Scientology Kids

I find the recent controversy over the subject of growing up in
Scientology insanely bigoted and quite annoying, to say the least.

Knowing thousands of Scientologists, and having spent time with hundreds of
Scientology families, the stories I’ve read over the past week are ridiculous.
That they have fostered a deluge of blogging is an interesting thing, as it
points to a tendency of bloggers to “buy” certain so-called facts about
Scientology.  People whose judgment I
usually respect turn it jelly in the face of the latest Scientology gossip.

So it was a pleasure to find a posting on one of my favorite blogs about one
young woman's life as a Scientology kid and mother.

Here's a thirty-something who's also a 2nd generation Scientologist.

I was taken by the honesty with which she wrote her story.  She didn't
try to paint some perfect picture of her life.  She's pretty open about
being a divorced single mother of ten-year-old twin daughters. 

But to hear her talk about her ex, you can see why her daughters are well
balanced and happy kids.  

Have you ever had a friend who got divorced and then she or he and his/her
ex spent the rest of the kids' childhoods trying to get the kids to reward them
the "I was right and he/she was wrong" prize.   The poor
kids, who love them both, feel they have to choose, and no matter who they
select they are hurting someone they love and depend on.  Not a good
scene.

But rather than being bitter, Desi starts her post saying "My daughters
are coming back in the morning from visitation with their dad. They arrive
happy, well cared for and generally incredible as usual," and goes on to
say "Creating a life that allows two children to not only get along with
others wonderfully but with each other is amazing. I am so proud of both my own
choices as a parent -- steadfastly applying Scientology to each and every
difficulty as it arose -- and I am proud of the kind of father that my
ex-husband is. He applies Scientology to his relationship with his children as
well."

Despite their breaking up, these two are not in competition for their
daughters' love, and the girls are the benefactors..

She makes an interesting point about this, herself, saying  "How often do people who divorce end up
being able to successfully manage raising children together and maintaining
great communication? If we didn't have our Scientology basics in, we'd be sunk.
I credit the fact that we have reached such an amicable accord, that our
children are happy, and that our lives are happy ones in spite of our
difficulties and differences with the fact that we simply act on the good
ethical principles that our church was founded upon."

I can attest to that.  I know so many families where the kids are
caught in the middle (people now grown but bearing the scars, and not
raised as Scientologists, I might add).  And what Desi wrote resonated
with me as I've seen it time and again that even when they haven't been able to
keep the marriage together, Scientologists pretty consistently work to put the
kids first and give them a stable and secure childhood.

That’s my own experience, and I consider myself a bit of an “expert” on the
subject, having been a Scientologist for many years and seeing it all first
hand.