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Apologia Report 15:18 (1,023)
May 12, 2010
Subject: Scientology's uncontrollable PR nightmare accelerates
In this issue:
ETHICS - Tiger Woods and the quality of public redemption in U.S. culture
MORMONISM - Debate continues over DNA and LDS geographic origins
SCIENTOLOGY - An academic analysis of the 'Anonymous' Anti-Scientology campaign
+ Was 2009 the worst year yet for the group's reputation?
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ETHICS
"Tiger's Moral Hazard" by Robert Wright -- "Be honest. This [Tiger
Woods' personal crisis] is a moral litmus test. In fact, it's a test
for all of America - a test of where our moral consciousness is these days."
Wright speculates that The Oprah Winfrey Show has "become such a showcase for redemption that, when Tiger Woods had his fall, people started counting the days until the seemingly inevitable Oprah cleansing ritual.
"Is Oprah's America a weaker America? Does redemption that comes easily, without major atonement, send a message that transgression is no big deal, and wind up encouraging self-destruction?
"Whatever your answer to that question, Tiger Woods is exhibit A, for he has chosen the path of low atonement." New York Times (online), Mar 30 '10, <www.tinyurl.com/ydn8fqh>
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MORMONISM
"Debate on Mormons' Geographic Origins Heats Up" (RNS, Apr 1 '10) by Kristen Moulton of The Salt Lake Tribune -- reports that a theory, "popularized on Web sites and at conferences by advocates Rod Meldrum and Bruce H. Porter, suggests that events in The Book of Mormon took place in the heartland of the United States, east of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. ...
"For the first 100-plus years of Mormonism, most believers assumed the ancient civilizations described in The Book of Mormon ranged over the entire Western Hemisphere. The 'narrow neck' between 'land north' and 'land south' described in the sacred text was assumed to be the isthmus of Panama.
"But, in the 1950s, careful reading of the text led scholars to
propose a more limited geography; since then, most of the dozens of theories have focused on 'Mesoamerica,' a region that includes southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and the northwestern part of Honduras and El Salvador in Central America. ...
"Mormons believe an off-shoot of the Nephites, the Lamanites, are ancestors of Native Americans. The histories of the Nephites and other civilizations form the basis of The Book of Mormon, which was revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith in 1823. ...
"Most LDS scholars still believe the Mesoamerica region is more
plausible because it fits the scriptural text and archaeological and
anthropological evidence that has been found through the years.
"Meldrum and Porter, meanwhile, come at the question from a
different angle, and that's the source of the controversy.
"While they claim archaeological and DNA evidence for their model, they start with what they say are 36 clear 'prophecies and promises' in The Book of Mormon and statements by Smith, indicating he believed the history unfolded in what would become the United States.
"Scholars who cling to a Mesoamerican model must disregard what the church's founding prophet said, Porter said."
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SCIENTOLOGY
"'Anonymous' Anti-Scientologists Subject of Academic Paper" by Lauren Smiley -- "At the Pacific Sociological Association conference in Oakland today, a gaggle of academics from the U.C. Irvine will be presenting their research on the Anonymous protesters of the Church of Scientology...."
One of the co-authors, sociology graduate student B. Remy Cross, explains: "This was interesting to us from an academic perspective because social movement scholars say you need some important things to make a movement successful: resources, a physical location, people you can depend on, money. This was a movement that didn't seem to have any of these things.
"Many online movements try to take it from online to offline and
usually they fail. That's what we were expecting. [On the way to the first international Anonymous protest day in February 2008 in Las Vegas] we were joking it would be a success if there were 15 people. We get there and drive past the church and there's hundreds of people there."
When asked if the Anonymous campaign has been effective, Cross responds that "It depends on what you mean by effective. [Anonymous] really wanted to hurt the church, in that way they've been successful.
... "It's a pre-Internet organization going up against a post-internet organization and failing badly because of not understanding how online info spreads. Everything [the church] did to try to smear Anonymous was thrown back at them to make them look stupid. ...
"As the focus of the protest shifted and hooked up with these [more mainstream Scientology protesters], the people in it for the fun peeled off. It's now a smaller but more concentrated movement with a more intense sense of focus. By and large it's kind of gone into a - I don't want to say more predictable - but now they're trying to be more of a conventional movement." SF Weekly (online), Apr 8 '10, <www.tinyurl.com/y98lnru>
"Scientology's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year" by
Christine McCarthy McMorris -- that would be 2009, a year that "kicked off on January 5 with a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Court by Marc Headley, a former member of CoS' elite Sea Organization, accusing the church of unfair labor practices, including 'refusal to pay minimum wage and overtime' and 'engaging in human trafficking.' The complaint accused the church of the 'longstanding practice of evading laws and depriving workers of basic human rights.' ...
