Scientology, MOVE, And Making A Messiah

Scientology is arguably the most well-known cult in the world.

There are plenty of reasons for this, it’s success, controversial belief system, and perhaps most importantly, it’s stable of celebrity members.

If you study cults at all, you cannot avoid studying Scientology as it is all over the place in the world of cultic studies, much for the same reasons that it is so intriguing to the public at large.
Recently, in a new biography about Tom Cruise, a long-time Scientologist, is an allegation that his daughter conceived using the frozen baby making juice of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The author himself shoots down the idea, but makes the point that it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility in the strange and creepy world of Scientology. But, it will no doubt garner a lot of publicity and will spark debate about Scientology, the kind that will likely end with the group being able to spin the whole thing for it’s own benefit.

It is Scientology’s success that is what makes the fact that they are building a church in Philadelphia much more newsworthy than say the fact that MOVE abuses children in the very same city, as evidenced by the slew of media coverage of the arrival of the alien obsessed, psychiatry loathing, Scientology.

Unlike groups like MOVE, Scientology does not demand asceticism and rather than eschewing the "system", seeks to impact it, and benefit the rewards of living in it. For the celebrities, it is a perfect fit as it "closely mirrors the world that they already inhabit: paranoid, litigious and tightly controlled by lawyers and publicists.

"The fact they believe in aliens, e-meters and all the rest is merely incidental." as one writer recently noted. Again, we have cults filling psychological voids, and it is a common thread that binds groups like MOVE and Scientology together.

And while the very likely false assertion that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes child is some kind of "Rosemary’s Baby", as the media is calling it, I know with certitude that MOVE’s leader did indeed use the best science money could buy to ensure she had a child, and a white child at that.

First, let me say, that my own personal beliefs tend towards not caring about how, when, and where somebody has a child. However, when your whole existence is predicated upon the aversion to the use of scientific means and methods and you lead a group ostensibly dedicated to destroying such things, you are obliged to call a hypocrite a hypocrite and a liar a liar.

Alberta Africa and her MOVE cronies vehemently deny that she had a child as Ramona Africa did to a City Paper reporter some years back during the confrontation with John Gilbride, the boy’s father, before his death.

MOVE’s denials are clearly self-serving as it wouldn’t do well for them to have to explain why they used science to ensure the birth of a child, and to ensure the race of the child was white to boot. It is not something MOVE can afford to cop too, even if there is a mountain of evidence that the child was conceived via in-vitro fertilization, even if the boy’s skin is paler than mine is.

But why go through all of that and risk so much and pay so much money? Why did Alberta go through all that she did to make sure she had a very specific kind of child?

In my years around MOVE, the story and rationale for the exercise in eugenics became clear as the truth about the situation leaked out.

According to Alberta, it would be whites that lead "John Africa’s Revolution" into the 21st century. Her child would be white in order to identify with others of the same "race". Unlike other children born into MOVE, he would be given a solid education and be raised in a why that would be largely foreign to the black children in MOVE, who are kept illiterate and in a state of enforced ignorance.

One former MOVE supporter re-counted to me the story of a conversation with white MOVE member Sue Africa, who also stands as second in command of the cult, when she pointed out a window where some of the African-American, children of MOVE members, and asked "do you think they could run this Organization"? She clearly meant that they were intended to be the work-horses of the cult, while those of the group who looked more like her were being groomed to run things. If that is not racism I don’t know what is.

MOVE is on a mission. They are grooming the son of John Gilbride to go off to Europe and college campuses in America to secure the cult’s future. He is their own home-grown Messiah figure and his father was clearly expendable with regards to the plan and disposed of when his efforts to obtain freedom for his son got in the way of the cult’s grand scheme.

John Gilbride was killed not just for offending the sensibilities of MOVE’s leader, but for putting into jeopardy the plan for the future of the cult. That much I have no doubt of.

The question that always persists with regards to MOVE is just who will step up and speak out and who will do the reportage necessary to expose MOVE’s abuse of children, it’s plan for the child of the murdered John Gilbride, and an honest investigation into his death.

I fully realize that in this celebrity obsessed culture that the plight of a few children in a city plagued with problems is hardly will not soon, or maybe never will, amount to much of anything. But for the sake of those kids that I knew and for the ones that have come since my departure, I will continue to agitate and persist in my efforts.

For John and for those kids, this blog continues to be necessary.