Scientology Calls Protesters "Terrorists"

Protests against the Church of Scientology and its practice of "disconnecting" new members from their families took place over the weekend. There were protests at CoS's headquarters in Clearwater, Fla., and elsewhere in the US including Seattle and New York City.

Clearly, the church is pissed off:

"Church spokeswoman Pat Harney said Anonymous is a terrorist group that has harassed church members and staff daily with threatening phone calls.

"'We have been enduring this for three months now,' Harney said. 'This is a religious hate campaign while their leaders hide behind masks of anonymity. It's not OK that they get all of this attention. We refuse to interact with them.'

"Harney said the latest protest twists the beliefs of Scientologists.

"'The Church has no policy of disconnecting members from their family, as Anonymous is plainly aware," Harney said. "We believe family is the building block of society.'"

Oh, that's rich. Back in the 1980s, I watched as the Church pulled apart the family of some of my parents friends. Their 20something daughter had joined the cult and the Church did everything it could to block the family from contacting her.

More protests are scheduled for May.