philosoraptor42

With the recent change in Pope and the long-running child abuse scandal the new Pope must now handle, Roman Catholicism is clearly in the spotlight. The recent news that Pope Francis has a history of close cooperation with the military Junta in Argentina is clearly not a good sign.

As head of the Jesuit order from 1973 to 1979, Jorge Bergoglio – as the new pope was known until yesterday – was a member of the hierarachy during the period when the wider Catholic church backed the military government and called for their followers to be patriotic.

Bergoglio twice refused to testify in court about his role as head of the Jesuit order. When he eventually appeared in front of a judge in 2010, he was accused by lawyers of being evasive.

The main charge against Bergoglio involves the kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, Orland Yorio and Francisco Jalics, who were taken by Navy officers in May 1976 and held under inhumane conditions for the missionary work they conducted in the country's slums, a politically risky activity at the time.

His chief accuser is journalist Horacio Verbitsky, the author of a book on the church called "El Silencio" ("The Silence"), which claims that Bergoglio withdrew his order's protection from the two priests, effectively giving the military a green light for their abduction.

(Via The Guardian)

There's also a comment from an Argentinian on Pharyngula's blog summing up the situation as follows:

As an Argentinian I can confirm your “rumours” and add that this guy was a collaborator with the military during the last coup d’etat during the 70′s : Among many things, he informed to the military that two monks that were working in a low income neighbourhood were no longer protected by the catholic church, facilitating their detention and posterior disappearance.

Mind you, to “disappear” at that time meant to be detained by the military, held without rights or trial, possibly (and often) tortured under suspicions of being a Marxist/ “terrorist”, being completely incomunicated [sic] with your family and finally be killed and buried on an unmarked grave, or thrown from a plane into the river.

Thrown.

From a fucking plane.

Into the river. (Known as “deathflights”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_flights )

(via Butterflies and Wheels)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) with General Jorge Rafael Videla leader of the oppressive Argentinian military junta, who seized power in a military coup d'etat in the late seventies and early eighties.

However, while the religion I wish to talk about today certainly committed recent atrocities in full knowledge of the central authority, I do not mean to discuss Roman Catholicism below. Sure, I'm going to talk about forced child labour and there IS at least one Roman Catholic example of this. The film "Oranges and Sunshine" dramatises the real life event where children where taken from their parents without permission and sent to Australia for 'a better life' which, for those sent into the care of the "Christian Brothers" meant forced labour and abuse.

However, while there are plenty of cases of religions where individual groups have been involved in horrific practices, some of which they are unwilling to apologise for and which may continue to this day, there's one religion for which is seems to comprise a central raison d'etre. I am of course talking about the religion of Scientology and their organisation known as the Sea Organisation.

It's recently been revealed that the Sea Organisation deliberately denies children a proper education, forces them to engage in hours and hours of forced labour, and keeps the children separate from their parents for much of their lives. When followers of Scientology sign up for the SeaOrg they sign a billion year contract. That's possibly one of the most creepy things I have ever heard.

This isn't a matter of a religious organisation being stuck in old fashioned thinking or taking advantage of the current political situation or even a horrible act from centuries past for which they still hold the guilt. This is an organisation set-up within a particular religious body by its central authority figures and run centrally with the sole purpose of exploiting, abusing and neglecting its followers, including many young children.

Now I'm not about to give other religions a free pass here. I've already stated that Roman Catholicism, amongst others, has a lot to answer for. But I really do wonder whether this new revelation about Scientology doesn't make "The Church of Scientology" the most abhorrent religious organisation of its size functioning today. And I seriously thought the bar was already pretty high....

For the whole transcript for Jenna Miscavige Hill's interview with the BBC plus a video of another interview look under the cut below...

A remarkable picture of the inner workings of the Church of Scientology has been published by a member of one of the families most closely associated with it.

Jenna Miscavage Hill was the third generation of a family of scientologists, born into it and raised in its disciplines. Eventually, like her parents, she left and has now written a devastating account of her experience, particularly in its most secretive inner core, what is known as the Sea Organisation or Sea-org.

She told Today presenter James Naughtie about a life that was intimately bound up and directed by scientology.

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
"Well my parents joined what's called the sea organisation when I was two. They worked 14 hour days, 7 days a week, they lived communally, they were paid as little as $45 a week and they signed one billion year contracts-

James Naughtie:
A billion years?!

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
Yes, yes. So basically, they dedicate themselves lifetime after lifetime to serving the Church and so when my parents joined when I was two, right after the bat I only saw them for an hour a day.

James Naughtie:
An hour a day? Right through your childhood...

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
Well actually when I was four until I was twelve I only saw them once a week. When I was six I went to a place called The Ranch: A place for executives in the Seaorg or in the Church. We did 25 hours of manual labour
every week. It was run like a military school.

