Lawrence Wright is highly respected as a religion-exposing author. He has previously written "The Looming Tower" about Al Qaeda. Now he is tackling Scientology and he comments that it is much less widely accepted than Mormonism.

Here's what I find so frustrating. Why can't we get some coverage for the much more widespread abuse of Mormonism? According to the criteria Wright uses, the LDS church has every single characteristic that caused the author to pick Scientology to expose: (excerpts from article here)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/15/inside-scientology-s-secret-world-going-clear-by-lawrence-wright.html

" (L. Ron) Hubbard’s decision to codify his profitable new enterprise as a religion “may” have been motivated more by “the legal and tax advantages that accrue to religious organizations than it did with actual spiritual inspiration.” Likewise, those who might ridicule Scientology’s sci-fi theology would do well to remember that, “religion is always an irrational enterprise, no matter how ennobling it may be to the human spirit.” Writing of Hubbard’s obsession with “creating a step-by-step pathway to universal salvation,” Wright asks, “If it was all a con, why would he bother?....

But it is precisely Wright’s measured tone, his use of a scalpel instead of a hammer to dissect Scientology and its manifold abuses, which renders his conclusions all the more damning. Acknowledging that members of a religion can “believe whatever they choose,” Wright adds the important caveat that “it is a different matter to use the protections afforded a religion by the First Amendment to falsify history, to propagate forgeries, and to cover up human rights abuses.” Scientology critics, myself included, have long argued that the U.S. government should follow the lead of other countries and at the very least revoke the Church’s tax-exempt status, if not take harsher measures against it for a variety of criminal activities. Lawrence Wright’s courageous investigation is a warrant to act."

I say all religions should be regularly audited and should require publication of their finances for the protection of the general public and for determination of continuing eligibility for tax-exempt status.

See those temples mostly empty holding down the real estate investments of the Mormon corporation? That's MY MONEY and YOURS paying for it!


Anagrammy

The review (and possibly the book) misses the point. You apply
Lifton's criteria, you find out which groups are cults, which aren't, and which aren't but have red flags.

Scientology is.

Mormonism isn't but has red flags.

I was going to read it later since I'm headed out, and I often have trouble finding their stories later... The site is often a bit too tabloidish, IMHO, but they do have some solid sorts...

I occasionally comment there in my mild-mannered secret identity, but they are occasionally heavy-handed with the censorship, and control freaks always make me nervous. I want to toss them in the back seat and drive them to a codependency self-help grouπ....