Just found the protest notice on Craigslist. Looks like today is a worldwide Scientology Protest Day. Who Knew!?

http://seattle.craigslist.org/eve/562046450.html

Yep, apparently an action designated as "Operation: Chanology".

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/PROJECT_CHANOLOGY

There's also an "official" press release posted by Anonymous up on YouTube.

I an stuck in a convalescence center on 145th & 15th in Shoreline right next to the Church of Scientology and I haven't seen any protesters yet.

If it didn't start so early I woulda been there. 10 AM is too early for me on a Sunday though :|

I'm just afraid this kind of thing makes Scientology look better, not worse. Being harrassed by kooks creates sympathy for them, which is absurd.

@7 I was at the protest of the Montreal church of Scientology, there was definitely no sympathy being gained by the Scientologists.

There were people who were taking leaflets handed out by Scientologists just so they could tear them up. I'd say about 20% of all cars that drove by honked their horns. It was really a great protest.

Scientologists are creepy and a bit out of control (like most religions), but really, is it the most serious problem we have going today? Is it even in the top 20? I don't understand the focus on them.

The protest against Scientology is not about their beliefs. Everyone has a right to believe what they wish. That includes believing that an Alien name Xenu who brainwashed souls 75 billion years ago is the cause of our earthly troubles today. The problem is that the organization keeps the core belief documents under lock and key- which can only be had for a price. Audits (basically a confession) are required to be a scientologist. Guess what- they cost $$$. They actively persecute those who protest against them. They have a policy to destroy "SP's" (Suppressive Persons) via any means available- lawsuits, harrassment, etc etc. This includes former members. This is not a religion, it's a business. It doesn't deserve tax-exempt status.

@7

FNARF:

google LISA MCPHERSON

yes, protesting just makes the other side look good. just like MLK. remember that?

learn about the subject before you blabber.

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex

HCO Policy Letter of 18 October 1967,
Issue IV
Remimeo

PENALTIES FOR LOWER CONDITIONS

(Applies both Orgs and Sea Org)

LIABILITY Suspension of pay and a dirty grey rag on left arm and day and night confinement to org premises.

TREASON Suspension of pay and deprivation of all uniforms and insignia, a black mark on left cheek and confinement on org premises or dismissal from post and debarment from premises.

DOUBT Debarment from premises. Not to be employed. Payment of fine amounting to any sum may have cost org. Not to be trained or processed. Not to be communicated or argue with.

ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.

LRH:jp L. RON HUBBARD
Founder
by L. Ron Hubbard

From my lab--I'm working today--I can see the protest.

Pretty fun, actually. Mostly a younger crowd, some in goth make-up, some wearing bandannas over their faces.

Vastly preferable to the Ron Paul-ers.

Anyone have pictures of this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_chanology

We weren't wearing goth makeup. We weren't wearing makeup, period. We were wearing masks and surgical masks.

Homosexuality and Scientology:

"The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in Dynamic II [i.e. sexuality] such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically... he is very far from culpable for his condition, but he is also far from normal and extremely dangerous to society..."

"Homosexuals don't practice love; 1.1s can't. Their relationships consist of: 1) brief, sordid and impersonal meetings or 2) longer arrangements punctuated by dramatic tirades, discords, jealousies and frequent infidelity. It could hardly be otherwise since the tone is made up of suspicion and hate, producing a darling sweetness interspersed with petty peevishness. Their "love" turns to deep contempt eventually."

"Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics; here is the fodder which secret police organizations use for their filthy operations. One of the most effective measures of security that a nation threatened by war could take would be rounding up and placing in a cantonment, away from society, any 1.1 individual who might be connected with government, the military, or essential industry; since here are people who, regardless of any record of their family's loyalty, are potential traitors, the very mode of operation of their insanity being betrayal. In this level is the slime of society, the sex criminals, the political subversives, the people whose apparently rational activities are yet but the devious writhings of secret hate."

L. Ron Hubbard

Actually from what I've seen there's a pretty good overlap between RP fanboys and the anti-scientologist crowd. I guess with RP not doing very well in the primaries they need someplace to direct their energy.

Who cares if they want to charge for their "secrets," is that really worthy of a protest? I don't disagree that scientology is sleazy, but I don't understand the focus. Worse than the Catholic Church that protect pedophiles? Or the homophobic activity of so many fundamentalist churches? I think they're just upset that Hubbard wrote so much bad scifi.

more here:

http://dlisted.com/node/23291

Glad to see the turnout world-wide for his. If there was a CoS in my area I'd definitely have been out today.

these people didnt do anything to convince me they are more sane than scientologists.

