While the lefties and moonbats of Los Angeles wore out their sandals along the streets of Hollywood to show their opposition to “Our Leader’s Glorious War” and four-dollars-a-gallon gasoline at the pump, another more sinister event was unfolding within earshot, along L. Ron Hubbard Way.
A couple hundred rag-tag ruffians who call themselves “Anonymous” took up posts outside the barricaded walls of the Church of Scientology. Their mission: to alert the public of certain legal and human rights abuses they feel that the church has committed in the name of maintaining the order and security of their corporation … I mean, religion.
Let me be perfectly clear for a moment here: If I had the opportunity to restructure the Christian church into any form, I would model it directly after the Church of Scientology. This is a church after my own heart that not only has copyright control over all of its religious texts and promotional videos (rights which it exercises quite frequently, I might add), but members wishing to gain access to that knowledge must pay exorbitant amounts of cash being audited and attending seminars.
Imagine a church where the offering is mandatory and it is a $3,000 minimum.
Not only that, but members are encouraged to cut off all ties to relatives and friends whom the church determines to be hostile, using a policy referred to as “Disconnection.” It’s kind of like what the Christian church already does with homosexuals and non-Republicans, only it’s mandatory. Nothing says “come gain a better understanding of yourself and your life” quite like “leave your family and give me your money.”
Opposition to the unconventional practices of Scientology have existed since the church was first founded by science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard in 1952 but now, with the help of “Anonymous,” those voices are gaining in volume. Websites such as xenutv.com and whyaretheydead.net are consistently referenced on picket signs, towed along by bands of Internet users donning haunting Guy Fawkes masks for fear of retribution.
The church, luckily, has taken a levelheaded approach to dealing with these peaceful protests, referring to “Anonymous” in the Los Angeles Times as “reminiscent of al Qaida spreading anti-American hatred.” Once again, their practices are impeccable.
But what worries me most about this group is that the Move-on’s and Code Pinks of the world might catch on to their tactics. “Anonymous” boasts that it has no leaders, no internal structure, and simply acts as an autonomous collective. When Georgia police demanded to speak to the group’s leader in Atlanta, they were met with shouts of, “We have no leader!”
How is a noble, multi-million dollar tax-free corporation such as the Church of Scientology supposed to take down an organization with absolutely no power structure? And if it cannot, what fate does that spell for other multi-million dollar tax-free corporations such as Focus on the Family, or its sister organization, the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH)?
Suddenly a bunch of soccer moms in pink T-shirts don’t seem so awful.
Matthew Kirchner is a junior English major and a columnist for the Daily Forty-Niner.
