How and Why Scientology became a 'religion' and how they hide money and abuse

[Idle Morgue]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU9OIcv2GTIwIyztO3SKs3JQ&feature=player_detailpage&v=AfN1vqt48LM

Lawrence Brennan left Scientology. He was an attorney that worked for L Ron Hubbard. He helped write "What is Scientology" - a book written for religious cloaking purposes only.

Now you have the truth - why Hubbard wanted Scientology a religion and how he did it!

 

[JustMe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU9OIcv2GTIwIyztO3SKs3JQ&feature=player_detailpage&v=AfN1vqt48LM

Lawrence Brennan left Scientology. He was an attorney that worked for L Ron Hubbard. He helped write "What is Scientology" - a book written for religious cloaking purposes only.

Now you have the truth - why Hubbard wanted Scientology a religion and how he did it!

Geeeeeze that Lawrence guy sure sounds like a scary dude. I sure am glad I don’t live next to him.


Oh and BTW I don’t think he was an attorney. At least if he was one, he sure didn’t know about it.

 

[dchoiceisalwaysrs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU9OIcv2GTIwIyztO3SKs3JQ&feature=player_detailpage&v=AfN1vqt48LM

Lawrence Brennan left Scientology. He was an attorney that worked for L Ron Hubbard. He helped write "What is Scientology" - a book written for religious cloaking purposes only.

Now you have the truth - why Hubbard wanted Scientology a religion and how he did it!

I see you have made an honest mistake Idle Morgue. Larry was not an attorney although he did a lot of work in the legal realm. And Larry is now known as Denise Brennan and is wonderful person, with great humility, a heart greater than gold, and a great sense of humour as illustrated in the post immediately following your OP.

And Just ME. I would be honoured to have you as my next door neighbour.

 

[JustMe]

I see you have made an honest mistake Idle Morgue. Larry was not an attorney although he did a lot of work in the legal realm. And Larry is now known as Denise Brennan and is wonderful person, with great humility, a heart greater than gold, and a great sense of humour as illustrated in the post immediately following your OP.

And Just ME. I would be honoured to have you as my next door neighbour.

Awwww that was really sweet dchoice, thank you

And I would love to be your neighbor You too Idle Morgue, I think we all would have been great offline friends

 

[Emma]

Denise I was going to ask you this privately as the question came up the other day & I didn't know how to answer it. But I'll ask you here because others may have the same question. I hope I cause you no upset or discomfort.

Larry Brennan is a hero to me. The information he has been able to get out into the public domain about the religious cloaking of the CoS is just so damaging. It's factual, well written & well organised.

Denise Brennan is also a hero to me. You are a class act & incredibly brave and true to yourself. I love you to pieces.

So when someone asks me about anything to do with religious cloaking I refer them to the materials Larry wrote. But here is my dilemma. Do I say they were written by Larry or Denise? It might seem like a silly question, but I really don't know the answer.

 

[JustMe]

Denise I was going to ask you this privately as the question came up the other day & I didn't know how to answer it. But I'll ask you here because others may have the same question. I hope I cause you no upset or discomfort.

Larry Brennan is a hero to me. The information he has been able to get out into the public domain about the religious cloaking of the CoS is just so damaging. It's factual, well written & well organised.

Denise Brennan is also a hero to me. You are a class act & incredibly brave and true to yourself. I love you to pieces.

So when someone asks me about anything to do with religious cloaking I refer them to the materials Larry wrote. But here is my dilemma. Do I say they were written by Larry or Denise? It might seem like a silly question, but I really don't know the answer.

Oh my dear Emma thank you for your kind words. Coming from you who have done so much to helpothers, well that means a lot.


I was going to answer you privately as this will be too long and of little to no interest to most who will see this. But for those who might use or find helpful those things I have written or spoken about in the past, well I am writing my answer to Emma in here.


I have been on a transition from“Larry” to “Denise” for years. The first person I spoke to about it was my dear, dear friend Nancy Many and we spoke for hours and hours. She is also a great friend of Kate Bornstein and she got me hooked up with Kate.


