What Are People Saying About The Raul Lopez Swindle?

Michael_Crichton asked this question on 12/20/2000:

So, what do you all think about the Raul Lopez case, as covered in the article below?

http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/2000-12-21/feature.html/printable_page

steve169 gave this response on 12/23/2000:

I think it's very interesting that the CCoS itself makes no comments on the case at all, not even to point out that they are simply practicing their religion -- transferring vast quantities of money from their victims to themselves.

A religion that behaves like this has a certain je-ne-sais-quois, but I don't know what it is.

formerscientologist gave this response on 12/21/2000:

That is so sad. The accident was a terrible tradegy, and the article indicates that the Scientologists were obviously using his disabled condition to take advantage of him. I hope he gets his money back.

People are attracted to Scientology because the Scientologists will tell them what they want to hear. They are promised improvement. They believe that they are getting better. Such positive thinking is good for people. It might be a good idea to con people into believing they're getting better and thereby even causing them to get better--if only such beliefs were not instilled to extort vast sums of money from people.

Voltaires_Child gave this response on 12/21/2000:

I think the Raul Lopez case is particular tragic and the events quite terrible.

Here's what it indicates vis a vis CofS:

That CofS, although it has many caring staff members and public people in it, puts much too much emphasis on money. In fact, when I say "much too much" that's probably a gross understatement. The rights of the individuals and the churches' ~own~ ~policy~ end up taking a backseat to the obtaining of and retaining of money.

There are specific CofS policies which state in no uncertain terms not to do what they did with and to Raul Lopez. There are policies having to do with not interfering with someone's medical treatment. There are policies relating to the fact that once someone gets a refund from CofS that he's barred from all Scn church services from that date onward, which did happen, and which Raul Lopez *was* so banned but then the Church went in and regged him again and again in defiance of their own policies.

This is not the only instance where church policies and church "tech" were flouted for financial reasons but it is one of the most compelling, well-known and blatant examples of this. Unfortunately I know of even more situations not terribly unlike this one.

If the church did not place "altered importance" (undue importance or significance) on money money money money, the rights of the individual Scientologists would be recognized and taken into consideration far more than they were ~even~ ~though~ LRH ~deliberately~ and ~intentionally~ did NOT set CofS up as a democracy and he never intended to. (my opinions about that might be best saved for another question or answer on this board in the future.) Even so, I am sure that we'd have seen a far "gentler kinder" church.

But since they ~do~ place altered importance on money, then, formerly decent staff members start viewing public people as cash cows. This, I believe, hardens the staff members. (If you think that all heartless venal people started out that way, I think you'd be mistaken!) And it escalates and ~has~ escalated from there. The attitude spreads.

Reges at higher Orgs such as Flag are incredibly aggressive. They have amazing amounts of pressure put on them, not that this is an excuse for such maltreatment as Raul Lopez endured, but it might explain things a bit.

Everyone is responsible for their own actions. While it is true that "just following orders" is a copout and that we should not accept it as any kind of excuse, it is nevertheless true that this attitude about public and staff being resources of cash and free labor does originate at the very top of CofS management and then filters downward from there. As I said, this does not excuse individual wrong-doers, but it does explain this pervasive attitude.

FreeZone gave this response on 12/21/2000:

It's depressing, but not it the least surprising. To state the blindingly obvious, auditing can do nothing at all to resolve disabilities caused by brain injuries, and the people who dealt with Lopez and ripped him off knew that as well as I do. I just hope that Liepold succeeds in getting this case before a jury - I have confidence that any jury seeing the facts would give a fair settlement.

FredricRice gave this response on 12/22/2000:

It shows that critics who are working on exposing the Scientology organization's abuses have a lot of work to do to keep these from happening. This one took place some time ago and is still in the courts because the crime syndicate has policies which specifically dictate that their lawyers (the only thing that works in the cult) drag their feel, delay, postpone, and corrupt the process as much as possible for as long as possible.

No _real_ religion and no _real_ church swindles followers like this. At best real religions and real churches expect some 10% of a person's income or windfalls. The Scientology cult wanted -- and got -- every last dime that Raul Lopez had (and I suspect that the crooks got more than what he had since he was forced to sell property at a loss.)

Fortunately there's work going on behind the seens which will make this million dollar swindle international news. Watch for it.

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