Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
From: dennis.l.erlich@support.com
Subject: Federal court hearing, pa
Message-ID: <9506240918.0D2JE00@support.com>
References: <3s54th$iif@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
Organization: L.A. Valley College Public BBS (818)985-7150
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Distribution: world
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 95 09:18:14 -0700
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Brian Harmon:

>unsel, and he [apparently]
>    misunderstood what was meant when he was told that the
>    TRO had been 'modified.' Assuming that things were all right,
>    he posted another message to ARS.  He was informed of his error,
>    and that he was in violation [i presume] of the TRO.  He promptly
>    canceled that message and had Homer Wilson Smith cancel as best as
>    possible to stop propagation.
>
>    In short, Dennis was not certain of what his rights were, he goofed,
>    and then cleaned up after himself in good faith.  [hardly an action
>    worhty of contempt, we hope.]
>
>2)  Erlich signed a declaration that a church document was indeed genuine.
>    [i have no context, can anyone help me out?]

    I verified some documents that Gerry Armstrong wanted to file
    in his bankruptcy case with a declaration.

    Gerry Armstrong is the bravest soul I know.  He's the one who
    opened the histor of the Phatguy to scrutiny in the first
    place.  And he did it frtom the depths of C-orgdom.  It was a
    HUGE risk.  His life has been in peril since.

    If anyone ever deserved support, it was/is Gerry.

>    He did _publish_ anything, he just signed a peice of paper saying,
>    "yes, that's the real McCoy."
>
>3)  In an interview, Dennis referred to Xenu, 75 million years ago, and
>    something baout thetans being blown up in large volcanoes on teegeeack
>    [earth] by that nasty Xenu. [beliefs of church, these are otiii tidbits
>    referring to incident ii.]

    This was The Net interview, aired on BBC in May.

>      McElhinny started to quote from a published St.. Petersburg times article
>      that said the very same things Dennis did, when suddenly Cooley lept up
>      and objected.  It was hard to tell what Cooley's argument was, as he
>      floated between accusing McElhinny of trying a publicity stunt to smear
>      scientologists to objecting that they were trade secrets.   When asked by
>      the Judge if this article contained trade secrets, Cooley hemmed and
>hawed
>      [started to say yes?] but eventually said that that was not his
>objection,
>      rather that it was a stunt so that other nasty newspaper artiles could be
>      published to offend the religious sensibilities of scientologists. [???
>in short,
>      he weaseled out of that once he realized he stepped in goo.]
>
>      When he was all done, Judge Whyte responded that he did not understand
>      what Cooley was all upset about [my words, not his].  Cooley got rather
>      quiet after that, and let McElhinny continue.

    Did you notice all the scienos turning blue, squirming and
    farting during Harold's surprise?

>      After quoting the St. Petersburg times article, he then went on and
>quoted
>      the same information in a Time magazine expose of the cult from 1991.
>
>      The argument was, if these articles are not a violation of trade secrets
>      and/or copyright, then how can the court hold Dennis in contempt for
>saying
>      the same thing they did??? [heck, he could have read the article to
>them!]
>
>
>-----------------Closing statements by McElhinny------------
>
>These were amazing.  I'll try and properly reconstruct what he said..
>
>When he [McElhinny] reads Scientoloy scritpures, it's complete gibberish to
>him.
>However, his religion was taught to him in latin, which would be complete
>gibberish to a scientologist or any non-Catholic.
>
>That doesn't matter, however.  What matters in religion is _belief_.  That is
>what transforms 'gibberish' into sacred scripture.  The plaintiffs are arguing
>about words, and about trade secrets, and about copyrights, but it is belief
>that really brings value to religion.
>
>Dennis Erlich believes very strongly that fraud is occuring in the church.  So
>much so that he would characterize it not as a church, but as a cult.  It is
>this
>deeply-held belief that compels him to educate the world about COS, and to
>prevent
>people from falling prey to this cult.
>
>it may be a battle of words for the church, but for Dennis it is a battle of
>belief.
>
>------------
>
>How was that?

    Damn good, Brian!

>Well, this is the end of my little hack, hope you liked it.
>
>Brian Harmon
 
            +--------------------------------------+
           Rev. Dennis L Erlich  * * the inFormer * *
      dennis.l.erlich@support.com  +  inForm@primenet.com
                           "tar baby"