Protest Report - Brisbane 22/12/97

Neil Muspratt, Mon 22 Dec 1997

From: neil@gargoyle.apana.or::g.au (Neil Muspratt)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Protest Report - Brisbane 22/12/97
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 20:32:16 GMT
Message-ID: <349ec4b4.175595@troll.apana.org.au>

Hi groovers.

Stuart Riley and I put in another protest outside the Brisbane offices
of the Church of Scientology yesterday afternoon from about 4:30 pm to
5:30 pm. As usual, a lot of the general public just weren't interested
(must be something to do with the Scientology Org being there), a few
stopped in their tracks and reversed for leaflets after it suddenly
hit them that we were *protesting against* Scientology, and several
people expressed their agreement with what we were doing. About 70 of
our flyers were distributed, including one on Lisa McPherson with lots
of nice URLs on the back.

One of the pedestrians who stopped to talk with us was from Germany
and he related, as best he could, the story of how one of his friends
at home had gotten involved with Scientology and had handed over tens
of thousands of Marks. He was pleased to see that someone was doing
something to get the word out about them.

Another guy who walked past was wearing a baseball cap with the
Canadian flag on it. Wouldn't you know it, he was from that fair
country most of the USA is south of, so I mentioned the Scientology
convictions there (only church in Canada to have such a dishonour?)
and the largest damages payment for libel in the nation's history
(also Scientology-related). He said he hadn't heard about all this
before. Well, he knows *now*.

It took a little while for them to organise themselves. Eventually
there were 4 of them out there distributing their stuff, including a
local edition of Freedom with a column by (and nice picture of)
Virginia Stewart, Editor and Director of Public Affairs in Australia.
Hi Virginia! I guess you'll get to read this post at some stage. So,
do you still think there are 150,000 Scientologists in the country?
The 1996 census data seems to suggest there are only about 1,500. Any
explanation for this? Look up page 26 of "The Weekend Australian" from
1-2 February this year if you've forgotten what you said to reporter
Sian Powell. I haven't.

How come Freedom doesn't carry a publication date? All it says on the
front is "Vol. X Issue XI" and "1997" on the back. Is it because a
date would make it much easier to tell how much time elapses between
issues?

Also, they had that yellow "Public Warning" leaflet describing what
terrible people Stuart Riley, Tony McClelland and David Gerard are,
the "CultAware - Serpent of Hate" pamphlet and a full A4 page titled
"THE FACTS THAT ARE NOT INCLUDED IN REPORTS OF LISA MCPHERSONS DEATH"
(no apostrophe). It looks like a photocopy of a fax. I'll post it
separately so people can pick it to bits.

Of more concern to me yesterday was the stall they had set up in King
George Square (blocks away from the Org, right outside our city hall),
set among stalls from several *charitable* organisations. Yes folks,
the Drug-Free Marshals are in Australia! Yeehaa! Praise Ron and pass
the ammunition! Here they're known as the Drug-Free Ambassadors. (Why?
I think "Drug-Free Marshals" sounds cool. Too American I suppose?)

What really irked me was that the collection of stalls in the square
is all part of "CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY", an initiative of the Queen
Street Mall [authority] and the Brisbane City Council. There's a stage
and sound system set up there for performances. Parents bring the kids
along. Santa puts in an appearance. Carols are sung. It's all a part
of the Christmas season. And right there in the middle of it all we
have a front group for the "Church" of Scientology, which teaches that
Christ is just a memory implant hardwired into everyone's immortal
thetan by the minions of the evil space tyrant Xenu after a massive
intragalactic genocidal purge 75 million years ago. Oh, and Ron was
known to toss back a few pinks and greys from time to time as well,
but don't let any of that trouble you - it's Christmas and we have to
get our kids off drugs!

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. We need to get kids off drugs. But
somehow the hypocrisy of Scientology trying to look like a respectable
mainstream church with a social action plan still stands out like
dogs' balls. I think a letter to the local newspaper is in order here.

At least all of their signs and leaflets said "Sponsored by the Church
of Scientology". I wonder, was that a condition of them being allowed
to put up and run the stall there? I'll have to make some enquiries.

I wandered by the stall and picked up some of their literature. My
favourite bit (somewhat ironic in view of several major sporting
events over the last couple of years) under the heading "REASONS TO
STAY DRUG-FREE":

STAY FIT!
Drugs also make you bad at sport. Top sports people don't take drugs
and that is why they are the best. You go slower, find it harder to
breathe and you are not fit or in good condition.

Someone really ought to tell this to the Chinese women's swim team.

Scientologists - you can't turn your back on them for a minute, can
you?

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Neil Muspratt SP3.07                    neil@gargoyle.apana.org.au |
| Brisbane Australia                                                 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Hubble and Hubbard:
Two men wrote about the stars;
One advanced science.

- Hud Nordin in alt.religion.scientology