@16 - Jeez - how on earth did little Tommy ever run THAT gauntlet, much less rise to such power?

Probably the /b/tard scientology protest people. They got made when Tom Cruise and scientology started suing to have that video removed.

@16 - that second paragraph sounds just about right.

Pictures: http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg39/abbadon2007/?start=all

@9 By all means, please share the world's list of "top 20" problems, and lets get on it. I missed the memo. Oh wait, Free Tibet is on there right?

@17 & @20 Really?

Have you looked into it yet? Please show me some quotes similar to the ones below regarding any Christian church. Please show me any church who's REQUIRED reading include "Brain-Washing - A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics." Last I checked, you are free to leave most churches on your own free will.

puhhhllllllllleeeeeze.

evil cults need to die. evil religions need to die. let's deal with the cults first.

Justice Anderson, Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia:

"Scientology is evil; its techniques are evil; its practice is a serious threat to the community, medically, morally, and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill... (Scientology is) the world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy."

Kenneth Robinson, British Minister of Health:

"The government is satisfied that Scientology is socially harmful. It alienates members of families from each other and attributes squalid and disgraceful motives to all who oppose it; its authoritarian principles and practice are a potential menace to the personality and well being of those so deluded as to become followers; above all, its methods can be a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them... There is no power under existing law to prohibit the practice of Scientology; but the government has concluded that it is so objectionable that it would be right to take all steps within its power to curb its growth."

Justice Latey, ruling in the High Court of London:

"Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious...It is corrupt sinister and dangerous. It is corrupt because it is based on lies and deceit and has its real objective money and power for Mr. Hubbard... It is sinister because it indulges in infamous practices both to its adherents who do not toe the line unquestionably and to those who criticize it or oppose it. It is dangerous because it is out to capture people and to indoctrinate and brainwash them so they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living, and relationships with others."

Judge Breckenridge, Los Angeles Superior Court:

"[The court record is] replete with evidence [that Scientology] is nothing in reality but a vast enterprise to extract the maximum amount of money from its adepts by pseudo scientific theories... and to exercise a kind of blackmail against persons who do not wish to continue with their sect.... The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder, L.Ron Hubbard."

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul Breckenridge, June 1984, in the Gerry Armstrong case:

"In addition to violating and abusing its own members' civil rights, the organization over the years with its 'fair game' doctrine has harassed and abused those persons not in the church whom it perceives as enemies."

L. Ron Hubbard Jr. 1983:

"I have a memory of this that goes back to when I was six years old. It is certainly a problem for my father and for Scientology that I rememoer this. It was around 1939, 1940, that I watched my father doing something to my mother. She was lying on the bed and he was sitting on her, facing her feet. He had a coat hanger in his hand. There was blood all over the place. I remember my father shouting at me. "Go back to bed!" A little while later a doctor came and took her off to the hospital. She didn't talk about it for quite a number of years. Neither did my father.

According to him and my mother, he tried to do it with me. I was born at six and a half months and weighed two pounds, two ounces. I mean, I wasn't born: this is what came out as a result of their attempt to abort me. It happened during a night of partying --he got involved in trying to do a black-magic number. Also, I've got to complete this by saying that he thought of himself as the Beast 666 incarnate."

Walked past yellow tent and surgical-masked protesters (two only) at Westlake about an hour ago.

About twenty years ago my younger brother and I were driving across the country. We broke the bank in Vegas when I started counting cards (it's a gift). But what did my idiot brother do? He gave all the money to those Scientology people!!! And I'm the one who was institutionalized for mental illness...

I drove past it and even tho Ian had mentioned it, was wondering what it was for.

Didn't take pics tho.

@ 27

This might shed some light as well...

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2759916

epic lulz

Best part of the event:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZBDzzL3Kzpk

THE BOSTON GLOBE online edition:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/02/11/dozens_of_masked_protesters_blast_scientology_church/

I really don't think it's right that they base their definition of homosexuality soley on Ecce.

Noboby is going to comment on what a douche johnnie @23 is? I will. I'm in an 8-year committed gay relationship... you are an asshole. Could expand, but don't have enough energy for the likes of johnnie. Suck it.