Starting a church is "disturbingly easy"

I'm tempted to support this new church—founded by John Oliver.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/08/17/john_oliver_televangelism_last_we...

It doesn't promise little people will grow taller or limbs will be restored but it does need money. Won 't you help?

>2 spartan: Not in Bethlehem. There I would suggest starting with the shepherds.

Hey all you "woozes", what about the church of Film Stars started by a 2nd rate SF author.
He really was not that good...

You know the one every one is too scared to mention ços they might be sued'.

Guido, who not a Cleared Thetan Clear" who is though quite happy to be considered as one by idiots, and worshiped and had money sent to...

>5 guido47:
I always thought the idea of "celebrity centers" was an interesting theological concept. I guess some believers are more equal than others.

And don't forget the one started by a young con-man from New York. He was run out of town a few times and kept moving his followers west. Magic clothing included.

>4 spartan: Yes. I've also been in Bethlehem. Not a lot of water around.

>9 TotalBookcase:

In Satan's Power, a sociologist called them "Technianity" through overcaution.

>9 TotalBookcase: Scientology

>14 TotalBookcase: In earlier decades, the Scientology group were a force to be reckoned with, and it was possible to be targeted for merely speaking ill of them. Residual fear remains. My daughter and I used to go to Hollywood and just wait for them to start preaching out in front of their building on the boulevard. We'd then do routines based on Bobcat Goldthwait's line in his early standup:

"I AM a living example of Dianetics!"

Bobcat was an odd one, back then (still is, to some extent), but we thought we were funny. It also made them go back into their building and hide. :-)

Here's a fun read on the church:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/go/media/al1290.htm

Okay, not necessarily fun, but certainly a representation of the times. I'd never seen this site before (I just found it this morning, when searching for some examples from the eighties).

http://www.xenu.net/

Interesting place.

>14 TotalBookcase:
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief gives some idea of how they operate. I know that Germany classifies them as a cult but I hadn't heard that the UK sees them as tax-dodgers. A step in the right direction, in my opinion.

Re. #10: By the way ... I'd LOVE to be able to get a copy of Satan's Power if anybody had one available for (substantially) less that what it's going for over on Amazon!

>17 BTRIPP:

It's a fun book, but ultimately not as illuminating of its subject as Love Sex Fear Death.

Re. #15: The author of Satan's Power had joined, and lived with, the Process Church of the Final Judgement (the subject of that book), which was, in its earliest manifestations (as detailed in Tim Wyllie's Love, Sex, Fear, Death), a "heretical" off-shoot of Scientology called Compulsions Analysis. The Process was, for it's entire run (roughly from 1965-1974) declared "suppressive" by L. Ron Hubbard, and its members (or at least its leaders) were subject to "Auditing Process R2-45" ... leading to a good deal of (understandable) "institutional paranoia" as far as anything that would draw the attentions of the Sea Org.

>20 TotalBookcase: Cornwall

>22 TotalBookcase: The climate.

>22 TotalBookcase:, >23 Noisy:
Being able to walk on water is a great way to impress surfers.

Apparently Jesus Himself had problems in doing it after His resurrection.
It seems the holes in His feet proved a handicap....

Well, it was five loaves and two fishes. I'm sure that makes a difference.