Religion News Blog is a non-profit service providing academics, religion professionals and other researchers with religion & cult news

Religion news articles about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues

Navigation:

More articles about: RNB's Religion News Blog, Scientology:

Musical satire on Scientology in the cult’s backyard

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Thursday November 11, 2010

Remember A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant?

This December the satire it’s going to play in Tampa Bay, right in the backyard of the spiritual headquarters of the Scientology cult.

“I had no idea they were doing the show down there,” Kyle Jarrow, author of the musical, said. “Clearwater is almost ground zero for Scientology. That’s sure to be extra controversial.”

He readily acknowledges that the 60-minute musical is intended to ridicule Scientology, writes the St. Petersburg Times (which, by the way, has published numerous investigative reports on Scientology). “At the time I wrote it, Scientology was sort of a punch line on South Park, but I think people knew a lot less about it than they do now,” he said. “For that reason, it seemed like it would be interesting to explore what the religion was about.”

But the playwright also has a larger point to make about organized religion. “Yeah, I have some things to say about Scientology in the play, but part of what I wanted to say is that in any religion, there are certain things that people could find ridiculous,” he said. “There are plenty of Christian doctrines that, if one met an alien and tried to explain it to them, they’d think it sounded pretty ridiculous. So I think it’s more than just a spoof.”