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[vulva]

You think being condemned to burn in hell because you "worship false idols" isn't a problem? That's inherently linked to the morality of the religion - believe in me and only me or die. And then there's all the bullshit that's in Leviticus that people conveniently ignore.

Well, except for Jehovah's Witnesses, where giving a girl blood transfusions is evil - so it's better to let her die "pure" than being "corrupted".

The funny thing is, I don't really care what people believe and how they believe. But to say that the dogma and the mythology isn't inherently tied with the "morality" of a religion is almost ridiculous.

I mean, the very fact that Genesis has a "retcon" - where Lilith, Adam's "equal", is removed because women should be inferior to men - that in itself is a "moral" judgment invoked by the men who "transcribed God's word" in the first place.

Read up on Lisa McPherson

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, I know. I don't deny that Scientology isn't fucked up and hurt people. But let's not pretend that other religions are free of their own bloodshed.

 

[I <3 Memes]

You can't compare the transgressions of religions past with the more recent actions of Scientology. Particularly their infiltration of the FBI and IRS as well as mailing themselves a fake mail bomb and pinning it on a critic of scientology. That woman might still be in a mental institution if the set-up hadn't been discovered by the FBI during their investigation of Operation Snow White.

[x] Do they try to separate you from your money and worldly possessions?

[x] Do they try to separate you from any family or friends that are critical of Scientology or might try to get you to leave the CoS?

[x] Do they stalk and harass any critics or former members that leave the church or criticize the church?

Yup, looks like it checks out as cult to me.

 

[FunkyMunkey]

Yeah, I know. I don't deny that Scientology isn't fucked up and hurt people. But let's not pretend that other religions are free of their own bloodshed.

Who said that?

?????

Scientology is in a depressing and disheartening mainstream league of its own.

 

[heliosRAzi]

Let Scientologists believe in their DC-7s and volcanoes and Xenu. Let them believe that body thetans infest our souls and they must try to purge them all. Let them believe that L. Ron Hubbard is a saint. I don't give a shit about any of that.

What I do give a shit about is the whole organization charging people to practice their religion. I care about the organization forcing disconnection. I care about their overly litigious behavior. The religion, although a bit kooky (what religion isn't?), is not the problem. The problem is the organization itself.

 

[Atrus]

You can't compare the transgressions of religions past with the more recent actions of Scientology. Particularly their infiltration of the FBI and IRS as well as mailing themselves a fake mail bomb and pinning it on a critic of scientology. That woman might still be in a mental institution if the set-up hadn't been discovered by the FBI during their investigation of Operation Snow White.

[x] Do they try to separate you from your money and worldly possessions?

[x] Do they try to separate you from any family or friends that are critical of Scientology or might try to get you to leave the CoS?

[x] Do they stalk and harass any critics or former members that leave the church or criticize the church?

Yup, looks like it checks out as cult to me.

1. Many religions try to mandate monetary 'charity', some by mandating minimums based on income to even forcing non-believers to pay additional taxes. In practice some have had their children taken away as part of the deal, and in others forged documents were created out of nothing, such as the Donation of Constantine.

2. Some religions enforce the rule of blasphemy, limit who a person should marry, and certainly make distinctions against associating with those that would contaminate the religion.

3. Some religions allow for the execution of former members that leave or criticize their religion.

As you can see, it's hard to forment a clean definition of cult without including other religions in there.

While you're correct the actions of Scientology are more recent, they are certainly within the expectations of organized religion. I have no problems with government oversight and inteference of religious practices.

It would help quash Scientology's abuse and that of other religions as well (sex scandals, preaching in support of terror or murder, and the general anti-human beliefs that get propagated.)

The problem is whether or not people from other religions are willing to accept government control and monitoring over religion.

 

[polyh3dron]

Let Scientologists believe in their DC-7s and volcanoes and Xenu. Let them believe that body thetans infest our souls and they must try to purge them all. Let them believe that L. Ron Hubbard is a saint. I don't give a shit about any of that.

What I do give a shit about is the whole organization charging people to practice their religion. I care about the organization forcing disconnection. I care about their overly litigious behavior. The religion, although a bit kooky (what religion isn't?), is not the problem. The problem is the organization itself.

You didn't even touch on their slave work force, the Sea Org and how inhumane the treatment of them is.

