TOLERANCE | MARCH 20, 2018

Religious Persecution Is As Old As…

Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, a senator and historian of the Roman Empire, described the Christians in 64 AD as a “class hated for their abominations” and guilty of “hatred of the human race,” an accusation he also leveled against the Jews. It stated that the Christian religion was not a religion but a deadly superstition and thus worthy of suppression.

And while his words may not be known by many, the killing of Christians in Roman arenas is a better-known fact.

Some 2000 years later, Christians are still persecuted and killed for their beliefs in numerous countries.

They are not the only ones who have felt the madness of religious haters.

Jews have been slaughtered by the millions across the world.

Muslims are imprisoned in Burma.

Hindus are murdered in Bangladesh.

Mormons were hunted and killed as they fled west.

The list of atrocities is too long to confront.

God Forbid (literally) that one has any sort of religion in China. Ask any Falun Gong followers and they will tell you about the horrors of being incarcerated and shocked in psychiatric hospitals and where women are forced to abort babies.

The list of atrocities is too long to confront.

The year 1954 marks the arrival of the newest world religion, Scientology.

And like all great religions it is attacked, lied about and vilified.

As a Scientologist I don’t take it seriously. At least I am not fighting for my life, and as the saying goes, stick and stones… and so forth.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers at Hurricane Harvey

I know who I am and I know my friends. We are the good guys. We are the people who drop everything to go for weeks to Texas after Hurricane Harvey to provide succor to those who are suffering.

We are the ones who give of ourselves to aid those struggling with drug addiction, and teach the young ones before they even think of starting down that road.

We are the ones who travel the world to teach others human rights and morality.

We are the people who do all we can to make the world a better place.

And I have plenty of friends who are non-Scientologists who know these facts about us.

I also know that those who attack people of good character are people with things to hide, with skeletons in their closets.

I have discovered through the school of hard knocks that the louder the false accuser, the bigger their crime.

So next time you hear someone making outlandish claims against Scientology and Scientologists, ask yourself this simple question: what have those people done that they don’t want the rest of us to know?

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