Scientology as a business

The Church of Scientology publicly classifies itself as a religion,^[1] but scholars and other observers regard it as a business, because the organization operates more like a for-profit business than a religious institution.^[2] Some scholars of sociology working in religious studies consider it a new religious movement. Overall, as stated by Stephen A. Kent, Scientology can be seen as a "multi-faceted transnational corporation that has religion as only one of its many components. Other components include political aspirations, business ventures, cultural productions, pseudo-medical practices, pseudo-psychiatric claims, and (among its most devoted members who have joined the Sea Organization), an alternative family structure."^[3]