 

[I <3 Memes]

I feel exactly the same way about it Razi. As an Atheist I'm not going to look down on the ideas of Scientology for being goofy. The Jehovah's Witnesses have contradicted their own religion so much it's history is a pretzel by now. The history of Mormonism, in particular Joseph Smith (dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumbbb), is pretty ridiculous. Every religion is based on goofy obviously untrue stories and I don't hold that against Scientology. If it makes people happy and they don't try to infringe on my life with their beliefs and don't break any laws then at the end of day I'm happy for them. Whatever gives people peace I guess.

But Scientology never talks openly about what their beliefs are. Every real religion around would be more then happy to talk into any open mic available to tell you their beliefs. But not Scientology. Never so much as a word.

Two reasons for that. First, what they believe is so goofy that it would bring ridicule down on them. Most people don't have any idea what Scientology is based on and the Cos would like to keep it that way.

But the second, and most important reason, is because if their beliefs were public knowledge then they wouldn't be able to charge for it. Their entire business (not religion) is based on people paying increasingly higher fees to reach higher levels in the church. It's a business and a scam plain and simple.

 

[BowieZ]

This scam is actually worse than any Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff could ever pull off.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I mean, the very fact that Genesis has a "retcon" - where Lilith, Adam's "equal", is removed because women should be inferior to men - that in itself is a "moral" judgment invoked by the men who "transcribed God's word" in the first place.

I'm not going to answer the rest of your rant because I am convinced that nothing I could ever say would change your mind. Once we agree to disagree, I have to take exception to this little bit right here.

The Lilith myth didn't come into prominence until much later on in Jewish history than the writing of Genesis. It was definitely present in Jewish folklore during the period of the social prophets (notably in Isaiah) and in later apocryphal works (the Talmud) and it became a common enough story that mothers would place talismans warding Lilith or the Lilim (her daughters) off, but there isn't much evidence to suggest that she was present in the Adam and Eve story during the time Genesis was written.

If you want to take it back further, possible forerunners of Lilith take the form of storm goddesses, but the connection is tenuous at best since the trail grows cold ~300 years after the creation myths of Genesis were first written (later versions seem to differ in the details of the histories of the Patriarchs).

The version of the story you're referring to comes from Kabbalah and first appeared in the 13th century or so.

 

[Asmodai]

Who said that?

?????

Scientology is in a depressing and disheartening mainstream league of its own.

I completely agree that they are depressing and by all accounts a bunch of irrational fanatics.

But I look at it this way: at least they aren't killing people. So many religious fanatics out there ARE killing people, and have been for millenia.

I could care less how stupid their rituals are, or how many unfortunate people they exploit.

Religions have been exploiting the stupid and gullible since the beginning of recorded human history and possibly before.

It's not as if Scientology was the first one to do it or something. Why act as if they're any different? They aren't. They're fanatics, yeah, but they aren't the most fanatical or different in any meaningful way, so it seems pointless to single them out.

 

[BowieZ]

I completely agree that they are depressing and by all accounts a bunch of irrational fanatics.

But I look at it this way: at least they aren't killing people. So many religious fanatics out there ARE killing people, and have been for millenia.

????

 

[Asmodai]

????

They do kill people? I've never heard about it.

Basically, I look at it the same way I look at a common criminal, say a robber.

Yes, robbers are bad. Yes, they should be punished as society has deemed that robbers should be.

But at least the criminal isn't a murderer. So it's a lesser criminal.

Same thing with Scientology. Plenty of religious fanatics are out there murdering each other, and trying to, even as we talk on this forum. At least this religion, while using many intimidation tactics and possibly committing crimes like other religions, at least they aren't committing the worst crimes, unlike some other religions.

Get what I mean?

 

[Poimandres]

Why can't they just be a good old family fun sex cult like the Raelians?

 

[speculawyer]

This scam is actually worse than any Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff could ever pull off.

No . . . Bernie Madoff has got them beat. C'mon . . . he swindled massive coin.

 

[BowieZ]

No . . . Bernie Madoff has got them beat. C'mon . . . he swindled massive coin.

Sorry, I forgot money is more important than people's sanity.

