Re: Scientology

From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@cogeco.ca)
Date: Wed Jan 23 2002 - 02:27:46 GMT

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Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 21:27:46 -0500
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From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca>
Subject: Re: Scientology
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    At 09:58 AM 22/01/02 -0800, "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net>
      wrote:
    >Keith,
    >
    > > >I notice you began your public opposition to Scientology in 1995.
    > > >I'm just curious as to how it got started.
    > >
    > > Easy. I have been a human rights advocate for decades. Was
    > > deeply involved in the defeat of the repressive Moon Treaty,
    > >
    >http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Star+Laws+arel+lucas&hl=en&selm=7t4go6%24i
    >hp%40dfw-ixnews8.ix.netcom.com&rnum=1
    > >
    > > I had been interested in cults for a long time as an outgrowth of
    > > memetics but not scientology specifically. Early 1995 I was reading
    > > comp.org.eff.talk and found this message about a news group being
    > > destroyed. This had an effect on free speech people--dozens of
    > > them--somewhat akin to news of burning down to newspaper.
    >
    >I guess what I'm trying to get at is what you did to make them so hostile
    >towards you. Not every critic of Scientology has earned their wrath. You
    >seem to have been singled out,

    Not exactly. I have lots of company. Go to:

    http://www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/extremists/index.html which lists me
    and 47 others. I am not even listed here: http://www.bigotwatch.net

    And these miss people high on their list such as Paulette Cooper, Dennis
    Erlich, Cyntha Kisser, Dr. Lotnick, Dr. Kent . . . .

    >and as a result you've become something of a
    >symbol of the anti-Scientology movement. So, how did this come about? Was
    >it just peaceful picketing? Was it your articulate critique?

    One of their lawyers, Samuel D. Rosen, made it clear to me in a deposition
    that they would stay on me for the rest of my life no matter what I did. I
    really don't know why. Perhaps it is the horrible embarrassment Grady Ward
    and I cause the leader at a deposition. He made a bizarre outburst about
    public buggery and then his lawyers made it public. It gets posted on
    a.r.s every two months so it should be easy to find. Grady has been very
    low profile for years and they are still after him.

    >One
    >possibility is that your public stand in favor of kidnapping and forcible
    >"deprogramming"

    No, I didn't originate a post on this topic till May 2 of last year. If
    you put this in a web browser,

    http://groups.google.com/groups?q=deprogramming+group:alt.religion.scientology+author:Keith+author:Henson&hl=en&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=2&as_maxm=5&as_maxy=2001&start=0&sa=N

    You will get 20 postings I made on the subject between May 1996 and May
    2001. Read them. See if you can make a case that I had a stand on
    deprogramming such as you allege above. You can also read the May 2, 2001
    post I made asking for people's thoughts about how protections could be put
    in place for legal deprogramming.

    >combined with your habit of hanging around their compounds
    >and following them around set off a fight-or-flight response. They reacted
    >to you in exactly the same way a pre-historic tribe would have reacted to
    >the sudden appearance of a tiger in their midst: One of us is going to be
    >snatched away, so run for your life!

    One guy with a picket sign and 750 of them? 20 guards armed to the
    teeth? Dozens of Operating Thetans with power over Matter, Energy, Space
    and Time?

    >Fear is often the underlying emotion
    >of anger, so that might explain their rage toward you. Did your actions
    >ever cross the line from peaceful protest to something a little more
    >militant?

    After a particularly impressive verbal exchange between a scientology
    supporter and a well known net personality I remarked metaphorically that I
    liked the smell of gunpowder drifting on the morning breeze.

    >Perhaps, in your anger towards Scientology, you got a little
    >overly aggressive, and this might explain why they singled you out for
    >persecution. If you take the attitude that you're at war with them, as
    >illustrated by your repeated reference to the "Hemet front," then war is
    >what you're going to get.

    In the face of a lot of provocation, I have maintained a steady calm even
    when I have had to jump out of the way of a car aimed right at me in a
    parking lot and when a police team acting as their agents confronted me
    with semi automatic weapons.

    Eventually it should make a good movie.

    Keith Henson

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