[Harvey is not only a longtime friend and personal hero -- he is one of the most ardent civil libertarians alive today. He is a former president of the ACLU of Massachusetts and a current board member. He is also a libertarian and co-author (with Alan Kors) of "The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses." Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03925.html --Declan] --- From: "Harvey Silverglate" <hasat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: RE: Arnie Lerma replies to Scientology's Internet position paper Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 15:21:14 -0400 Declan, I realize that my objectivity may be questioned, because during a 5-year span in the 1980s I represented the Church of Scientology in a series of bogus "religious fraud" cases brought against the Church in Boston and elsewhere. However, I did get to learn a lot about Scientology during this period. Anyone who takes the trouble to study the Church will understand that while it is of course true that Scientology is careful to portray itself as a religion in part to ward off governmental and individual attacks for "fraud", in fact the reason it is able to do so, with considerable success, is that there is, conceptually, no difference between Scientology and any established and accepted religion of which I'm aware. If one reads the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals case law as to what constitutes a religion, one realizes that there is an enormously wide and diverse group of belief systems that qualify -- belief systems that are traditionally theistic, and belief systems that are very different. Scientology is the quintessential non-theistic belief system. Sceptics ask Scientologists: "How can you believe that stuff?" The very question would appear to admit that Scientology is a religion! Why is it harder to accord First Amendment protection to Hubbard's "religious technology" than to accord such protection to espousal of belief in the Trinity? Hence, the operative question is NOT why Scientology emphasizes its religious nature. It is OBVIOUS that one reason is to gain First Amendment protection. So, what's wrong with that? The operative question is whether Scientology's belief system qualifies for First Amendment protection. The answer is equally obvious: Absolutely. It is neither easier nor harder to believe in Scientology than to believe in One God. There is absolutely no distinction between Scientology and a more traditional religion, from a First Amendment perspective and analysis. It is fair for critics to criticize Scientology's methods and zeal, but it is equally fair, and equally easy, to criticize any more traditional religious organization. Has the Scientology organization done some things worthy of criticism? Yes, and it has at times admitted error. But nothing that Scientology nor Scientologists have done since its founding in the 1950s even compares to the atrocities committed by the world's major religions over centuries. It takes the world's major religions centuries to admit error; Scientology has a better record. Were I a Scientologist, and had I suffered the decades of persecution that Scientology suffered at the hands of the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice, I, too, would emphasize the religious nature of the belief system. I am not a true believer, and I do not agree with all of Scientology's policies. (For example, I disagree legally and philosophically with the Church's very restrictive position on copyright issues.) But it is frivolous, and bigoted and narrow-minded, to refuse to recognize that, for First Amendment purposes, Scientology is as much a religion, and as much entitled to First Amendment religion-clause protection, as any of the more traditional, commonplace belief systems. Harvey A. Silverglate Silverglate & Good Boston ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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