 

[TheSeks]

They do kill people? I've never heard about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Hubbard (Rumored to not be a suicide)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_controversies

There's other places like Project Xenu that talks about apparent deaths of CoS members and how they delay getting the body back to the family of that member. Really shady and scary shit, compared to Christianity and the like, dude.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

When does something like this fully become a cult? Is there a rule book?

 

[Asmodai]

When does something like this fully become a cult? Is there a rule book?

Hell, it's a pretty fine line between organized religion and cults at the best of times. I think the technical definition is based on how many followers there are, though. It's probably too large to be strictly considered a cult, but to me there's no real difference between them.

 

[TheSeks]

When does something like this fully become a cult? Is there a rule book?

define: cult

followers of an unorthodox, extremist, or false religion or sect who often live outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader

I'd consider that last part the reason CoS is a "cult" for me, personally. They take people in, basically break them away from their family and follow the writings of a Science Fiction writer to a T. THEN infiltrate governments, have shady deaths going on in their cult, ... many many creepy/shady things that make them MUCH different from old religions.

 

[laserbeam]

When does something like this fully become a cult? Is there a rule book?

It was declared a Cult by the National Cult Awareness Group. Of course scientology began an army of litigation causing the group to go under. Scientology quickly bought the rights to the group etc and removed all the negative stuff about scientology.

 

[BowieZ]

It was declared a Cult by the National Cult Awareness Group. Of course scientology began an army of litigaation causing the group to go under. Scientology quickly bought the rights to the group etc and removed all the negative stfuf about scientology.

Actually I don't think the Cult Awareness Network had defined them as a cult harshly enough.

Taking over the group was the Church's way of rectifying this.

 

[siddx]

When does something like this fully become a cult? Is there a rule book?

I believe several European countries classify scientology officially as a cult. Hence the charges brought against some scientologists in France.

Really they are just as nutty as any other religion has the potential to be in the wrong hands, they just use different terminology that makes them seem crazier and they have a higher percentage of nutjobs among their followers that say, christianity.

 

[legend166]

This is how I differentiate between religion and cult:

Are the beliefs and practices of said organisation freely available for study and investigation by all those who wish to know it?

It's extremely easy to find out the main beliefs of the mainstream religion. Thousands of books are published every year available to read for anyone who wants to go in depth. The Bible has been translated into pretty much all languages.

This is not the case with Scientology at all. Well, now that the stuff has leaked it's more freely available, but that goes against the direct wishes of the church. You have to pay money to find out what they believe. If they do not pay money, they will keep information from you.

Don't forget the fact that they've made it almost impossible to practice their beliefs unless you are under the umbrella of the organisations. There are different sects and organisations within all religions that have cultish tendancies and do very, very dodgy things. For example, I as a Christian, think the Word of Faith movement is a complete sham. But they don't represent the entirety of Christianity. They aren't going to sue me if I worship Jesus at a different church.

How can people not see the difference?

 

[cartoon_soldier]

This is how I differentiate between religion and cult:

Are the beliefs and practices of said organisation freely available for study and investigation by all those who wish to know it?

It's extremely easy to find out the main beliefs of the mainstream religion. Thousands of books are published every year available to read for anyone who wants to go in depth. The Bible has been translated into pretty much all languages.

This is not the case with Scientology at all. Well, now that the stuff has leaked it's more freely available, but that goes against the direct wishes of the church. You have to pay money to find out what they believe. If they do not pay money, they will keep information from you.

How can people not see the difference?

Because there are people who hate Christianity more than anything else (or its cool to do so). And you have fucked up cases like excommuncating a 9 year old raped by her stepfather.

So my question is, you know how you got millions of people who do identify themselves as Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc while not following everything strictly (lets say Premarital Sex in case of a few of these), can one join Scientology and continue to take anti-depressants without being kicked out?

 

[laserbeam]

Because there are people who hate Christianity more than anything else (or its cool to do so).

So my question is, you know how you got millions of people who do identify themselves as Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc while not following everything strictly (lets say Premarital Sex in case of a few of these), can one join Scientology and continue to take anti-depressants without being kicked out?

Medications like that are a big no.

 

[TheSeks]

can one join Scientology and continue to take anti-depressants without being kicked out?

No.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

No.

See thats fucked up.

