The weekly show where I answer questions from viewers left in the comments section of my Q&A videos or sent by email to AskChrisShelton@gmail.com This week, the questions I answer are:
(1) What do you make of the current beef between Tony Ortega/The Underground Bunker and Mark Rathbun? The way I see it as an objective observer is that Tony Ortega is simply acting as a journalist reporting the facts of the current developments in the Rathbun lawsuit against the church, and attempting to fill the vacuum/lack of firsthand information from the Rathbuns by consulting TxLawyer, who seems to be a highly knowledgeable observer of the proceedings. Mark Rathbun seems to have really thin skin (surprisingly so given his background and personality) and has taken offense to pretty much anything Tony has reported or the commenters on The Underground Bunker have commented on. Granted some of the comments that Mark Rathbun has recently re-posted on his blog from The Underground Bunker are pretty inflammatory toward the Rathbuns, but still, it’s internet commenting, you pretty much have to take everything said with a huge grain of salt. I’m more surprised by the fact that the Rathbuns seem to think that Tony Ortega is slandering them, which I have seen zero evidence of. It’s also interesting to note that Tony has yet to comment on the fact the beef exists. Probably he doesn’t want to make himself the story as a journalist? What is your take on the whole thing? I thought the Scientology Watcher/Ex-Scientology community was pretty unified, but maybe not?
(2) What do you think of philosophy? Also what do you think of Stefan Molynuex? Some say Moly is a cult leader. How many cults and cult leaders are there actually?
(3) Chris I admire you for your hard work on highlighting the value of critical thinking and applying skepticism to various claims but it seems to me you have a mental block on applying these aspects to religion. You say you believe Scientology to be a fraud, but according to the special conditions you give to other religious beliefs, you can’t “know” that for certain and you can’t test this claims. In Critical Q&A #9, you said you don’t believe in a conspiracy the CIA controls Miscavige because there is no evidence to believe that, but you reject that argument when others have made it about religion. It seems to me that your reasoning is as follows: if the religion is sufficiently old enough or accepted widely enough, then the claims it makes are unfalsifiable. Is this a fair assessment of your view on the subject and how do you determine the veracity of the claims made by the “traditional” churches? Do you think the original founders of these religions thought it’s claims were just a bit of metaphor, as you have claimed previously?
(4) Hi Chris! I’m a huge fan of your Youtube Channel and have watched quite a few of your videos. My question is, how come LRH wrote “communication is the key component of life itself” and that “Through communication, any problem could eventually be resolved if both parties keep trying,” and yet he later wrote policies to punish or expel people who communicated their disagreements upsets regarding Scientology? Sounds like he was a hypocrite and that he basically wrote policies that were against his early principles. Please explain why you think LRH did this.
Love everything you do regarding raising awareness of destructive cults, please continue!! 🙂
(5) Hey Chris what are you thoughts on the Angry Gay Pope. Do you think he’s a professional protester with nothing to do? Is he publishing videos that only show him harassing people? What about Mark Bunker? He’s another one that hasn’t been in the church but makes videos about the COS.
(6) Are Sea Org recruits TOLD about RPF before they sign a contract? If not…that’s a fraudulent contract
(7) Do you think David Miscavige will ever face criminal charges, and with the continued bad press, is there a chance of a coup in the works to drive DM from control?
(8) Hi Chris I need to ask if you ever saw a video of an actor called Steven Mango who was once a member of Scientology. He released it in 2014 on his channel?
(9) Does Scientology target homeless people around L.A. and Florida by enticing them with the promise a place to sleep and stable meals via joining the Sea Org?
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You summed up your statement on the Monique Rathbun legal suit with “In the end we need to do what we’re going to do, have the friends and allies that we have, and move the ball down the field as much as we can.”
I have a questions about that.
You can be loyal to what you presently think is the truth.
And you can be loyal to who you presently think are your friends.
But what happens when you have a disagreement about what you presently think is the truth, with the people you presently think are your friends?
This exact thing happened to me when I realized the degree to which I had been deceived as a Scientologist. Yet Scientologists were pretty much my only friends and allies at the time.
In order to avoid joining another cult, isn’t it more important to be loyal to what you believe to be the truth, and let friends and allies reveal themselves accordingly?
Alanzo
I’m not sure if you’re making this assumption or not, Alanzo: in order to be friends with someone, you have to agree with them on most things.
I’ve several friends with whom I don’t agree on everything, some of them quite vociferously. Yet for some reason, we still like and respect each other.
I do think, however, that for the most part, people are friends with those that see things much the same way. Your friends are a bit of an extension of you.
Commenting on (9) above:
It was in the early 80s, c. 1983 that a sea org recruiter named Mark Miglio from asho, and another named Rich Cohen from AOLA started recruiting “wogs” for a period lasting several months.
They used one line, from the LRHED about how at old Saint hill, they even hired non-scientilogists who quickly got with the Scn program. Something to that effect.
For the most part, these were not the highest caliber of people as you stated. While undergoing the EPF, they were wandering around stealing things, etc.
I personally had a conversation with a fellow who bragged about having been in prison for armed robbery and attempted murder. Oh yeah, he was a recruit for the CADET ORG!
Anyway, as you stated, that program didn’t last long.
There was one guy from the cohort that did make it in the SO for a couple of years. Really nice guy named Larry, who worked in the galley.
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