L. Ron Hubbard's The Open Mind Forum

A main theme of all religion is having faith in something or someone. Whether it is a large organized religion, a sect, or a cult, each group has their own beliefs and these beliefs should not be easily discounted. The leading reason why the Open Mind Forum was not taken seriously may have been their “outlandish” ideas and conspiracies, but mostly, this cult was not taken seriously based on their unqualified leader and the overall disorganization of the group. Jim, the leader of the cult was not charismatic, he was unable to expand the cult, and he was incapable to appeal to the general population. At the very least these followers should be treated with respect, and their ideas should be heard out fairly before a final decree is

The whole idea behind this group was birthed from a rumour about a bill being secretly passed in Congress which was supposedly going to fix a lot of the debt problems in America. While like other religions, it is based on people’s beliefs and no concrete evidence is always given, the source of information for Jim was not very reliable, making it easy to poke holes through his basis. On the other hand, Scientology got its start riding the tailcoat of L. Ron Hubbard’s successful book, “Dianetics.” This book lays down a lot of the groundwork for Hubbard's base and proved that people were listening to his ideas. This book led people to believe that Hubbard was a credible source, or at the very least he had good ideas that people responded well

This author also emphasized the importance of a charismatic leader for new religious movements (page 4). Jim’s lack of charisma was another reason for the failure of the Open Mind Forum’s ability to reach the public’s eye to a stronger degree. Comparing Jim’s inability to appeal to the greater population with David’s Miscavage shows stark differences. Miscavage was able to earn people’s respect with all the hard work he had done in the organization prior to his uprising. Coupled with his reputation, Miscavage was able to manipulate how people viewed him. In the movie, “Going Clear,” one individual noted how after a certain period of time, Miscavage was one of the only individuals that were giving speeches at the Scientology events. By controlling who was giving speeches, Miscavage was able to make it look like he was the official spokesperson to members of the organization. On the other hand, Jim from the Open Mind Forum did not try to take control, and would often let other people go off on rants and tangents during the meetings. By having other people, who most likely did not have a written speech prepared made their meetings appear to be unorganized, messy, and to outsiders: crazy. His inability to manage these meetings with the goal of charming more diverse members base ultimately led to this groups