Scientology protest around the world

Scientology, Cult or what?
by Craig Bachler

The past several weeks have proven challenging for the "religion" Scientology. A group of protestors from the loosly formed Anonymous has established protest at locations around the world.

Project Chanology, also called Operation Chanology, is a protest against the Church of Scientology by the Internet-based group Anonymous. Project Chanology also refers to a website of the same name, used by Anonymous to chronicle ongoing and planned actions by the group, who state they are "everyone and everywhere", with "no leaders". The project was started in response to the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove material from an exclusive promotional interview with Scientology's Tom Cruise from the Internet in January 2008.

This past fall, I wrote a research paper on the Church of Scientology. Part of my research included meeting and interviewing an auditor from a local mission. The interview proved quite entertaining and somewhat disappointing. The auditor did not respond to several key questions including mandatory donations,core beliefs and what make Scientology so controversial.

Based on what I was able to research both in the interview process and reading material, Scientology has no core characteristics of a religion. It is more like a cult that is taking advantage of the tax shelters created for true religious groups.

I hope anonymous continues to put pressure on this science fiction belief. The US Government should "audit" their books and see that this is nothing but a scam. For those in Scientology, get out before it is too late. Tom Cruise, John Travolta and other hollyweird stars can continue to stay clear, but do not expect me to see a movie with you in them, I'll stay clear on my own.