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Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary 565

eldavojohn writes "The Guardian is reporting on the strained relationship that Scientology is having with the German government and the airing of a pesky documentary on Southwest Broadcasting. Until Nothing Remains, a $2.3 million documentary, is slotted to air on German television at the end of this month. It recounts the true story of Heiner von Rönn and his family's suffering when he tried to leave the Church of Scientology. A Scientology spokesperson called the film false and intolerant and also said they are investigating legal means to stop the film from being aired. More details on the film can be gleaned here."
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Scientology Tries To Block German Documentary

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  • A point to note (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 15, 2010 @04:07AM (#31479374)

    Germany doesn't know yet what Scientology is, a business, a religion or a cult. This may make up the courts' mind.

    From Wikipedia/Church of Scientology [wikipedia.org]:

    In Germany, official views of Scientology are particularly skeptical. In Germany it is seen as a totalitarian anti-democratic organization and is under observation by national security organizations due, among other reasons, to suspicion of violating the human rights of its members granted by the German Constitution, including Hubbard's pessimistic views on democracy vis-à-vis psychiatry and other such features. In December 2007, Germany's interior ministers said that they considered the goals of Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution and would seek to ban the organization. The plans were quickly criticised as ill-advised. The plans to ban Scientology were finally dropped in November 2008, after preliminary investigations failed to unearth evidence of illegal or unconstitutional activity.

    The legal status of the Church of Scientology in Germany is still awaiting resolution; some courts have ruled that it is a business, others have affirmed its religious nature. The German government has affirmed that it does not consider the Church of Scientology to be a religious community.

    If any fellow Anonymous in Germany feel like telling the German government why they should not consider Scientology a religion, then please be my guest. Be clear, make yourself heard. "Ich bin Anonymous!"

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Arancaytar ( 966377 )

      Or in the words of Kennedy, "Ich bin ein Anonymer."

    • Re:A point to note (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Hurricane78 ( 562437 ) <deleted AT slashdot DOT org> on Monday March 15, 2010 @05:12AM (#31479750)

      Germany doesn't know yet what Scientology is, a business, a religion or a cult.

      Same thing!! A cult is a business that makes money and gains power from people with a small schizophrenic delusion that partially detaches their inner model from reality. And a church is just a cult that’s officially accepted by the powers that be (e.g. Government). Which happens, as soon as they catch themselves enough politicians.

      Organizations like these are by definition immoral, since they exploit people who need help. And control their lives with nasty social engineering. There is no good about it...

      • Re:A point to note (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @05:32AM (#31479874)

        Cults need not be profitable. Take a look at the history of Charlie Manson and his cult. And no, here are some differences between cults and religions. These include the cult tendency to focus around a single, charismatic leader whose word is absolute law, and their tendency to conceal their genuine inner beliefs in layers that each must be struggled through by new initiates, and each is further divorced from the beliefs taught at the outer layers. This is part of what helps separate the cult inner core from the outer world, and helps bind them together among others who have learned to share those new increasingly bizarre core beliefs.

        It's not uncommon: there have been a _lot_ of cults in history. There used to be a pretty good organization for publishing information about cults and helping people get the facts and support from former members, called "Cult Awareness Network", but they got sued to bankruptcy and their assets taken over by Scientology, so now they're a pro-cult organization.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by AGMW ( 594303 )

      If any fellow Anonymous in Germany feel like telling the German government why they should not consider Scientology a religion, then please be my guest. Be clear, make yourself heard. "Ich bin Anonymous!"

      Looking at this problem from the other side, if we're against Scientology getting tax breaks and whatnot because they reckon they're a religion why don't we revisit the tax (et al) perks for ALL religions?
      Why do religions get tax perks? Why the special status?

      OK, so _some_ religions do charitable works. That's fine. The "Charitable Works" parts of religions can have some tax breaks because other charities have tax breaks. But a lot of what "religions" do is far more akin to just being a business and the

  • Thank you! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RuBLed ( 995686 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @04:12AM (#31479400)
    Now I am interested in that film...
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 15, 2010 @04:13AM (#31479410)

    http://home.snafu.de/tilman/krasel/germany/stat.html

    Go Germany. Atleast someone gets the right idea here

  • by Ihlosi ( 895663 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @04:32AM (#31479516)
    ... "Streisandeffect". Please.
  • by Arancaytar ( 966377 ) <arancaytar.ilyaran@gmail.com> on Monday March 15, 2010 @04:58AM (#31479668) Homepage

    Network denies that Until Nothing Remains depicts group as totalitarian and unethical

    Why would they need to deny that? It's a documentary, that's the point.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Network denies that Until Nothing Remains depicts group as totalitarian and unethical

      Why would they need to deny that? It's a documentary, that's the point.

