Scientology: Religion or racket?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2003.8.3724Abstract
The name Scientology (a copyrighted and registered trademark) brings to mind a wide array of claims, observations, impressions, findings, and documents, reflecting a complex and controversial history. The religion/not religion debate over various groups and organizations, prominent in the Western media over the past thirty years, has usually presented the public and politicians with a religion versus "sect" or "cult" dichotomy. The classification issue in this article is framed differently.Hopkins (1969) offered us the terms of the debate in the bluntest and most direct way when he asked in the title of an article in Christianity Today more than thirty years ago "Scientology: Religion or racket?" Read today, the Hopkins article sounds naive and charitable, but this question still stands before us, and yet deserves an answerReferences
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Beit-Hallahmi, B. and Argyle, M. (1997). The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief, and Experience. London: Routledge.
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Mallia, J. (1998b). Judge found Hubbard lied about achievements. Boston Herald, March 3.
Mallia, J. (1998c). Scientology reaches into schools through Narconon. Boston Herald, March 3.
Mallia, J. (1998c). Church, enemies wage war on Internet battlefield; Copyright laws used to silence online foes. Boston Herald, March 4.
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Otto, R. (1923/1950). The Idea of the Holy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Passas, N. (1994). The market for gods and services: Religion, commerce, and deviance. Religion and the Social Order, 4, 217-240.
Passas, N. & Castillo, M.E. (1992). Scientology and its 'clear' business. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 10, 103-116.
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Robbins, T. (1988). Profits for prophets: Legitimate and illegitimate economic practices in new religious movements. In J.T. Richardson (ed.) Money and Power in the New Religions. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Russell, R. (1999). Scientology's revenge. New Times Los Angeles. September 9-15.
Sappell, J. & Welkos, R.W. (1990). The Scientology story. Los Angeles Times, June 24-29.
Schwarz, S. (1976). Limiting religious tax exemptions: When should the Church render unto Caesar?. University of Florida Law Review, 29, 50-103.
Senn, S. (1990). The prosecution of religious fraud. Florida State University Law Review, 17, 325-352.
Straus, R, (1986). Scientology 'ethics':Deviance, identity and social control in a cultlike social world. Symbolic Interaction, 9, 67-82.
Von Hoffman, N. (1988). Citizen Cohn. New York: Doubleday.
Wallis, R. The Road To Total Freedom: A Sociological Analysis of Scientology. New York : Columbia University Press, 1976.
Wallis, R. (1979). Salvation and Protest. New York: St. Martin Press.
Wallis, R. (1984). The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Weiss, B.L. (1988). Many Lives, Many Masters. New York: Simon & Schuster.
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Wallace, A.F.C. (1966). Religion: an Anthropological View. New York: Random House.
Wilson, B. (1970). Religious Sects. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
Wilson, B. (1982). Religion in Sociological Perspective, Oxford : Clarendon Press.
Wilson, B. (1990). The Social Dimensions of Sectarianism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Woolger, R.J. (1987). Other Lives, Other Selves. New York: Bantam
Ayella, M. (1990). "They must be crazy": Some difficulties in researching "Cults". American Behavioral Scientist, 33, 562-577.
Bainbridge, W.S. & Stark, R. (1980). Scientology: To be perfectly Clear. Sociological Analysis, 41, 128-136.
Barker, E. (1991). But is it a genuine religion? Religion and the Social Order, 4, 97- 110.
Bednarowski, M.F. (1995). The Church of Scientology: Lightning rod for cultural boundary conflicts. In T. Miller (ed.) America's Alternative Religions. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Behar, R. (1986). The prophet and profits of Scientology. Forbes , 138 (9), 314-322.
Behar, R. (1991). The thriving cult of greed and power. Time, May 6, 52-60.
Beit-Hallahmi, B. Prolegomena to the Psychological Study of Religion. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1989.
Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1992). Despair and Deliverance: Private Salvation
in Contemporary Israel , Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1996). Psychoanalytic Studies of Religion: Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1998). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Active New Religions. Rosen Publishing: New York.
Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1998). Dear colleagues: Integrity and suspicion in NRM research. Unpublished.
Beit-Hallahmi, B. (2001) . 'O truant muse': Collaborationism and research integrity. In B. Zablocki & T. Robbins (eds.) Misunderstanding Cults. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Beit-Hallahmi, B. and Argyle, M. (1997). The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief, and Experience. London: Routledge.
Bryant, A. (2000). Hollywood goes Wall Street. Newsweek, August 7.
Bromley, D. & Bracey, M. (1998). Religion as therapy, therapy as religion: The Church of Scientology as a quasi-religious therapy. In W. Zellner & M. Petrowsky (eds.) Sects, Cults, and Spiritual Communities: A Sociological Analysis . Westport: Praeger Publishers.
Burkholder, J.R. (1974). "The law knows no heresy": Marginal religious movements and the courts. In I.I. Zaretsky & M.P. Leone (eds.) Religious Movements in Contemporary America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Cleckley, H. (1976). The Mask of Sanity. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
Clark, K.(1955). Prejudice and Your Child .Boston: Beacon Press.
Cole, J.R.I. (1998). The Baha'i faith in America as panopticon, 1963-1997. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37, 234-248.
Dericquebourg, R. (1993). Les Antoinistes. Paris: Editions Brepols.
Eliade, M. ( 1959). The Sacred and the Profane. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. England, R.W. (1954). Some aspects of Christian Science as reflected in letters of testimony. American Journal of Sociology, 59, 448-453.
Foster, J.G. (1971). Enquiry Into the Practice and Effects of Scientology. House of Commons Report. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office.
Fox, M. (1971). Religion USA: Religion and Culture by way of Time Magazine. Dubuque, IA: Listening Press.
