> I think there can be good reasons for secrecy:
>
> 1. If you started on the topic of employment,
> companies will try to secure valuable know-how.
>
> 2. A psychologist I know visited a professional
> training course, where they were asked not to
> disclose the content of some roleplaying
> exercises, because a new person attending the
> course in the future was supposed to react in a
> spontaneous way rather than planned.
>
> 3. I went to a sort of martial arts course, where
> we were asked not to show the exercises to other
> people, because they might learn them the wrong
> way, possibly leading to wrong results.
>
> Other points don't seem to be portable to the
> "cults" topic.
"The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and secret proceedings..."
President John F. Kennedy, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, April 27, 1961
[www.zdnet.com]
If you’re a private organization, unless somebody complains, you can be as secretive as you want, especially with policies and trade secrets; but, if you’re fully or partly funded by taxpayers’ money, you have a social obligation to answer to public inquiries.
Tax-exempted religious organizations are considered partly funded by taxpayers' money. In an open society, inquiry is king.
>
> 1. If you started on the topic of employment,
> companies will try to secure valuable know-how.
>
> 2. A psychologist I know visited a professional
> training course, where they were asked not to
> disclose the content of some roleplaying
> exercises, because a new person attending the
> course in the future was supposed to react in a
> spontaneous way rather than planned.
>
> 3. I went to a sort of martial arts course, where
> we were asked not to show the exercises to other
> people, because they might learn them the wrong
> way, possibly leading to wrong results.
>
> Other points don't seem to be portable to the
> "cults" topic.
"The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and secret proceedings..."
President John F. Kennedy, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, April 27, 1961
[www.zdnet.com]
If you’re a private organization, unless somebody complains, you can be as secretive as you want, especially with policies and trade secrets; but, if you’re fully or partly funded by taxpayers’ money, you have a social obligation to answer to public inquiries.
Tax-exempted religious organizations are considered partly funded by taxpayers' money. In an open society, inquiry is king.