forms of citation for those who prefer one way over another).
"Scientology." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 9 Mar. 2008 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-215793>.
Scientology. ( 2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 9, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-215793
One of the biggest issues to me is a lack of PUBLIC knowledge on this group
"lack of response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act for documents"
Most of the people I've talked to have no idea what the core beliefs of this supposed religion are, let alone that it has this kind of a history.
My friend whom I met a year and a half ago told me that one of her childhood friends removed herself completely from their location with out a trace or a proper goodbye. All that my friend got was a letter left in her friend's old place essentially syaing "Goodbye. I'm off to start my new life". She has not heard or seen from her friend again. Asking around there are similar stories from other people who've had this slightly sinister brush with Scientology.
While I have heard of Anonymous (The internet group), I am not totally supportive of their methods. They could do things a bit better. I do support the idea of trying to get answers from this group of people.
To any Scientologists reading, If you didn't do things behind closed doors you would be better accepted. But since there is a lack of information I can only assume that you are guilty of something. When people go 'missing', someone ALWAYS notices. That person may not be able to do anything about it, but they notice.
All the other religions let people know what they're about. Why won't you?
a rather odd event
New and Improved Pt 2New and Improved