Like for the "No to Saddam, No to Bush" slogan, the cult problem does
not justify spin and lies in the attempt to solve it. While cults can
represent a danger from the minority to the majority, anti-cult groups can
represent oppression to minorities. They also reinforce each other's
fanaticism. On the other hand, cults try to address a need society can't
answer, and anti-cult groups rightly point to the danger of this approach
without safeguards. Together they can help us find a truer form of
spirituality.
My position regarding the Scientology issues is
very similar to the "No to Saddam, No to Bush" slogan to be found in Europe
and other parts of the world.
Cults may be a problem, but the abusive use of
force and the use of spin and lies in the attempt to solve it is
unacceptable as well.
Besides, while cults can develop a relatively
coherent but false system, the anti-cult approach does
pretty much the same. The difference is that the anti-cult danger and
fallacy goes more unnoticed because closer to the mainstream view of society
at large. While cults can be said to represent a form of danger from
minorities to the majority, anti-cult groups can be said to represent a form of
oppression from the majority towards these minorities. In no way is it less
dangerous, less ugly.
On top of this, cults and anti-cult groups mutually
re-enforce each other's fanaticism. The use of exaggerations and lies to
counter cults is viewed by them as further injustice and they contract
further more, giving more reasons to anti-cult groups to be alarmed. This is the
kind of situation that potentially leads to Jonestown and Waco tragedies.
This being said, it is interesting to note that it
also works the other way around. While cults and anti-cult groups are both wrong,
somewhere they are also both right. This would be viewing the situation from
a positive aspect rather than a negative one.
Cults answer to a need that society at large and a
sclerosed church cannot fill. They awake in their members the deep-seated idealism and urge
to live a fuller and more useful life. On the other hand, anti-cult groups rightly point to the dangers this approach entails when led without due
safeguards. A more measured anti-cult movement could lead one to adopt a
truer spiritual approach, and what they fundamentally say is far to be
without merit.
The problem, of course, is that while each side
see their own positive aspects, they are oblivious to their negative ones.
When they get attacked for their negative aspects, they feel they get
attacked for their positive ones. They thus defend and bite, and become even
more cultish than they were.
The situation is thus a complex one. Neither the
simplistic "solutions" of cults nor the simplistic "solutions" of anti-cult
grups
are acceptable. At the same time they can both teach us something about our
own failings and it would be wrong to reject them out of hand. The lessons
of cults can lead us to a fuller and more intense form of spirituality,
while the lessons of anti-cult groups can help us drive this flame in a safer and
truer way. We need thus reject both of them in what they carry of unseen
dangers, but we also need to consider what they carry in positive messages.
This web site is
NOT created by a Scientologist. It is created by a Scientology EX-MEMBER
who is critical of Scientology. However, this ex-member is ALSO critical
of the anti-Scientology movement. This does not make him a
Scientologist, nor a defender of Scientology.
