Why Mark Bunker is wrong

Marty recently posted a blog entry from Mark Bunker entitled Why I Support Marty by Mark Bunker. I know I was not the only one who was interested to read what Mark had to say, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who is deeply disappointed in a man who largely helped to launch the modern-day protest movement.

Mark Bunker is not a stupid man, nor an inexperienced one, and it’s hard for me to believe that he has bought into Marty’s bullshit. But what other conclusion can one come to when one reads sentences like this one:

“Enough tremors keep happening and he might actually shatter the locks on the doors and free people like Heber Jentzsch from captivity.” — Mark Bunker

Now, I feel like I’ve said this about a million times, so here we go with a million and one. Three days after Marty’s famous “Free Heber” post, Heber went to visit his son in Los Angeles. Karen De La Carriere, Heber’s ex-wife, told us herserlf three months later, and yet Marty never made mention of it. I talked about this in “Omitted by Marty: Heber is alive and well,” and I’ll reiterate: While I know life under David Miscavige is pretty terrible, it’s likely that Heber stays because he wants to. We know from Karen’s post that he’s had the opportunity to go the way of Marty, Mike Rinder, and Marc Headley.

Marty preaches and sells Scientology – which means that Marty is, in an indirect way, one of Heber’s jailers.

Mark goes on to talk about the Lisa McPherson Trust:

“We [the LMT] may not have gone about it the best way possible (okay, we didn’t) but we were there because we wanted to draw attention to abusive practices like disconnection that are still hurting members of Scientology today.” — Mark Bunker

First, it bothers me to hear Mark talk so dismissively about the LMT. Nothing looks perfect from the inside, but it was the LMT that helped formed the foundation for Anonymous, which clearly now carries the torch for telling the truth about Scientology.

Secondly, need I remind the Wise Beard Man that disconnection is an L. Ron Hubbard policy? Of course, Hubbard apologists love to point out the 1968 policy “Cancellation of Disconnection” in which Hubbard said that “Disconnection as a condition is cancelled.” (HCO PL 15 November 1968). That’s disconnection as a condition, not as a practice. And yet they conveniently forget that Hubbard talked about disconnection in a 1983 policy:

“A Scientologist can become PTS by reason of being connected to someone that is antagonistic to Scientology or its tenets. In order to resolve the PTS condition, he either HANDLES the other person’s antagonism… or, as a last resort when all attempts to handle have failed, he disconnects from the person. He is simply exercising his right to communicate or not to communicate with a particular person.” — L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 10 Sept 1983, PTSNESS AND DISCONNECTION

Incidentally, Marty has defended disconnection as defined by Hubbard in the policy above. Perhaps Mark Bunker missed Marty’s post entitled “Pimps, Prostitutes, and Disconnection” (a post I may have elicited) in which Marty uses the disconnection policy to justify walking away from a man beating the shit out of a woman.

Marty wrote, “You’d also be a fool by ignoring the real consequences of allowing a Suppressive to continue to make your life hell. I wholeheartedly advise someone disconnect from a genuine source of suppression, who despite efforts to handle, continues to suppress.”

That this is exactly how LRH defined disconnection.

Now, one could argue that the Church uses forced disconnection, to which Marty says he is opposed. But where is the force? LRH says “Handle or disconnect.” The Church says “You must either disconnect from an SP or you cannot be a Scientologist.” This is a terrible choice for a Scientologist, because they have been conned into believing that Scientology is the only path to salvation. But it is a choice nonetheless.

I am getting off on a tangent, but my point is that if the LMT was opposed to forced disconnection, than why the fuck is Mark Bunker supporting a man who believes in disconnection exactly as L. Ron Hubbard defined it, and just as the Church practices it to this day?

Mark Bunker continues:

“There are many critics of Scientology who can’t forgive Mike and Marty for their actions while in Scientology.” — Mark Bunker

Okay, let’s get two things straight.

First, Mike and Marty not out of Scientology; they are simply out of the Church. There is a BIG difference.

Second, while it is true that I have trouble forgiving Marty for what he did in the Church – mostly because he still maintains that LRH’s Introspection Rundown, which killed Lisa McPherson, constitutes proper treatment for a psychotic break – my reason for opposing him has NOTHING to do with what he did while part of the Church. I have nothing but praise for people like Aaron Saxton and Jesse Prince, who did plenty of evil things in the name of Scientology but have been open and honest about it since.

No, I can’t forgive Marty for what he is doing NOW, which includes making money by selling Hubbard bullshit; lying about L. Ron Hubbard; lying about the real source of the crimes and evils of Scientology; keeping quiet on issues that affect his own well-being, like Scientology’s tax-exempt status; and censoring those who would tell the truth or point out his lies.

