From: anonymous
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: "shudder them into silence" doesn't seem to be working!
Date: 8 Mar 2005 20:04:28 -0800
Message-ID: 1110341068.401402.57930@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com

[snip]

http://www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/influence/ashamed_dec/influence1.html

"I AM ASHAMED ..."

"...I am ashamed of having caused harm to others based entirely on what I read about them on the Internet."

Recently, a Scientology church received several threatening email messages. The writer was very specific about the violence he intended to inflict on the Church and its leaders. Through liberal use of foul language, he threatened to kill; he threatened to destroy.

Through the excellent cooperation of law enforcement agencies on two continents, the perpetrator was identified and caught. When confronted with the effects his messages created, he confessed and expressed remorse for his actions. He also confessed that the anti-religious propaganda of Jesse Prince, Tilman Hausherr, Andreas Heldal-Lund, Arnaldo Lerma, Jeff Jacobsen, Joseph Cisar and other extremists on the Internet had prompted him to write these messages. In his sworn confession, the perpetrator wrote:

"As a result of having read those web sites and web pages I felt compelled to take action or do something against Scientology. As there were no Scientologists nearby, I decided to express my hatred by sending threatening e-mails against the Church of Scientology and some of its members."

"...had I not read all the negative web sites and web pages put on the Internet by the individuals who have been hostile to Dianetics and Scientology I would not have been influenced and compelled to write and send those threatening and foul messages."

The man was very specific that the climate of hatred created by these web sites created in him the false perception that when it came to Scientology, no act of violence was too great.

"As a result of reading those sites, I felt that anything I wanted to do or say to Scientologists was OK."

[snip]

Open response to "I AM ASHAMED ..."

Dear Ashamed,

Thank you for your feedback on the Lermanet web site at http://www.lermanet.com. Sorry to read about the embarassing situation you found yourself in as a result of your Internet abuse. Perhaps the following can help others avoid a similar dilemma.

First of all, most Scientologists are normal people. Scientologists are friends, neighbors, relatives, and people such as yourself who are well-meaning enough, but suspect that they took a wrong turn somewhere on the path of life. Like yourself, they view their association with Scientology as a means of getting back on track. You and they should be encouraged to strive for improvement.

Also similar to your situation, most Scientologists did not decide to join Scientology on their own initiative. Contact at first appeared to be more a matter of circumstance than design. Take a look at your new web site at religiousfreedomwatch.org, though. You've gone from abusing email for your own purposes to swearing out anonymous confessions for Scientology's purposes.

The moral couldn't be clearer. Never abuse email.

Your friends at Lermanet