Scientologists: Looking after your human rights

Your Human Rights are listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But do you know what they are? Does your government allow you those rights? Or better yet, does your government enforce those rights?

Those rights were put into document form after World War II and were ratified in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly. They are rights that had to be fought for. It's pretty obvious that if the Nazis had won WWII these rights would never have seen the light of day.

So it is up to each one of us to keep these rights alive by knowing what they are and insisting they be applied by our governments.

Churches of Scientology and their members all around the world are very active in making human rights known and insisting on their application. Just a couple of weeks ago Churches of Scientology in 14 countries joined forces with Youth for Human Rights International to conduct a global petition drive in support of human rights education. You can read about it here: Churches of Scientology: Petition Targets Human Rights Education.

Scientology Question: Best way to study the Basics

Andrew S. Doub (a Grateful Dead Fan as you can tell from his chosen screen name) asked:
I am new to Scientology and recently began investigating the church. The nearest mission is about 8 hours away, so I am not in an area where I could go a take a course. I recently purchased the 18 Basic Books and two lecture sets (Professional Course and Clearing Congress). I was wondering, what would be the best way for me to study? I know chronologically reading the books is suggested, but are there any home study courses or study guides I could use? How can I get the most from my time, other than just reading the books?

The best way to do the Basics for someone new is to start with the Scientology Beginning Books and study them at a Church or Mission, but given your situation the next best is to do the Scientology Basics Extension Courses. These are home study courses which will guide you through the books and lectures, plus you have someone that you send your lessons to who can help you with questions, etc.

What I'd suggest is that you contact your nearest Scientology Mission and enroll on the first extension course there. You can find the nearest Mission here: Scientology Global Locator (Mobile version) or Scientology Global Locator (Full version).

Good luck. Tell me how you get on.

The NY Mosque

I have been appalled by the media frenzy over the plan to build a mosque in a cultural center several blocks from Ground-Zero.

The mosque and the people who will attend it have no connection whatever with the 911 terrorist attacks and neither does the Islamic religion.

The people who perpetrated 911 were terrorists not Muslims. To equate the religion with the actions of a few evil men makes as much sense as to say that all Catholics are child molesters just because some priests committed such acts.

Such thinking is not rational.

Recognize the differences between the 911 terrorists and the people who are building the mosque. Recognize that the only similarity between them is that all involved have a head, two arms and two legs and there the similarity ends.

In Scientology we know that sanity is the ability to recognize differences, similarities and identities. For example, if a man thinks the friendly dog coming towards him is the same as the dog that bit him last week, then him will act irrationally.

And that is what is happening here: people are acting irrationally, egged on by a news media that craves conflict and will create conflict if it doesn't already exist.

So let's practice tolerance, recognize the differences and get back to doing something constructive in the world.
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Good news for human rights in Germany

After 17 years of operation the "Scientology Task Force" of the city of Hamburg has been shut down.

Of course they didn't announce the fact that after 17 years of intrusive and unconstitutional investigation of the Church of Scientology's activities they found nothing - as in zip, nada, sweet FA, zilch - illegal going on. Nothing they could prosecute, nothing they could publish a government pamphlet about, basically nothing at all.

Must be pretty embarrassing for the Hamburg government and the notorious, human rights violating head of the "task force", Ursula Caberta. They created a task force based on rumors, lies and bigotry and after 17 years finally realized they were wasting government time and tax payer money.

Oh well, it's one more step forward in the fight for Religious Freedom and a great day for human rights in Germany.

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Helping the world: Golden Era Productions

I had a basic idea of what Golden Era Productions does. To quote the official description:

Golden Era Productions is the worldwide dissemination and audiovisual production center for the Scientology religion, producing all Dianetics and Scientology instructional and informational films, as well as multimedia properties for the social betterment programs and humanitarian initiatives the Church supports.

That's all very well, but what is the reality of it and what does it have to do with the title of this article? Well, check out the entertaining and enlightening video you'll find here: Golden Era Productions, and tell me what you think.

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Scientology in South Africa

So much expansion is going on in Scientology right now that it's hard to keep up with it all, so although I knew about the opening of the new Life Improvement Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, I didn't know that it is the biggest such center in the world!

Well done to all the guys in South Africa who worked so hard to bring it about.

Here are some great shots of the grand opening: World’s Largest Scientology Life Improvement Centre Opens in Johannesburg, South Africa

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Scientology: Expanding all over the place

I'm a bit late in reporting this, but another big, bright and bustling Church of Scientology was opened last week in Seattle.

There has been a church in Seattle for 54 years, but the new building was needed because they grew out of the old one.

You can read more details here: Church of Scientology Dedicates New Building for the Pacific Northwest