[lbo-talk] 77% of Americans support the cretinous judge

[C. G. Estabrook]

Not just a theoretical example.  I seem to recall that a number of
right-thinking LBOers have been scandalized by Alex Cockburn's defense of
the rights of Scientologists, which he thinks have been violated,
particularly in Germany.  And his dismissal of "religion" tout court is
clear. --CGE

On Wed, 3 Sep 2003, andie nachgeborenen wrote:


> > Let me put it this way. Imagine if there was some
> > terrible violation of 
> > rights in this country, and the first religion to
> > oprganize against it 
> > was the Church of Scientology. Does that mean that
> > we should have some 
> > respect for this particular "faith?"
> > 
> 
> Why not? Years ago I worked with religious Catholics who were putting
> their freedom on the line to oppose the arms race. These people
> witnessed by committing civil disobedience and going to jail.
> (Recently several nuns of their ilk were sentenced tyo longish prison
> term for damaging a missile silo.) Their theological views struck me
> as wacko; many of their social beliefs, dispicable (anti abortion
> rights attitudes, mainly), but they were great people, and my
> involvement with them heped redeem Catholicism for me from a Catholic
> school education. (Yes, this nice Jewish boy went to parochial school
> for three years, long story.)  So why not Scientology? What makes it
> any less of a "faith" than Catholicism or my own schul's humanistic
> (atheist) Judaism? Just b/c our faiths are older? jks