Today we sit down with Tony Ortega, a journalist who has covered Scientology for over 20 years. We talk about the mechanisms of Scientology and contrast and compare them with some of the mechanisms Mormonism. We cover topics like how both religions handle dissenters, what gives the members certainty with their respective religion, interviews to establish loyalty, Sea Org vs Missionary Program, unique vocabulary, discouragement of looking into critical information, time commitment, financial commitment, and many more.
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Miscavige
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/us/believer-what-is-scientology/index.html
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Bill, you referenced a guy named “Pasco Wellington”. Did I get the name right? I tried to find the name and came up short.
Fake Facebook profile. Once he was caught it was deleted.
Well, I learned that Mormonism is nothing close to Scientology although perhaps the Mormonism of the past was more similar that present day.
The church is quite different to what we complain about it in podcasts. In the podcast we deal with the extreme cases. Daily church experience tends to reside on the mellow non controversial side.
Although, I admit that living under the TBM paradigm can be stressful, but I find that most active members never really are or were TBM’s to begin with. Those of us who were, can be quite traumatized or bless by the Mormonism paradigm depending to the degree in which you fitted the mold.
Mormonism is changing though, it wants to become mainstream Christian, which I find less appealing. Christian churches are not doing any better, I’m not sure why we look up to them for answers at times.