 

[Sibylus]

Secret knowledge, secret rituals, disconnecting members from family and the outside world, charismatic leadership that sometimes stresses divinity or "prophet-hood" in themselves, aggressive persecution of outsiders, suicide pacts, etc, cults typically have a great deal of those attributes.

 

[laserbeam]

See thats fucked up.

Their belief is that Medications like that are basically the works of Nazis and even compares the doctors to the holocaust and nazis

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

As someone who has a personal interest on cults and has known of scientology's crimes since the early 90's, I can't wait until chanology delivers its promise and ends the abuses.

 

[TheSeks]

See thats fucked up.

Yep, but what are you going to do about it? Anyone that is in that cult basically will believe (or will be forced to believe) this.

Read about the Rundowns. (Whoops, guess that doesn't give as much information as I thought it did. Nevermind, I'll just leave that there though)

Hell, read anything in that wikipedia section about Scientology. Most of it won't be blocked by them since they blocked Wikipedia (and wikipedia can now find edits by the "Church"). CoS is scary shit man.

 

[Asmodai]

many many creepy/shady things that make them MUCH different from old religions.

No offense dude, but history obviously wasn't your specialization if you believe that "old religions" didn't do a ridiculous amount of creepy/shady things.

The Spanish Inquisition is the most blatant example. It's famous now, yeah, but back then the Vatican wasn't exactly publicizing it to the average Catholic.

And hell, just because old religions put their cards on the table and were much more blunt about killing the heathens, witches, etc, how is that better? Killing somebody via creepy/shady methods, like the Spanish Inquisition, or just straight up religious war, like the Crusades, how is one of them better or worse than the other?

They're both the same reprehensible crime.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

No offense dude, but history obviously wasn't your specialization if you believe that "old religions" didn't do a ridiculous amount of creepy/shady things.

The Spanish Inquisition is the most blatant example. It's famous now, yeah, but back then the Vatican wasn't exactly publicizing it to the average Catholic.

And hell, just because old religions put their cards on the table and were much more blunt about killing the heathens, witches, etc, how is that better? Killing somebody via creepy/shady methods, like the Spanish Inquisition, or just straight up religious war, like the Crusades, how is one of them better or worse than the other?

They're both the same reprehensible crime.

Most People these days don't care for or know the role of religion in history of colinisation.

 

[Milabrega]

Asmodai, are you a Scientologist? At the moment, all it seems you are doing in this thread is trying to deflect the discussion away from the acts of the Scientology organization and onto other religions. Or even justifying some of the horrific things being posted in this thread by an apples-oranges comparison of others doing worse.

 

[TheSeks]

They're both the same reprehensible crime.

They are, but the thing is: The "normal" religions don't hide behind closed doors and money to gain access to this knowledge.

Call me when Christianity is anywhere near as shady as CoS is. They may hide things (and I'm sure they do, in fact I know for sure they do) but they have no where near as much power/paranoia as the Scientologists do.

 

[Asmodai]

Asmodai, are you a Scientologist? At the moment, all it seems you are doing in this thread is trying to deflect the discussion away from the acts of the Scientology organization and onto other religions. Or even justifying some of the horrific things being posted in this thread by and apples-oranges comparison of others doing worse.

Hahah, please, I take that as an insult. Hell, there isn't much worse you could call someone in my book than a scientologist. It's basically saying "Are you a ridiculously gullible, unintelligent person who is a member of a religion that exists primarily to sucker people out of their money?"

So yeah, that should answer your question.

All I've said in this thread is that people seem to be directing much more hatred at scientologists when there are other religions that deserve it even more.

But believe me, any organized and partially criminal organization getting exposed and getting the hatred they deserve from people is a good thing in my books.

Sorry that I gave you the wrong impression. Funny, when I post in religion threads on GAF, I'm usually worried about being labeled a "militant atheist", not a scientologist for crying out loud :lol

They are, but the thing is: The "normal" religions don't hide behind closed doors and money to gain access to this knowledge.

Call me when Christianity is anywhere near as shady as CoS is. They may hide things (and I'm sure they do, in fact I know for sure they do) but they have no where near as much power/paranoia as the Scientologists do.

Oh, I completely agree. The Catholic Church has evolved to stay socially acceptable as humanity has progressed. I don't think they will ever be as shady as the scientologists, not even close. (they tried to hide the recent priest molestation stuff, but that's the worst I can think of)

Disagree on the scientologists having any "power", though. The Catholic church is the biggest religion out there, and I doubt the Pope has any power other than to convince poor, uneducated Africans that condoms are evil. He has no real political power, hasn't for a long time. I don't think any one religious organization has a lot of political power.