"On February 16, the BBC website reported that Scientology had been banned in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan. According to the story, Judge Zhaksylyk Baymoldin ordered the 'liquidation' for 'illegal entrepreneurship and profit-making,' based in part on a price list of spiritual services found in a raid of the local Scientology office.
"This added another country to those that do not recognize
Scientology as a legitimate religion, including the U.K., Germany,
Israel, Canada, Ireland, Greece, and Denmark.
"In France, which recognizes Scientology as a cult, the trial of
six top CoS officials for organized fraud got under way May 25. ...
"On June 5, Kate Linthicum of the Los Angeles Times broke the story [www.tinyurl.com/2fhaak6] that Wikipedia had blocked access to multiple accounts traced to CoS-operated computers along with those of some of the church's most vocal critics....
"The biggest PR blow came ... from old fashioned investigative
reporting [in] the St. Petersburg Times. On June 21, 'Scientology: The Truth Rundown' [www.tinyurl.com/mjcnfv] - the first article in what would turn into a five-part series - made an explosive case against church head David Miscavige [with charges which include physical abuse]. ...
"On June 22, the AP went with 'Scientology Smackdown: Report Claims Abuse' [www.tinyurl.com/2782bms], which was picked up in over 180 television and newspaper websites. The 500 comments on the Times website in the first 48 hours (3-1 anti-Miscavige) were followed by blog posts on Huffington Post, Gawker, and L.A. Weekly. The Big Question came from Village Voice blogger Tony Ortega: 'How huge is this blow to Scientology?' [www.tinyurl.com/58648j] ...
"On August 1, the Times ran Part 2: 'Strength in their numbers:
More Church of Scientology defectors come forward with accounts of abuse' [www.tinyurl.com/lexfmd]. Fear and accounts of more abuses poured in from various former members, emboldened, the article surmised, 'by the raw revelations of four defectors from the church's executive ranks who broke years of silence.' ...
"The fall brought more trouble. On October 22 and 23, Martin Bashir - the reporter who got Michael Jackson to admit to sharing his bed with preteens - interviewed Scientology spokesman Davis on ABC's Nightline [www.tinyurl.com/yj3f8nj]. While game for defending Miscavige, Davis lost his cool when Bashir started asking about the more esoteric doctrines of the faith, which are supposed to be restricted to advanced members.
"Before Bashir could finish his question, 'Is it true that
understanding the origins of the human race according to Xenu and the Intergalactic Emperor…,' Davis ripped off his microphone and stalked off the set. ...
"Four days later, the French court convicted CoS of fraud, fining
the six church leaders 400,000 Euros but stopping short of sending them to prison or banning the organization. ...
"On the home front, the Times exposé gained greater credibility in October when two former Sea Org members, Marc Headley and Nancy Many, published exposés of their own: Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology [1] and My Billion Year Contract [2].
"Even more damaging, well-known Hollywood director Paul Haggis ... resigned from CoS in a letter addressed to Davis on Marty Rathbun's blog [www.tinyurl.com/yzqkq9x] and widely reprinted on October 25. ...
"On November 14, the Times published 'Caught between Scientology and her husband, Annie Tidman chose the church'
[www.tinyurl.com/2aq66ty] which focused on the CoS policy of putting pressure on people to 'disconnect,' as they put it, from their families.
"On December 31, the series wrapped up with 'Three of Scientology's elite parishioners keep faith, but leave the church'
[www.tinyurl.com/ydfq9hp]. The article described how Geir Isene, Mary Jo Leavitt, and Sherry Katz had blown after reaching the church's most exalted level, that of 'Operating Thetan VIII.' All three were quoted as saying that they were interested in new leadership and reform, and it was clear from many posts on www.freezone.org that many rank-and-file CoS members found themselves in the same position - alienated from the church but true to its teachings. Not that there weren't a significant number - 924 listed on www.whyweprotest.net as of February 16 - who just wanted out."
McMorris concludes that "after 2009, it has become impossible for insiders as well as outsiders to pay no attention to the dysfunction behind the curtain." Religion in the News, 12:3 - 2010, pp16-18. <www.tinyurl.com/2ezw6bt>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology, by Marc Headley (BFG, 2010, paperback) <www.tinyurl.com/2bfgygj>
2 - My Billion Year Contract: Memoir of a Former Scientologist by
Nancy Many (CNM, 2009, paperback, 360 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/27fqhlo>
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