View Full Version : Close encounter at the Kent County Fair
Matblack
03-05-2009, 10:18
I went to the Kent County Fair to take some pictures yesterday and was most interested to find one of these
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6789/27864845789f29341cceh.jpg
Its a yellow tent, not in itself very ominous.
Apparently 'Something Can Be Done' which is very exciting don't you think?
Inside are some posters of attractive people carrying similar slogans and some people wearing yellow T-shirts all very corporate. I thought it was a renewable energy or neighbourhood watch promotion but then I spotted the offer of free stress tests and it clicked, IT'S THE CHURCH OF SCAM!
Yep, at a little rural event in the middle of Kent TCOS have a marquee twice the size of any other exhibitor and although there isn't a huge amount of interest there are a number of people in there with the salespeople. Quite honestly I was astonished but a little research shows that this a quite a regular thing and they also attend the War and Peace show which takes place at the same venue. Also the War and Peace show have had a run in with John Sweeney famous for his outburst quite literally in the face of a leading Scientologist whilst he was filming them in the US, apparently the Nazi re-enactors (is that a word) at the War and Peace show out number the allies by 10:1 and Sweeney did a piece on this and surprisingly the organisers didn't like it! TCOS swooped in and now there are quite a few links including doing promotion at Hop Farm events :/
I'm stunned that such an organisation is allowed to take out a stand at a show where the primary audience is children :(
Thoughts?
MB
Fire's too good for them :(
So these 'Free stress test' stands on Bromley high street are actually for a church? Holy scam Batman!
What church is this then?
What church is this then?
The Church of Scientology.
Matblack
03-05-2009, 12:09
So these 'Free stress test' stands on Bromley high street are actually for a church? Holy scam Batman!
What church is this then?
No, they are for a cult ;)
MB
Blighter
03-05-2009, 19:34
No, they are for a cult ;)
MB
Haha :D
If they think they're part of a religion, then they can be ex-terminatedcommunicated. Preferably violently. Sorted.
I hear tents become deathtraps when they catch fire.
Meh, they've only adopted tried and tested techniques from the old religions and improved on them, the only difference between a cult and a religion seems to be the number of practitioners tbh.
Matblack
04-05-2009, 10:42
Meh, they've only adopted tried and tested techniques from the old religions and improved on them, the only difference between a cult and a religion seems to be the number of practitioners tbh.
Hmmmm, these guys are a bit more expensive too ;)
MB
"I... am considerably holier... than thou!"
"I... am considerably holier... than thou!"
Because I pay more?
A friend of mine made an interesting comment today.
The main difference between Scientology and a normal religion like Catholicism is that one is up front about wanting your money and the other takes it from you slowly hoping you don't notice.
Made me think about it a bit.
What is people's main problem with Scientology? The fact they ask for money?
Personally i'm hugely agnostic. I don't give a toss about these things any which way you care to look at them really. I've no idea what exactly it is about Scientology people take such massive exception to over and above other religion, though I wouldn't be surprised if most of the 'protesters' don't know either. All I ever see is "they're a cult, they shouldn't be allowed".
Blighter
05-05-2009, 01:59
A friend of mine made an interesting comment today.
The main difference between Scientology and a normal religion like Catholicism is that one is up front about wanting your money and the other takes it from you slowly hoping you don't notice.
Made me think about it a bit.
What is people's main problem with Scientology? The fact they ask for money?
Personally i'm hugely agnostic. I don't give a toss about these things any which way you care to look at them really. I've no idea what exactly it is about Scientology people take such massive exception to over and above other religion, though I wouldn't be surprised if most of the 'protesters' don't know either. All I ever see is "they're a cult, they shouldn't be allowed".
It's not the money that puts me off of them, it's the Tom Cruise.
The main difference between Scientology and a normal religion like Catholicism is that one is up front about wanting your money and the other takes it from you slowly hoping you don't notice.
The established churches encourage ideally 10%, but whatever you choose to give, and the large majority of churches don't talk about it very often and it isn't required to "progress" in your faith.
