Mac Stevens' Petition to take responsibility for the crimes and wrongdoings of Scientology

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Scientologist Mac Stevens has posted a first draft of his Petition to take responsibility for the crimes and wrongdoings of Scientology. It is a work in progress, and this post will be updated as he refines it. It is being posted here for greater availability.

PETITION TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
FOR THE CRIMES AND WRONGDOINGS
OF SCIENTOLOGY

Whereas, Scientology groups, Scientology Missions, Scientology Churches, Church of Scientology International, Religious Technology Center, Church of Spiritual Technology, and directly affiliated groups such as ABLE and Narconon ("Organizations") have survived only through the contributions of service and money donations of Scientologists, Church staff and executives, and others ("Supporters");

Whereas, numerous reports have been made of crimes and wrongdoings committed by staff and executives of the Organizations, and/or employees or contractors acting at the direct command of staff and executives of the Organizations ("Perpetrators")

Brief list of crimes & wrongdoings
- imprisonment resulting in untimely death: Lisa McPherson, Uwe Stuckenbrock
- Coerced Abortions
- Splitting up families (Disconnection policy)
- Censoring communication (SO staff)
- slave labor? (RPF)

Whereas, the Supporters, though perhaps ignorant of the crimes and wrongdoings, nevertheless directly or indirectly contributed to them.

Whereas, the Supporters, had they [had their heads out of their, um, out of the sand] were often subject to more than ample reports of such wrongdoings and crimes, but they chose to ignore or disbelieve the reports, and not effectively stop the crimes and wrongdoings.

Whereas, though the Perpetrators are at first glance, not deserving of any mercy, and such crimes and wrongdoings are at first glance heartless and evil, the truth is not so simple: often said Perpetrators were acting based on a supreme trust in LRH and strictly following policies; such trust was reinforced by Supporters giving real wins; such trust was reinforced by Supporters thanking the Management for doing what they do; such trust was perhaps also reinforced by Supporters giving exaggerated wins -- thus the deceit was two-way; and when said Perpetrators violated policy to commit such crimes and wrongdoings, the practice of violating policy was reinforced by Supporters allowing it;

Whereas, we Supporters and former Supporters therefore acknowledge some small, perhaps very small, responsibility for said crimes and wrongdoings; and we wish to be able to make up the damage for that as much as possible;

Whereas, when we consider that had we been in the shoes of the Perpetrators, with the same training, with the same stress, we wonder how much differently would we have acted;

Whereas, perhaps we ought to feel fortunate that the Perpetrators exhibited whatever restraint they did, for surely, it could have been far worse if certain other people had filled their shoes, as we can recall far more destruction committed in far less time by other historical figures in similar situations;

Whereas our first priority is to stop the occurrence of such wrongdoings and crimes, and our second priority is justice, to somehow bring justice by having those responsible make up the damage as much as possible, and we bear no ill will toward the Perpetrators;

Whereas, a man with no hope of a future, is a frightened and dangerous man;

Whereas, we are all better off with the truth coming out, and with the Perpetrators coming out and coming clean, than with some of the Perpetrators hiding themselves and hiding information;

Whereas, coming clean, coming out with the truth, is a courageous act, and worthy of some reward, even for a scum villain; and when done voluntarily and fully, is even cause for some small forgiveness and hope of recovery of the Perpetrator;

Whereas, if there is some reward for coming clean, coming out with the truth, more Perpetrators will do so;

Whereas, the sooner the suppressive policies are cancelled and freedom is restored, the better;

Whereas, any Supporter who does not believe any of the crimes or wrongdoings are factual and that the Organizations are blameless, will therefore have no reason to not be willing to agree to make up some portion of the damage, as it would be zero in his mind;

THEREFORE,

We, the undersigned Supporters and former Supporters, hereby humbly beg to all the Governments and Courts of Earth to make the following bargain:

If the Perpetrators come clean, speak the truth, cooperate fully with all Government investigations into said crimes and wrongdoings, and fully disclose all such crimes and wrongdoings, and

If the Organizations cancel the policy of disconnection, cancel all forms of coercion, cancel all forms of forced interference in communication, cancel all forms of imprisonment, in word and in deed, and

