Customer Reviews

The Church of Scientology (Studies in Contemporary Religions, series volume 1)

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It is very obvious that Melton basically shares materials from Scientology's public relations office. There are factual errors in his work, many ommisions, and a minimizing of major legal actions against Scientology. Melton states that L. Ron Hubbard "never claimed the kind of formal academic credentials which the average scientists or physician possesses..." (pg 58) Wrong! In 1958 Hubbard published "The Problem of Work, Scientology Applied to the Work-a-day World", by "L.Ron Hubbard, C.E, PhD." C.E. is the designation for Chemical Engineer.

Melton glosses over the conviction of Scientologists for infiltrating and and stealing IRS materials by saying "In the end, the actual crimes for which they were convicted were relatively minor." Minor? They were sentences to four to five years in jail.

Melton says nothing about one of Scientology's major losses when, at the conclusion of a trail involving Hubbard, Judge Breckenridge stated "The evidence porrays a man who has been virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his history, background and achievements..."

No mention is made of the major Supreme Court ruling (Hernandez vs. IRS 1989) in which the Supreme Court denied Scientology the right to deducted "fixed donations" for the many courses required for advancement. And no comment is made as to how the IRS could nullify that finding and give Scientology the right to do so.

Nothing said about the 23,000 persons declared to be suppressive persons, people who Hubbard stated "could be tricked, lied to or destroyed."

Finally, look at the footnotes and sources. The vast majority are from Scientology's own material. Only a Scientology would call this material "objective."

If you are looking for a book about Scientology that offers an objective understanding of the origins of the church, how the church is structured, and what the faithful believe, then this book might be a good place to start. Melton's book comes close on all three counts, but due to it's abbreviated length, doesn't quite satisfy the need.

There are all manner of information about Scientology found in traditional publications and on the internet. Unfortunately most of the information is decidely pro or anti church. The bulk of the anti information comes from individuals who have had a negative experience with the church and much of the pro information comes from church or the writings of it's founder L. Ron Hubbard. So unless you wade through the agendas found in either sides publications your unlikely to get a solid understanding of what makes this church and it's membership tick.

The one publication that seems to take an objective look at the church and it's surrounding controversy is this book. Regarding most issues addressed, Melton is careful to provide the opinion of the church's opponents as well as the church's take on the issue. It's as balanced as it can get.

Unfortunately the sheer size of the book prevents it from becoming anything but a rudimentary primer on the very basics of the church. 16 of it's 80 paperback size pages are support notes for the author's discussion. And 64 pages is about 300 pages short of a comprehensive study of one aspect of the church let alone it's entire history.

The book takes the reader from the early life of founder L. Ron Hubbard, his writings and the development of Dianetics, through the Dianetics to Scientology evolution, and ends with information about how the church is structured. What it doesn't provide is any kind of understanding about the foundations of the religion, it's dogma or tenets - you will find no mention of Xenu here.

The value of this book is that it's a short, easy to read primer that those interested in exploring Scientology (in a scholarly or spriritual context) will find to be a great, objective place to start.

This book presents the topic without a slant. The book discusses (1) an outline of the life of L. Ron Hubbard anchored by the generally agreed upon facts; (2) an introduction to the church's beliefs, practices, and organization; and (3) a synopsis of the major points of controversy.

Unfortunately, this book will not have much of an audience. Some critics will find the book too supportive of Scientology; while Scientologists themselves may support their group's official view, not that of a religious studies researcher.

Having read over a dozen books about Scientology, both critical and non-critical, I was impressed that I managed to learn a few new things from this short book. The book is only 80 pages, but there is a lot of information packed into it.

Scientology books are about scientology itself, as one would expect. Anti-scientology books are too often written from an agenda of just attacking. This book, however, takes a neutral approach and simply examines and presents information from an unbiased viewpoint. It's very brief but informative.

I've always respected J. Gordon Melton as a scholarly balanced religious scholar. This quick treatment of The Church of Scientology was excellent. I was able to read the entire book in a couple of hours and it gave me an excellent overview. I'm now going to check out the other books in this great little series.

This review board has some reviews from people who are just filled with hate which is unfortunate.

This book is something I gave to my Professor Father to read, as he was not a Scientologist & had heard some of the bad press out there so he had some concerns. After this he didn't and he understood what I was doing and what I was interested in.

