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He Was A Fearless Advocate, But Somehow Our Lawyer Just Couldn't Bring Himself To Talk About Napoleon's Penis In Open Court
Richard Ingrams, The Observer Review, page 2, 12 January 1997 [extract]
As every journalist knows, the pseudo-religious cults which have proliferated in our godless society over the last decades are intensely hostile to any criticism, and respond with writs, injunctions and appeals to the Press Complaints Commission when attacked, even mildly, in the press. It was greatly to the credit of the Daily Mail that it successfully fought an action brought against it by the Moonies when the paper accused them of breaking up families and using brainwashing methods to recruit and keep their members.
One ought perhaps not to be too surprised that a group of Hollywood actors including Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman should be currently attacking the German government on behalf of another extremely powerful cult, the Scientologists (although I must say I raised an eyebrow at the name of Gore Vidal on the list of protesters).
In fact, the German government has acted with admirable courage in proscribing the Scientology movement which it refuses to recognise as a religion, categorising it quite rightly as a mere business. (It was George Orwell who long ago observed: 'There might be a lot of cash in starting a new religion'). By contrast, our own government has recognised Scientology as a bona fide religion, thus making it possible for the cult to apply for charitable status, with consequent tax benefits. As for the Moonies, they can rely on more influential support than that of Tom Cruise or even Gore Vidal, in the shape of the former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath, who has spoken at Moonie conferences in Korea and most recently in Washington, where he received an estimated fee of pounds 35,000.
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