[WikiEN-l] The Church of Scientology is discovered to have discovered Wikipedia!

[Geoff Burling]

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004, Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:

> David Gerard wrote:
> > Not 'practitioners', but the organisation itself. That's different.
>
> I recently told a reporter that representatives of the Chinese
> government are welcome to edit zh.wikipedia.org if they like.  I think
> we can extend the same courtesy to representatives of the Church of
> Scientology.
>
> Of course, as with any highly ideological and controversial topic, a
> careful approach to NPOV is warranted.  Particularly given the fact
> that many Scientologists feel that they have been portrayed unfairly
> in the media, I think they will welcome the chance to participate in a
> truely neutral forum.
>
Knowing where David is coming from, I understand his wariness; it is to
his credit that he asked for a sanity check concerning his disagreement
with this contributor. The CoS does not want equal time to explain their
POV -- unless you define "equal time" as meaning "we're the only ones
who can speak on this topic."

I took a look at the latest contributions said Wikipedian made to
[[Scientology]], & felt that there wasn't anything deceptive in what was
contributed -- although I removed a couple of links because I sincerely felt
that they were unneeded. (The material they linked to would offer the
discerning reader an accurate accessment to the beenfits of the teachings
of L. Ron Hubbard; however, I would much prefer to listen to the sermons
of one specific gay minister ordained by the Church of the Nazarine.)

> Of course, just as with Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Catholics,
> Jews, Athiests, whatever, there is the chance that overly partisan
> people may have a rough emotional time of it.  But we can proceed with
> professionalism and love in all cases, towards a solid outcome.
>
I dunno. This is an organization that managed to go toe-to-toe with the
IRS & win a questionable case concerning tax exemptions, simply thru
brute force. Their continued struggle against alt.religion.scientology
is not only legendary, but instructive: I'd be happier if Wikipedia had
mirrors in the Netherlands & other European countries before any of us
smiled & said "bring them on."

Geoff