Scientology: Religion of the Stars
The “smoggy” spirituality of L. Ron Hubbard.
“The lamp of your body is your eye; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you may not be darkness.” Jesus, Luke 11:34-35, NASB
Many Hollywood celebs have embraced the religion Scientology, the teachings of the late L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986). In 1950 L. Ron, a prolific science fiction author, wrote a book Dianetics that set forth his teachings. To promote these teachings, he realized the value of celebrity endorsement and to this day famous persons publicly align themselves with Scientology teachings, among them being such notables as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Fox News legal analyst Greta Van Susteren. Through information and techniques offered at expensive seminars, Scientology offers people a method for coping with the stresses of life. The method works something like this.
Scientology teaches that the human mind is divided into two basic parts, the ANALYTICAL and the REACTIVE. The analytical part of the mind is good because it “perceives, remembers, and conducts the reasoning processes.” The REACTIVE however, is not so good. This half of the brain harbors what Scientology calls ENGRAMS, or repressed traumatic life experiences long past, that in a conditional way still influence and determine the reactions of a person to other crisis experiences of life. As such, the repressed negative experiences of the past can unconsciously rob people of happiness in the present. The goal of Scientology is therefore, to void one’s psyche of ENGRAMS, to become a THETAN, or an absolutely “spiritual” person who is no longer affected by the ENGRAMS of the past. Persons who have not effectively dealt with their “engrams” are categorized, “PRECLEAR.” Persons who understand their ENGRAMS and do not allow them to control and obstruct their happiness in the present are called, ”CLEAR.”
But Scientology denies essential truths of the Christian faith. For example, it views the Passion of Christ as one gigantic ENGRAM. Both the existence of sin and the death of Jesus for sin are ENGRAMS, gross inventions by a bunch of “PRECLEARS.” Scientology also thinks that Jesus was not a THETAN (a person who had attained a state of pure “spirituality”). Rather, in Scientology’s estimation, Jesus attained a status a little bit above clear which, according to their scheme of thinking, would mean Jesus was sinful, a state of soul that Scripture denies existed in our Lord. As the writer of Hebrews says, we have ”a high priest [Jesus] . . . who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15, NIV; See 2 Corinthians 5:21.).
The scientological system also denies the role of divine forgiveness as the means whereby one’s life is cleansed from engrams, from what Scripture calls sin(s). But as Isaiah the prophet plead with God:
O restore me to health, and let me live! Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; It is Thou who hast kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. Isaiah 38:16b-17, NASB
By its denial of man’s sin, Jesus’ sinlessness and His penal substitutionary death on the cross for sin(s), Scientiology is antichrist. A greater question arises; which is, does the scientological system work? In a psychotherapeutic way, does the system help human beings to void the engrams from their consciousness thereby inducing them to be un-reactionary and live well-adjustedly; in short, to be “CLEAR”?
After he proposed to an actress half his age on Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Scientology devotee Tom Cruise arrived at central London’s Leicester Square where he granted interviews to promote his new film War of the Worlds. During the interviews, he found himself the object of a prank. A supposed reporter disguised a water pistol as a microphone and offered it beneath Cruise’s chin. As the actor began to speak, the “microphone” unexpectedly and squarely squirted him in the face, spoiling his coiffured hair and leaving his face dripping wet. How did the actor respond? In the heat of the moment did he demonstrate himself to be CLEAR? Judge for yourself.
He yelled at the prankster, “Why would you do that?” In response, the prankster tried to disengage from the actor, but Cruise grabbed his arm and shouted in his face, “Don’t run away. That’s incredibly rude. I’m here giving an interview and you do that . . . It’s incredibly rude.” Cruise also repeatedly called the fake reporter, “jerk”![1]
In all of us, the “flesh” is strong. Admittedly, when victimized by a prank, any of us “could-have-would-have” reacted the same way as Cruise. But Christian believers know that no psycho-therapeutic system like Scientology will deliver them from their fleshly natures (Romans 7:14-25), from their so-called engrams. In the sanctification process, Christians will only be CLEAR by God’s grace when they arrive in the Lord Jesus Christ’s presence. As John the apostle wrote, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2, NASB).
_____________________
ENDNOTE
[1] FoxNews.com, “Tom Cruise Squirted With Water Gun,” Monday, June 20, 2005. Associated Press, London. Online at http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,160061,00.html