SCIENTOLOGY: A MANUFACTURED RELIGION

Have you ever wondered what Scientology was about? Doubtless many of us have been approached by well-dressed people offering us "free" personality tests. The procedure seems all right at first but it leads to bondage.

I was nearly sucked into the bogus beliefs of Scientology in 1987. A friend thought that the pseudo-science of Dianetics would cure me of my depression. It didn't do so. In fact, I found the bulky book by L. Ron. Hubbard to be so tedious that I only read a few pages.

Some folks might argue that I was biased by my bad experience of this false belief system. A woman named Tory Magoo was part of that cult. She suffered horrific persecution when she left the group, as you can hear in her YouTube videos.

More to the point, Lawrence Wright's Going Clear book exposes Scientology for what it truly is. Though I haven't read this book, I'd like to get a Kindle copy soon. From what I heard from Tory, I can well understand why this group pressures members who start asking questions.

Cults have many things in common. One factor is that they seek to control their members. The elders at the house church I belonged to certainly tried to stop me from partaking in supposedly satanic activities such as listening to rock music and talking on the CB radio. My long hair and bell-bottom jeans also offended them.

Another thing cults do is offer some form of empowerment and "secret knowledge" to their new members. That bate appeals to the fleshly nature of people. Once they're hooked, the ugly side of cultic bondage comes out.

Acceptance is another need which cults prey upon. At first, the members are all smiles and hugs. Once the victim is well and truly trapped, the leaders pressure them to devote their lives to the group.

Though I wasn't forced to donate to the cult I was in, I became so captivated by its teacher that I gave the church large donations and many hours of my time. Rarely was I commended for this by the elders. In the end, it was their perennial criticism that drove me out of their congregation.

I wrote extensively about that house church in my newly-published memoir, How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Please check it out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers.