It seems James Packer is distancing himself from Scientology according to this article in today’s SMH. Packer got in to Scientology at the lowest point in his life, as the SMH article says:
He was overweight and depressed, his marriage to his first wife, Jodhi Meares, had ended and he was reeling from the humiliating and very public collapse of One.Tel, losing $350 million from the family business on the way.
Typical cult tactics, get someone when they are vulnerable and tell them you can fix them. Brainwash them and take their money, by the time they are “cured” they are so indoctrinated they don’t know how to get out. Fortunately some people are able to realise they don’t “need” Scientology and leave.
Having several high profile ex-Scientologist speaking out lately, like Jason Beghe whose video was shown on Packer’s Channel Nine’s A Current Affairs TV show (as I reported here), and having world-wide protests by Anonymous, has shown the world that this cult has it’s problems.
I’m not the first to blog this today, not surprisingly L. Ron at The Frame Problem has already discussed Packer leaving Scientology. He was tipped off by GlossLip, a celebrity gossip site that doesn’t mind speaking out against Scientology. I would have been quicker but chores have to be done.
Today’s SMH Headline: See ya, Tom: Packer quits Cruise’s church must have been very heartwarming for Anonymous who are conducting more world-wide anti-Scientology protests today. Today’s protest is called OPERATION: FAIRGAMESTOP, for more information (e.g. locations) visit: WWW.ENTURBULATION.ORG
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15 May 2008 at 4:24 am
I fail to see a major difference between a “cult” such as Scientology and Christianity. Both give you help in a time of need, both encourage you to give money, and both involve “supernatural elements”.
15 May 2008 at 6:37 pm
Yeah, all religions could be seen as cults, some just seem more ‘cultish’; eg Scientology, Exclusive Brethren, the Fundamentalist LDS, just to name a very few.
One Christian description of a cult I found is:
They also add:
(such as the resurrection). I’d add:
I think those descriptions would probably be a fairly universal method to differentiate between a ‘religion’ and a ‘cult’; and then there is the term ’sect’.
From wikipedia comes this definition:
which probably describes just about every religion on this planet!
You say tomato, I say tomahto, lets get rid of them all.