Marc Headley is an ex-Scientologist who wrote an excellent book entitled Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology. Marc and his wife Claire bravely locked horns with the Church by suing them, alleging labor law violations and two forced abortions. Last week, a federal judge dismissed the case — and Marty Rathbun has the gall to call the dismissal “a blessing in disguise”.
Marty’s blog entry goes into a long explanation about conservative judges vs. liberal judges, and predicts that the dismissal will be reversed on appeal (and for once, I hope Marty is right).
At the end, we finally get to why Marty thinks this is a blessing in disguise. The case was apparently dismissed because the judge felt that delving too deeply into the accusations would violate the Church of Scientology’s Constitutional protection as a religion.
That’s not good for the Headleys or the Scientology protest movement, but is good for Marty. Very good, in fact. Marty writes:
If Fischer’s ruling becomes law, RTC will become virtually powerless to seek the courts’ assistance in blocking, or even harassing, independent delivery of the religion of Scientology…In other words, my words this time, if RTC* wants to bring a case that in any way opens up an inquiry…into your practice of Scientology when your practice is Scientology doctrine-motivated, they will swiftly be shown the door by the court.
(* RTC: Religious Technology Center, the organization that owns the copyrights and trademarks of the Church of Scientology.)
As it happens, I don’t think Marty’s argument is correct, as RTC usually sues based on copyright infringement. As far as I know, religious organizations are allowed to hold copyrights.
No, the real reason this ruling is so good for Marty and his crew — which Marty conveniently fails to mention — is that this ruling also bolsters the Church’s tax-exempt status, something it seems clear Marty does not wish to go away. Remember, Marty gives Scientology “auditing” for money, and has a donations link on his page. (It’s worth noting that donations accepted without giving anything in return are against the LRH doctrine of exchange, something Marty and his band of merry Independents regularly attack DM for doing. Hello, kettle? This is pot…)
There was one bright spot in Marty’s post, which is that the judge ignored the 21-page declaration he wrote on the Headleys’ behalf. It’s basically a rant written to further Marty’s personal vendetta against David Miscavige. I doubt it would have done the Headley case much good, although I’m sure it was great for Marty’s ego.
If you haven’t read Marc Headley’s book, I highly recommend it; you can support the Headleys by ordering it from their site. Marc’s story is unique in that it documents the crimes of David Miscavige and the Church, but does not defend LRH — Marc was born into Scientology, but never bought into LRH’s bullshit scam doctrine.
Interestingly, Marty Rathbun wrote the forward to Marc’s book, even though he has written on his blog that he and Marc disagree about LRH. According to another blog entry, Marty says he was a guest at the Headleys’ house. I wonder if he’ll still be welcome once they find out that Marty considers their case dismissal “a blessing?”
Read Marty’s blog entry here. The SP Times article about the case dismissal is here.
ML,
Caliwog
P.S. Some good news — the SP Times article acknowledges that there are two anti-Church groups, one who opposes Scientology and one who practices it. Go SP Times!
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