ban on Scientology? (reject, hell, churches, religion, cult)

[Mestemia]

Germany has banned the makers of Tom Cruise's new movie from filming at military sites in the country because the actor is a Scientologist. The German defence ministry said Cruise has "publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult".
Scientology masquerades as a religion to make money, Germany said, but leaders of the church reject this.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6240312.stm

[GeneCosta]

Scientology masquerades as a religion to make money

I know a few churches around here who are arguably doing the same thing. What is and isn't a cult is objectionable.

[exit_and_how]

the movie makers will just make some cheap duplicate models of the base scenes and
no one will know the difference!!!!!!!!!!!!
but movie goers will probably shell out big bucks and beg for more....then they (oops - i used the illegal pronoun) will staunchly defend their decision because they paid the big bucks.

[Shadow Wolf]

I find that to be funny.

[Mr Spinkles]

I'm no fan of scientology, but I don't think that a government should have the legal power to ban the filming of a movie just because an actor in it is a scientologist.

[eudaimonia]

I can understand opposing Scientology, but I don't think that Scientologists should have legitimate career activities interfered with simply because they are Scientologists. This strikes me as McCarthyistic.

Does this new movie promote Scientology? If not, the government shouldn't treat Tom Cruise differently than anyone else.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by eudaimonia

I can understand opposing Scientology, but I don't think that Scientologists should have legitimate career activities interfered with simply because they are Scientologists. This strikes me as McCarthyistic.

Germany is banning them from filming on German military bases. I don't agree with them and think it's way over the top, but the German government views Scientology not just as amoney making sham cult but one which actively tries to undermine democracy. Given the context, it's not so hard to see why the German government might not wish to allow individuals it believes are opposed to the existence of that government onto sensitive sites. I think it's unwise to act in this way, but it is hardly unusual for a government to restrict acess to their military installations - they aren't banning the film completely.

Does this new movie promote Scientology? If not, the government shouldn't treat Tom Cruise differently than anyone else.

No. It's about the assassination attempt on Hitler. I'm not sure they are treating him differently though. Any government would refuse individuals they consider a threat access to military sites. It just happens to be that Germany considers scientologists to be a threat. Whether the identification of scientologists as a threat is justifiable or not is a different question.

James

[Terrywoodenpic]

The UK Do not recognise Scientology as a religion either.
I am not sure that the Scientologists will Take this to court, because if it would be found against them in the European Court, that would stand in all EEC countries.
They would then be officially a Business throughout the EEC, which is not the case now, at least in law.

They have never attempted to use Government property in the UK... In the circumstances It would not be wise for them to try.

[doppelgänger]

This sort of thing seems deeply hypocritical to me. If adults want to give their money to their religious leaders what business is of the government to either censor their speech or arbitrarily decide that one tithing organization is illegal and another not?