Would US religious freedom types care more about persecution in China if the main target was Scientology rather than Falun Gong? -

[Rikka Takarada 2]

Since Congress is finally acting to punish Chinese officials over what basically amounts to genocide in Xinjiang East Turkestan, it got me thinking about the biggest religious persecution in China that's been going on for literally decades with very little attention from "religious freedom" conservatives in the US (to be fair to him, Mike Pence has been an exception): the attacks on Falun Gong.

Falun Gong is often described by western detractors as being a Chinese equivalent of Scientology, and there are definitely some parallels on their website (not least that they expect you to have a high-quality picture of the group's founder and consider it disrespectful for the picture quality to be too low, and a lot of what they say is esoteric an impenetrable to untrained eyes like the Scientology OT Levels). But if it was the real Scientology under attack, I would be quite surprised if these same people would be basically making excuses for persecution. More importantly, I doubt we'd see US evangelicals being so quiet either; one of Scientology's greatest propaganda coups in the US has been convincing evangelicals & religious freedom lovers that they're the bulwark against restriction of religious practices since they're targeted so often (and if we fall, you'll be next).

So what do we think explains the silence over "Chinese Scientology" Falun Gong? Is it just a matter that they don't care if it's not in the US; that these same people secretly agree with it (because they regard FG as false or whatever), or something else entirely?

 

[DumbDude42]

So what do we think explains the silence over "Chinese Scientology" Falun Gong?

falun gong are hardline anti communists and constantly call out and antagonize communism/socialism
this doesn't sit well with leftists, hence the leftist media refuse to pick up the story or report on them in any way that could create sympathy for them

as a result, most people barely know anything about them or their situation, and the press is content to keep it that way. and when nobody knows about them, nobody can get outraged or speak up about them in any meaningful way.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Eh, I'm not so sure if Scientology has been able to get the Evangelicals and the religious freedom crowd to cover for them like they used to. Especially after the infamous South Park controversies and the Project Chanology autism of the late 2000's.

Project Chanology was autistic cringe but it did more or less "redpill" a lot of normies and spergs alike to a lot Scientology's dirty laundry and made the cult toxic as fuck outside of Hollywood and similar entertainment industry circles

Plus the Religious Right is more or less dead too

Still, I'd support Falun Gong over the People's Republic of China any day of the week. Even if they are batshit crazy, they're still better than the Chinese Communist Party.

 

[Cheetahman]

I think it's a pretty clever trick that they've managed to convince people that they're okay because the comparison is always to China, a country that is (usually justifiably) fashionable to hate. The defense is so flimsy that it might as well be muh antisemitism, because all criticism can be deflected as being from a CCP goon.
The western infatuation with the poor oppressed cult is short-sighted at best, given that science and democracy are two of their ten greatest evils.
The reason why they hate communism is because it's the enemy they portray their leader as defeating. They hate communism because even though they really want to have a country of their own, the best they can manage is flying rinky-dink planes in New York pretending it'll happen. They hate communism because communists won't give them any money.
It's definitely the dirty commies trying to suppress the teachings of a cargo cult that believes that dimensional aliens run the world and that you're not allowed to shit after praying because your chi will leave the body.

 

[Dildo]

Unless they're mainstream Christians or to a lesser extent Jews no, nobody in the US or most of the Western World will give a shit.

The same way they don't care about the Muslims in Burma and China. The same way they don't care about Buddhists in Malaysia. The same way they don't care about Jehovas Witnesses in Russia.

Religious freedom means protected religious dominance. And if it isn't a dominant religion, nobody gives a shit what they believe or if they're allowed to believe it.

 

[Reverend]

Unless FG has L. Ron Hubbard type level of autistic writing from a man who believed to be the reincarnation of a thousand lifetimes purged of all tax collectors and agents it'll never reach the same levels of awareness in modern society.

the Cult of Scientology is far more organized than people give it credit far. Their coffers are overflowing with funds and those pockets still run deep. Until FG can catch the mainstream eye it'll be relegated to "Oh that funny lil group over in Ching Cong land" by wine moms and normies.

 

[nanny911]

I would still care, yes. My reasoning is that religious freedom is for all religions, and that censoring one, even if it looks crazy will have a domino effect on major religions. Even if the targets of the communists were Sciencetologists, I would still oppose persecution of them because not even Satanists deserve the level of savagery inflicted by the CCP. I can't vouch for others but libertarians would probably oppose that persecution because not allowing a Satanic monument to be built is basically the same thing as killing Jews to them.

Spoiler

Well, OK, killing Jews and banning Satanic monuments are basically the same thing.

TL;Dr, religious people need to stick together because what's that poem? First they came for socialists but I didn't help and my house got bulldozed because I'm Palestinian?

 

[nohull]

No.

 

[Mexican_Wizard_711]

falun gong are hardline anti communists and constantly call out and antagonize communism/socialism
this doesn't sit well with leftists, hence the leftist media refuse to pick up the story or report on them in any way that could create sympathy for them

as a result, most people barely know anything about them or their situation, and the press is content to keep it that way. and when nobody knows about them, nobody can get outraged or speak up about them in any meaningful way.

i guess so, but even then the Falun Gong is still kinda like a cult, even people who don't like the Chinese Communist Party are little wary of Falun Gong.

 

[Billy "the Bot" Bobson]

I would still care, yes. My reasoning is that religious freedom is for all religions, and that censoring one, even if it looks crazy will have a domino effect on major religions. Even if the targets of the communists were Sciencetologists, I would still oppose persecution of them because not even Satanists deserve the level of savagery inflicted by the CCP. I can't vouch for others but libertarians would probably oppose that persecution because not allowing a Satanic monument to be built is basically the same thing as killing Jews to them.

Spoiler

Well, OK, killing Jews and banning Satanic monuments are basically the same thing.

TL;Dr, religious people need to stick together because what's that poem? First they came for socialists but I didn't help and my house got bulldozed because I'm Palestinian?

When you stop to think about it all, it doesn't matter. Religious Freedom in the U.S. for the common man and not the Founding Fathers was primarily meant for Trinitarian Christian Religions; every major religious group in the US at the time was either Anglican and Catholic (though heavily persecuted), Episcopalian, Congregationalist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Puritan, and Quaker (though they weren't wholly trinitarian). Jews were barely tolerated in Maryland and had very little presence in the early years. Yet the exception was allowed to rule over the rule and led us to this point in time. Recall that America is considered "the Great Experiment" and is not often the rule. Between Christian Denominations there is already an enormous amount of diversity. Look to Jerusalem or India if you want to see what you get over 1000 years of "co-existence".

When they come for me, it would have been far past time to line them up anyway, but "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" does not mean "I should support one over the other".

 

[Wonderful Id]

The only way the people in charge in the US are going to give a damn about China is when it effects the pocketbook. We know full well that China is putting religious minorities into concentration camps, and yet we do practically nothing.

Something tells me that if Nazi Germany were an economic powerhouse and major trading partner of the US, our leaders would tells us that whole "holocaust" incident as an unfortunate thing Germany does, but there's just nothing we can do about it.

 

[Desu Vult]

Falun Gong, as far as the typical American (or European) is concerned, is some yet another weird kooky cult. Though probably a harmless one in comparison to Scientology...

And they'd care even less if it was Scientology, since Scientology's rep is in the shitter and has been there for at least a decade or two.