How I would solve the Scientology PR problem: transparency?

Someone just emailed me this… http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9363363/inside_scientology/print

• These materials, which the Church of Scientology has long struggled to keep secret, were published online by a former member in 1995 and have been widely circulated in the mainstream media, ranging from The New York Times to last year’s South Park episode. They assert that 75 million years ago, an evil galactic warlord named Xenu controlled seventy-six planets in this corner of the galaxy, each of which was severely overpopulated. To solve this problem, Xenu rounded up 13.5 trillion beings and then flew them to Earth, where they were dumped into volcanoes around the globe and vaporized with bombs. This scattered their radioactive souls, or thetans, until they were caught in electronic traps set up around the atmosphere and “implanted” with a number of false ideas — including the concepts of God, Christ and organized religion. Scientologists later learn that many of these entities attached themselves to human beings, where they remain to this day, creating not just the root of all of our emotional and physical problems but the root of all problems of the modern world.

Now, I’m not a Scientologist. I have CONSIDERED becoming a Scientologist because of all the insider connections I could get for business… I mean, they got some great folks in there. I kid, I kid…. I’m not a religion type person as we all know. Never thought about Scientology for a second–too busy for such things. Texas Holdem is my spiritual retreat at this point.

However, I do think I have a solution for the folks who are Scientologists and who are dealing with the whole “Scientology is a wacky sci-fi cult” meme: admit that Scientology was founded by a scifi author and was, “wacky” from day one. Then go on to explain that since that “wacky” start–based on science fiction which was obviously not true–they evolved some principles of how to improve your life, find meaning, and be part of community.

In other words, why not make Scientology 100% transparent… just come out and put all the cards on the table and move on. Half the reason folks are obsessed with the whole thing is that a) it has this wacky scifi background and b) the whole cloak and dagger thing.

I’ve met a bunch of Scientologists in my life and I’ve never found them to be anything by nice, intelligent, and considered people. I bet if all this stuff was just put out there people would chill out.