Late Scientology WIs

John Fredrick Parker

Donor
Having recently watched the HBO Documentary Going Clear, I thought there was some interesting AH potential even fairly late in its development. For example:
  • How could the rise of David Miscavige be prevented? If it can be done after Hubbard's retreat from the public eye circa 1980, how could Scientology be different?
  • What if John Travolta had broken with Scientology circa 1987?
  • What if the standoff with the IRS failed, and Scientology didn't get recognition as an official religion?
  • Supposedly, Tom Cruise being unavailable for months on end during the shooting of Eyes Wide Shut drove Miscavige crazy. What if Tom and Nicole weren't in that movie?
And that's off the top of my head. Any thoughts on these? Or any other post-1980 PoD ideas?
 

oreocruncher

If Scientology wasn't recognized as an official religion, that would make it easier for other countries to not recognize it as official either...This could slightly improve US-European relations, as a number of European countries, especially Germany, France, Belgium, and Greece, take hostile stances against Scientology. In the case of Germany, this has resulted in the State Department accusing them of persecution...
 

Orville_third

Banned
I do have a plan to change Scientology in a TL. L. Ron Hubbard will get an untimely death at the hands of someone you will not expect.
 

GeographyDude

Gone Fishin'
I've read elsewhere that they really have their children 'sea org' members do a lot of manual labor and then only give them like one day of schooling a week. Like what the . . . ? !

They discourage adult 'sea org' members from having children viewing them as a distraction. Separate children from parents, especially if parents are being punished in this type of boot camp and fraternity hazing called RPF.

This one mother in the film found her 10-month daughter with fever and eyes sealed shut with mucus on a urine-soaked crib in the nursery where this so-called church was supposedly taking care of kids, and she said there were a lot of babies there who were sick. Well, babies do get sick, but the urine-soaked crib is hard to explain away as anything other than serious and substantial neglect on the part of this church.

She had a friend outside the church she could call. She had to lie to a church security guard that of course she had authorization. And then she hopped in the friend's car and locked the door, as people yelled at her in one final 'friendly' overture as if she was making a big mistake. And she got medical care for her daughter.

If there had been videotape of a state inspection showing even part of this, anytime during the last thirty years, even with faces blurred out.

========

Then there's the question does any religion, even the most established, have the right to run a school, a nursery, a hospital, entirely free of governmental oversight? I answer no. Maybe some other people answer yes.
 

overoceans

I've read elsewhere that they really have their children 'sea org' members do a lot of manual labor and then only give them like one day of schooling a week. Like what the . . . ? !

It would be interesting if Hubbard's days on the boat had lasted into the era of increased awareness/hysteria about child sexual abuse.

According to the book Bare Faced Messiah by Russell Miller, the girls who had served as Hubbard's teenaged "Messengers" said that Hubbard never made sexual advances on them, and Russell(a decidedly hostlie biographer) provides nothing to counter this.

However, it remains the case(also according to Russell) that the girls were waiting upon Hubbard as soon as he stepped out of the shower(in shorts) every morning, handing him his robe and whatnot. And they apparently followed him around the boat, holding ashtrays to catch the ash from his Kools.

If this had all come to light at a time when the media was more interested in pedophilia scandals, it might have had a severe impact upon the reputation and legal standing of the COS. Even if, as with Michael Jackson decades later, the authorities may have been unable to prove anything more than really strange behaviour.
 

GeographyDude

Gone Fishin'
John Fredrick Parker said:
This is what happened to John Travolta's publicist, correct? This is what I was referring to with the possibility of him breaking with the Church in 1987.
Click to expand...
I think so. Her name is Sylvia 'Spanky' Taylor. She was John's friend and may well have been his publicist. And she was asked by the church to arrange a Travolta film showing at the very time she was being punished in the awful RPF.

This whole part was about a half hour into the documentary.
 

GeographyDude

Gone Fishin'
Not mentioned at all in the film, I think there are former scientologists who want to do the religion without the corruption of the church. That would make for some interesting PODs.

And regarding the child labor and the medical and health neglect of children, an obvious POD would be if a competent prosecutor wanted to pursue some state remedies. And this case would be no means be a slam dunk since a lot of judges don't want to touch religion with a ten foot pole. Even facts as glaring as a baby left unattended with a fever and mucus-sealed eyes, a skillful prosecutor would probably want to give the judge several good choices. Judges like choices. And the prosecutor would probably want to refer to other cases involving religion and child welfare, and involving very established, mainstream religions, to make it clear that all religions are asked to play by the rules in an equal way. I mean, fundamentalist Christians who are against major aspects of modern society may homeschool their children, but they don't just not educate their children. And then the case could go either way. One lesson I draw from serious tournament poker is to never underestimate an opponent.
 

John Fredrick Parker

Donor
GeographyDude said:
Not mentioned at all in the film, I think there are former scientologists who want to do the religion without the corruption of the church. That would make for some interesting PODs.
Click to expand...

Similar thoughts crossed my mind as well; they form a large part of how I imagine a couple of OP ideas would play out.
 
Yuelang

Yuelang

Banned
Lynch mob of fundamentalist Christians dragging scientologist they can found out, hit them black and blue before murder them by hanging / burning?

Basically what happened with certain minorities in certain third world countries... happened in USA, as the police literally took blind eyes upon that
 

overoceans

Geography Dude wrote:

Not mentioned at all in the film, I think there are former scientologists who want to do the religion without the corruption of the church.

Free Zone
 

oreocruncher

overoceans said:
Geography Dude wrote:

Not mentioned at all in the film, I think there are former scientologists who want to do the religion without the corruption of the church.

Free Zone
Click to expand...

Apparently, part of why Scientology really hates Germany (along with association with psychiatry and their staunch anti-Scientology stance) is that the Free Zone movement started there...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top