Piety, Inc. department

A French court has found the Church of Scientology guilty of fraud and fined it $900,000. The same court declined to shut down its operations in France on the grounds that members would simply continue their activities anyway.

But when you look closely … well, dang, the only difference that I can see between the Scientologists and all the other pious folk is one of degree:

Investigating Judge Jean-Christophe Hullin spent years examining the group’s activities, and in his indictment criticized what he called the Scientologists’ “obsession” with financial gain and practices he said were aimed at plunging members into a “state of subjection.”