I spoke with Kate and then met with a PHD psychologist who specializes in matters transgender and we started the first of many, many sessions which we still do at least twice a month. With her and with other people connected to her I started to be called “Denise”. (Although l regularly had chatted as “Denise” in online forums until late into most nights for more than two decades. I had many online friends who only knew me as “Denise”. Oddly enough it was in that cyber world often full of lies where I could best relax and be my true self, far better than offline).


Anyway after a year of then weekly therapy I finally got my appointment with a highly regarded and qualified doctor specialist in the department of endocrinology. That day I started what has now been two years of daily doses of estrogen which has dramatically changed my body, yet the more and more it changed the more I felt relieved and myself.


After a year or so into that I started being called “Denise” by many friends and co-workers although I rarely presented myself as a woman.


The big change came in May and June of last year when I legally became “Denise Lara Brennan” and a woman. In May 2012 I received a legal letter from a specialist medical doctor that I had clinically transitioned to female. Then on June 7, 2012 I had a hearing in the local probate court and as a result the court issued a “CERTIFICATE OF CHANGE OF NAME” legally changing my name from “Lawrence Harold Brennan” to “Denise Lara Brennan”.


In the days, weeks and months following that all my IDs, credit cards, everything was changed to my new name andgender. This includes my work records, my driver’s license, passport, you nameit.
I have not dressed as a man or been in a men’s room for about a year. I could never imagine going back to that (not that that is possible anyway).


I have no clothes from the time ofLarry at all except for a few items I don’t use that I am trying to sell.
There is legally and factually no LarryBrennan anymore, just me, Denise.


Earlier last year I changed all my publically known online screen names from “SME”, “LarryBren”, “Lovinglife625”and “LarryBrennan” to “Justme” or “Born2Shop” or “Denise Brennan”. But I left three things of Larry Brennan online.


The first was a facebook page I maintained as “Larry Brennan” in addition to my “Denise Brennan” one.


The second was an old long-term email I maintained as [email protected].


These two I just cancelled maybe a month ago. I kept them in place for only two reasons. Many people who needed to reach me only knew that email address or facebook link so I figured I would leave both for them to use to reach me. But it was also left for family who abandoned me when they found out I was transitioning. I had hoped they would someday try to reach me to reconnect. That never happened.


The only connection I still have up anywhere that says “Larry” is my old blogspot ”larrybren.blogspot.com” that contains links to various writings, talks and videos I had done over the years. I would love to let that go too but I cannot figure out how to do so as so many people have told me they use it. So I guess I have to leave that one but I will never post on it again.


Later in May of this year I am staying a couple of nights with Nancy Many. While there Nancy and I are going to do a big ceremony of sorts for me. We’re really playing it up and it will mean a great deal to me (at my insistence part of the ceremony will be for her too but as that part is about her and not me I will not go it).


I already have this long purple dress and some items I will be wearing and we will using as part of the ceremony (purple represents a sort of spirituality to me for a number of reasons).


Now part of the ceremony will be very, very positive and address becoming more myself as part of what I consider my journey “home”. That will be the most fun part, a sort of reconnecting to what I call my “sisters” in a life of kindness and love. I even have dozens of faery and elements charms I am bringing to represent so many beautiful people like you and others on here who are part of that beautiful future.


But part of it is addresses the past that included my life as “Larry”.


I am letting him go forever.


As part of this, I will be burning a few small things. One is a small male item from my past and another is a small picture of LRH. Neither are burned in hatred. The burning is symbolic of mys aying goodbye forever to things I tried my best to be that I could not really be and that were a lie.


Another item I will be burning is a small paper box that cannot be opened. The burning symbolizes the letting go off all things that were closed minded such as loved ones not accepting me but also whenever I was not myself and indeed close minded.


I am also going to have something there to represent the family in my life that could not accept me. I am going to give them my final love and unbind them from any obligation to ever again love me because I was a member of their family. It has hurt me greatly in the past that family that once loved me have “disconnected” from me and will never be seen with me again because of who I am. I am forgiving them and letting them go as I move on to a different phase of my life, sort of a rite of passage.This could be as simple as unwinding a string around a human image and whispering my love and my goodbyes.