If the Organizations pledge to proceed, if they continue to exist at all, in the more humble role of assistants or freely trading partners with man, and not man's master, and

[ ... What's on your wish list? ]

Then, we, the undersigned, pledge to do our share to make up the damage of said crimes and wrongdoings, each share to be calculated based on the Supporter's knowledge of said wrongdoings, support of the Organizations, and whatever other pertinent factors the lawfully presiding Court deems appropriate; each share to consist of community service and/or monetary contributions to the victims; each share to be no more than a given maximum of time and money, each Supporter prescribing his or her own maximum (below);

Then, furthermore, the sentence of the Perpetrators is to be reduced by an amount decided by the presiding Court, said reduction based on the contributions of the Supporters; said reduction of penalty or sentence to be calculated so that Perpetrators have an incentive to cooperate, yet still provide justice to the victims;

Furthermore, it is not our intention at all to beg for leniancy. On the contrary, we ask for full justice. We are simply asking that some properly calculated portion of the penalty be transferred to us from the legally culpable Perpetrators.

We understand that though there is room for much error and unfairness in this bargain, that there is the likelihood of far more error, loss of life, and injustice in the proposition that we Supporters wash our hands of it and hide while the small minority take the fall.

We understand that this bargain will be messy as some of the Supporters are also victims, but it will be far more messy and secretive with less justice, were we to maintain the anger and hostility we first felt when learning of our betrayed trust.

And we know that some Supporters will choose to not sign this petition. We do not feel any hostility toward them, as we do not know enough to judge their situation. We have signed as if we were signing it alone, based only on our own knowledge. And we know that this is not the only petition possible -- this is just the hastily constructed ideas of one person. Other petitions may be made by other groups of Supporters based on their ideas and this is, of course, entirely acceptable.

We do not easily forgive -- we will only forgive the Perpetrators when, and to the degree that, the victims and/or their families and close friends forgive the Perpetrators. We hope that a bit of compassion from each of us will more swiftly bring freedom to those who feel trapped, expose more truth, and bring more people to a fuller justice than a hostile narrow-minded hunt for the most obvious and easily caught targets, or the driving of those already fearful and desperate into a dragged-out drama ending in a terrifying last stand in which no one wins.

This petition is a statement of purpose, and we may cancel it and replace it with a substantially similar petition and bargain, so as to gain more agreement, but with equal willingness to contribute.

We will act in good faith, if the Perpetrators, victims, courts of justice, and police also act in good faith.


1. Mac Stevens max community service: 500 hours contact information: stevensm@earthlink.net
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... (revised and re-worded so as to be inoffensive to the maximum number of Scientologists and ex-Scientologists)

Is anyone still with me? I'll summarize the idea and make some comments.

We give the crooks a break, give them some glimmer of hope that they can again walk free, knowing the damage has been made up as fairly as humanly possible. We take responsibility for our role in the mess.

We far more rapidly achieve the goals of, say, letting the RPF go home for Christmas, and that sort of thing, the goal of getting OSA to quit harrassing -- all that kind of stuff. We relax. OSA relaxes. *I* relax. Anonymous takes off their masks. ChaoticPsychotic gets to visit her mom. We chill out. We communicate more. We get a lot more people out of hiding. A lot more information sees the light of day. A lot more friendships are restored.

In other words, we start eliminating the FEAR from the situation.

When I look at David Miscavige, at the bullying from OSA, at, well, all these destructive policies, I see fear. I think these guys are just shivering, or covertly shivering, looking for some way out. Not just you and I. Everyone right on up to the top. But some of them (speculation here) probably have too many crimes to even consider doing anything but try to hide the evidence. They have no hope. They are goners. So this maintains the suppression and the fear.

Now, I'm guessing that you're guessing, that I really do work for OSA. I don't. But, I am looking out for myself. And I know that many of you are still anonymous, out of, I'm guessing, fear of OSA. This seems like something that might work for everyone, if we do it smart. Don't let anyone off the hook. Just a bit of help and compassion.

These guys are just people. The big bully thugs. The screaming executives. They're just people. How many of them got into this with the goal of suppressing people? They probably want more than anything to join the human race and just be able to talk.

sorry, I'm getting sappy.