Way to Happiness #4 - Love and Help Children

Children are our future and treating them properly is very important. This video shows the reality of what it really means to be a parent:

Way to Happiness #3 - Don't Be Promiscuous

This is a funny video, but it makes the point.

Way To Happiness PSA #2 - Be Temperate

Wow! This is a hard hitting video:

The precept is "Be Temperate" but the video makes you realize how much that can impact your life.

Way To Happiness Public Service Announcements

Although the Way To Happiness is a common sense, non-religious moral code and therefore not part of the Scientology religion, Scientologists do follow it. So I will be featuring the new Way To Happiness Public Service Announcement videos. Here is the first video:

Still Helping After All These Years

When the Tsunami hit Southern India in 2004, many people when to help. Two Scientology Volunteer Ministers from France where amongst them. They assisted people in overcoming the trauma of the Tsunami and after other volunteer and relief organizations had packed up and left, these two stayed. Now, 2 1/2 years later, they are still helping the people of the region. There help is appreciated to such an extent that they just received an official acknowledgment from the chief administrator of the city of Cuddalore:

Cuddalore District Government Acknowledges the Work of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers

Volunteer Ministers in Italy are Doing Something About It

The European Volunteer Ministers Cavalcade is in Southern Italy doing something about improving the plague of crime in the city of Bari. Poor Bari is, according to a recent survey, the second most dangerous city in Italy to live in. So the VMs have come to see what they can do to help: Plagued by Crime, the City of Bari Needs Effective Solutions to Recidivism

Scientology Basics Like You've Never Seen Them Before

The basics of Scientology are available, not only in their original form but with incredible glossaries and accompanying lectures. These new editions are the original writings of L. Ron Hubbard, without editorial alterations. They've never been available in this way before.

Unless you saw the event where they were introduced, which contained the full explanation of what happened and what was done to correct it, you won't appreciate the importance of these new editions.

If you are new to Scientology then you don't even need to know what I'm talking about above, you just need to go get a basic book and read it. If you want to know what Scientology is then read a book on it!

Basic Scientology Books

Getting An Apology from the BBC

The BBC makes a trailer that some in the media interpret as showing the Queen getting annoyed at a photographer and the BBC falls over itself to apologize to Her Majesty: BBC apologizes to Queen Elizabeth II. I think that's great. It's about time the media showed some respect for the people they feed off. But what about an apology for this?

I think that little outburst from BBC reporter John Sweeny is rather more serious than a trailer some sensationalism seeking reporter manages to twist to something derogatory to the Queen.

Victoria Beckham speaks out about her Scientologist Friends

As a devout football fanatic (that's soccer to you Americans) I am, naturally, a devoted adherent of David Beckham. The man is a god! I was over the moon when he announced he was going to be joining the LA Galaxy. My great hope is that the sport will now get the attention it deserves in the USA.

Anyway, I was also happy to learn that Becks is a good friend of Tom Cruise. That's cool. Good people should stick together! Of course the must-have-controversy-and-sensationalism brand of news reporting has tried to imply that two friends can't just hang out together if one has a religion that is different to the other. What a crock. I have friends who are Jewish, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu and even atheist (as well as Scientologists of course) and none of us has a problem with the religious beliefs of the others plus we don't attempt to "convert" each other.

This interview with Victoria Beckham just proves that people can get along and be best friends no matter what their beliefs: Beckham Defends Scientology Pals Cruise and Holmes.

Guilty until proven Innocent

If the police walk in on a guy standing over a murdered corpse, the blood stained knife in his hand and his clothes spattered with the victim's blood, even he is treated as innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

But in matters of religion it seems that any bigot can make whatever outrageous accusation he wants and the target of his venom is assumed guilty and the unsubstantiated claim is repeated and repeated as if proven beyond the shadow of a doubt.

This method of attack on religion is very ancient. It was used against the early Christians who were accused of cannibalism (a twisting of the communion). For hundreds of years during the dark ages Jews were told by their Rabbis never to drink red wine during the Passover because a rumor had been put about by the Vatican that they drank the blood of Christian babies.

In this day and age, accusations of cannibalism and drinking the blood of babies would be laughed at, so the hate mongers have to turn to the modern equivalents: brainwashing and financial exploitation. Outrageous accusations can be made, put onto web sites, given to the press and generally spread around and the religion is considered guilty without any trial or anyone having to provide any actual evidence.