 

[legend166]

No offense dude, but history obviously wasn't your specialization if you believe that "old religions" didn't do a ridiculous amount of creepy/shady things.

The Spanish Inquisition is the most blatant example. It's famous now, yeah, but back then the Vatican wasn't exactly publicizing it to the average Catholic.

And hell, just because old religions put their cards on the table and were much more blunt about killing the heathens, witches, etc, how is that better? Killing somebody via creepy/shady methods, like the Spanish Inquisition, or just straight up religious war, like the Crusades, how is one of them better or worse than the other?

They're both the same reprehensible crime.

Well, the Crusades happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Trying to compare the acts of Scientology today with the acts of other religions hundreds of years ago should tell you something.

 

[Atrus]

How can people not see the difference?

Because the word 'cult' is not synonymous with Evil or Bad. Religions themselves are comprised of 3 main aspects; the Creed of the religion, the Code of the religion, and the Cult of the religion.

Modern usage of the term is usually used by some to attack the legitimacy of other religions. For instance, Catholicism and Islam are cults to various Evangelical groups, while forms of Christianity that is neither Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, is a heretical cult to the Church.

The Catholic Church felt so strongly about it, for a time they forcibly removied (aka. Kidnapped) Jewish and Muslim children because they felt it was a moral imperative to save these children from inevitable damnation under their parents misguided beliefs.

I don't mind your definition of course, but I'm sure Mormons would take issue.

 

[I <3 Memes]

As someone who has a personal interest on cults and has known of scientology's crimes since the early 90's, I can't wait until chanology delivers its promise and ends the abuses.

That chanology stuff is never going to accomplish anything and never was going to. It's laughable.

If you want to hurt scientology you have to get people to stop buying music or going to movies with scientologists in them. Whether or not that gets celebrities to leave scientology or not doesn't matter because movie studios and record companies will drop them if they are going to hurt their business. It would cause most celebrities to leave though. If you take celebrities out of the equation you take away a huge draw for scientology.

That's why they recruit celebrities so heavily, they use them to promote a positive image of the CoS even though the CoS that celebrities belong to and the CoS that ordinary people belong to are very different. I wouldn't be surprised if the CoS also helps celebrities avoid paying their fair share of taxes in someway. I've never heard anything like that but my instincts tell me something like that is happening.

 

[Roto13]

I don't believe for a second that any of the higher-ups in Scientology actually believe their own bullshit (except maybe Tom Cruise because he's a drooling fucktard). I'm pretty sure the pope actually believes in God.

 

[Asmodai]

That's why they recruit celebrities so heavily, they use them to promote a positive image of the CoS even though the CoS that celebrities belong to and the CoS that ordinary people belong to are very different. I wouldn't be surprised if the CoS also helps celebrities avoid paying their fair share of taxes in someway. I've never heard anything like that but my instincts tell me something like that is happening.

They probably also recruit celebrities so heavily because most American celebrities are heavily medicated, ridiculously ignorant morons. Easy to convince them to sign up.

 

[Zaptruder]

Dividing religious worshippers between normal religions and cult is a bit of a disservice to understanding the real dichotomy that exists.

In reality, there are fundamentalists, and there are mainstreamers.

Irrespective of the size of the religion, fundamentalists are those that adhere dogmatically to the constructs of a religion, while mainstreamers take bits and pieces of a religion to apply to their personal lives as guidance.

Most religious people are mainstreamers; for whatever reason, they just don't buy all the bunk, and can't adhere to it for the most part anyway.

The difficulty with mainstreamers is that they don't identify along those lines; they identify along the lines of their religion; so they group themselves in with fundamentalists of the same religion.

But the difference between the two groups (fundamentalists and mainstreamers) is that fundamentalists are far more susceptible to having their behaviours changed dramatically to the point where they can no longer interact with society in a healthy way.

with regards to cults; these are simply religions that have been unable to attract a large enough mainstream following... so their primarily fundamentalist members appear kooky as shit. If you isolated the fundamentalists of any religion, you'd find them all to be equally kooky.

