Recently in New Religious Movements Category

My recent lack of posts can be attributed to the fact that i'm spending most of my time working on my senior thesis project, about RELEVANT magazine. It's going okay...I don't think i'm going to make my "complete draft by Monday" deadline but hopefully that will be alright. I'm very proud of sections of this project, especially the part about brand identification as expression of faith. Basic theme of the project: the evangelical church is embracing the language of mass cultural fake rebellion just as the mainstream culture which invented fake rebellion is embracing the evangelical church. It's not so much a question of co-optation or appropriation as much as a simple confluence of interest.

In my absence, some fellow UrHo bloggers have been covering the religion beat and offering some really fascinating posts.

I grew up in the United Methodist Church, and I've been feeling really bummed out by recent decisions made by the Judicial Council (sort of like the church's supreme court). Starr Ahrens, writing at her blog Updates cheered me up immensely with her sweet and funny post about teenage experiences with her hometown Methodist Church and the practice of keeping church doors unlocked at all times.

Isn't that the premise of Christianity; trusting your fellow man, providing him with sanctuary for faith, not just at the hours that are convenient for some. Isn't it the way of Christianity to reach out to all walks of life, no matter how downtrodden, and invite them all in to share their faith with each other or just with god? Christian churches, to my understanding, are not supposed to be members only social clubs, but instead community buildings, where people are welcome to come and worship together or separately. Regardless of the nature of my belief system today, I found that in my hometown, churches were accepting places where the community came together. The expectation was not one of conversion, but one of acceptance (read the rest)

Meanwhile Lucie at Overarching is spending time at a Buddhist monastery in Nepal (? at least I think it's Nepal). She finds that contrary to our American romanticized vision of Eastern religion, Buddhism is prone to the same problems that plague other religions–-institutional authoritarianism, scriptural literalism, suppression of criticism, etc--to the point that it feels like brainwashing.

Some of the people who have gone to speak to the nun in charge of the course have been told, upon saying they're not sure this is for them, that they're arrogant, superficial and negative minded, and that they'll never find happiness outside the gates of the monastery.

I guess it will work out well for some people, but I have to be honest with you: if it wasn't a Buddhist program, people would be calling it a cult. Seriously. The way things are presented, the way you're told it's all true, the way they cut you off from the outside world and deal with doubters... it's just kind of troubling. (read the rest)

Yikes. Stay safe over there, Lucie!

After seeing Tom Cruise totally freak out on the Today Show, I got curious. I knew nothing about scientology, though i was possibly prejudiced against it because of my suspicion that if Beck hadn't converted, he probably would have stayed in touch with his indie roots and let Calvin put out that other disc of their old basement recordings.

Helpfully, Salon provides a 4-part series on the subject Particularly fascinating is Laura Miller's review of Scientology's founding text, L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics.

"Dianetics" belongs to a category of books that will be instantly familiar to anyone who's done time reading the slush pile of unsolicited manuscripts for a book publisher. This kind of book is typically an explanation of life, the universe and everything written by a choleric gentleman (often a retired military officer) who has holed up in a converted basement or former kid's bedroom to hammer out his ideas about how the world works -- ideas that have for too long been disregarded by the incompetents and assholes around him. (If you are not familiar with this sort of book, know that you have the slush pile readers of America to thank for that.)

Short answer: yes, scientology really is that weird.

But so are tons of other religious traditions.

Okay, so scientology teaches a rather novel sci-fi cosmology involving aliens messing around with evolution. Weird from a modern, rational perspective. But it seems less weird when you consider it alongside Hindu creation myths, for example. And yes, L. Ron Hubbard was probably a crackpot or a scam artist, or both. But how many people have said the same thing about Muhammed or Jesus?

So, the reason we should be worried about scientology is not because of the weird stuff they believe, but because of what they do. In this too, scientology is not unique.

They attempt to stifle criticism both internally (by making verbal interpretation and debate about Hubbard's ideas a punishable offense)and externally (through litigation, such as their failed lawsuit against Time Magazine). Just like the inquisition but with the friendly face of John Travolta. They have a history of being deceptive about the money required to get "clear", but christian televangelists are often just as corrupt in their financial dealings. Perhaps most disturbing, they attempt to use doctrines of faith (psychiatry = bad! addiction can be cured by trips to the sauna!) to set public policy with no scientific basis, just like the Christian Right (evolution, abstinence-only education, etc).

Is it a cult? Well historically all religions have had their cultic aspects and moments, when they value human desires (wealth, power) over transcendent concerns. In scientology, these cultic aspects seem to dominate. It's interesting to note, however, that there are some people who practice scientology apart from the organized church and are critical of the church's authoritarian tactics.

I'm sure the media will stick to its "Aren't these guys wacky!" narrative, but it's important to understand the fringes and how they relate to the greater religious climate. You can't get a sense of the larger shape of things without looking at the edges.