One lady I knew who wasn't a Christian at the time was taken to a scientologist church by her fiance, and it scared the bejesus out of her. The start of the service was fine, but seemed a very carefully built up emotional push, with a repeated reference to money. The latter half of the service was an extremely full blown heavy push for money, telling people how damned they were if the didn't and so on and so on, to the point it scared her badly, and presented a major emotional and intellectual barrier that took years to overcome before she came to faith.
Made me think about it a bit.
What is people's main problem with Scientology? The fact they ask for money?
The problems with Scientology go way beyond money, though money is the main one people seem to pick on. If it was just money, or their utterly bizarre Thetan Soul beliefs, I would hardly give two hoots. The problem is everything else, the thuggish antics, a history of illegal wiretapping of private and government agencies with the explicit purpose of blocking investigations, forceful divorcing of members from family (and blocking access), and so on.
About the best article I've read on them was by Time magazine:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,972865,00.html
I've been preached to by Christian ministers trying to encourage me to join their church, but generally that's been on their soil when I was at a christening/wedding/whatever. I know several people who are lay ministers or who regularly attend church and we have good discussions about the whys and the wherefores, but I've never really been actively pushed by them to get involved (maybe they don't want me and my heathen ways ;))
However the scientologists got me in the mid-90s by doing a street questionnaire and pretending it was about TV adverts (I was too young and foolish to run away fast enough and I had just started working in advertising so it was interesting to me) and it wasn't until I tried to leave the building that they started to tell me about the real reason they got me in there. They got my details from me under the premise of something which I can't remember and back then I was daft enough to give them out.
After that, they rang me once a day for over a year. They rang and harrassed my parents (who after attempting to politely ask them to stop eventually just started to hang up when they knew who it was) and they would pretend to be someone else to get them engaged in coversation "Oh hi, I'm a friend of your daughter's from work" etc etc.
Luckily my parents were pretty savvy and didn't buy it but they absolutely do engage in bullying tactics and harrassment to get people involved. Other than that I'd have no problem with them - who people choose to give their cash to is entirely their own affair, as is what they want to believe.
Matblack
05-05-2009, 09:28
The whole thing is very very odd, I did a lot of reading up on Scientology when the whole 'cake is a lie' thing kicked off because I was interested in why so many people suddenly got involved. The evidence regarding the unpleasent practices of these guys is pretty overwhelming and although there are some niche sects of the other religions who have restrictive practices Scientology is much more blatent about them and also about their recruitment; actively seperating people from their families and proventing contact, charging massive amounts to move up the Scientology grades, labeling psycology as 'evil' and some of the stories of brainwashing are pretty horrific.
Only once you get to the meat of what these guys actually believe and where the information comes from do you start to see the reason for the 'religions' existance.
To quote L Ron Hubbard the creator of Scientology
“If you want to make a little money, write a book. If you want to make a lot of money, create a religion.”
Have a nose around and see what you can find on the subject (i won't give links for fear of biasing your research) then make up your own minds whether you feels these guys should be recruiting at a family event.
MB
Actually, I have to say that my first thought when I read 'close encounter' was that you nearly saw some Morris Dancers ;)
Actually, I have to say that my first thought when I read 'close encounter' was that you nearly saw some Morris Dancers ;)
That would be particularly cruel and nasty.
I nearly bumped into a Morris Dancer the other day in Banbury, he had his pewter "beer with twigs in CAMRA approved" tankard attached to his belt with a lanyard. Odd.
I saw the worst Morris Dancers ever on Monday. They were on for three minutes, pissed themselves laughing the whole time and looked like they were making it up as they went along. It was brilliant. Abysmally brilliant.
Morris dancers, more terrifying than Scientology.
But at least you don't have to pay to join.
I've had a couple encounters with Scientologists. It was rather entertaining to have them completely question their own existence, not to mention the validity of their church.
If they push hard enough they walk away eternally looking over their shoulder...:evil:
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