{"id":3661,"date":"2008-10-02T13:38:02","date_gmt":"2008-10-02T17:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:20:08","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:20:08","slug":"religious-protest-of-a-different-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious protest of a different kind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg\" height=\"332\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Most Torontonians, at one time or another, have passed a protest against China&#8217;s treatment of members of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fulan_gong\">Fulan Gong<\/a>. But there is another religious backlash that happens with almost as much regularity here in the city: the anti-Scientology protest.<\/p>\n<p>The Church of Scientology is located at <a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=Yonge+and+St.+Mary+St,+toronto&amp;sll=43.668865,-79.387207&amp;sspn=0.781767,1.365051&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=43.66798,-79.385834&amp;spn=0.012215,0.021329&amp;z=16&amp;iwloc=addr\">Yonge and St. Mary<\/a>, just south of Bloor. The ground floor has a retail component that sells L. Ron Hubbard&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dianetics\">Dianetics<\/a> books (which form the basis of the Scientology beliefs). Almost every day when I pass this location I see one or two members of the church handing out fliers or asking for passersby to sit down for a &#8220;Free Stress Test&#8221; (see image at bottom of post). Once a week I work in the building just north of the church and I can often look directly into their building to watch teaching sessions or circles of 10 to 20 people holding hands (and, I assume, praying).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3162\/2907845190_6cda76f094.jpg\" height=\"332\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Across the street, a handful of young protesters will also being handing out pamphlets, but those pieces of literature try to discredit Scientology teachings. Most of the demonstrators cover their face with bandanas or masks, which I suspect is meant to hide their identity from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0\">excitable, yet wrathful, Tom Cruise<\/a>. (As a sidenote, Bill Maher&#8217;s new movie, <em>Religulous<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mQlicDw_unA\">has a great scene of him as a street preacher<\/a> in London&#8217;s Hyde Park reciting the belief system of Scientology)<\/p>\n<p>When I stepped back to take photos of the protesters, photos were taken of me (in the photo above, see the person on the left sitting on the ground). The kids quickly assumed I was working for the Scientologists and began crowding me, asking me what I was going to use the photos for. I explained my purpose (a blog post for a magazine) and they seemed to find this acceptable. They told me they&#8217;ve been harassed and intimidated a few blocks away by people they saw watching them from the windows above church&#8217;s retail store. That&#8217;s why they were quick to judge me, a protester said. Sometimes the police show up to make sure nothing is getting out of hand and that the protestors are not taking over the entire sidewalk.<\/p>\n<p>I find this demonstration to be a unique\u00a0 occurrence on our streets because we rarely, if ever, see direct protests against a religious or spiritual sect. I can&#8217;t remember ever seeing a group outside of church, mosque, temple, or synagogue chanting negative slogans or openly trying to persuade people to reject the ideas of the religion. I&#8217;m sure a majority of people believe Scientology to be a cult (I certainly do), but that makes this situation all the more unique: most cults try to hide themselves from the public&#8217;s view while trying to convert newbies in very subtle and covert ways.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/c\/cd\/Dianetics_demo_at_Union_Station.jpg\/800px-Dianetics_demo_at_Union_Station.jpg\" height=\"374\" width=\"499\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Most Torontonians, at one time or another, have passed a protest against China&#8217;s treatment of members of the Fulan Gong. But there is another religious backlash that happens with almost as much regularity here in the city: the anti-Scientology protest. The Church of Scientology is located at Yonge and St. Mary, just south of<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Religious protest of a different kind&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21757,21758,21759],"tags":[28,10452,1846,10447,10448,25,10451,359,10454,10450,10449,10455,10453],"class_list":["post-3661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-community","category-features","tag-behaviour","tag-bill-maher","tag-china","tag-church-of-scientology","tag-fulan-gong","tag-intervention","tag-l-ron-hubbard","tag-london","tag-religulous","tag-retail-component","tag-retail-store","tag-street-preacher","tag-tom-cruise"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Religious protest of a different kind - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religious protest of a different kind - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 Most Torontonians, at one time or another, have passed a protest against China&#8217;s treatment of members of the Fulan Gong. But there is another religious backlash that happens with almost as much regularity here in the city: the anti-Scientology protest. The Church of Scientology is located at Yonge and St. Mary, just south ofContinue reading &quot;Religious protest of a different kind&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-02T17:38:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T19:20:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Blackett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Blackett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/\",\"name\":\"Religious protest of a different kind - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-10-02T17:38:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T19:20:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/4f3b818d7e3504a6e4626afc774b2574\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Religious protest of a different kind\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/4f3b818d7e3504a6e4626afc774b2574\",\"name\":\"Matthew Blackett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3eb8fd719ea39ea94dc1b32911c80f51?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3eb8fd719ea39ea94dc1b32911c80f51?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Blackett\"},\"description\":\"Matthew Blackett is the publisher, creative director and one of the founders of Spacing magazine. He is the author, editor, and photographer of 11 books. He is also a graphic artist, product designer, and deeply-committed advocate for Toronto. TWITTER: @MatthewBlackett INSTAGRAM: @MatthewBlackett\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/matt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Religious protest of a different kind - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Religious protest of a different kind - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"\u00a0 Most Torontonians, at one time or another, have passed a protest against China&#8217;s treatment of members of the Fulan Gong. But there is another religious backlash that happens with almost as much regularity here in the city: the anti-Scientology protest. The Church of Scientology is located at Yonge and St. Mary, just south ofContinue reading \"Religious protest of a different kind\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2008-10-02T17:38:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T19:20:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Matthew Blackett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Blackett","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/","name":"Religious protest of a different kind - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg","datePublished":"2008-10-02T17:38:02+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T19:20:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/4f3b818d7e3504a6e4626afc774b2574"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3092\/2907844804_f8e590a3db.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/10\/02\/religious-protest-of-a-different-kind\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Religious protest of a different kind"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/4f3b818d7e3504a6e4626afc774b2574","name":"Matthew Blackett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3eb8fd719ea39ea94dc1b32911c80f51?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3eb8fd719ea39ea94dc1b32911c80f51?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Matthew Blackett"},"description":"Matthew Blackett is the publisher, creative director and one of the founders of Spacing magazine. He is the author, editor, and photographer of 11 books. He is also a graphic artist, product designer, and deeply-committed advocate for Toronto. TWITTER: @MatthewBlackett INSTAGRAM: @MatthewBlackett","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/matt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3661"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38155,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661\/revisions\/38155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}