South LA faith-based and community-based groups combat hate crime through character education

With the FBI reporting violent crime against churches on the rise, St. Mark United Methodist Church in South Los Angeles and the Church of Scientology of Inglewood co-sponsored the Second Annual Hate Crimes Conference on October 27 and a workshop on November 3 to educate leaders of faith-based and community-based groups on underlying causes of anti-religious hate crime.

Held at St. Mark United Methodist Church in South LA, Hate Crime Conference speakers included human rights attorney Barry Fisher; Rev. Chip Murray, former Senior Pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church and now serving as professor of Christian Ethics at University of Southern California; Ms. Tereser Banks, Victorville Federal Prison Warden; Captain Bob Green, commander of LAPD 77th precinct; Mr. Shakeel Syed, head of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California; and Bob Adams of the Church of Scientology International.

From the issues covered in the conference, community- and faith-based groups attending requested further training in programs introduced by the Church of Scientology, resulting in the follow-up workshop.

Pam Roberts, Director of Public Affairs for the Church of Scientology of Inglewood, introduced Joni Ginsberg, Executive Director of The Way to Happiness Foundation International, who conducted a workshop on the newly published educator’s guide to The Way to Happiness, a non-religious moral code based entirely on common sense. Written by L. Ron Hubbard, the booklet fills the moral vacuum and addresses urgent issues that contributed to increasing violence in today’s society.

Ms. Ginsberg’s presentation covered the precept “Set a good example.” Those attending will now in turn implement the program in their groups, churches and communities. Rev. Willie Rollins of Community Missionary Baptist Church in Compton said the information covered in the Hate Crimes Conference and The Way to Happiness workshop will help “build and improve relationships that will bridge the gap between religions and races.”

This year’s Hate Crimes conference grew out of a program initiated in May 2008, held at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Los Angeles, at which law enforcement and government officials, clergy and educators examined the growing problem of Internet hate crime and ways to improve Internet safety and security.

For more information on Scientology programs that counter violence and intolerance, visit the Scientology web site at www.scientology.org

Scientology Cleared in Paris

The Court cited the absence of any complainants coming forward despite the intense media surrounding the trial and that the defendants had acted out of sincere religious conviction as reasons for refusing the draconian sanctions sought by the government. The Court imposed no restrictions on the Church’s activities.

Throughout the month-long trial held in May and June 2009, the Church decried the case as a heresy trial and an example of the discriminatory treatment to which new religious movements are treated in France—treatment that has been condemned by international human rights bodies. In its annual International Religious Freedom Report issued on October 26, 2009 the United States State Department said that “discriminatory treatment” of Scientologists in France “remained a concern.”

The case arose out of the five-month participation in Scientology religious practices in 1998 by the main civil party. This included studying Scientology Scriptures and receiving spiritual counseling. The donations made by the plaintiffs were returned to them in full well before any case was heard. In 2006, the prosecutor recommended the case be dismissed because there was no evidence of any wrongdoing and because all donations had been returned.

Instead, the court succumbed to pressure from anti-religious extremists in government and turned it into a heresy trial in violation of the rights of the Scientologists under French law and under the European Convention on Human Rights.

This is in marked contrast to the treatment of Scientology in other countries where Scientology is formally recognized as a religion. The European Court of Human Rights has on two recent occasions found that Churches of Scientology in Russia are entitled to the protection of religious freedom guaranteed by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Wasn’t there a long battle between the Church of Scientology and the IRS?

The battle with the Internal Revenue Service was finally and favorably resolved on October 1, 1993. On that day, the IRS issued letters recognizing the Church of Scientology International and its related churches and organizations—all 150 of them—as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

This ruling marked the end of a 40-year war between the Church and the IRS. The IRS’s determination followed the most intensive scrutiny in the agency’s history of any organization applying for tax exemption and included a meticulous review of Church activities and financial records. During this examination, an enormous amount of false information that IRS officials had been operating on in relation to the Church was addressed and corrected. Once the facts were established, the IRS came to the only possible conclusion.

The religion of Scientology is a bona fide religion;

Churches of Scientology and their related charitable and educational institutions are operated exclusively for recognized religious purposes.

Churches of Scientology and their related charitable and educational institutions operate for the benefit of the public interest rather than for the interests of private individuals;

No part of the net earnings of Churches of Scientology and their related charitable and educational institutions inures for the benefit of any individual or noncharitable entity;

The Churches of Scientology do not violate any public policy.