This happened to Scientology in the United States until finally in the early 1990's the IRS did the biggest investigation ever of an organization applying for tax-exempt status. As part of that examination they investigated all the claims, no matter how outrageous, and came to the conclusion that the Church of Scientology was a religious, public benefit organization.

This same pattern has been repeated in other countries and the result has always been the same: when the accusations are investigated they are found to be false and Scientology is recognized as a religion and as innocent of the charges of wrong doing.

So why am I writing this? Because I am sick to death of seeing the press mindlessly repeating the ridiculous accusations of certain bigots in the German government. If such libelous statements were made against an individual he could sue, but when they are made against an organization which is never given a chance to answer the claims in a court of law there isn't much you can do about it, except make posts to your blog.

Some data on Official Recognition of Scientology as a Religion:

- Official Recognition of Scientology as a Religion
- Scientology Religious Recognition in Tanzania and Zimbabwe
- Official Recognition of Scientology as a Religion
- First Official Scientology Wedding In Sweden Follows Religious Recognition
- Overwhelming Religious Recognition for Scientology
- More than 50 courts around the world have ruled that Scientology operates solely for the benefit of Mankind
- Scientology Religion Bona Fides - Recognition by the Courts
- Church of Scientology of Moscow Wins Landmark Decision in European Court of Human Rights - Confirmation of Scientology's Religious Bona Fides by the Highest Court in Europe
- Scientology Wins 17-Year-Old Case In Spain - Total Victory as Court Declares Charges Groundless

More on Germany and Scientology

Here is an article from columnist Susan Estrich regarding the recent situation in Germany: Tom Cruise And The German Problem.

I particularly agree with:

"... the film Mr. Cruise is set to star in has absolutely nothing to do with Scientology. Mr. Cruise is an actor seeking to work in his craft, and the Germans are seeking to prohibit him from doing so because of his religious views. If any country should be sensitive to the harms of religious discrimination, it is Germany."

Unfair Treatment of Germany in the Press

Because of the legacy of World War II and the Holocaust, the people of Germany are quite rightly sensitive about accusations or implications of anything touching on fascism in their current Government. Germany wants to be thought of as the birthplace of Strauss and Beethoven, as the producer of finely engineered luxury vehicles and as a modern democratic nation.

So the hullabaloo in the international press last week must have been painful. Lurid headlines such as Time Magazine's particularly offensive, "Why Germany Hates Tom Cruise" were bringing back unpleasant echos of the 1930s.

The ordinary people of Germany must have been gritting their teeth in frustration at the reports by Reuters, AP, Time, etc., etc., all loudly trumpeting the "fact" that a Hollywood movie studio, partly owned by the world's biggest movie star, was being denied access to a German military memorial because of his religious beliefs.

Worse still, the movie that was being thwarted was about the attempt by the German Resistance to assassinate Hitler. Tom Cruise was to play Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the leader of the plot. Surely this movie was a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate to the world that during WW II Germans were opposed to Hitler and his atrocities? Yet, according to the media, the German Government was saying, "Nein!" for reasons that sounded hollow to any reasonable person.

After a few days of this the German Ministry of Defense finally spoke up saying that they weren't responsible for approving film shoots at the building in questions. The Ministry also said they had no opposition to the film shooting in Germany. (Germany now would welcome Cruise production)

It turns out that the source of the report was the web site of, Antje Blumenthal, a right-wing, anti-religious politician. No one in the news media had bothered to verify the accuracy of her posting.

The truth about the "ban" was not reported anywhere near as much as the lie. It seems that accuracy in reporting comes a poor second to sensationalism.

Personally, I think Reuters, AP, Time and the rest of the crew who published this lie should apologize, not only to Tom Cruise, but also to the people of Germany who now have a new stigma to live down, and this time it's not even a factual one.

Questions About Scientology

I just found this site: Scientology FAQs. It has a lot of data.

Also, I am very willing to answer questions about my blog articles and about Scientology. I also welcome comments.

(I do moderate comments and I will reject angry, antagonistic, snide, obscene or offensive comments. So, let's just be friendly, open and demonstrate some manners. Random acts of Kindness are a great idea, so let's extend the idea to random acts of good manners :)