Manipulating the message and the numbers

A couple things stood out to me in this article about Scientology. First, now that the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, regarding their most absurd beliefs, they seem to be courting publicity and twisting it to their advantage, rather than trying to control their message through law suits against detractors.

Also, the discussion about the actual numbers of members world-wide being far less than they claim reminds me of TF's methods of counting members. The way that Scientology has used celebrities to garner favorable press and further their cause must be a wet-dream for Family leaders.

Some selected excerpts for those who don't like to cut and paste urls:

"Until recently, Scientologists had a reputation for being litigious and for wanting to control what was written about them. ... But now they seem to have changed their approach, and are actively courting publicity."

"Scientology is getting increasingly good at media management, and journalists keep falling into the trap."

"Another trap the media fall into is taking Scientology’s claim of ten million members worldwide at face value. Membership figures are notoriously problematic."

"In 2001, for the first time, the UK Census asked about religious affiliation. In England and Wales, 1781 people said they were Scientologists — less than 1.5 per cent of the number the Church claims. The 2001 Census figures for other English-speaking countries are similarly low: in Australia, 2032 people said they were Scientologists; in Canada, only 1525; and in New Zealand, 282."

"Where are the other nine million or so? They must be in the United States, Scientology’s home country. Well, no. In fact, the American Religious Identification Survey estimated in 2001 that there were just 55,000 Scientologists in the US. As the majority of Scientologists live in the US, the actual worldwide membership may be under 100,000 — rather less than the claimed ten million."

"How can we account for this 100:1 disparity? The Church’s president, Heber Jentzsch, let slip on a radio programme in 1992 that the Church of Scientology claims as a member every single person who has ever taken even an introductory Scientology course since the Church was founded in 1954. Even leaving aside all those “members” who must now be dead, is this really membership? But ten million makes the Church of Scientology sound a great deal more significant than 100,000."

"Like many other new religious movements, Scientology has difficulty retaining its new members. Could this partly be because they are so strongly urged to view everything that L. Ron Hubbard wrote as the work of a genius? His later novels, lauded by the Church as “wonderfully wrought”, are derided by many SF readers."


http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=29766