The "Anderson Report"

Andrew Milne, 08 Feb 1996

From: milne@crl.com (Andrew Milne)
Subject: The "Anderson Report"
Date: 08 Feb 1996 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <4fejv8$8e6@crl12.crl.com>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology

     It is typical on ars for ancient and discredited false reports to
be dug up and then reposted, with no mention of subsequent events which
lead to the debunking of the report.

     The "Anderson report" is an example. Somebody posted it the other day.

     This report is from the mid-sixties.  Following it, the Church of
Scientology had a difficult time in Australia and had to fight for many
years to win recognition as a religion.  This report led directly to an
unconstitutional law "prohibiting" the practice of Scientology in Victoria
and West Australia.  This law didn't last long because the Church
persisted and prevailed in making the truth known.  The law was repealed,
the Deputy Premier of West Australia personally apologized (he had had no
part in the discrimination himself) and called the ban a black day in the
history of Australia.  Then in 1983, all 5 High Court judges of Australia
found that the Church of Scientology is a bona fide religion and fully
entitled to tax exemption. In fact, that decision, overturning a ruling by
a Victoria court (which I have also seen posted here without the fact that
it was overturned), established the definition of religious freedom for
the Australian constitution for the first time and in so doing gave
protections to many other religious groups in Australia. 

     Of course, the High Court of Australia had access to the Anderson
report and everything which led up to it and followed it.
Notwithstanding, they recognized the religiosity of the Church.
Obviously the High Court didn't attach much credibility to the report,
recognizing it as a piece of anti-religious propaganda conducted and
written in a witchhunt atmosphere.  The High Court found that
Scientology is a religion and entitled to tax-exemption -- the opposite
conclusions to the Anderson report.

     So anyone posting the Anderson report is merely admitting that
their sole purpose is to throw mud at the Church and that they think
they know better than five High Court judges.  Pretty arrogant, I'd say.

     Since then, the Church has become a powerful force for social
reform in Australia.  It was the Church-sponsored reform group, Citizens
Commission on Human Rights, that persisted for 10 years in exposing
brutal psychiatric "deep sleep" treatments at Chelmsford Psychiatric
Hospital in Sydney.  That led to an official inquiry and reforms in the
field of mental health.

     Anybody who is interested in finding out why Scientology is a
religion may read any of the numerous expertises by scholars which
explain this.  One of these is available on
http://www/theta.com/goodman.