A reader pointed out today that Ex-Gay Watch has no articles on the Church of Scientology’s efforts in the ex-gay marketplace. (We have had comments about Scientology among commenters, but no articles.)
The reader offered one article and two discussions as a starting point for an Ex-Gay Watch post:
Exposing the Con (Anti-Scientology)
Michael Pattinson’s Experiences with Scientology
Discussion: Scientology and Homosexuality
Another Discussion (Scroll about halfway down.)
I Googled exgay Scientology and found a few, very strange links.
It turns out that Pattison in 1998 sued John Travolta, numerous Scientologists, and numerous top Clinton Administration officials. The gist of the allegation seems to be that a vast conspiracy exists among Hollywood and Washington celebrities. In particular, Pattison alleged that he was misled — by Travolta’s success over unspecified “ruin” — to waste years within Scientology’s exgay cure program of pricey “audits” which would advance the homosexual through sexual rehabilitation while also advancing the individual up the church’s hierarchy.
Sorry, dear readers, but lawsuits like that make me feel sorry for exgay ministries.
If anyone can make sense out of Scientology’s use or abuse of exgay philosophy, I welcome them to do so here.
Just to remind y’all, Scientology was started by a minor SciFi author L Ron Hubbard after he was released from a–get this–mental institution in the 1950s. It is based on his holy scriptures Dianetics.
When I was living in WashDC in the mid 1970s, I was “carny-barkered” by one of their operatives into participating in one of their “e-metering” events. I don’t recall the precise details of what their “e-meter” was supposed to measure, but I do have a science (physics) background and so I could follow what going on. It was hilarious. I was literally rolling on the floor, laughing.
You too hey?Attending a session was one of my first forays into the weird for this 17 year old. It was hard to keep a straight face as I spent a good hour lying like a State Department WMD expert in front of the U.N.And of course they found something wrong with me. They always do. They had suggestions, all of which sounded rather pricey.Unfortunately even with the scary fixed staring eyes of the interviewer and the e-meter, none had picked up that I had spent the past hour lying like all hell. I suggested this proved they couldn’t really measure anything, and left.
Grant, I am assuming that you are responding to my post. I had a masters degree in phyisics when this took place (and I was in law school at the time). I could analyze what was going on. It was funny as heck.
Scientology is a fraud perpetrated by a minor SciFi author. Of course that is my opinion.
I’m not sure what Mike means when he writes that he “feel[s] sorry for exgay ministries”. I doubt I could ever feel sorry for them, even when it comes to bizarre lawsuits like the one listed here.
Any group (Christian, Muslim, cultish or otherwise) that lives by feeding off of an individual’s self-loathing nature is repugnant to me and deserves everything it gets. Scientology attacks those who feel lost or disenfranchised as well as those with treatable (and untreatable) mental illness. Its a crime to mislead people, to commit fraud, even if its for the good of your pyramid scheme which you try to cloak by using “church” in its name.
In the case of Michael Pattinson, I feel sorry for HIM. I feel sorry for him because he must still hate himself and he must still feel like there is actually something in need of a cure. Could there be anything more disturbing?