From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Fw: reparations: a Libertarian speaks out
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 18:46:44 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Smith" <sgs at aginc.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 4:44 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Fw: reparations: a Libertarian speaks out

> Samuel Lubell wrote:
>  > --- Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net> wrote:
>  >
>  >> Actually, the Scientologists in Germany pushed it even further.
>  >> They weren't just a tax scam -- they had gotten into out and out
>  >> real estate fraud.  In the US, they're the only "religous"
>  >> organization that has fixed-price "services" that are tax
>  >> deductable. Thank you, George Bush the Elder.
>  >>
>  >
>  >
>  > Don't churches charge a price for membership in the church?  I
know
>  > synagogues do.
>
> Are you saying that someone who fell on hard times and couldn't come
up
> with the synagogue membership fee would be thrown out?
>
> I'm not aware of any church that charges fixed fees.  Many have
> "suggested donations", but no fixed fees.  Walk into any church
> that I know of, say "I'm interested", and you'll walk out with a
whole
> pile of literature, including probably a cheap Bible/Book of
> Mormon/Koran/collection of sutras/whatever.  Walk into a Scientology
> bookstore, and you'll walk out with a price list.  Want a copy of
> "Dianetics" [1]?  You'll pay list price for it.
>
> Also note that "auditing", the Scientology equivalent of "pastoral
> counselling", costs several hundred dollars per hour.  The only way
to
> avoid paying for it is to volunteer to work for the "church" at
> sub-minimum rates.

An early follower of Dianetics (I used to know his name, but that was
more than 20 years ago) splintered off and set up something called
Reevaluation Counseling, or RC.  Although you can pay to attend
classes in RC (which I did for a six month period at the behest of my
girlfriend of the time), it is essentially free in the important part,
which is the equivilent of "auditing."   One joins with a fellow RC
person for a two-hour period during which the first hour person A has
person B for the "client," and for the second hour they reverse roles.
No money changes hands.

There is, of course, a RC community here, as there is in most cities.

--Ted White