CommunicatorIC
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NOTE: I highly recommend Mike's essay, and strongly recommend that people go to Mike's site and read the entire essay. I very much regret that I cannot cross-post the entire essay here.
I also think it is significant that, unlike Fundamentalist Independent Scientologists and perhaps some other Independent Scientologists, Mike Rinder does not argue that LRH "cancelled" disconnection. He does not place all of the blame on DM, or attempt to absolve LRH.
Mike: Disconnection — Scientology’s Nasty Secret
http://www.mikerindersblog.org/scientology-disconnection-policy-exposed/
Excerpt:
The Facts
[SNIP]
2. There IS policy applied by the Church of Scientology that REQUIRES someone to disconnect from anyone declared by HCO as a Suppressive Person. HCOB 10 September 83 PTSNess and Disconnection states the following:
“To fail or refuse to disconnect from a suppressive person not only denies the PTS (person connected to a Suppressive Person) case gain, it is also supportive of the suppressive – in itself a Suppressive Act. And it must be so labeled.”
The “Suppressive Act” is specifically stated in the Introduction to Scientology Ethics book (taken verbatim from the PL Suppressive Acts Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists) as:
“Continued adherence to a person or group pronounced a Suppressive Person or Group by HCO.” This is now no longer for the benefit of the individual, but intended to benefit the organization.
3. An individual labeled a Suppressive, even if only due to continued association with someone ELSE who has been labeled a Suppressive, faces the reality of immediate family members (spouses, children, parents), friends, business associates and even employers who are Scientologists disconnected from them. Lost jobs, divorce, kicked out of school, refused service by doctors and many other ramifications from life altering to merely annoying.
4. It is church policy that anyone who is declared has forfeited their right to participate in the activities of the church and is no longer eligible for auditing or training. This is the Scientology equivalent of being condemned to hell. It is a powerful motivating force.
If I Hold A Gun To Your Head Are You Choosing Freely?
The statement that the church does not enforce disconnection is similar to the rapist claiming his victim “consented” after he held a gun to her head. “It was her choice, she could have refused….” So too with the victims of enforced disconnection in the church of Scientology – they could refuse to disconnect from someone the church deems a trouble-maker and have their own life destroyed by being labeled suppressive themselves. Or they could “go along with it”, save their own neck and let the other person fend for themselves. For most, it is a practical decision, not a moral one.