At the base of the fundamentalist and mainstream dichotomy, you'll find that the differences between the two groups is that fundamentalists are less independent in their thinking; they respond well to groupthink dynamics. You'll also find them more strictly adherent to major heuristics/beliefs; less able to cross integrate the many different rules and exceptions that life throws at people in general.
Of course, not all fundamentalists are like this, nor are all freethinkers not like this; but you'll find that people with these sorts of tendencies are significantly more susceptible to the dogma of religion and cults.

 

[TheSeks]

Disagree on the scientologists having any "power", though. The Catholic church is the biggest religion out there, and I doubt the Pope has any power other than to convince poor, uneducated Africans that condoms are evil. He has no real political power, hasn't for a long time. I don't think any one religious organization has a lot of political power.

Oh, the Catholics may have power. I agree. But they do it under the radar. Operation: Snow White? Yeah, Scientologists are trying to infiltrate governments and shit that makes me leery extremely of them more than the Catholic Church.

In fact, I'm leery of ALL religions, just the CoS is the one that makes me the MOST leery due to the shady. :lol

>>words<<

Tell me, do you think Scientology will ever be viewed as a "mainstream" religion? That will have "mainstream" followers?

I don't think it will. The majority of the world is scared/paranoid/doesn't believe it's "religion" about it.

 

[Asmodai]

Oh, the Catholics may have power. I agree. But they do it under the radar. Operation: Snow White? Yeah, Scientologists are trying to infiltrate governments and shit that makes me leery extremely of them more than the Catholic Church.

In fact, I'm leery of ALL religions, just the CoS is the one that makes me the MOST leery due to the shady. :lol

Actually I was saying that I thought the Catholics didn't have much power anymore. Their only power is to convince the most sheep-like of their followers that things like condoms are evil.

They have no real political power. Joseph Stalin put it well when he asked how many tank divisions the Pope had. :lol

I agree that these activities are highly illegal and stupidly shady, and I have absolutely no doubt that these idiots are trying around the clock to infiltrate the governments of nations and do other things they have on their agenda.

Of course, I also am extremely confident in the sheer incompetence of scientologists and religious fanatics everywhere.

As such, I'm assuming that the more criminal elements will end up thrown in jail, and the rest of the religion severely damaged in the public eye as a result.

Isn't that what happened to the Mormon leader? I think he's still in jail in the US.

 

[Chumly]

The difference between Scientology and normal religions is that Scientology's core church are the "crazies" while the core churches of other religions have nothing to do with the crazy spinoffs.

Also theres many fundamental differences that make Scientology significantly more cult like and worse than normal religions.

 

[polyh3dron]

They do kill people? I've never heard about it.

Lisa McPherson.
Lisa McPherson.
Lisa McPherson.
Lisa McPherson.
Lisa McPherson.

It was posted before, but you ignored it.

More often than not though, killing isn't really their style. It's more about completely ruining someone. Former execs being held in what is practically a dungeon, never getting outside the walls, that sort of thing.

Also, this x1000:

The difference between Scientology and normal religions is that Scientology's core church are the "crazies" while the core churches of other religions have nothing to do with the crazy spinoffs.

Also theres many fundamental differences that make Scientology significantly more cult like and worse than normal religions.

 

[Ollie Pooch]

It was declared a Cult by the National Cult Awareness Group. Of course scientology began an army of litigation causing the group to go under. Scientology quickly bought the rights to the group etc and removed all the negative stuff about scientology.

how do you buy the rights to a cult awareness group when they themselves declared you one?!

 

[TheSeks]

how do you buy the rights to a cult awareness group when they themselves declared you one?!

The same way you can get articles about your "religion" that is negative against it removed.

Basically what Polyhedron says below. And a hell of a lot more ways. They can threaten the writer, buy them out... blah blah blah.

 

[polyh3dron]

how do you buy the rights to a cult awareness group when they themselves declared you one?!

This is a prime example of the evil genius of Scientology. Google the Cult Awareness Network and read their story, it's quite interesting. The CAN got bought by a CoS front group that calls itself the "Foundation For Religious Freedom".

This of course happened after a concerted effort by the Church of Scientology to get many of its members to file a near simultaneous barrage of frivolous lawsuits against CAN which drove it into bankruptcy, where the assets became available.