A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers is helping Samoa recover from the tsunami that hit the island early Tuesday, September 29.  The tidal waves carried entire villages out to sea and killed at least 140.

An 8.0 earthquake 120 miles off the coast jolted people awake in Samoa at 6:48 that morning.  Ten minutes later the first of four 15- to 20-foot-high waves pounded the shore and surged inland, destroying everything in their path.

Alerted to the disaster, Scientologists from Sydney, Australia, flew to the devastated island.  There, they joined a team of Samoans who trained to be Volunteer Ministers in 2008 when the Scientology Volunteer Ministers South Pacific Goodwill Tour was in that country. They are working together to help local officials provide basic services for several thousand survivors living in emergency shelters since the disaster occurred.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers have set up their bright yellow tent as a headquarters for their relief activities.  There, at shelters and in villages throughout the island, they provide Scientology Assists—simple procedures developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that help people recover from the emotional and spiritual effects of trauma, illness and injury.

“Our Scientology Assists are the ’spiritual first-aid’ people need in a disaster,” said Mathew Andrews, leader of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers South Pacific Goodwill Tour who is coordinating the Volunteer Ministers disaster relief in Samoa.  “People who are grieving, in pain or fixated on the tragedy become extroverted and bright and start planning again for the future.  We helped a man who was in pain, struggling to walk.  Today we saw him in town.  He was smiling and walking easily and came up to me to shake my hand.”

For more information or to join the relief effort in Samoa contact the Volunteer Ministers Consultant at vm@volunteerministers.org.  To learn more about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program visit their web site at www.volunteerministers.org or the Scientology site.

“IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT AN ULTIMATE GOAL WOULD BE, IT WOULD OF COURSE BE UTTER PEACE.”-David Miscavige, St. Petersburg Times, 1998

“IT IS HUBBARD, AFTER ALL, WHOSE WORDS MISCAVIGE will heed as he tries to improve Scientology’s standing in Clearwater and around the world. Ten of them are inscribed on his boardroom wall: ‘Ideas and not battles mark the forward progress of mankind.’”

With these words, S.P. Times reporter Tom Tobin closed his October 25, 1998, profile of David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center, the Church body responsible for safeguarding the purity of the Scientology religion. The article, written by Tobin and edited by Joe Childs, dominated the front page and three interior pages of the Times. It described Mr. Miscavige as a peacemaker and chronicled his strides in resolving long-standing battles for the Church of Scientology, including those with the Times.

The fact that Mr. Miscavige chose the S.P. Times for his first-ever print interview was significant. A man who had been the subject of an Emmy-winning interview on ABC’s Nightline and who heads a worldwide religious movement literally had the pick of any news organization in the world. But an issue was at stake of far greater importance to the leader of the Scientology religion than the selection of a media outlet:

“If you want to know what an ultimate goal would be, it would of course be utter peace. That’s misconception one, that we like the war. That’s misconception one.”

Granting an interview to the Times was an important step toward bringing that peace to the entire community. Since 1975, the paper had written hundreds of derogatory articles about the Scientology religion, consistently pounding the Church, its members and leaders with vituperative rumor, innuendo and allegation, all of which resulted in a hostile environment for the Church with some residents and officials in Clearwater. Thus, Mr. Miscavige sought to dispel these false rumors by giving the Times broad and unfettered access to the Church, its facilities, its staff—and to himself. The reporters understood this and their story got it right:

“You have now hit upon why I’m willing to talk to you,” he told a Times news team during a three-day visit to Scientology’s Los Angeles-area headquarters. “If I make an effort to resolve something I have every intention of doing so.… I have every intention of keeping my word.”

Mr. Miscavige did keep his word. The reporters were invited for tours, interviews and photo sessions in Clearwater and at the Church’s international dissemination center, Golden Era Productions, in Southern California. Mr. Miscavige answered extensive questions about his life, his work and the Church’s activities. He tackled head-on the rumors that had dogged Scientology since the Church’s arrival in Clearwater in 1975. And he told them he hoped the interview would open doors with the city of Clearwater. Tobin quoted him as saying:

“I do think we have to put the past behind us, and that’s why I felt a dialogue should be opened. To take a bigger step.”

In the decade since that article, Mr. Miscavige’s promises for improved relations with the Clearwater community have come true. The Church resolved all outstanding conflicts with the city. Scientologists are active in many local charities and civic groups. They sit on development boards and arts councils. They are in every way contributing citizens of Clearwater, working to improve their community.

