In article <b9e50dcd.0306051619.7ab83213@posting.google.com>, Rene Descartes <renedescartes00@hotmail.com> wrote:

> barb <bwarr1@oonopidcox.net> wrote in message news:<3EDF5602.7000107@oonopidcox.net>...

> > Hmmm...I guess my TRs weren't in. The reference to Blisstonia was
> > supposed to make you think of the Simpsons episode where they joined the
> > Movementarians, who had a red-headed leader who looked awfully similar
> > to L. Ron!
> >
> > Sigh...back to the clay table!

> No No Not so!
>
> I didn't see that episode.
> But now I have to!
> Name of episode?

<http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/0913.htm>

"The Joy of Sect"

913 5F23 Original Airdate: 2/08/98

The Simpsons join a religious sect called The Movementarians. The sect worships an all-powerful leader who claims that he will take his followers to the planet Blisstonia, where they will all live lives of uninterrupted happiness. Everyone takes to the Movementarian lifestyle, moving to a compound and working for the leader. But Marge is incredulous and flees the compound. Now free, she hires Groundskeeper Willie to kidnap her husband and kids and deprogram them. The kids return to their unwashed minds, but Homer appears to still believe in Movementarianism. He goes back to the compound and surprises his Movementarian friends by denouncing the leader and proving that his spaceship to Blisstonia is a fake. Because of Homer, the Movementarians disband.

All together, now: The leader is good; the leader is great; we surrender our will as of this date.

See analysis at <http://www.snpp.com/episodes/5F23> where among other things you can read:

> > Movementarians/Scientologists

Mark Dallara {md} compares the two groups:

- Movementarian uniforms - the light blue shirt, dark blue pants, and dark ties worn by the recruiters were an echo of the clothing worn by members of the Sea Organization, an "elite" group within Scientology. If you walk around downtown Clearwater, you will see these folks (commonly referred to as the Sea Borg on a.r.s) moving around in droves.

- Orientation film - Homer and his family are recruited into the cult through a free film. One of Scientology's "body-routing"

tactics is to give people free passes to a nutball orientation movie at one of their missions or orgs.

- Trillion-year contract - Homer mentions that he has signed over all his money, the house, and even himself for a trillion years.

Scientologists who become Sea Org members sign contracts that bind them to the church for one billion years, and members are routinely pressured to liquidate assets and take out loans to pay for $cientology courses.

- Judgement session - the scene with the new Movementarian recruits shouting insults at Homer is reminiscent of a Scientology practice called "bullbaiting". It is part of a "training routine" (TR), which is intended to teach Scientologists how to deal with verbal confrontations.

- The lawyers - the Movementarians bring out their biggest guns towards the end of the show... the attorneys. Scientology is known to be an extremely litigious cult, and the founder wrote several documents which explicitly direct the members to abuse the legal system to silence criticism.

- Tax-exempt status - At one point, a reference is made to Movementarianism's tax-exempt status. This is a hot topic with respect to Scientology, because the secret agreement between CoS and the IRS has recently been leaked, and the NY Times has done a front-page story on how they pressured the IRS into surrender.

- Spaceships - a UFO theme was central to the Movementarian belief system. While UFO elements are not unique to Scientology, it does contain several separate references to spaceships, invasions, and extra-planetary stations.

- The Leader - bore a vague resemblence to L. Ron Hubbard, and that the Movementarian claims that he invented morse code and other crap is similar to Scientology's absurd biographical sketch of the con man who started it all.

-- Hud Nordin <hud@pobox.com> Silicon Valley

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