Scientology is in it for the money, but aren't all religions? - Death and Taxes3 February 2012, 4:43 pmBy DJ Pangburn 5 hours ago
Christopher Hitchens, in one of his finer moments, once said, “The secular state is the guarantee of religious pluralism. This apparent paradox, again, is the simplest and most elegant of political truths.” Certainly, he was likely leveling the statement at the three biggest offenders, the Abrahamic religions—Christianity, Judaism and Islam. However, sub-textually, he meant all religions.
And the paradox could hardly be any more ripe than when one considers Scientology. Here is a “religion” that managed to classify itself as a “church” in order to reap the benefits that tax-exempt religions had already enjoyed, as well as to insulate itself from being called a cult, or dismantled for being a fraud.
Minted, as it were, by the U.S. government, the Church of Scientology is free to extort unwitting and ignorant people as long as it sticks to the law. The government won’t tolerate any of that Operation Snow White shit, but Tom Cruise is free to redistribute his wealth to Scientology clerics. Hell, maybe even some of that money from the lower rungs makes its way into Cruise and John Travolta’s pockets, but we’d never get close enough to know the truth....
more at
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/177923/scientology-is-in-it-for-the-money-but-arent-all-religions/
