Rules, Religion and Control

If you've been following the news lately, you will most likely have seen the series done on Anderson Cooper AC360 with respect to Scientology as well as all the coverage of the Catholic church cover up on child molestation. It is all over the news and of course when the "words" come out from those victimized by these organizations, the first thing that is done is to silence the victims.

The Scientology group of course brings out people to claim that what these victims are saying, just never happened. If you watch closely, you'll see that each person speaking on behalf of Scientology is almost reciting some memorized series of statements cloaked as fact, to basically say the same thing. It makes them appear to be speaking in unison against a rebellious few. Coincidence in the way this is done - not in my mind!

Then if you go to the Catholic Church and see the coverage of the victims that is coming out and how much it has been hidden all the way to the top of the Church organization, you see the top officials making the victims out to be nothing more than spreading gossip and hate against the church. You see the church officials do everything they can to discredit the people who are bringing these accusations out. Of course when that does not work, you invoke people's sense of shame and guilt by making statements connected to beliefs of the church so as to make it almost a sin to speak out.

These organizations are very clever in how they stomp down on those that speak out about people in the organizations . Yet, the Bible is very clear in the case of children that children are not to be harmed. Maybe that is one part of the Bible that these people don't feel they need to follow. Who knows? I would offer an explanation that it has nothing to do with following the bible. My premise is that it has more to do with power and ego than anything else.

The ego loves to be fed and you feed the ego through power, money, possession, fear and control of others, abuse, molestation, jealousy, hatred, bigotry, racism and on and on and on. The ego is the one that causes us to do things that we would otherwise not do. Ok, maybe that statement is a little overly simplified but in many ways, the ego is at the root of everything. So the power that these organizations have is simply a way to feed the ego of the people running them as well as all the people under them.

That is why the Scientology Church and the Catholic Church all try to find ways to silence the victim. For if the victims are allowed to expose the "sins" of the organization, than they would lose their control, power and money. I'm sure there is someone reading this thinking that I'm being too harsh on these places. And it isn't just the Scientology Church or the Catholic Church that does this. It is churches of all denominations and governments and groups. Where there is control, power and money - you'll find the ego is alive and well.

What I'm more amazed at is how people allow themselves to be controlled and manipulated as members of these organizations. They give money out of the sense of duty and obligation as a passage way to greater rewards and gifts for their own life. And even when all of these facts pour out about the abuse and atrocities that are a result of the inner workings of the church, they still give money to these organizations. Why is that? What part of this is hard for them to see?

It all comes down to these people who from little babies on up have been fed a set of beliefs. In the beginning, nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the way these things were taught to them or if it did, the desire to belong to these organizations over powered the need to be consciously aware of what was being taught. And so as the family units within the rules of society were developed, these beliefs became equal to taking a breath of air. The consciousness of the mind and brain of these peoples had been diminished to follow blindly the will, control and power of those who were in charge. It was a snowball affect of epic proportions that ran so quickly out of control, no one could notice. Of course, each of these people were mindless and following along as if they were being fed the last morsel of food while those in charge were counting on and manipulating the same people to do this. It was a viscous cycle cloaked in the concept of love, forgiveness and purpose both for now in this life time and in the future.

When we give our power away to those in charge or with more authority, we lose a little piece of ourselves. Each time we do this, we lose a little more. We become less than human as we hand over that which is so valuable to ourselves. We don't think anymore of what seems normal and reasonable. We just allow ourselves to be led blindly and mindlessly. Yes, most of these organizations do not want you to be consciously aware because if you are, you might not go along with the rest of the people in what is considered belief and fact.

And if you don't think that this applies to you, than I've got some bad news for you - it does! If you are not constantly evaluating through an objective view point, all that you hold dear to you, than you are following the status quo. It doesn't mean that what you believe is wrong but you must be willing to challenge it in an objective way in the absence of fear and control to find out if it truly is something that should be in the fabric of your life. Accepting norms and standards and beliefs because that is what society and religious organizations push us to do is not only feeding the ego of those in control but it is aiding you in becoming a mindless person without consciousness.

Consciousness is the way we evolve and become more human. It is becoming more aware of ourselves and all that we are. It is letting go and discarding all that we find to be less than in our lives and embracing that which is helping us discover more of ourselves. Giving our power away to others, no matter how noble the cause, is giving up the basics parts of our humanity. We are not meant to be mindless people in search of truth. We are meant to be conscious people in search of awareness and the evolution of our souls. For when we give up ourselves and when we give up the fear and control in our lives, only then will we truly find ourselves.

Note: Photo by NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org.


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Abuse In Religion

Interesting report by Anderson Cooper about Scientology (See video below). While we in no way can tell who is telling the truth and who is lying, religious institutions try to silence the messengers. They are very effective at this. Unfortunately, too many followers of religions willingly go along with this which is very sad.

Just like in the Catholic church where sex abuse by the hands of these priests and cover ups by the Pope is coming to light, many church denominations have members who harm children and others. The Catholic church is leading the pack right now in this but it isn't just them.

Our family was part of the fundamentalist sect of Baptist Churches (GARBC - General Association of Regular Baptist Churches) while growing up. This sect was so strict that one could not go to a high school dance, or to a restaurant that served alcohol or even sit closer than 6 inches to someone of the opposite sex. They were always preaching that if you did anything that would cause someone else to stumble, you were responsible for what that person did. They would not even allow boys and girls to swim together and when you went swimming, you almost had to wear a three piece suit. You had to wear swim wear that was not revealing along with a tshirt and until you got into the water, you had to wrap your legs with a towell. This is just some of the things that they practiced and preached. I could go on for a long time about this sect of Churches. The environment in this Church fostered the ability for things to happen to me. To much was done in the name of God's Love that has haunted me for years.

I still remember my father coming back home from a Lowell Lundstrom seminar where he supposedly asked if masturbation was wrong or right. This of course is what he told me that he asked at a marriage seminar put on by the Lundstroms. When he got back home, he of course enjoyed speaking about it with me as a very young boy. While it was disguised as "educational", it was nothing of the sort because it was a way for my father to get his jollies. I don't blame Lowell Lundstrom of course but my father used religious methods and places to further his sick practices. While I'm sure this doesn't sound nice to hear, it is part of what I experienced.

So when I see these places like the Catholic Church or Scientology or others stand up and act as if they are being victimized by the accusers, I really want to go and see if they have any functioning brain cells. How many child molesters and abusers do you know have actually owned up to what they did? Probably the number is very low. Yet, these child molesters and abusers twist the facts and turn the accusations back on the accusers. That is what they are good at. That is how they control and manipulate their victims. This is normal operating mode for these people. In fact, I would be surprised if they did anything different.

However, just because the perps try to distort the facts and twist things around, it doesn't mean that they are correct. It is very difficult to come out as a victim on any of these things and often takes years of work to get to the point where someone is able to do that. Victims don't easily speak out because of the shame, guilt and because they were taught to stay silent. That is how these religious organizations get away with all they do.

It is a poison that is feeding on our society and our world. The body and the mind of the child was not meant to experience or endure these things. If we don't work to stop these things and expose all that is going on, than we are just as responsible for what happened. To stay silent and not protect others is not human. If we don't wake up in our world and our society before it is to late, than we will have brought a generation of darkness upon the earth.

This report by Anderson Cooper is very good and valid. I'm glad he is doing it and I applaud his courage in shining the light of truth on organizations that are excellent at silencing people. In case the video does not show, here is the link to Anderson Cooper's report on Scientology.

*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog