Scientology views of homosexuality are based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology. the relationship between homosexuality and religion can vary greatly across time and place within and between different Religions and Sects and regarding different The Bahá'í Faith teaches that the only acceptable form of sexual expression is within Marriage, and Bahá'í marriage is defined in the religion's texts as exclusively Asian societies shaped by Buddhist traditions take a strong ethical stand in human affairs and sexual behavior in particular Loving and sexual relations between individuals of the same sex have been traditionally accepted in Confucian thought, as long as they do not impede fulfilling one's obligations to the Hindu views of homosexuality and in general LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual and transgender issues are diverse Islamic views on homosexuality have always been influenced by the rulings prescribed by the Qur'an and the teachings of the Islamic prophet Muhammed. The subject of homosexuality in Judaism dates back to the Biblical book of Leviticus. Ergi (noun and argr (adjective are two Old Norse terms of Insult, denoting Effeminacy or other unmanly behavior "God Loveth His Children" is a pamphlet produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for members with Homosexual attractions Homosexuality in Shinto has a varied past of periods of acceptance and rejection Sikhism has no specific teachings about Homosexuality. The Sikh holy book the Guru Granth Sahib, does not explicitly mention homosexuality It is difficult to determine a single position on homosexuality in Taoism, as the term Taoism is used to describe a number of disparate religious traditions from organised religious The Unification Church views Heterosexual Marriage as God 's ideal Unitarian Universalism and the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA have a long-standing tradition of welcoming LGBT people Homosexuality in Haitian Voodoo is religiously acceptable and homosexuals are allowed to participate in all religious activities Throughout most branches of Wicca, all Sexual orientations including homosexuality are considered healthy Homosexuality in Zoroastrianism is as in many other religions a controversial topic Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13 1911 &ndash January 24 1986 was a fiction writer who devised a self-help technique called Dianetics and philosophy known as Scientology The Church of Scientology is the largest organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. His statements about homosexuality have given rise to assertions from critics that Scientology promotes homophobia. Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices initially created by American Science fiction author L BenPhelpsJPG|thumb|right|Westboro Baptist Church picket signs with Ben Phelps grandson of Fred Phelps These allegations are disputed by some gay Scientologists.
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Classification of homosexuality
In 1950 Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, introducing his "science of the mind," Dianetics. Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Dianetics The Modern Science of Mental Health (often abbreviated as DMSMH is a book by L Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the spirit mind and body that were developed by L He classified homosexuality as an illness or sexual perversion, citing contemporary psychiatric and psychological textbooks to support his view:
- "The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in Dynamic II [i. e. sexuality] such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc. , and all down the catalog of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically. Henry Havelock Ellis ( February 2, 1859 - July 8, 1939) was a British sexologist, physician and social reformer Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing ( August 14 1840 &ndash December 22 1902) was an Austro-German sexologist and Psychiatrist . . he is very far from culpable for his condition, but he is also far from normal and extremely dangerous to society. . . "[1]
Hubbard further defined perversion in his 1951 book Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior. Year 1951 ( MCMLI) was a Common year starting on Monday. Events of 1951 January Science of Survival is a book published in 1951 by L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Dianetics and Scientology. Here he introduced the concept of the "tone scale", a means of classifying individuals and human behaviour on a chart running from +40 (the most beneficial) to -40 (the least beneficial). In Scientology, the tone scale or emotional tone scale is a characterization of human behavior Sexual perversion, a category in which he included homosexuality, was termed "covert hostility" and given a score of 1. 1, "the level of the pervert, the hypocrite, the turncoat, . . . the subversive. " Such people were "skulking coward[s] who yet contains enough perfidious energy to strike back, but not enough courage ever to give warning. "[2]
He characterized "promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices" as well as "Free Love, easy marriage and quick divorce" as being undesirable activities, "since it is non-survival not to have a well ordered system for the creation and upbringing of children, by families. The term free love has been used since at least the nineteenth century to describe a Social movement that rejects Marriage, which is seen as a form " Sexual perverts engaged in "irregular practices which do anything but tend toward the creation of children" and "efforts [which] tend not towards enjoyment but toward the pollution and derangement of sex itself so as to make it as repulsive as possible to others and so to inhibit procreation. "[3]
Hubbard's 1951 book Handbook for Preclears likewise classified homosexuality as "about 1. 1 on the tone scale", along with "general promiscuity". He set out what he saw as the cause of homosexuality: a mental "aberration", with the result that "an individual aberrated enough about sex will do strange things to be a cause or an effect. He will substitute punishment for sex. He will pervert others. Homosexuality comes from this manifestation and from the manifestation of life continuation for others. " The "aberration" was caused by a child trying to "continue the life" of a dominant parent of the opposite sex. [4]
Hubbard's views on homosexuality were given a fuller explanation in a 1972 book by Scientologist Ruth Minshull, How To Choose Your People, which was published through the Church of Scientology, copyrighted to Hubbard and given "issue authority" by the Scientology hierarchy. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Scientology churches sold the book alongside the works of Hubbard until 1983. [5] Minshull described the "gentle-mannered homosexual" as a classic example of the "subversive" 1. 1 personality, commenting that they "may be fearful, sympathetic, propitiative, griefy or apathetic. Occasionally they manage an ineffectual tantrum. " They were claimed to be social misfits:
- "Homosexuals don't practice love; 1. 1s can't. Their relationships consist of: 1) brief, sordid and impersonal meetings or 2) longer arrangements punctuated by dramatic tirades, discords, jealousies and frequent infidelity. It could hardly be otherwise since the tone is made up of suspicion and hate, producing a darling sweetness interspersed with petty peevishness. Their "love" turns to deep contempt eventually. "[6]
Homosexuals had no redeeming "social value," in Minshull's view. She cautioned that "homosexuals should not be abused or ridiculed. But a society bent on survival must recognize any aberration as such and seek to raise people out of the low emotion that produces it. "
Hubbard's views on homosexuality may account for his treatment of Quentin Hubbard, his son. Geoffrey Quentin McCaully Hubbard ( 6 January[[ 954]] – 12 November[[ 976]] was the son of Scientology founder L Quentin died of an apparent suicide in 1976, and was largely reported to have been a homosexual [1]. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation.
"Curing" homosexuality?
There is some evidence that Hubbard's Dianetics movement sought to use Dianetics to "cure" homosexuality. In January 1951, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, NJ published Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, a booklet providing the results of psychometric tests conducted on 88 people undergoing Dianetics therapy. Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, in the United States. It presents case histories and a number of X-ray plates to support claims that Dianetics had cured "aberrations" including manic depression, asthma, arthritis, colitis and "overt homosexuality," and that after Dianetic processing, test subjects experienced significantly increased scores on a standardized IQ test. [7]
In Hubbard's 1951 book Handbook for Preclears, he set out instructions for Dianeticists to "cure" homosexuality. After claiming that the cause of homosexuality was a fixation on a dominant parent of the opposite sex, he advised: "Break this life continuum concept by running sympathy and grief for the dominant parent and then run off the desires to be an effect and their failures and the homosexual is rehabilitated. "[4]
Hubbard urged society to tackle the issue of sexual perversion (including homosexuality), calling it "of vital importance, if one wishes to stop immorality, and the abuse of children. " In Science of Survival, he called for drastic action to be taken against sexual perverts, whom he rated as "1. 1 individuals":
- "Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics; here is the fodder which secret police organizations use for their filthy operations. One of the most effective measures of security that a nation threatened by war could take would be rounding up and placing in a cantonment, away from society, any 1. 1 individual who might be connected with government, the military, or essential industry; since here are people who, regardless of any record of their family's loyalty, are potential traitors, the very mode of operation of their insanity being betrayal. In this level is the slime of society, the sex criminals, the political subversives, the people whose apparently rational activities are yet but the devious writhings of secret hate. "[2]
In later years, Hubbard sought to distance himself from efforts to regulate the sexual affairs of lay Scientologists. In a 1967 policy letter, he declared: "It has never been any part of my plans to regulate or to attempt to regulate the private lives of individuals. Whenever this has occurred, it has not resulted in any improved condition. . . Therefore all former rules, regulations and polices relating to the sexual activities of Scientologists are cancelled. "[8] Members of the Sea Org remained under strict rules according to a 1978 order. The Sea Organization or Sea Org is an association of Scientologists established in 1968 by L [9]
Current Church of Scientology viewpoints
Although Hubbard's views on homosexuality remain unamended in modern editions of Scientology books, gay Scientologists have argued that Hubbard and the Church have set aside any anti-homosexual views expressed in the past.
In 2002 the American Church of Scientology published a press release on its website quoting gay activist Keith Relkin as saying, "Over the years I have worked with the Church of Scientology for greater inclusion of gay people like me, and today represents a milestone in that progress. "[10]
A 2004 article in the St. Petersburg Times reported that the Church defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman. [11]
Notes
Note: HCOB refers to "Hubbard Communications Office Bulletins", HCOPL refers to "Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letters", and SHSBC refers to "Saint Hill Special Briefing Courses". All have been made publicly available by the Church of Scientology in the past, both as individual documents or in bound volumes.
- ^ Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, pp. 122-123. Church of Scientology of California, 1978 edition. ISBN 0-88404-000-3
- ^ a b Hubbard, Science of Survival, pp. 88-90. Church of Scientology of California, 1975 edition. ISBN 0-88404-001-1
- ^ Hubbard, Science of Survival, p. 114-115, 159. Church of Scientology of California, 1975 edition. ISBN 0-88404-001-1
- ^ a b Hubbard, Handbook for Preclears, p. 64. Scientific Press, Wichita, 1951
- ^ Eric Townsend, The Sad Tales of Scientology, p. 65. Anima Publishing, 1985. ISBN 0-9510471-0-8
- ^ Ruth Minshull, How To Choose Your People, chapter 9. Scientology Ann Arbor, 1972
- ^ Benton, Peggy; Ibanex, Dalmyra. ; Southon, Gordon; Southon, Peggy. Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, 1951
- ^ L. Ron Hubbard (1967-08-11). Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. Events 2492 BC - Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation ""Second Dynamic Rules", HCOPL of 11 August 1967". . Hubbard Communications Office
- ^ L. Ron Hubbard (1978-12-21). Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar) Events 69 - The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian ""2-D Rules", Flag Order 3739 21 December 1978". . Hubbard Communications Office
- ^ (archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20030425104544/http://www.scientology.org/en_US/news-media/news/2002/021211.html).
- ^ "About Scientology", St. Petersburg Times, 2004-07-18. The St Petersburg Times is a daily Newspaper based in St Petersburg Florida, that serves the larger Tampa Bay area "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Events 390 BC - Roman - Gaulish Wars Battle of the Allia - a Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, Retrieved on 2006-09-02. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 44 BC - Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.
External links
- Scientology and gay rights
- Keith Relkin Says Church of Scientology Wants Gays
- The Church of Scientology® & homosexuality Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
- Scientology and Gay Rights
- Celebrities and Scientology
- Gay Scientologists speak out