Scientology Being Sued For Fraud
Monday, 25th May, 2009
From the BBC:
The Church of Scientology has gone on trial in the French capital, Paris, accused of organised fraud.
The case centres on a complaint by a woman who says she was pressured into paying large sums of money after being offered a free personality test.
The church, which is fighting the charges, denies that any mental manipulation took place.
France regards Scientology as a sect, not a religion, and the organisation could be banned if it loses the case.
It will be the first time the church has appeared as a defendant in a fraud case in France. Previous court cases have involved individual Scientologists.
The woman at the centre of the case says she was approached by church members in Paris 10 years ago, and offered a free personality test. But, she says, she ended up spending 21,000 euros ($29,400, £18,400) on lessons, books and medicines she was told would cure her poor mental state….[Rest of article]
***
So here I go again “sticking up for” Scientology, despite being notoriously anti-all-religions.
Don’t get me wrong: The Scientologists are as misguided in their beliefs as anyone.
But you’ve got to be kidding me: Here in France we have a country of good witch-burning Christians (Joan of Arc, R.I.P.) saying that giving a lot of money to the Scientologists is tantamount to being a fraud victim, while thumping their Bibles and asking people to give their “tithes” (10% of their income) PLUS “offerings” to the Man Who Walks On Water.
Doesn’t this kind of precedent open the doors for the prosecution of our good old American televangelists who plead with little old ladies to give, give, give so that Oral Roberts won’t be “called home”?
I have old clients (and family members, come to think of it) who tithed all of their lives despite being on the wrong side of the Federal Poverty Guidelines–and who gave a lot more to their Christian church over the years than this poor, deluded French woman, and with nothing more to show for it than extra “Stars In Their Crown”.
But fools and their money are soon parted, and it should remain a god-given right to try and buy your way into heaven–generally considered a good investment what with the whole mansions and streets paved with gold thing going. If you’re going to start prosecuting churches for fraud, well…that’s a pretty slippery slope now, isn’t it?
(A tip of the hat to Uncle Rich for the “heads up” on this story).
