The weekly show where I answer viewer questions left for me in the comment sections of my Q&A shows or sent to me by email at AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. This week, the questions I take up are:
(1) I follow STAND on Twitter (and Taryn Teutsch) just for shits and giggles. A lot of what I hear from the articles they share attempt to portray them as legitimate victims of religious persecution. My initial thought response, as a DL Scientology critic, is to say that we aren’t criticizing your beliefs as much as the abuses that happen within the organization of Scientology. However, the more I think about it, I feel like I’m being naive in saying that. Do you think that the very policies about the fair game and financial practices of Scientology is a part of their “religious beliefs?” Is it silly to try to separate them?
(2) I’d like to pose a question on behalf of the protesters and people who engage Scientologists on the streets or have Scientologists in their family because I think that could be helpful for them: What questions or phrases would you recommend people using on signs or in a discussion to plant that seed of doubt? What should people have said to you when you were still in Scientology to get you to think about it more critically?
(3) I discovered your Channel 6 months to a year ago and have been loving it! I am a Mormon who is physically in but mentally out. Husband is still VERY in and we have small children and I haven’t quite figured out what to do about it; it causes me a lot of stress and pain because I love him and them so much. You understand, no doubt.
My question is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses multiple fear tactics to keep people in. One of those being the very real fear of losing your family which I understand to be similar if not worse within the Church of Scientology with its policy of disconnection. The other fear tactic that I was wondering if there is a counterpart in the Church of Scientology is that when you make Covenants in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or even if you are simply obedient in keeping the commandments, you are promised certain protections and blessings. If you walk away from those promises and don’t fulfill your end of the bargain, the idea is that you put yourself in Satan’s power and he will be able to tempt you, torments you, and as much as possess you, ultimately leading your soul away from God to destruction and damnation. YIKES. You sort of touched on this in a ‘Three Apostates,’ video involving the abused woman who had to climb the stairs with the knives on them in order to leave her apartment, so forgive me if I’m being forgetful, but again, I was not sure if Scientology stayed pretty much on the, “you’ll lose your family and your job and everything temporal,” side of fear tactics or if there’s a spiritual side to Scientology’s Scare Tactics for people considering leaving the church of Scientology.
(4) Was there ever a moment, when you were in the Church of Scientology, that you came across an article – in print or online – that was critical of Scientology (e.g. that covered the abuses or exposed the true history of L Ron Hubbard) and that you “filtered out” because you were unable at that point in time to accept the facts? And what about once you had left the CoS and had started to “go down the rabbit hole” on the Internet? Do you remember the first article you read – did it convince you right away or were you still sceptical of the claims made?
(5) Chris, has anyone ever just told Miscavige to fuck off? I know it’s basically heresy but over so many years and so much abuse I cant imagine someone hasn’t. Have you ever heard of someone doing so?
(6) Given how prolific a writer LRH was, did he ever write anything on his writing system?
(7) Is that a Star Trek poster behind you in your podcast? What is written on it? It looks like stars, and maybe the Enterprise. I’m a total Trekkie, so I am curious. 🙂
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