Review: Operation Clambake

Written January 1, 2001

This site acts somewhat like a portal. Its value is also in what it links to, therefore some of the links indicated here are "offsite".

Operation Clambake is a very well-documented resource devoted to fighting the Church of Scientology (CoS). But it might be just a bunch of lies.

Introduction

I am not an activist myself, although I have always cast a critical eye on the CoS (and I am probably Fair Game by now for posting this review, in any case). Scientologists are very present in my hometown, and of course I know a couple of people who have "been there".
To finish explaining my interest for this site, let's just add that I study history of religions - and the CoS is a very interesting subject in that respect.

Design

The layout and design are very clear and readable - I appreciate the "breathing space". The home page provides you with a very limited set of links to the main parts of the site, as well as a much more elaborate list of links to articles the site hosts (generally accompanied by a short abstract) - almost overwhelming.

I don't have many negative things to say about it. Of course, being a rather "special interest" site, it might simply not interest everyone. Some of the material is also a bit dated - but overall the site is up-to-date.

And of course, the sheer amount of information provided is enough to make you dizzy. The section below will point to you a few places to start.

Site content

As I said above, Operation Clambake is devoted to fighting the CoS, via the net.
This is done mainly by collecting and grouping information that the CoS hides from its members and the public (like the secret library), and documents and research which disprove some of the CoS's important claims about itself and its founder (for example, how many scientologists are there?) - as well as by collecting testimonies of ex-scientologists.
The aim of the site is clear, and the tone of the site is sometimes virulent.

If you do not know what the CoS is, you can read the introduction - and maybe you'll find answers for scientology kids interesting, too. Of course, there is also a link to the CoS official site so that you have direct access to their side of the story.

You can see the infamous personality test CoS uses to recruit new members, read about the techniques that are taught as well as have a scary peek at some quotes from the church's policy letters - including the encouragement to tell lies.

I could go on and on - the site is really a huge archive. Here are a few more random pages I thought were worth the look (as if the rest of it wasn't?):

email exchanges between the author and the site and scientologists
- prices of some courses (not cheap, you can imagine!)
CoS vs. Internet
children in the Sea Org
cult-related deaths
Operation Clambake message board and alt.religion.scientology weekly review
Dead Agenting: what awaits the enemies of CoS
what's this about clams? (short)

But of course, remember... this may all be just a bunch of lies, who knows?

http://www.xenu.net/

::: discussion :::