Frantz, D. (1997a). Taxes and tactics: Behind an I.R.S. reversal?A special report.
Scientology's puzzling journey from tax rebel to tax exempt. New York Times, March 9.
Frantz, D. (1997b). Church of Scientology reached agreement with I.R.S. New York Times, December 31.
Freud, S. (1915/1916/1963). Introductory Lectures To Psychoanalysis. In The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XV. London: The Hogarth Press.
Friedland, J.A. (1985). Constitutional issues in revoking religious tax exemptions: Church of Scientology of California V. Commissioner. University of Florida Law Review, 37, 565-589.
Gardner, M. (1957). Fads and Fallacies In the Name of Science. New York: dover.
Greil, A.L. (1996). Sacred claims: The "cult controversy" as a struggle over the right to the religious label. Religion and the Social Order, 6, 47-63.
Greil, A.L. & Rudy, D.R. (1990). On the margins of the sacred. In T. Robbins & D. Anthony (eds.) In Gods We Trust: New Patterns of Religious Pluralism. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
Hadden, J.K. (1989). Memorandum, December 20, 1989.
Hansen, S. (1997). Did Scientology strike back? The American Lawyer. June.
Heins, M. (1981). 'Other people's faiths': The Scientology litigation and the justicability of religious fraud. Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, 9, 153-197.
Higham, J. (1970). Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism 1860-1925. New York: Atheneum.
High Court of Australia (1983). The Church of the New Faith v. The Commissioner for Payroll Taxes.
Hopkins, J.M. (1969). Scientology: Religion or racket? Christianity Today, November 7, 6-9; November 21, 10-13.
Horne, W.W. (1992). The two faces of Scientology. American Lawyer, July/August.
Hubbard, L.R. (1956/1983). Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought . Los Angeles: Bridge Publications.
James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Macmillan.
Kent, S.A. (1999). The globalization of Scientology: Influence, control and opposition
in transnational markets. Religion, 29, 147-169.
King, D. (1990). Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism. New York: doubleday.
Lewis, J.R. (ed.) (1994). From the Ashes: Making Sense of Waco. Lanham, MD; Rowman & Littlefield.
MacLaughlin, J. & Gully, A. (1998). Church of Scientology probes Herald reporterInvestigation follows pattern of harassment. Boston Herald, March 19.
Malko, G. Scientology: The Now Religion. New York : Dell, 1970.
Mallia, J. (1998a). Inside the Church of Scientology; Powerful church targets fortunes, souls of recruits. Boston Herald, March 1.
Mallia, J. (1998b). Judge found Hubbard lied about achievements. Boston Herald, March 3.
Mallia, J. (1998c). Scientology reaches into schools through Narconon. Boston Herald, March 3.
Mallia, J. (1998c). Church, enemies wage war on Internet battlefield; Copyright laws used to silence online foes. Boston Herald, March 4.
Maurer, D.W. (1940/1999). The Big Con. New York: Random House.
Meissner, W.W. (1978). The Paranoid Process. New York: Jason Aronson.
Melton, J.G. (1999). Encyclopedia of American Religions. Detroit, MI: Gale Research.
Miller, R. Barefaced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. New York : Holt, 1987.
Netherton, M. (1978). Past Lives Therapy. New York: William Morrow.
Otto, R. (1923/1950). The Idea of the Holy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Passas, N. (1994). The market for gods and services: Religion, commerce, and deviance. Religion and the Social Order, 4, 217-240.
Passas, N. & Castillo, M.E. (1992). Scientology and its 'clear' business. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 10, 103-116.
Polmar, N. & Allen, T.B. (1996). Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage . New York: Random House.
Richardson, J.T. (1983). Financing the new religions: A broader view. InE. Barker (ed.) Of Gods and Men: New Religious Movements in the West. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
Robins, R.S. & Post, J.M. (1997). Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Roder, T., Kubillus, V. & Burwell, A. (1995). Psychiatrists: The Men Behind Hitler. Los Angeles: Freedom Publishing.
Robbins, T. (1988). Profits for prophets: Legitimate and illegitimate economic practices in new religious movements. In J.T. Richardson (ed.) Money and Power in the New Religions. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Russell, R. (1999). Scientology's revenge. New Times Los Angeles. September 9-15.
Sappell, J. & Welkos, R.W. (1990). The Scientology story. Los Angeles Times, June 24-29.
Schwarz, S. (1976). Limiting religious tax exemptions: When should the Church render unto Caesar?. University of Florida Law Review, 29, 50-103.
Senn, S. (1990). The prosecution of religious fraud. Florida State University Law Review, 17, 325-352.
Straus, R, (1986). Scientology 'ethics':Deviance, identity and social control in a cultlike social world. Symbolic Interaction, 9, 67-82.
Von Hoffman, N. (1988). Citizen Cohn. New York: Doubleday.
Wallis, R. The Road To Total Freedom: A Sociological Analysis of Scientology. New York : Columbia University Press, 1976.
Wallis, R. (1979). Salvation and Protest. New York: St. Martin Press.
Wallis, R. (1984). The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Weiss, B.L. (1988). Many Lives, Many Masters. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Westin, A.F. (1963). The John Birch Society?E962. In D. Bell (ed.), The Radical Right. New York: Doubleday & Co.
Wallace, A.F.C. (1966). Religion: an Anthropological View. New York: Random House.
Wilson, B. (1970). Religious Sects. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
Wilson, B. (1982). Religion in Sociological Perspective, Oxford : Clarendon Press.
Wilson, B. (1990). The Social Dimensions of Sectarianism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Woolger, R.J. (1987). Other Lives, Other Selves. New York: Bantam
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2015-08-24
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Beit-Hallahmi, B. (2015). Scientology: Religion or racket?. Marburg Journal of Religion, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2003.8.3724
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