Is Scientology getting into the Christmas spirit?
Scientologists Kirstie Alley, Giovanni Ribbisi, Kelly Preston and Ericka Christensen went to the church’s Hollywood Celebrity Center to “act out” “Christmas stories” and tell “festive tales” according to a press release posted on the Internet.
Scientology’s “Drug Free Marshals” also marched in Colorado’s “Boulder Lights of December Parade,” complete with Santa hats reported Your Hub.
But what does the controversial religion really have to do with Christmas?
After all, Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard didn’t teach his devoted followers to believe in Christianity. And the church that Hubbard built has its own unique set of beliefs, such as doctrines about space aliens, reincarnation and an evil outer space villain named Xenu.
In fact, Hubbard reportedly taught that Jesus and God were false beliefs and the result of a scheme hatched by Xenu to distort minds through “implanting.”
This was certainly not one of the “Christmas stories” chosen by Kirstie Alley to “act out” at the Hollywood Celebrity Center.
And such “festive tales” are only told to Scientologists after they have paid for enough “religious services” to be properly prepared to hear them.
So what does Christmas mean to Scientology?
Well, it appears to be a season that is cynically manipulated by Scientology for promotional purposes.
December has become a month for Hubbard’s little elves to get dressed up in Yule time costumes, even if they don’t believe in the reason for the season.
Rather than accepting a messiah that was born in a manger 2,000 years ago, Scientologists actually revere Hubbard, who popped into the world on March 13, 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska.
According to the book “Barefaced Messiah” when Hubbard died in 1986 the new supreme leader of Scientology David Miscavige said, “L. Ron Hubbard discarded the body he had used…to facilitate his existence in this universe…The being we knew as L. Ron Hubbard still exists…He has simply moved on to his next step. LRH in fact used this lifetime and body we knew to accomplish what no man has ever accomplished — he unlocked the mysteries of life and gave us the tools so we could free ourselves and our fellow men…”
Hosanna?
Perhaps the most appropriate “Christmas show” linked to Scientology is “A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant” by Les Freres Corbusier, which according to Curt Holman of Creative Loafing “uses the universal form of a young people’s holiday pageant — right down to an all-kid cast — to lampoon the cult of Scientology.”
This show, which won an Obie, currently can be seen in Atlanta, New York and Boston.
This “story of stories,” is not about Jesus, but about the sci-fi writer turned-Scientology-savior Hubbard.
And isn’t that the “Christmas story” that Scientologists should really be celebrating?
Love the old photo of L Ron testing his “magic meters” on a tomato. Yes, that is a tomato. He claimed he was able to detect tomatos “screaming” when they were sliced. What will vegans do? (Insert hand-wringing here).
$cientologists(sic) are truly a confused and idiotic people. However, we would all agree that if $cientology(sic) actually told everyone on day one about Lord Xenu, they would have perhaps only celebrities that would join since everyone else would have too much grey matter to sell their souls to such stupidity.
Just one little thing I’d like to correct you on, Mr. Ross… Christmas is NOT a celebration of “Jesus”‘ birthday. For one thing, that would be wholly impossible, as traditional Christianity did not celebrate birthdays.
Also, Christmas has existed for centuries as a celebration of the winter solstice, and really has nothing to do with “Jesus,” except for the Christians who try to co-opt our holiday. Every single part of the Christmas celebration comes from other religions, and some (like decorating a tree) are expressly forbidden by the Bible. So Christmas is by no means a Christian holiday.
“Just one little thing I’d like to correct you on, Mr. Ross¦ Christmas is NOT a celebration of “Jesus” birthday.”
What part of CHRIST-MASS don’t you get? The early Christians used the Roman celebration of Baccus as a cover for their celebrations since persecutions for christians were an on-going concern for practicioners of this early Jewish cult. Thus, it is a winter holiday instead of a spring one.
I am confused about the tree decoration bit being forbidden by the Christian Bible. I know about the burning bush story, and about the Tree of Knowledge, but don’t remember the desert peoples fear of evergreens.
Believe me when I say his, There is no Yeshua (Jeses) in Christmas. Back in the early years of Christianity, there was two powers controlling Europe. One is Paganism, popular at the time and second Christianity, the minority. Before the Catholic Church became the dominant force, they had trouble convincing pagans to convert. So, the papal had a ingenius idea to fuse the two religion together. If you do some research, it is a fact the pagans of Germany and western Europe believed that on December 25th during the winter solstice, Their godess of fertility gave birth to her son, hence the celebration. The Roman Catholic Church saw that story as an opportunity to link the story of the Nativity to the story of Pagans, and not only this story but many stories of the bible were perverted for power and influence. As a result of this many pagans as well as Kings were all converted to Christianity.
This gave rise to the Roman Catholic Empire.
The christmas tree was also a Germanic symbol of fertility.
I know that the christmas tree (the Germanic evergreen) was in fact not a symbol of fertility but a symbol of everlasting life since it was green in the cold winter. The celebration of Baccus was a Roman empire celebration, the christians used this time as a cover for themselves. The fact the Germanic peoples held the shortest day of the year as a “holy” or special day is no big news since people all over the globe did this as well, like the Mayans in the new world, for example.
The belief in a virgin birth of a god was Greek in origin. The book of John was the only gospel written by a Greek, thus the author most likely infused his personal mythology into his writings. The other three gospels, which are much older, do not mention a virgin birth.
Dealing with the crucifiction is also of interest since Odin (the Norse mythos) was also cruicified on a tree in one of their stories and returned from the dead.
I don’t doubt that all religion, pagan included, “stole” various bits and pieces from other faiths that have gone before. I personally doubt that Jesus was an historical figure, but more of an melding of various jewish myths of the time. I doubt it since the Romans never really spelled out Jesus in their histories, and they were very thorough in listing all new cults that were popping up at the time.
The discussion about Christmas has no connection to the Scientology story.
Thank you, Ross, and back to the point…$cientology(sic) is obviously using it’s vast P.R. tool to try and “blend” it into a main-stream “religion” at christmas time. Since the U.S. is overwhelmingly christian by all accounts, this is a truly brilliant move. How can these cute little folks wearing santa hats be a cult? Maybe we should all give the $cientologists a second chance! They seem so much like us!
Thank goodness for the internet and also thank goodness for the children’s Scientology Christmas show. With the light of reason shining strong both from anti-cult sites such as this one, to the lampooning of the sad little cult on the popular stage, the message and the truth are getting out. $cientology’s(sic) dawn is slowly fading into dusk.
P.S., Merry Christmas to you all…even you nutty christmas-definition-denying pagans. Say hello to Baccus from me.
Thanks for the article Rick… as well as for clearing up what has been going on here in Clearwater, Florida where I live. The Scientologists put on this huge Christmas celebration. My wife and I took our daughter and had no idea these guys were promoting it until we got here. Boy was it confusing!!! There were beautiful Christmas trees up everywhere, Santa Claus was available for the kids to come sit on his lap, there was a nativity scene setup. Then you saw the other aspects around the celebration: signs thanking the Church of Scientology for their sponsorship… a woman standing on the stage singing (or attempting to sing) pop songs that had nothing to do with the holiday… people wandering around in mismatched colorful suits with fully dilated pupils and hypnotized looks on their faces… a booth with an attendant operating an e-meter offering “Free Stress Tests” (extremely confusing to those people standing in line expecting to get their hearts checked)… and of course people handing out books on how to live a better life (i.e. how to be a scientologist).
It was all kind of creepy if you ask me!!!