Perhaps my most painful (to me) part of this is my asking forgiveness (at the very least my forgiving myself) for all who were hurt or otherwise harmed because of anything I did while ins cientology.
I always tried to be kind, refused to take part in secchecks of others, never hit another, never busted another,never supported (I even sabotaged them) criminal actions Hubbard and DM wanted to take on staff, etc. Heck when all other members of WDC had abused staff oneway or another I used to take my special unit staff out for ice cream and pies and even have movie rental nights every week.


I never could hate our “enemies” and thought, wrongly, that there was something wrong with me that I could not.


But it wasn’t enough just to be like the above. I helped legally and “religiously” cloak a monster that carried out horrid abuses of others, thus unintentionally helping them do that. Many people were hurt on my watch or because of my watch. I have no idea how many people have been hurt through this and even how many families do not exist today because I helped a monster in LRH and one in Miscavige. And while I never abused people like they did, I did not do enough to stop the abuses.


I have never been able to forgive myself for this as it runs against the very fiber of my being and always has. I think in the ceremony I am going to bring an empty scrapbook. I will look at it and imagine the pictures that could be in there had I not helped organized scientology (babies never born, birthday celebrations, Christmases never had, loving couples happy in their retirement, so much more love that could have been but was not because of the monster of scientology).


And I will so hard try to forgive myself as I leave Larry behind and go more into the life of love, kindness, joy and acceptance I was meant to live but only did in part up to now.


In short Emma honey I am and mus tleave “Larry” behind and be just me. I think people that need to refer or otherwise use my writings and the like as Larry should feel free to do so. Because search engines will find so much more of these under “Larry Brennan” instead of“Denise Brennan” feel free to use my old name if it helps people.


But other than that “Larry” is my past and will soon be dead to me as I move into being more myself on my journey home.


I’m sorry this is so painfully long. I was always verbose (even as “Larry”).


w/<3 - Denise

 

[JustMe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU9OIcv2GTIwIyztO3SKs3JQ&feature=player_detailpage&v=AfN1vqt48LM

Lawrence Brennan left Scientology. He was an attorney that worked for L Ron Hubbard. He helped write "What is Scientology" - a book written for religious cloaking purposes only.

Now you have the truth - why Hubbard wanted Scientology a religion and how he did it!

Some thoughts on scientology and the “religion issue”, is it or is it not?

Perhaps I have derailed this thread and if I have I am sorry. But here is a reply that I hope addresses what was intended to be covered in the OP.

And this will all be nothing more than my opinion.

Yes scientology was indeed cloaked as a religion for all the reasons I mentioned in that affidavit of mine ( http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Talk:Declaration_of_Lawrence_H._Brennan ) and in a chat I had almost three months ago with Steve Hassan (http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?30479-Steve-Hassan-and-Denise-Brennan-Chat-Feb-10-2013)

Recently I have been asked by someone to help debate this subject on TV with a member of the ACLU. Of course I am willing to do this but I want to frame that debate properly.

I don’t think the key issue in such a debate is whether or not scientology is a religion. Yes it was falsely so cloaked but today there are many scientologists that consider it a religion and so to them it is.

To deal with these people I have done my best to show how it was so falsely cloaked. As well, I have done my best to show them a side of Hubbard and Miscavige that perhaps they at that point never knew, their greed, their lies, you name it. Now it is up scientologists to follow their hearts which at the very least I hope means many will not do some of the worst parts of Hubbard’s writings. I wish all of them freedom and happiness and wisdom.

In many more narrow legal matters (such as federal or local tax exempt status and other rights afforded religions) whether or not scientology is a religion depends on how “religion” is defined pursuant to relevant statutes.

But getting back to the possible debate, I would suggest that the real issue is twofold.

The first is whether or not scientology is a charity and thus in the public benefit. In Australia there was an inquiry a couple of years ago to address making it a requirement that a "charity" be in the public benefit before it is subsidized by the government with tax exempt status. I testified in that inquiry although per Australian law I cannot go into what I said.

If you do things like selflessly and without charge help homeless people, orphans, single mothers in need, the hungry, the sick, etc. then clearly you are in the public benefit. If you charge outrageous prices for your “help”, if money is what motivates you and if you harm countless people, then clearly you are not a charity or at the very least you should not be subsidized with things like tax exempt status.

If a local government does not have such a public benefit test requirement, I believe it should.

