At What Point Does Scientology Protesting End & Religious Persecution Begin?

Another unpopular opinion of mine: Yelling at Scientologists on the street every day, and calling them brainwashed cult members, no matter what your reason, is religious persecution.

I have seen many “activists” over the years do this. When I first got out, I was angry, real angry. A guy named Keith Henson was my hero. Look that guy up. I learned a lot by watching him.

Here are some more public protests of Scientology over the years:

Vital Critical Thinking Question: Were their goals ever accomplished?

Anonymous Protest outside London Org. March 15th, 2008

 

Then there is an update after the global phenomena of Anonymous vs Scientology – monthly global protests outside of every major Scientology organization – 2 years later.

This is 2010.

14 years ago.

Go full screen on this video, and turn it up. It’s one of my very favorites.

But I’ve also seen many others arrive, and go, such as XenuBarb and AnonOrange, protesting at Gold Base:

In Washington DC, an ex-staff member at the org there, sat across the street with a bullhorn and bullbaited his fellow ex-staff members as they arrived to and from work, for months.

As an Ex-staff member myself, AnonSparrow was one of my heroes.

More AnonSparrow with Radio Paul

But then there’s the Angry Gay Pope, protesting individual Scientologists on the street in Hollywood.

I consider this harassing people for their religious beliefs.

Then there’s John McGhee, jumping on stage at a pub to “protest” a band made up of Scientologists:

And then we have John McGhee assaulting a female Scientologist while she hands out Scientology promotional materials.

John McGhee and Pete Griffiths were charged and convicted with assault after this incident. Pete Griffiths paid his fine and apologized publicly. He also got himself the hell away from John McGhee.

John McGhee doubled and tripled down, denied that it was assault, and to my knowledge, never paid his fine. He has also called for a “Waco style massacre at Scientology organizations.”

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No one should conclude here that I am against protests of Scientology. I am for protests of Scientology as long as they get justice for their victims. But even with all these global protests of the Church of Scientology around the world, lasting decades – has that ever happened?

Because this is AlanzosBlog, and we think critically about Cults & AntiCults here, let’s ask some critical thinking questions:

Looking over the historical timeline that I have presented, Anonymous thought the end of Scientology was imminent – 14 years ago. The Lisa McPherson Trust thought so too, 23 years ago.

Exactly how effective is protesting Scientology and Scientologists in getting justice for its victims?

Or is getting justice for Scientology’s victims even the goal?

Is the goal to make Scientologists feel hated, or persecuted, or ashamed of themselves for being Scientologists?

Is the goal to raise awareness of Scientology’s crimes and to recruit others?

Is the goal to get the particular Scientologist you are yelling at on the street to rethink their involvement in Scientology so you can get them to renounce their chosen religion?

What if violence breaks out and people start assaulting each other? Do you have a plan?

If everyone agrees on the goal of protesting, and the protesters are organized around that purpose, maybe protesting Scientology has a chance of being effective.

But remember the past.

Can protesting Scientology be made more effective?

How?

Ask yourself:

Confronting and yelling at Scientologists on the street – and calling them brainwashed cult members simply because they are Scientologists and you’re not – when does that cross the line into religious persecution?

At what point does the protest end and the religious persecution begin?

If you are involved in these protests, have you asked yourself these questions?

Have you discussed these questions with your fellow protesters?

Or do you just like to get rowdy, make fun of people who believe differently than you do, then go drink beer and trade war stories?