I'm gonna give you the Truth®, straight up: ALL religions are about money.
Scientology is just more honest about it than most, like the Catholic/Orthodox Churches, Mormons, Jewish synagogues, etc that require annual tithing based on earned household income. The synagogues are actually far worse than any Christian church, because you have to be fairly affluent to be able to afford annual membership plus the additional costs of paying for tickets for seats during the High Holy Days, and most Jews (in spite of stereotypes) aren't able to afford them -- the synagogues claim it's because of limited seating and the even more limited number of temples in each regin, which is true, and which is why poor and working class religious Jews are increasingly under pressure to immigrate to Israel where they don't have this nonsense.
But here's the thing that most anti-Scientology types don't get: it's actually a GOOD thing that Scientology is super expensive!
If Scientology was at all affordable to the average Joe & Jane, they would have many thousands more members than they do now. From the 1950s to 1980, the cost of Scientology training and auditing was negligible and before the mid-to-late 1970s, most people got their auditing free of charge because there were so many auditors getting trained and not enough preclears (people who receive auditing, which today is the most ridiculously expensive way of doing Scientology) to audit.
The current pricing structure in Scientology was set between 1980-1984 after David Miscavige led the Sea Org takeover of Scientology's international management, and prices were raised again after 1986 when Miscavige became the sole undisputed leader of Scientology. Today it costs, on average, somewhere between $250,000 (if you do only the minimum required services) to $400,000 (if you choose to do everything, including optional rundowns like Super Power and the Ls) to do the so-called "Bridge to Total Freedom". Before the 1980s, adjusting for inflation, we're talking about a mere fraction of that amount, and like I mentioned before, even if you couldn't shell out any money to get trained as an auditor, you could always get the Bridge free of charge from student auditors.
Whenever you hear of wealthy Scientologists like Jason Beghe or Leah Remini getting "free" auditing (there is no such thing as "free" in Scientology anymore), its always student auditors. The one exception to this is Tom Cruise, who is probably the only person in Scientology who has never been audited by any students or novices.
Long story short, you won't find any religion that doesn't revolve around money. Even those you think may be different, like the Buddhists or the Falun Gong or whatever, still require cold hard cash, for the simple reason that anything we do as humans requires money. It's basic economics, from Adam Smith down to Karl Marx. Everything in life can be broken down to economics.
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loriesartofnails
8 years ago
mestashere,
Small local churches (like what I grew up in) have tithes simply to keep the church going (you do have to have "some" money to run) AND most important to help the community's needy (what they are meant to do, NOT the government) Yes, these churches still do exist.
If Scientology was affordable WHY would families want to be torn apart as soon as one of them decide to leave?? If I had a family in a cult like that I would do my best to get them out.
You sound like you are of that cult to think it is good. It cost nothing but to own a Bible in the other religions, and a Bible will gladly be given to you, not force you to buy it.
I am not for any "too big for it's own good" religious church or group. When something or someone gets to big and has too much power, it does "control" it's followers. but don't have a hardened heart to think there are none of the good ones left.
I no longer go to the church I grew up in, due to moving. But I have moved back and all have a welcoming and loving attitude toward me. I see all the good they do for the needy in our area. So I will gladly defend them. And there is NO comparison between them and Scientology.
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animerika
8 years ago
A lot churches in my country are not just about money, the church my aunt goes doesn't even ask for tithes, if you want to give it then fine, if you can't then no problem.
Also they do ask for a small "donation" after a bible study that are most just coins or a couple of dollar at most, IF you can and want to. They never force anyone to give them money, not even $1, and they don't judge you either, usually the small donations are used to rent a bus that takes the people to the main church on sunday, I mean half of those people use the bus for free and you can see the little money collected are actually used for their own people.
We know that churches need money to pay for their stuff and the parishioners know this and donate small amounts of money, in other words you give what you can and want, and that is not bad, when you say "all religions are about money" it's like that's something wrong and it is not, they have needs too, a lot of religious leaders are really helping people, not everyone is a monster imposing fees to people.
I mean can you imagine anyone charging you to give you a study of each book of the bible? That going from Genesis to the Apocalypse would cost you $400,000? That's insane.
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