The controversial group has been labeled secretive, inspirational, dangerous and misunderstood. The Church of Scientology? [Picture]Disguised members of an internet-based group called Anonymous protest near buildings associated with the Church of Scientology on Saturday, March 15, 2008, in Los Angeles. (Chris Weeks/AP Photo) No, it's a mysterious group of masked men and computer hackers called Anonymous who say are committed to dismantling the powerful religious organization renowned for its celebrity members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Over the past ...

Watch Tom Cruise goes Missing [G, 2:51min.] (Help): Play The video But there are some people whose tender feelings receive a lot more consideration from the News Ltd empire. On the same day that News's website carried a link to The Australian's piece about Carey's childhood, it carried another story right next door. Global Scientology protests begin in Australia. — News.com.au website, Global Scientology protests begin in Australia But what's this? A pixelated poster? What can it have ...

They're ubiquitous at almost every disaster zone, assisting the wounded and consoling grieving families, from Ground Zero to Indonesia to New Orleans and now Minneapolis. The Church of Scientology and its globetrotting team of volunteer ministers have been active over the last several years, arousing the ire of critics who read unholy motives into the group's charitable works. Soon after Wednesday's bridge collapse, at least 20 Scientology volunteers in Minneapolis and surrounding areas headed to the disaster zone, according to a ...

(New York - WABC, April 20, 2007) (WABC) – Tom Cruise appeared at a private dinner fundraiser on Thursday night for the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, a program he co-founded in 2002. The Scientology-based program offers free treatment to emergency workers who suffer breathing difficulties and other health problems stemming from exposure to toxins at ground zero after 9/11 terror attacks. "Nearly six years later, many are still paying a price for their heroic service at the World Trade ...

Lincoln, Nebraska – A federal judge has refused to throw out Nebraska's one-of-a-kind newborn blood screening law. Ray and Louise Spiering of Saunders County filed a lawsuit challenging the law in 2004, arguing that the mandatory blood test would violate a tenet of their religious beliefs as members of the Church of Scientology. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf said the law is constitutional. The blood screening has been standard practice in Nebraska since 1967. Health officials say the test, ...

"In my opinion," says Rick Ross, who has spent years studying cults and religious groups, "(Tom Cruise's) meltdown is likely attributable to Scientology. He's made some bad career choices lately. He's damaged goods. How do you go from the world's biggest movie star to someone Viacom dumps?" The New York Times this morning said simply that Cruise has gone "into full Scientology mode." Indeed, his recent responses to Matt Lauer, inveighing against modern psychiatric care, reflect Scientology's claim that its own ...

A definition of Scientology is hard to pin down. Basically, it's a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals originally established as a secular philosophy by L. Ron Hubbard. His 1950 book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, provided the core principles of what would later become Scientology. Scientologists regard the publication of the book as a seminal event, and celebrate its publication date — May 9, 1950 — as a religious holiday. A central belief of Scientology is that a ...

The Church of Scientology is gearing up to bring its message to a whole new arena: racing fans. "Ignite Your Potential" is the mantra Scientology uses to get Tom Cruise and other Hollywood celebs jumping up and down. Now that message will be used to fuel the engines of a new NASCAR race team. The venture is called "The Dianetics Racing Team," named after the best-selling self-help book written by the movement's founder, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Kenton Gray, ...

May 9, 1950: "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" by L. Ron Hubbard is published. June 7, 1951: Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation established in Elizabeth, N.J. May 1952: The Wichita, Kan., Dianetics training center is moved to Phoenix. Hubbard publicly announces the formal establishment of the philosophy of Scientology and the formation of the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International. July 1952: "Scientology: A History of Man" published. February 1954: Church of Scientology founded in Los Angeles. 1956: The church is ...

US movie star Tom Cruise has helped raise $US1.2 million to treat emergency workers exposed to toxic materials following the September 11 terrorist strikes in New York. Cruise, 41, pitched in to help raise cash for the alternative treatment for rescuers suffering debilitating effects from toxic exposure in the recovery and clean-up effort following the 2001 attacks in New York. The heart-throb actor, who is a keen member of the Church of Scientology, backed the drive to provide a detox regimen ...

Tom Cruise is involved in a blockbuster lawsuit that sounds more like a script for a saucy Hollywood drama. Cruise has issued a $100 million defamation suit against porn star Chad Slater, who goes by the stage name Kyle Bradford, after Slater reportedly told a French paper he had a gay love affair with Cruise that resulted in the breakup of his 11-year marriage to Nicole Kidman. "While Cruise thoroughly respects others' rights to follow their own sexual preference, he is ...

Battlefield Earth may have been one of the most critically mauled movies of the year, but that's not stopping John Travolta from talking about a sequel. “The bottom line is that I feel really good about it. Here I was taking big chances, breaking a new genre,” said Travolta. “I am so thrilled, believe it or not, at the outcome, because I didn’t believe I could get it done,” an upbeat Travolta told journalists this week, adding that critics have a ...

In early June, The Globe and Mail distributed an insert published by The Church of Scientology entitled Freedom. This insert contained an article that amounted to a lengthy and defamatory attack on me and my research on new and alternative religions, particularly Scientology itself. As an insert in The Globe and Mail, this Scientology publication and the article about me may have enjoyed a greater degree of credibility than would otherwise have been the case, which prompts my response in these ...

It started a little like Watergate. Late one night two years ago, two men made their way to the third floor of the U.S. courthouse in Washington. With stolen keys, they opened the office of assistant U.S. attorney Nathan Dodell and photocopied sheaves of government documents rifled from his files. They repeated the caper a few nights later, but when they showed up at the building again, a suspicious guard called the FBI. The two men, Gerald Wolfe and Michael Meisner, ...

The Church of Scientology is an organization that fervidly shuns investigations. When probed, it attacks the investigators. When criticized, it makes the critics pay. Church attempts to stifle investigations and criticism include lawsuits, harassment, frameups and attempts to have critics jailed, or at least enjoined from talking about Scientology. If there is "a long-term threat" to Scientology, founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in a confidential memorandum to his staff, "you are to immediately evaluate and originate a black PR campaign to ...

[This is a placeholder, I don't have this material. I believe ABC was sued by the Church of Scientology following this report, as per this news piece.] Examination of why young people are increasingly attracted to new religions; focusing on the Unification Church founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and the Church of Scientology, started by L. Ron Hubbard (60 min.)

The ABC News Closeup "New Religions: Holiness or Heresy?" which will air at 10 tonight on Channel 7 (KGO) represents a frightening erosion of journalistic standards and values. The title of the program promises a look on a spiritual level at the ideas, such as they may be, underlying some of America's new religious-philosophical wrinkles. Instead, the program labors for an hour in very secular ways to prove what a thinking person might agree to before an argument — that deeply ...