      The point of a properly done documentary is to show the facts so the viewers can come to their own conclusion - some things are obvious enought that they don't need to be pointed to with huge neon signs, nor be spoon feed to the audience.

      The simple fact that the CoS is trying to stop a documentary that don't show them in a flattering light is enought to tell most potential viewers that the CoS has something to hide. One can only hope that the CoS try to use some of their common [wikipedia.org] - but illegal - ways to try t

  • Two words (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Eggplant62 ( 120514 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @05:01AM (#31479684)

    Fuck Scientology. I've never seen a larger collection of assholes ever.

  • 'Intolerance' (Score:4, Informative)

    by dugeen ( 1224138 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @05:15AM (#31479768) Journal
    The scientologists know whereof they speak when it comes to intolerance. Just ask Paulette Cooper.
  • by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @05:21AM (#31479802) Journal

    Oh this one. Geez, never heard about it, never would have, except now they sue so the entire world hears about it.

    Streisand Effect anyone?

    When we shipped the religious nutters to the colonies, the understanding was that they were supposed to stay there. Not come back!

  • by miffo.swe ( 547642 ) <daniel@hedblom.gmail@com> on Monday March 15, 2010 @05:53AM (#31480016) Homepage Journal

    I feel most sorry for the mislead idiots doing the dirty work for Scientology higher ups. They dont know they are following a Scifi novel, a pretty lame one sadly. Written by an utter bastard that once said, "If you want to make a little money, write a book. If you want to make a lot of money, create a religion."

    He did...

  • by chord.wav ( 599850 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @07:53AM (#31480728) Journal

    Can someone who knows about legal stuff explain me this?
    How come Scientology can shut everyone that tries to talk about them and we don't see any corporation doing that too? I mean, what gives Scientology the right to do it while denying it to everyone else? Or is it that the corps just choose not to use that right? I don't think that would be the case.
    Think of all the articles talking sh1t about MS, Apple, you name it. If they had the same rights, they would be able to silence every news article talking bad about them.

  • welp (Score:3, Informative)

    by MickyTheIdiot ( 1032226 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @08:53AM (#31481344) Homepage Journal

    I hope someone gets a digital copy, "fansubs" it, and sends BT links to everyone on the planet.

  • by kenp2002 ( 545495 ) on Monday March 15, 2010 @10:57AM (#31482864) Homepage Journal

    There is nothing more amusing in life then watching two sides of intolerant try to explain to one another how intolerant each is. Thank you slashdot for another amusing idealogical flame war.

    First: Correlation doesn't imply causation.

    Any organization: religion or otherwise can be taken as the mean of actions. To try and blame religion for the crusades, torture, etc at the time is statistically irrelivant. Those tactics were used with the same impunity by non-religious organizations at the time. The Dutch trading companies, merchant leagues, feudal lords, etc.

    The capacity for evil is universal in humans. The very fact people can throw out secular versus non-secular violence simply states a fact that violence has little to do with and one particular idealogy. People kill in the name of XYZ because it is a source of justification. No different the killing in the name of greed, pride, honor, land, food, etc.

    Crusades religious? That is nonsense. The holy roman empire was just that an empire. No different then Rome. When Ole' Rome invaded and took out the Goths was that a Holy War by Zeus or Jupiter? It's a war over land the "backing" is irrelivant. France's revolution was a secular vs religious blood bath. Athiests, Agnostics, Religious, and other idealogical classifications are statistically insignificant regressors when it comes to the analysis of violence.

    Islam is statistically no more violent then Christianity or Aethiests. The lead indicators in violence is education and poverty levels. After that comes access to fresh water and crop land.

    The crusades was a land grab. No different with the Moorish invasion. The "decorations" of war no different. Any organization\idealogy will attempt to grow it's power and supress dissent. It's human nature. Democrats, Republicans, Masons, Boy Scouts, your local Sigbap, Eve Corp, or WoW guild all have the same basic behaviors. Violence, war, indoctrination, etc are common behaviors.

    It's just a statistical echo that religious organizations were successful enough organizations to escalate to that level of control. e.g. It's not the fact they are religions but rather the fact they were successsful control structures (Which mind you most governement models are based from.) President = Pope, Congress of Cardinals = Senate, etc.

    So go ahead and butt intolerant heads but I hate to break it to both sides, is because human behavior, not a particular belief structure. God didn't invent the atom bomb, scientists, people, humans did. The only thing I see is a world in which people love to blame "the other side" for the problems rather then realize the reasons for our darkest side is universal. Evil is universal, it's just easier to try and subscribe a demographic to it rather then deal with the real root causes.

  • by merc ( 115854 ) <slashdot@upt.org> on Monday March 15, 2010 @11:30AM (#31483320) Homepage

    But I've seen their eyes light up at 10's and 20's.

Heard that the next Space Shuttle is supposed to carry several Guernsey cows? It's gonna be the herd shot 'round the world.

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