Lyris Lite :: "Scientology and me" - they're weird, but you MUSTN'T call them a cult!

Last night, BBC One aired a documentary that reminded me of last month's "The Most Hated Family in America". Unfortunately this show didn't feature the charmingly polite commentary of Louis Theroux, but the presenter, John Sweeney, still did a great job. Aired as part of the channel's "Panorama" block, this programme, instead of focusing on Christians, focused on the warped world of Scientologists. It's already available on YouTube.

In case you don't know who Scientologists are, they're a weird group of people that take money from you and make you feel that they are making your life better (kinda like the BBC, in fact). In other words, they're basically a Subscription-based Religion. According to the documentary, they viciously follow anyone that crosses their path (well hello, boys!) and dig up the dirt on them. Not only this, but the Scientologists in the show actually started stalking the film-maker, following him everywhere, trying to keep tabs on them for saying bad things about their cult.

"Cult", apparently, is the word that scientologists do not want to hear. Apparently, it's really offensive to them. Normally when a minority group makes as a statement like that, I'd immediately apologise, but not in this case, because the Scientologists in the show came across as just that: leaders of a cult. Throughout the film, John Sweeney was stalked by a particularly loathsome little pratt in a black suit and shades, who did his best to come across as menacing and intimidating. A fellow Scientologist goon was always hovering nearby with a video camera, documenting each and every word. When he arrived at filming locations, he found that the dirt had already been spread about him.

The celebrity interviews from the show are actually mostly cut out, replaced with a still image whereby John Sweeney gives a summary of what was said. Apparently, because he used the word "cult", the interviews had to be removed completely, and the BBC was threatened with a barrage of messages from the scientologist celebrities' lawyers. It's scary that they can have that sort of power.

Near the end of the programme, John Sweeney loses it and starts screaming at the goon in shades. Who wouldn't! This annoying little twerp has been following the film-maker around for the whole show, talking over him, stalking him, spreading crap about him, and acting as if the guy has no right to question his sacred nonsense. Sweeney even apologises for his outburst, but there was no need. The guy in shades was so annoying that had John Sweeney socked him in the jaw, I'd still have thought no less of him.

The thing that I don't understand - and I hope I don't offend any people reading this that happen to be religious too much - is that there were plenty of people ready to scoff at the Scientologists but wouldn't do the same thing for Christianity. The differences are clear: I've not heard of any other church that stalks people and spreads dirt about them, but aren't the fundamental concepts of putting faith in an incredible story the same? If Christianity had been invented yesterday, everyone would be laughing at it in the same way. Christianity's stories of resurrections and other implausible acts, however, are built upon and are given a new dose of ridiculousness by Scientology's sci-fi roots: Holy Ghosts are replaced with Galactic Lords, which are definitely much funnier.

What was also interesting, was that some of the celebrities that appeared clearly found the concept ridiculous as well. When fed the story of the alien war-lords, they either said it was nonsense, or started laughing! How phony can you get? This builds upon my theory that only the most devout followers of a religion truly believe in the nonsense that is fed to them. The rest keep quiet and treat it as some sort of activity club for adults.

The whole show confirmed what I was already suspicious of: that a lot of human beings are fundamentally quite silly and require any sort of organised faith system - however ridiculous - to feel whole. I think that's sad. Watch the show and tell me if you agree.

I watched this last night, after hearing the uproar on the news about John Sweeney. I would have totally done the same to the f**king 'Tommy' dude who has some serious personal space issues.

I still thought they believed the Sci-Fi story until last night, Now i have absolutely no idea what they based their so called Religion on.

I bet that 'Church of Scientology' bought the housing market over there right down as well. . .

God Damn Freaks, Oh Wait I'm having a Revelation, I love Scientology, this will definitely change my life for the better.

The video of Sweeney shouting at the Scientology nut was posted on youtube. On its own he looks as if he is going overboard but those of us who actually watched the entire program knows the dick in the shades got off lightly.

David, I tried to comment on that video because I noticed that all of the comments were saying what a nutcase Sweeney was. When I posted the comment I told that it would only be shown if it was approved by the video uploader.

I checked the profile, and sure enough - the guy uploading was a scientologist himself. I somewhat doubt my comments will make it through.

I caught this as well. It struck me as a really odd documentary, very short and with a strange pace. It was obvious that loads of content had been shot which wasn't allowed to be shown. Culminating with a BBC reporter completely losing his cool was unprecedented, but I guess the scientology nutters called it all off after that and sent the BBC packing with legal threats.

I mean, any group that maintains itself like that... can't say I have much faith in the integrity of your organisation.

By the way (I think it was mentioned on the show), the whole sci-fi history with Xenu and whatnot is no longer a part of Scientology, so the girls that laughed at it were in line with their cult's teachings.

Boo, it's been taken off now. Shame! Anyone able to source this onto a DVD for me?

Tried posting this the other day but I think the connection at the local library didn't like me, but is there anyone that could source this on DVD for me as I missed the whole thing and only caught 10 minutes or so of it on BBC 1's Signzone repeat?

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