VIOLENCE IN THE CHURCH
 
                                SCI - 5
 
                 Copyright (C) 1992 Homer Wilson Smith
       Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes.
 
     There is some concern over the matter of violence in the Church of
Scientology and what some call a war time atmosphere that it's members
seem to live under.  Ron's own writings seem to verify this perception
and this has caused consternation to grow in the generally peaceful
population at large.
 
     Some people argue that Ron was a crazed warlord of some kind, a
ruthless man with no ethics who was willing to lead millions of
followers on a Holy Jihad to whatever end they pursued.  This end
justified any means, violent, deceitful, covert, warlike or whatever.
 
     The FACTS are that Ron Hubbard developed Dianetics during World War
II, a time when all sides involved had the consideration that killing
people was the thing to do.
 
     It is true that Ron's military escapades as reported by himself and
the image makers of the Church has been brought into doubt, even by what
some would say is damning documentational evidence, however the facts
remain that Ron did serve on Navy vessels where men were injured and
killed.  Dianetics was developed in this atmosphere where engrams were
very real and people were getting them and dying of them everyday.
 
     It is fashionable in these quieter times to claim that engrams are
just a figment of the imagination, but perhaps engrams have just sunken
out of view because we aren't getting that many of them any more.
 
     When was the last time you had a knife in your belly and lived to
tell the tale?
 
     Today engrams are like going to the dentist, getting whipped by
your father, or breaking a leg.  Big deal.
 
     Thus when looking at the policies of Scientology you must
understand that it was born and nurtured in very violent times, when
duty called, and one's life was one's honour, the highest gift one could
give to one's country and to one's God.
 
     There was no time and no place to think of oneself.  It just wasn't
done.
 
     It is incredible to think that someone could grow up in this
atmosphere and NOT have an emotional and philosophical outlook that took
the dangerous clime of the times into consideration.
 
     Now perhaps you can say that 'yes but the war is over, its time to
get on with PEACEFUL activities.'
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                                  PAGE 2
 
     Perhaps you are right, perhaps you are wrong.
 
     Is the war over?
 
     The facts are THAT war is over.
 
     Ron himself has said on a number of tapes that one of the primary
aberrations that people have is an inability to shift gears when the
environment changes.
 
     Ron has also said that people teach best what they most need to
learn.
 
     In fact the examples he gave of this aberration were directly
germane to the situation at hand.
 
     Preclears who had just spent the previous 4 years committing
horrible deeds on a daily basis, going up in airplanes, hiding in
trenches, always on call, always in danger, never knowing when or how
they were going to be killed, never daring to care for anyone or
anything because it often was not there the next day, were suddenly
faced with the god awful silence of peace.
 
     More people went nuts the day the war ended than you can count.
 
     They would go to work and just not know how to face a day without
bombs.  They would begin PRAYING that something would happen, that
something would give them reason to get up and MOVE!  They just couldn't
stand being safe because they had become adapted to the action level of
war time.
 
     It's not that they wanted to die, or that they wanted to be in
danger, its only that they had 4 years of facsimiles(*) of being always
on edge, always moving, always looking over their shoulder, always
ducking at the slightest backfire, and those pictures and the action
they impelled, just refused to go away after the need for them had
lapsed.
 
     Thus it took auditing to get the charge on these pictures to
release, so that the facsimiles could be retired to a shelf in the mind
so to speak for later recall should they ever become needed again.
 
     You know, 'This is how we dive for cover when we hear a loud noise,
or the creaking of leaves behind us.'
 
     With auditing these same preclears were finally able to change
gears and live in the present with facsimiles appropriate to the
present.
 
     You know, 'This is how we bounce little Mary on our knee.  No she
doesn't have a bomb hidden under her dress.  That was THEN, this is
NOW.'
 
     Very rarely do the problems you are having with a Church have to do
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                                  PAGE 3
 
with the teachings of the founder or of the Church.  More often than not
it is people's IMPLEMENTATION of those teachings, or their efforts to
convey them.
 
     Thus the correct way to deal with any church, be it Scientology or
Christianity, is to find out what those teachings really are, and point
them out to the followers.
 
     You know, 'You teach that we should love our neighbors, so what are
you doing with that sword in your hand there?'
 
     Homer
 
     (*) A facsimile is a mental image picture, often containing force,
pain, injury, loss, unconsciousness and regret.