Perhaps I could forgive Marty if all he was trying to do was sell Scientology services. If Marty wants to make a buck off the suckers who buy into his bullshit, well, that’s the way of the world. But what Marty is doing is trying to establish a foundation to re-build Scientology as L. Ron Hubbard intended.

And L. Ron Hubbard was a lying, evil, black-hearted con man who captured the hearts and minds of his followers, bled them dry, and left them empty.

I don’t know how a wise, bearded man like Mark Bunker can fail to see that – but then, history is full of men willing to appease evil in the hopes that they will find favor with the new regime.

Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed. Perhaps Mark Bunker is holding out hope that there can be a “kinder, gentler” Scientology (which won’t come from anyone who follows LRH doctrine as strictly as Marty does).

Or perhaps this is all a ruse to favor curry (and donations) for Mark’s movie, which will slam Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard as thoroughly as it should. That would be rather crafty, although it saddens me to think that Mark Bunker would stoop to the level of Hubbard, Miscavige, and Rathbun, all of whom were/are willing to bend the truth in order to line their own wallets.

Either way, I can’t imagine that Bob Minton isn’t turning over in his grave.

If Mark really does support Marty, then I think it’s time for him to supplement his reading of Marty’s blog with some re-reading of L. Ron Hubbard policy. Let’s not forget what Marty really believes in, or who is at the root of the whole Scientology scam.

And Mark, if you really do support Marty, then I’ll take a cue from him and recommend a song:

ML,
Caliwog

The Church tracks down Marty’s brother

The latest from the Church’s anti-Marty crowd is a blog entry about his brother Scott, which alternately says that he “lives alone with two birds he keeps for company” and “is in full time care.” The gist of the article is that Marty is ignoring Scott, who is projected as a lonely man who just wants to hear from his brother.

My take on this is that Marty’s relationships with his family are none of the Church’s fucking business. They should be ashamed of themselves for stooping this low. (They should be, but they won’t.) And I’m sure this article will backfire, generating a lot of sympathy for Marty. If he plays his cards right, he can probably get Tony Ortega of the Village Voice, who seems to buy 100% into Marty’s bullshit, to write an article.

Even though I think this is wrong, I stop short of sympathy for Marty. Why? Because the Church is acting exactly the way founder L. Ron Hubbard directed them to. And L. Ron Hubbard is the man that Marty holds up as his ideal.

This is usually the point where I quote policy proving that the Church is just doing what Hubbard said, and put paid to Marty’s constant and continuous lie that David Miscavige is the root of all of the Church’s evils. But is that really necessary? Any devoted Scientologist will tell you that Scientology is all about doing what LRH said. Furthermore, public issuances, such as the MartyRathbunBlog.com web site, have to go through a process called IA, which stands for Issue Authority. They must be checked for exact adherence to LRH tech and Church policy before they can see the light of day. Marty may try to blame this sort of bullshit on Miscavige, but the truth is that the Church is acting in accordance with Scientology scripture. (Lucky for Marty, most of his customers are public Scientologists who aren’t familiar with the “Admin Tech.”)

And let’s not forget that the Church has been doing this sort of thing for decades. Once again, I will ask why Mike and Marty did not try to put a stop to this sort of thing when they held positions of authority in the Church? The answer is simple and self-evident: Because this is what L. Ron Hubbard said to do. Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder know that. And just like any good Scientologist, Church-going or Independent, they always do exactly what L. Ron Hubbard says. Best yet, they don’t have to tell their customers/followers the truth, because LRH said that one should tell an “acceptable truth” (i.e. a lie) for public relations purposes.

This is why I have absolutely no sympathy for Marty Rathbun. You reap what you sow, Marty. If you had truly left Scientology – if you spoke out against the true source of Scientology’s crimes, like Jesse Prince does – I might feel differently. But you haven’t, so I don’t. Remember, Marty, the basic cause for the harassment of your brother is YOUR religious philosophy.

By the way, the article also mentions that schizophrenia runs in the Rathbun family, which, it says, “explains a lot of what we are currently witnessing with Marty falling apart and losing his marbles.” This should give you some idea of how ignorant Scientologists are about mental illness. Marty may be a lot of things, but it’s pretty obvious that he’s not schizophrenic. Scientologists won’t realize this, though – and it is with this same level of ignorance and incompetence that they make decisions about the health care of their children. This is just one of the reasons why I maintain that Scientology is exceptionally dangerous.

I am glad that Scott is getting proper care. The article notes that despite being on psychiatric medicine – something Scientologists consider an evil on par with rape and murder – he is “lucid, interesting, intelligent, well-mannered and loving.” If Scott were being cared for by Scientologists, he’d probably be dead like Lisa McPherson. Let’s be frank: Until Marty Rathbun quits Scientology, the further he stays away from his brother Scott, the better.

