Lessons Learned?

This is continued from yesterday.
I have been thinking about the things we might learn from Scientology, and quite frankly, I'm a little worried that perhaps we have already "learned" too much from them.  See, the thing that strikes me about the whole mess is not that it has become a monstrosity of weirdness and abuse, but that it reflects so powerfully on the negative capability of religion.  Any time religion is divorced from the divine truth it becomes a monstrosity.  And I will go out on a Unitarian sort of a limb here and say that most of the time tested religions have some sort of claim on divine truth, and they also have demonstrated that they can sever their connection with that at the drop of a hat.
Christianity included. This is me trying to take the log out of my own eye.  I'm going to stop taking swings trying to prove another religious system is crazy until I can fully sort out and repent for my own religious insanity.
If I criticize Scientology for being too utilitarian (meaning they emphasize results regardless of methods), I must admit that Christianity has often "converted" people by force.  We explain it away, we say, "Well at least they're not pagans anymore, and at least they now seem to really embrace the faith."  It's a highly colonialist argument: perhaps they're slaves but at least they're not savages.
If I'm going to criticize Scientology for insisting that their moral and behavioral system is the the only way to enlightenment, and that everyone critical of that is an SP (suppressive person), then I'm going to have wrestle with the fact that we Christians are rather constantly labeling each other heretics and apostates.
If I'm going to call Scientology out for basically making all about the almighty Cash Flow, I'm going to have to admit that churches can get all too wrapped up in dollar signs and the all too closely connected statistical idol: attendance numbers.  You want to know the ugly truth behind why churches can't be the true communities of the faithful that most of them would actually want to be?  It's all about the ducats, either not enough of them or too many, either way it can make you sick.
It's tempting to adopt the techniques of promotion and selling, because we wonder how else the church is going to grow.  It's tempting to try and smooth things over and avoid difficult conversations because we don't want to turn over the apple cart.  It's tempting to run prophets and reformers out of the kingdom, because we like the kingdom the way it is.  It's tempting to sort of retreat into an over-realized eschatology that focuses on how things are all going to be better on the "other side," because things obviously aren't according to God's will on this one.
Obviously.
The word of defeat.
Obviously the reason why we constantly pray for God's will to be done "on earth as it is in heaven," is because we want God to ride in on a white horse and rescue us.  We obviously can't think that we're the ones who are supposed to actually make that happen.  That's just crazy talk.
Obviously Jesus actually intended us to limit who we love to our closest friends and associates.  He didn't, he couldn't seriously expect us to actually love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
Obviously he intended us to forsake the mystical for the merely supernatural.
Obviously he wanted us to insist on seeing the world in a dualistic fashion instead of inching towards a unitive perspective, because dualism is the only way to get things done.  Divide and conquer, sort things out, find the answers, all the answers, leave no room for questions, questions cause trouble, just get moving.
Obviously we ought to understand parables and indeed, all of Scripture, as authoritative truth, that clearly says the thing that we find most comforting, instead of constantly discovering new things that will most likely just cause trouble.
You get the idea.
I think we would all do well to remember the testimony of the Pharisee Gamaliel, which is recorded in Acts 5.  The Apostles have been arrested and are in front of the High Priests, they are being accused of blasphemy for proclaiming Christ after being told not to.  Gamaliel says, "I tell you keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God you will not be able to overthrow them - in that case you may even be found fighting against God!"  I think we need to really trust that wisdom.  Understand that God doesn't need us to stick up for him.  If Scientology, or any of the radical fundamentalist sects we often fear, are against God's purposes, they will fall, they won't need our help to explode on their own.
It's pretty obvious from history that things eventually get sorted, and it's probably not our job to try and defend orthodoxy, we should just spend more time trying to help one another.  You know, "do justice, love mercy, walk humbly," that sort of thing.
It starts with us, not "them."