It is written by someone with credentials & hasn't had any personal experience with the church's technology. He can see the church for the facts not the hateful twisted distortions one gets from former disgruntled members, (most of whom have public criminal records).

Some people on these reviews make comments regarding Scientology & money. It has nothing to do with this book, however, I think that anyone who has been in a Christian Church will remember that at the end of a service, the collection plate is passed around.

Plus Pastors very often solicit parishioners for further donations. Just watch the TV any Sunday morning! So don't try & deride Scientology because people donate money to it & somehow infer that that is some sort of crime.

Also if you go to Asia, Buddhist monks are required to go ask for alms, i.e. they sit and beg in the streets. In eastern cultures, the members of that society understand that the monks are mediating to obtain a spiritual enlightenment & thusly help all of mankind. People freely donate there as well.

It is the material world and all religions still need money to survive. There is absolutely a rightness in that as they help people.

Meantime Medical Doctors take money from Pharma reps to prescribe drugs that have often powerful side effects. The news is filled every year with the damage done by people on these medications. All of the school shootings & the people left dead are because the Pharma companies & the doctors who prescribe them favor profits over real help. This is the greatest tragedy of our time.

Obviously some people have done enough bad things with money that when others do something good with it, it drives them mad.

This book is totally biased; that is, in favor of the "Church" of $cientology. It has a fairly decent treatment of the "Church's" "theology" (which is drug hazed sci-fi), but the slant is totally pro-$cientology. Melton (who spoke in favor of $cientology a few yrs. back on an A&E documentary re: $cientology) portrays this cult as a victim of unfair assaults.
Definitely not worth the price. A Piece of Blue Sky and L Ron Hubbard Messiah or Madman may also be biased, but are written by authors with first-hand knowledge of the cult.
Remember this: The "Church" of $cientology is the only "church" with a cash register you could probably ever enter ! Chu-ching!!

I cannot believe that a scam artist like this dude pretends to be a 'scholar' of 'new religions'. His history of L. Ron Hubbard's life is a sham, since it's pretty much a stenographic copy of the pseudo-history Hubbard invented for himself. This guy is almost entirely uncritical, even saying that the sci-fi space-opera teachings of the cult are 'metaphorical'. Every scientologist KNOWS such teachings are to be taken absolutely literally, and that this space opera is entirely factual! Travolta, Cruise and all devotees who have achieved a certain spiritual level of 'truth' believe they were personally enslaved and 'implanted' by the evil galactic ruler Xenu, 75 million years ago. Not only do they think this is entirely truthful and not 'metaphorical', they even think Xenu's 'implant' explains why mankind engages in warfare. That's why Travolta asserts that scientology contains the "secrets of the universe"!

I would advise against reading Melton's book, it is simple apologia, and reads like it was written by a devotee of the cult. This book is dangerous, since anyone thinking of involving themselves in this rapacious cult, and reading Melton's book would probably go ahead and lose loads of money and several years of their life to this corrupt extortion racket of a cult.

How do I know Melton is talking through his hat? I lost four years of my life to the wicked scientology scam, and I can assure you, Melton either knows nothing objective about this cult, his book reads as if he gets his information from the cult itself, but my suspicion is that he's been put up to the job by the cult elite in the same way that author Omar Garrison was.

Avoid this drivel. Melton should be ashamed of himself.

This is written by a guy who wrote the "New Age Encyclopedia." If that's not a red flag, I don't know what is. Nowhere in this garbled mess is Scientology's well-documented belief in the alien god Zenu exposed. This is a biased piece of propaganda, nothing more. It is indicative of Scientology's mendacity that they would publish this with the pretense that it is an unbiased study.

I used to be afraid of dwarves. But thanks to L. Ron Hubbard, I am now only afraid of things that come out of my butt. While this fear has grown more intense, I have a strange urge to buy all of Tom Cruise's movies on DVD including "Legend" in order that I might play them backwards to reveal a secret message. The message being L. Ron Hubbard's address, so I will know where to mail my check. Speaking of which, I think BattleField Earth with John Travolta got a bum rap. It was slightly more painful than placing one's testicle in a garlic press and squeezing. So just ask homeschoolmum, L. Ron Hubbard is in fact our savior. On Easter we celebrate his birth and best works of fiction like Dianetics. On Christmas, we spend lots of money on his products and give them to fellow pagans. It's not like any of us would dare give "Blue Lagoon" on DVD to another scientologist. So do you think Brooke Shields turned Tom Cruise down?