COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE | JANUARY 16, 2020

Who Loses When Scientology Wins?

Last week I had an unusual phone conversation with a client I’m doing some screenplay rewrite work for. He was somewhere between amazed and aghast to learn I was a Scientologist! When I asked him why the surprise, he said it was because I was smart and not weird… at least as far as he could tell. I had to laugh at that remark. Realizing his understanding of Scientology must be in some respect lacking, he laughed with me.

In our further conversation on the subject, I wasn’t surprised to learn that his sole source of information on Scientology was the mainstream media. I suggested that he meet a few more Scientologists here.

The conversation got me wondering…

Why are the same-old-same-old dreary apostates dragged out ad infinitum for interviews on the subject of Scientology? Why, outside of the Scientology Network, do we never hear from any of the millions of dedicated and happy Scientologists? Why has there never been a film or TV show documenting their experiences with the Church of Scientology? Why is there never even a pretense of being fair and balanced in covering the subject?

Does what appears to be the obvious answer to that question explain the long-term, vicious, mass-media bias against the Church of Scientology?

One could argue that, in the age of the Internet, information outlets are so starved for revenue that they’re forced to favor sensationalism that generates clicks at the expense of truth and honesty. But the problem with that argument is that Scientology has been a favorite target of media outlets since the 1950s, long before the age of the internet.

So if we’re going to understand this phenomenon, perhaps the better question to ask is: “Who loses when Scientology wins?”

For the millions of people in the world today who call themselves Scientologists, this is an easy question to answer. With the spiritual tools of Scientology at their disposal, Scientologists have no use for mind-numbing psychotropic drugs. They’re quite capable of living happy and productive lives, which is why the unprecedented, accelerating expansion of the Church of Scientology is not good news for the makers of such drugs.

And consider this, from writer K. J. McElrath:

“The dirty little secret is that board members of virtually all major pharmaceutical corporations also sit on the boards of major media companies–broadcast and Internet news, print media, public relations firms and even social media companies. They have one job: to make Big Pharma look good. Furthermore, faculty members of major universities are now getting in on the scam.”