Scientology: The Ultimate Cult?

Leah Remini, actor and activist against Scientology outed this group who call themselves a religion when in fact by definition they are a cult.  The fact that Scientology is tax exempt is shocking to me and for many a questionable group of elitist who claim that what they are doing is making the earth a better place to live in and helping people become highly functioning beings.  It is hard not to say it right out or to think: Bullshit!  Leah who was raised as a child in this cult would beg to differ sighting both emotional and physical abuse on the part of it's leaders.  In a documentary on Netflix several former members share their horror stories including one young man who is literally brought to tears as he shares the miserable experiences he had.  It would take a very long article if not a book to describe their practices like: squirreling and bating one of which involves someone trained to cuss you out and yell in your face in order to help make one immune to such insults, many times using such profanity that for this reason alone one would deduce that there is nothing religious or Christian like in this group.  Men who were former leaders describe the brutal punches and slaps they received from the cult leader, David Miscavige, who looks like the suburban husband next door.  Unlike any religion Scientology is based on a book that was written many years ago by L Ron Hubbard, an author and founder of Scientology.  Suffice to say that the documentary is mind blowing and one that everyone should see.  

Cults have existed for ions of years and because there will always be some people who need to belong they will always exist.  The trouble with cults is that one never knows where the "leader" will lead people to go and the things they will ask them to do from murder, human sacrifices, giving up their wealth to leaving friends and family behind because they aren't aligned with their beliefs.  Jim Jones is a horrific example as well as Charles Manson both of whom managed to get their followers to murder and one of which convinced hundreds of people to commit suicide, first killing their own children.  What we fail to understand is that in giving people like Jim Jones the freedom of speech we end up forgetting that these same people can do harm to others in ways that are psychologically damaging and end in a disaster.  We tend to think that cults who worship the devil are the dark ones and this lulls us into a deep state of ignorance around the fact that many cults claim to be believers in God and in the Bible, using both as a means of control.  It is bad enough that we have used religion to justify the mistreatment of others like the American Indian but to use religion as a basis to control people is yet on another much higher plane.  

What prompted me to talk about cults?  For one Scientology but moreover because we cannot become apathetic to the men and women who yearn for power and who use religion to obtain it.  We must talk openly about people like Charles Manson even though we would rather not.  We must become purposeful in our quest to put a stop to cults and what they are doing and have done in our society, many times causing emotional damage that will never be cured.  I want to advocate for an awareness about cults and the need to stop them before they grow into something of danger that involves our children.  I want to be the one to say that there needs to be some kind of intervention on the part of leaders in our country to put a stop to cults that raise girls to be married and suppressed human beings.  Like the Holocaust and the mass murders of Jewish people, we cannot forget and we must know that it could easily happen again if we are not pro-active and stop the practices of cults like Scientology and like Jim Jones and other so-called religious "leaders".  To be angry at all religions is not the answer because not all religions organizations are the same and certainly not all of them are literally cults.  In our desperation to be accepted and loved we have turn to cults and falsely believe them to be family.  What we fail to understand is that a cult is "a misplaced excessive admiration for a particular person or thing".  Jim Jones and L Ron Hubbard and Charles Mason are prime examples of people who are falsely worshiped who have managed to make others believe that they are or were in some way more knowing or superior in some way.  If not for any other reason than for our children there must be laws in place that protect minors who are as we speak being subjected to beliefs they don't even understand fully and cannot make their own decision to reject.  

It is my hope that some of you understand how serious this subject is and how important it is to stay awake to it.  In some ways it is a matter of life and death.