James Naughtie:
So what were you told to expect? As a young girl, what did YOU expect?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
You know, with our schooling, we didn't have credits or grades or anything like that. They didn't even issue diplomas. They didn't even talk about college. We weren't even aware of the outside world other than that people there asked dangerous questions and we had to be rehearsed on how to speak to them. We weren't so be like "Oh yeah, we haul rocks 25 hours a week." They were like "No, say you're at a private school and your parents work here." And we occasionally met them at a field trip, which was extremely rare, but we were basically considered to be Seaorg members in training.

James Naughtie:
When you look back on it now, having got out, like your parents, how would you describe it?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
Yeah, well when I was there I was definitely brainwashed. It was definitely a closed organisation that's secretive, extremely controlling, and manipulative.

James Naughtie:
And to what end, do you think?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
I've thought about that a lot. In Scientology, you have to pay for your services, you have to pay a good amount of money, but there are some people who are profiting somewhat from that but not to the extent that would make me agree that it's only about money. I definitely think that Scientology is a game of power.

James Naughtie:
What would happen if you started to ask awkward questions?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
We'd be told, "If you go to a regular school you get drugged and they just give you drugs, regardless of whether or not you want them." You know, if you're critical of the Church itself and say maybe we'd be better 'out there', you're taught that the only reason you'd think badly of the Church is because you've done bad things. And so you're trying to make less of it, to make yourself feel better about those bad things.

James Naughtie:
I suppose everybody knows that there are celebrity supporters of Scientology who more or less say that it's all okay and that people are getting worked up about nothing and that it's a perfectly good way of life that is just different from the one other people may choose. What do you feel about that and what have you observed about the way that celebrity supporters of Scientology are handled inside this organisation?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
For one thing, celebrities aren't Seaorg members. The Scientology they experience is vastly different from that of a Seaorg member and even that of a regular public Scientologist.

James Naughtie:
So, they never see the inside? The Seaorg organisation at the heart?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
Well, they have their own Church and Seaorg members do work there but they don't see people getting punished there. They don't see child labourers there. They have their own special classrooms, their own highly trained councillors.

James Naughtie:
Scientology lite.

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
Yeah. Exactly. They're not treated as harshly as other Scientologists and they're not hounded for donations. But you know, at the same time this information is out there and any celebrity endorsing an organisation like this has a moral responsibility to find out what really is going on. There are so many stories out there. There are too many people coming forward for them to be able to ignore it.

James Naughtie:
You see it's quite interesting, in this country you can walk along a high street and there'll be people sitting there with a table and leaflets and they'll say, "Are you interested in self-awareness?" and they'll say, you know, "Just come and talk about it." And "Dianetics" and it's all very kind and warm. What would you say to somebody who walks up to people like that in the street and is interested?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
They do say things like, "Do you need help with your marriage? Yes, we can help you with that." So when you start out they act like you're the greatest person in the world. They flower you with praise and love, but things change pretty quickly. So what you see; those are the introductory routes into Scientology. That's how they get you.

James Naughtie:
How difficult was it for you to get out?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
It was a culmination of a lifetime of events, but in the end I realised it wasn't the place I always thought it was. There was sleep deprivation, food deprivation, coerced abortions going on-

James Naughtie:
Coerced abortions?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
Yeah, in the Seaorg you're not allowed to have children. If you do, you get kicked out. So many people, I can think of six people off the top of my head, were coerced into having abortions while they were there. Scientology's word for "spirit" is "thetan". You're taught that those thetans can get another body and it's considered off-purpose or having 'other fish to fry' if you go off and have the baby.

James Naughtie:
How important a story do you think this is? Some people might say, "Well it's a cult, or whatever word we use. So what? It's not going to take over the world." What do you say to that?

Jenna Miscavige Hill:
I think that it absolutely is something to worry about. I mean, the amount of control that they have over people. This isn't just willing adults going in. I was a baby when I went there. I had no choice. I had no knowledge of the outside world and I left without an education and without any way to operate in the outside world and that sort of thing is extremely dangerous.

We asked the Church of Scientology for an interview - they declined, but said in a statement: "We note that recollections in Ms Hill's book about her schooling are dramatically at odds with the recollections of 30 of her classmates.

"The church has long respected the family unit while accommodating and helping those raising children. The church does not engage in any activities that mistreat, neglect or force children to engage in manual labour. The church follows all laws with respect to children. Claims to the contrary are false.

"The Church of Scientology does not counsel its staff members or parishioners to have abortions. Any such statement is false.

"Sea Organisation couples are permitted to marry, but... if Sea Organisation couples wish to have children, they must do so outside the Sea Organisation. They may return once the children have grown."