Holy Sunday...

Tonight I watched HBO's Documentary Going Clear, based on the book of the same name by Lawrence Wright. L. Ron Hubbard's Birthday is 18 March, so perhaps Scientology celebrates some sort of holiday around his birth in March and this would be an added attack to air it now.

Watching the film was like watching a bus-accident; you knew that what your were about to see was going to be horrific, painful and senseless, but you were powerless to change the outcome. How so many people could allow themselves to be sucked into such a cult and give some much of their time, dignity, and finances to such an establishment is beyond me. How they could be deemed a region by the IRS is also bizarre. What dirt, or, ironically, "auditing" did they have on top IRS representatives to keep them not recognizing Scientology as a religion?

As I was watching, I remembered that it's Palm Sunday. Yesterday was the Hindu's day of Ramanavami, ending a holy week of Ramayana which began on the 21st. The 21st was also the New Year (Naw Ruz) for the Baha'i,  (Norooz) Persians (Zoroastrian) and the Hindu. A week from yesterday, Passover will begin, as will the Therevadin New Year (for Buddhists). And in a week, Easter Sunday, although it will Palm Sunday for my Orthodox Christian friends, with them Easter (Pascha) will be on the 12th. New Year (Baisakhi) for the Sikh's on the 14th.

So the time to reflect on religion and renewal is upon us. With the advent of Spring, the Pagan's celebrated the Equinox on the 20th (Ostara, in the Northern Hemisphere; Mabon, in the Southern Hemisphere) we see nature's rebirth and ancient humans built mirrored rituals around this earthly right of passage.

All of the above religions have books that are sacred to them; accept the Pagans and Scientologists. So many of the original groups of Pagan's rites and rituals were usurped by the Christians and Catholic Church, that it's hard to know where and when, exactly they were folded into the organized religions. These are ancient acts of humans trying to make sense of the world around them and minding the order of nature by honoring it. Creation myths from the Old Testament are the foundation for the Jewish, Islamic and Christian religions. They all share the Golden Rule.

 Scientology is the opposite. It is a crass, commercial and capitalistic enterprise with the no connection to the living world. Their Creation Myth involves aliens, aircraft, and man-as-scientists creating the order of the Universe. There is no Golden Rule. Only an Iron Fist and fear.

I didn't grow up in a household where any organized religion was routinized into our family structure. We did observe Christmas and Easter, but not with any religious attachments placed upon them. I took courses in Comparative Religions in college, attended churches, mosques and temples of various orders over the course of my life and have attended Pagan and Native ceremonies, too. I enjoy experiencing the spiritual life of those I care for and for who I have a curiosity.

Scientology has no spirit, soul or sense to it. It's not a religion, it appears to be a cult, and a dangerous one; destructive to it's members, to it's special fears (big backing for Prop 8) and so on.

I'm tired, as I was sick this afternoon and lost a lot of steam because of it. But I just had to gripe here for a tetch before going to sleep. Spring is upon us, time to take new and positive steps forward and away from the cold and cruel darkness! Bravo, HBO, Bravo!

Good night, Sacred and Secular, G'night!