ML,
Caliwog

The beat goes on

I haven’t been writing a lot lately, because from what I can see, I don’t have to. Nothing seems to be changing in the Scientology world. Marty and Mike continue to lambaste David Miscavige’s every move by piling on as many adjectives as their well-thumbed thesauruses will provide, while the Church continues their broken-record assault on Marty’s facilities, saying that he can’t possibly deliver proper Scientology. Everyone has reason to get riled up, everyone huddles around the horse of their choice, and everyone makes money.

One thing that really did impress me was this video of Marty’s wife, Monique, confronting a Church member who came to her door while Marty was away. I say this in all seriousness: What a classy woman. It’s clear to me from her voice that she was nervous, but she did an outstanding job standing up to and confronting the Scientologist who came to her door.

It got me to thinking more about the Scientology mindset. Let’s set aside Marty, who clearly knows a lot more than he lets on. Here’s a woman who has the convictions of being right. She believes the version of Scientology that has been presented to her by Marty. On the other side, we have Scientologists who believe the version of Scientology that has been presented to them by the Church. And by concentrating so intensely and intently on each other, they ignore what those of us who oppose Scientology so easily see: The whole thing is a fraud. It’s frustrating, because it doesn’t take much to see that L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology are full of shit.

But as long as they concentrate on each other; as long as Monique is willing to believe Marty and as long as that ridiculous woman in the sunglasses is willing to believe Miscavige, no one has to look… and Marty and Miscavige will continue to make money.

And the beat goes on.

ML,
Caliwog

Where’s Ron?

I was reading yet another Scientology declaration of independence – this one by OT8 Ziba Feulner – and one particular passage stood out:

“The Gestapo-like ethics and justice machinery of Miscavige cull these people’s PC folders for overts revealed in confidential sessions and publish them on SP Declares; examples are Mark Rathbun or Mike Rinder. What other church does this? Would LRH do something like that? NO, he would NOT!”

Actually, LRH probably would – and did. As we know, there is plenty of evidence that L. Ron Hubbard was a ruthless man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, including cutting off his children and letting his wife go to prison for Scientology’s crimes.

But let’s pretend that wasn’t the case. Let’s say Ms. Feulner is correct, and David Miscavige really has steered the Church of Scientology away from the course set by Hubbard.

Why hasn’t LRH come back to fix it?

Think about it: According to Scientology technology – which, Ms. Fuelner writes, “works 100% if applied correctly” – LRH didn’t die in 1986; he voluntarily dropped his body, and his immortal soul, or Thetan, lives on. According to LRH, Operating Thetans are not bound by matter, energy, space or time. LRH and other OTs can move about the universe as they please, and grab a new body, human or otherwise, as needed.

Since LRH worked so hard to free Earth, and since he repeatedly told his Scientologists that they were the only hope for Mankind and/or the Universe, one would think he’d drop by periodically to check in on things. Surely he would have noticed what David Miscavige has done to the Church. Why hasn’t he grabbed a body and started kicking some ass?

The way I see it, there are two possible answers.

1) LRH’s technology was wrong. Either a, the soul does not really live on; b, LRH’s idea of the Thetan was not correct; or c, his procedures for freeing the soul do not work.

2) LRH has been here to inspect things, and he’s perfectly happy with the way David Miscavige is running the Church.

I suppose there is a third option, which is that LRH is busy elsewhere and hasn’t made time to check on the Church, but I find this extremely unlikely. LRH maintained tight links to his followers for the 35 years between writing Dianetics and his death. I can’t see him staying hands-off for the next 25, unless he lacked the ability to return.

I don’t see a way to explain this one away. The good news is that this is just one of many ways in which Scientology doesn’t stand up to logic and thought. That’s a key element of LRH “technology:” Bury ’em in bullshit, and fill in enough minutiae that they won’t think things through forthemselves. Because people who think things through tend to leave Scientology for good.

Incidentally, the Feulner declare shows the danger of relying solely on a single course for information about Scientology. In her declaration, Ms. Feulner asks “Where is Mr. Heber Jentzsch, one of our most favorite leaders in Scientology?” and refers to Marty’s Free Heber post. I’ve already supplied the answer: According to Rathbun supporter Karen de la Carriere, Heber was in Los Angeles visiting his son three days after Marry’s post. I notice that in the 200 or so comments following the declaration, neither Marty nor any of his sheep have bothered to set Ms. Feulner straight (and if anyone has, Marty censored the comment). OVIIIs like Ms. Feulner have money, and it wouldn’t be good for business if she knew that her beloved Heber Jentzsch is most likely staying in the Church of his own free will.

ML,
Caliwog