Scientology is an evil little cult. I’m still not sure to what extent it might be more evil and more culty than other religions, but let’s just start there. Like other religions, it collects loads of money from its followers in return for a lot of fables and not much else. And like other religions, it has tax-exempt status in Australia.
The dark side of Scientology was on display recently, with allegations of blackmail, physical abuse, imprisonment of defectors, and forced abortions. South Australian senator Nick Xenophon requested an investigation into revoking the tax-free status of Scientology.
I was disappointed that the inquiry didn’t go anywhere, though I was just glad that someone was willing to raise the issue.
Labor and coalition senators this week joined forces to vote against Senator Xenophon’s motion to launch an inquiry into the tax-free status of religious groups and whether they should be subjected to a British-style public benefit test.
…
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, who abstained from the vote on Thursday, said he was divided on the issue.“We need to find a solution to the despair and desperate circumstances that some families find themselves in, without embarking on what turns into a witch-hunt, with unintended consequences, against all religious organisations,” he told AAP on Friday.
He’s got one thing right: removing tax-free status from Scientology would open the way to removing it from other religions. And I might add, hopefully all. Too bad that’s not a policy that other Australian politicians have the ‘ticker’ for.
It’s been argued that the so-called ‘moderate religions’ provide cover for the ‘extreme religions’, often by making faith seem respectable. But in this case, it happens because the mantle of ‘religion’ makes lawmakers unwilling to confront even the Scientologists, if it might create conflict with other churches. And so evil organisations can escape consequences, if they just call themselves a religion.
A Scientology spokeswoman said the voting down of Senator Xenophon’s motion was a “victory for religious freedom”.
Perhaps, if we mean ‘freedom from having to pay their fair share in society’. But if ‘religious freedom’ means ‘freedom to leave the religion’, then it’s a freedom that some ex-Scientologists do not have. And this lack of religious freedom is sanctioned, endorsed, and paid for by the state.
17 March 2010 at 3:09 pm
I really, REALLY loathe the lack of accountability gifted to religious organizations. It's so difficult to even approach this issue in the public arena, because as soon as a religious organization is called to account for potentially damaging, dangerous or illegal activity, religious people of every stripe jump to defend this "attack on religious freedom." It's bizarre.