I believe that organized scientology clearly fails any reasonable public benefits test and it in no way deserves anything at all like tax exemptions. Yes they can cloud any such inquiry with lies and with the help of highly paid lawyers but if the truth were known, they would lose any fair test.

And this does not even address the many areas where organized scientology and scientology in its standard practice actually hurts people (such as the constant harm they cause others through Narconon, a CCHR that lies and keeps people from getting needed help, things like the purification rundown, etc.).

I believe that the second issue for this possible debate is when does the right of religious practice trump human rights and vice versa?

For example in most modern western societies I think people would be allowed to freely believe in a sun god and even hold ceremonies worshiping it. But despite this religious right, they would not be allowed to sacrifice a virgin to their sun god even if they thought that was a deeply held religious belief and right. In this case clearly human rights (the right to your life) trumps religious rights.

So now we come to organized scientology and its widespread abuses of countless human rights which they try to defend with a religious cloaking and screams of religious bigotry. But where can you pierce their cloak of religion and “goodness” to make it stop the suppression of human rights? I think that legally that depends on what human rights, in what context and in what degree are they violated and in what jurisdiction they are violated.

If it were my world I would say that human rights may not be violated by any religion or group professing to be a religion. IMO human rights trump the right of religious practice when they conflict. And no religion has the right to force their beliefs on others.

Organized scientology is a cesspool of abuses of human rights around the world. I would be glad to debate that point with anyone. And I would be willing to debate that in the context of what they should be allowed to get away with (or not) as a "religion".

With a real public benefits test and a strong defense of human rights by our governments, the issue of whether or not scientology is a religion becomes moot and can be relegated to arguments in bars, on blogs, by academics and the like. In short, pretty much unimportant.

And to the degree that we keep getting out the truth we will help people see the light and either get out of it or not get into it in the first place. Then organized scientology dies the death of cash starvation one org, group or sub part at a time. And more people are free. And it doesn’t matter how many high-priced attorneys they have.

In summary I say let us focus on whether or not scientology is a charity in the public benefit before it gets ANY public subsidy and on helping protect human rights in spite of organized scientology being considered a "religion" (or not).

And should this fight ever die down as more and more of us move on with our lives, and should organized scientology still suppress so many rights, well then I say to anyone who wants to fight for rights THIS:

 

[Reasonable]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU9OIcv2GTIwIyztO3SKs3JQ&feature=player_detailpage&v=AfN1vqt48LM

Lawrence Brennan left Scientology. He was an attorney that worked for L Ron Hubbard. He helped write "What is Scientology" - a book written for religious cloaking purposes only.

Now you have the truth - why Hubbard wanted Scientology a religion and how he did it!

That was a good video, the funny thing is that when I was in I knew that "Scientology being a religion" meant that they did not have to comply with national laws and I thought that was a good thing. So I don't think that this would convince any Scientologist to get out.

I thought Hubbard was so smart for being able to get around the government who was there to control me with its suppressive laws.

I still want to go on the record as saying that just because I don't like Scientology that I trust the government, psychiatry, organized medicine, organized religion or corporations any more than I did before. I just now include Scientology in those self serving groups.

 

[Idle Morgue]

The first was a facebook page I maintained as “Larry Brennan” in addition to my “Denise Brennan” one.


The second was an old long-term email I maintained as [email protected].

OMG - I had sent you an e-mail thanking you for your affidavit and exposing the truth about the book "what is scientology"...your response made me think that perhaps OSA had that address...you sent me a message saying you did not use it much ...can't remember exactly what you said but now it all makes sense...

So - thank you again Denise - for being a courageous person that exposed the truth. The book - What is Scientology - is one of the books that kept me in the cult for far too long. That is not your fault and you made up any damage by coming out - exposing the truth and helping others from going into Scientology.

I got others into the cult - I felt horrible once I realized what Scientology was - I got some of them out (15) and am working to free others...it is now my mission in life. The cult would consider me "rabbidly antagonistic" towards Scientology, El WRong Hubbard and David Miscavige. I tell at least 5 people a day to not get into scientology - that it is a dangerous cult. Clerks, hair dressers, barbers, baby sitters, teachers, lawyers, doctors, mothers, fathers, college students - every day in every way I deliver an effective blow to the enemy - the Church of Scientology and David Miscavige.