Joe Rogan - The State of Scientology

I mean, I would like to know what the number is. If the churches in this country had to pay taxes, I mean, clearly, especially when you look at the televangelists that are driving Rolls Royce's and flying around in private jets, I mean, there's profit, there's an extreme amount of profit and it's discretionary income. They could do whatever they want with it. And you're dealing with massive, massive sums of money and they don't contribute. So these people are clearly personally benefiting from the contributions of these people and then they don't pay taxes on it. And in the case of like ministers who live in a church owned home, they don't have to pay property tax. You know, it says there's a lot of hidden benefits there. It's dirty. Yeah, it is dirty. It's amazing that it's still here. I mean, especially when you deal with something like Scientology, where you know the guy who wrote it. Right. Like this is not some ancient text that we're handed down from up on high. Yeah. You know the guy and the guy was a terrible writer. Yeah. I mean, he was a terrible science fiction author. He just wrote, every fucking thing he wrote was a first draft. Just boom, gone. I mean, it's just the most nonsensical nonsense writing and yet they don't have to pay taxes because it's considered a legitimate religion. Harlan Ellison, the great science fiction writer who died this year, told me the story of what the famous story where L. Ron Hubbard allegedly said, you know, I'm going to go start a religion. He said it was, it's real. It's a true story. They were, but it was just a bunch of science fiction writers sitting around like this, chatting and complaining about how poorly paid they are. They have to crank out by the word, you know, penny a word kind of thing. And somebody said, you know, we should just start a religion and make shit up like that. And L. Ron Hubbard goes, yeah, you know, that's a good idea. I think I might do that. And then he went out and wrote Dianetics and that became the founding document of Scientology. Did you watch the HBO series on it, the documentary writer? Yeah, the Going Clear. Yeah. Unbelievable. That's the best documentary on it. And that's not only a show, she's got big guts to go after that. She does. I don't know if she's got good lawyers or A&E has good lawyers or whatever. Maybe they've stopped suing people. I don't know. I think the climate has shifted. And I think people are more, first of all, for the longest time, all we thought of when you thought about Scientology, you thought about positive thinking and John Travolta and Tom Cruise, they're all super positive, you know, and they're getting things done and there's auditing and they're really taking care of their mind and, you know, thinking clearly and eliminating all the negative influences. But then once, there's a bunch of factors, I think, but once the internet opened up the doctrines and you got a chance to read it and people got a chance to mock it and then, you know, South Park did that whole series on it where they, this is what they actually believe and you see like, you see when South Park did that, everybody was like, holy shit, wait a minute, is that real? And then people started Googling it and then looking into it and then it started to unravel slowly but surely. People started leaving the church. Lawrence Wright wrote the book. All these things are happening and now Leah is coming in and Leah was, you know, I knew her, but I mean, I'm friends with Kevin James from the King and Queen, so I've known Leah for 20 plus years. And when I first met her, she was just like this hard ass, beautiful woman who's just like driven and like, she's a Scientologist, like, oh, let's get the fuck out of her way. You know, it was like that she's just like super active and just getting things done and just being productive. I mean, that's what you thought about when you thought about Scientology. But now what you think about it is like nonsense and just foolishness. And once going clear aired and you got to see L. Ron Hubbard and listen to him talk and you see the captain's outfit he had on with the medals that he gave himself. Like what? Who would buy this stuff, right? It's so dumb. It's amazing that it's so effective and so financially successful. Yeah, I think their membership roles are pretty low, but their property holdings I think are pretty extensive. Stunning. Yeah. I mean, they're the second biggest real estate owner in Los Angeles. Is that right? Yeah. Oh, wow. At least they were. There's some Japanese folks that were number one and then it was number two was Scientology. Maybe that's not true anymore. Might be oil barons now. Well, back in the 90s when the internet first got cranked up, we were doing articles on Scientology is when some of these ex-members started posting the secret doctrines, the Z-News story and the going clear at level eight or whatever when you find out the inside story. And they got raided. I mean, the Scientologists went to court, to judges and said, this is copyrighted material. And it's like, wait, you're a religion. How can you copyright a religious? Well, and they somehow got around that. I mean, this would be like the Catholic church not telling you about Jesus and the resurrection until level eight after you've paid $100,000 or something like that. It's just insane. Well, what's amazing is that the IRS caved and turned them into a tax exempt. When that happened, I remember when that happened, I thought, oh my God, I don't want to fuck with these guys. I mean, they beat the IRS. I'm a nobody. I'm going to defend myself. But maybe they've stopped suing people. Maybe they're not going after Leah like that. Play real estate. Here it goes. Hmm. Portfolio properties reported at $400 million in Hollywood alone, paid for in cash, no less. The church of Scientology is undeniably a formidable player in the real estate game. Well, that's what you got. They have some beautiful properties too. It's just really amazing. It's amazing. So, you know, my, my skeptic friends go, oh, they're going to go out of business anytime soon. I don't know. I think they could have practically no members and still they have all this real estate. Here's the thing. Even though it's nonsense, just so is most religion. Let's just be honest. I mean, if you want to talk about guys coming back from the dead after being burned for three days or Adam and Eve being the only two people and they have kids and their kids just started having sex with each other and that makes all the people in the world are Moses partying the Red Sea and Jesus walking on water. I mean, you're looking at horse shit everywhere. It's just older horse shit. It's you know, whether or not it's based on some real events or some real people who knows who knows, you know, but it's all nonsense. Have you ever heard Julia Sweeney's monologue letting go of God? No. Do you know Julia from Saturday Night Live? I know who she is. I do not know her. Yeah. She just moved back to LA. So you should have her on the show. She's terrific. Love to. So she was born and raised Catholic, loved being a Catholic, the whole culture and all that was great. And then she started reading Dawkins and me and Harris and so on and then kind of let all that go and then she wrote a monologue. It's very moving. So the monologue opens. She's in her house in Hollywood and the Mormon boys come by and she invites them in and they want to tell the story and she's thinking this is like a Hollywood pitch story. You're going to pitch the story and I'll get back to you later until you know how I like it. No, no, they wanted to actually press to see if she could join right then and there. They're on their two year mission that they do. So picture these two 18 year olds with their white start shirts and their bicycles. So Julia starts pressing him a little bit. So what's the story here? Well, see this guy, Joseph Smith, he found these gold plates in his backyard and he translated them from ancient hieroglyphics into English and with these magic stones and they're going on and then Jesus came to America and there was the good Indians and the bad Indians and Julia's like, I just want to tell them, okay, don't start with this story. This is a bad pitch story. And the Scientologist, no, don't tell them about Zenu until way down the line. But then she says reflecting on it, you know, if I told somebody my Catholic story who never heard of it, it would sound just as wacky because it's virgin and the resurrection, what? Yeah, all of it's wacky.