Throughout those years, the Church’s doors continued to be open for Times staff. Church staff were always available to provide information and answer questions. And when the Church held its grand opening for the newly restored Fort Harrison in March 2009, Mr. Miscavige ensured that Joe Childs received a personal invitation and tour. And when the Church was contacted concerning the current series and the Times requested to interview Mr. Miscavige, he once again agreed. He not only agreed to be interviewed, he also insisted the Church provide Tobin and Childs full access to all Church facilities across the globe and that they be able to speak to anyone requested. By this, there was no question that Mr. Miscavige was going to work with Childs and Tobin to give them all information on the Church and a full view of what he has been engaged in.

This time, however, although he was again the central focus of their story, the reporters chose to rush into print without speaking to him, cancelling the interview because the story had already gone to print. They walked away from an interview with the very person who, they both knew, would have set the facts straight.

The door to the Church was wide open, but despite more than a decade of effort, the S.P. Times slammed it shut.

More on Freedom Magazine online

Meeting the Global Demand for the Scientology Religion

OPENING A NEW BREED OF CHURCH IN MAJOR CITIES, SCIENTOLOGY HAS DOUBLED ITS SIZE IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS.

“You are creating an island of friendliness, decency and succor in the sea of a violent world…. Sometime in the future the islands will become the sea.” —L. Ron Hubbard

To meet the skyrocketing demand for Dianetics and Scientology throughout the world, and utilizing the technological advances of the 21st century, in 2004 Chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center, Mr. David Miscavige, launched the Ideal Org strategy to transform all Scientology Churches into Ideal Churches of Scientology.

It was the goal L. Ron Hubbard had set for Scientologists—to one day create Churches that were a physical embodiment of the policy and technology he had provided to help all beings attain spiritual freedom.

An Ideal Org (for “organization”) is a Church configured to provide the full services of the Scientology religion to its parishioners and to the community.

“Ideal” status encompasses both the physical facilities and the quantity and quality of the service to its parishioners and community. Such Churches house extensive public information multimedia displays describing all aspects of Dianetics and Scientology and its Founder, L. Ron Hubbard, as well as the Church’s social betterment and community outreach programs.

Religious services are provided in efficient and aesthetic courserooms and spiritual counseling rooms. There are also libraries, bookstores, film and seminar rooms as well as an expansive Chapel for Sunday Services, weddings, naming ceremonies and other congregational gatherings.

Since 2004, more than a dozen Ideal Churches have arisen, including those in such cultural centers as Madrid, New York, London and Berlin.

Just since April 2009, three more opened—first in Malmö, Sweden; then Dallas, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee. As of this writing, 70 more buildings have been acquired and stand in various stages of design and construction. And so it is, Ideal Churches of Scientology will soon literally encompass the world.

More: freedommag.org/miscavige_magazine

Saint Hill Manor, once home of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, gears up for 18th annual international arts festival

Saint Hill, the headquarters for the Scientology religion in England, and home in the 1960’s to Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, is about to undergo its once-yearly transformation into an international haven for the artist, with the 18th annual Saint Hill International Arts Festival opening there on Sunday the 2nd of August.

L. Ron Hubbard once wrote, “A culture is only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamed by artists.” And it is the regard with which he held the artist that inspired this yearly weeklong tradition of concerts, performances, workshops and projects in which those attending stretch their creativity and polish their craft while sharing their talent with others.

This year’s festival opens with an evening of world-class performances, including concert pianist Gabriel Arnold, soprano Marion Shuster, violinists Mike Perroud and Martin Sonneveld, violist Anne-Marie Sonneveld, actor/comedians Georgina Roberts and Robbie Scandrett and dancer Barbara Lanik, with a guest performance by Hollywood actor and singer, Judy Norton, best known for her role as Mary Ellen in the Waltons.

To cap the evening, guests will be treated to a professionally staged fireworks extravaganza.

The concert begins the week of workshops, exhibitions and classes in painting, drama, singing, dance, filmmaking, photography, fashion design and sculpture, including a master class in piano. For the entire week, the grounds of Saint Hill Manor will be transformed into an art exhibition, where all those attending can display their work.

“The Saint Hill International Arts Festival provides artists and potential artists with the ideal environment in which to blossom, where art is taught by people with the correct technology, without invalidation, and where one is free to perform and be appreciated,” said Festival Executive Producer, Sheila Gaiman.

For more information on L. Ron Hubbard, whose work inspired the program, visit the Scientology site. For more information about the festival please contact comm@arts-festival.org or go to www.arts-festival.org.