Trapped in the Closet

Watched the highly anticipated South Park episode about Scientology, Trapped in the Closet. It's a clever satire on the cult and R Kelly's saga of the same title, based loosely around the plot of the 1986 movie The Golden Child. It was a Stan episode; I loved it. There was a similar South Park episode with Mormonism, but somehow I've a feeling this was different. There was a running skit about Tom Cruise refusing to come out of the closet, and R Kelly breaking out into a musical and pulling out his gun. But the best part was when the Scientology guy told Stan the story of Xenu in mere minutes, 'trade secrets' that the Church fought to cover up. As the story was told, a big sign was plastered across the screen, reading "This Is What Scientologists Actually Believe". The illustrations of the aliens and flying souls were so well done, they drove home the point that truth was stranger than fiction - you'd laugh your butt off if you didn't know it was true. At the end the Scientologists were revealed to be nothing but extortionists and scammers, and when Stan tried to expose them, the Scientology people threatened to sue. The episode ended with "So sue me!", and the credits rolled with anonymous John and Jane Smiths. Brilliant.

Yesterday we had dinner with Mel and Chris. I served up claypot chicken, ghetto mapo tofu, and sauteed baby bak choy. Mel talked about how they get crazy Church of Scientology 'investigators' in the office once in a while, looking for the supervisor of E's boss, who's a strong vocal critic of the Church. Their tactic is to "attack the attacker", so they come up with bogus claims about how the Church critics abuse company funds to conduct shady activities, indulge in porn, whatever it takes to erode credibility and ruin their reputation. Eugene Ingram was a recent visitor - new, because the previous guy would've been arrested on sight. Ingram was escorted out by security, but not before giving Mel a hard time. The security guy that let him in got into trouble. In the past, E and I have received targeted e-mails by random people, blasting E's boss and making some wild accusations. They find ways... it's creepy.

For thousands of years people have wondered the purpose of our existence, coming up with different theories and forming religions, whose faces have slowly changed over the centuries. While admirable is the person that fights for what s/he so strongly believes in, human nature often rears its ugly head; it suddenly becomes a matter of power and control, about making everybody else believe in your brand of religion. Countless wars have been fought, dynasties overthrown, genocides... More relevant to our time, politicians abuse their office to promote their agenda and blur the line between church and state; even Kansas decided to tweak a widely-accepted concept to fit their religious agenda. On the other hand, great literary works have been inspired, and there have been many noble pursuits of Truth. But people, as a race, are stubborn and stupid, a lethal combination. Bigots are abound and there's no way to reason with them, except by fighting fire with fire and speaking through the only medium they understand - an organized religion.