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Jun 28, 2006
Troubled Scientology Church in Ireland is now €1m in red — Independent.ie
Type: Press
Author(s):
Tom Lyons Source:
Independent.ie INTEREST-FREE loans from abroad are propping up the troubled Irish branch of the controversial Church of Scientology. Financial documents seen by the Irish Independent reveal that the church is more than €1m in the red after running up huge legal bills in an epic eight-year battle brought by a disgruntled former member. As a result, members of the mega-rich Church of Scientology in the United States have had to cough up almost €400,000 just to keep the Dublin arm afloat. The ...
Jun 25, 2006
Church spokesman says Times report is unfair — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Farley Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) When the Times told officials at the Church of Scientology in Clearwater about plans to write a story about its suppressive person and disconnection policies, Scientology spokesman Ben Shaw aggressively sought to refute the story and persuade the newspaper not to tell it. Shaw provided numerous articles about the ways other churches deal with apostates, including one in which a Catholic bishop in Nebraska excommunicated every member of one church. "I don't see how you can do a fair article on ...
Jun 25, 2006
SP profiles — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Farley Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Karen Pressley of Atlanta and her then-husband Peter Schless — a musician and composer who wrote the hit song On the Wings of Love — became Scientologists and later joined staff. Pressley mostly worked for the church's international organization in Los Angeles, but she spent six months in Clearwater. She said she designed the new uniforms still worn by staffers today. Pressley left Scientology in 1998 and refused to come back for sec checks. She has publicly denounced "substandard" child care ...
Jun 25, 2006
The unperson // Scientologists who cross their religion can be declared suppressive persons, shunned by peers and ostracized by family — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Farley Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Religions have always penalized those who betray the cause. Catholics excommunicate, barring the wayward from church rites. The Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses and some orthodox Jewish sects shun their nonconformists. In the Tampa Bay area's burgeoning Scientology community, members abide by a policy considered by some religious experts extreme: Scientologists declare their outcasts "suppressive persons." Another Scientology policy — called "disconnection" — forbids Scientologists from interacting with a suppressive person. No calls, no letters, no contact. An SP is a pariah. Anyone ...
Jun 22, 2006
Scientology in Germany // Suspicious tutoring — Spiegel
Type: Press
Author(s):
Guido Kleinhubbert Source:
Spiegel Scientologists are taking advantage of Germany's education problems for their own ends: They are luring weak students by providing after-school tutoring. Education authorities in Germany are on alert. The ad on a supermarket notice board in the city of Essen was aimed at all the parents in the neighborhood. Right nearby there was an "alternative school" where learning was still fun. "Sounds just right", thought one dad, who is now reluctant to give his name out of sheer fear. He took ...
Jun 14, 2006
60 Minutes: The Cruise Effect — Channel 3 (New Zealand)
Jun 13, 2006
When Elfmans explode — TMZ
Type: Press
Source:
TMZ If Tom Cruise's recent public displays weren't evidence enough, Scientologists Jenna and Bodhi Elfman prove that they, too, are willing to go to great lengths to defend their religion. Indie film director John Roecker tells TMZ he was walking to his car with a female friend in LA's trendy Los Feliz neighborhood last Sunday when he was approached by a shirtless man and a tall blonde. "Hey, man, you're making fun of my religion," said the stranger angrily. Roecker quickly recognized ...
Jun 6, 2006
Scientology Goes NASCAR With Dianetics Race Car — ABC News
Type: Press
Author(s):
Lindsay Friaglia Source:
ABC News 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, ...
Jun 2, 2006
Russian official jailed for forcing subordinates to study Scientology — Mosnews.com
Type: Press
Source:
Mosnews.com A former Russian MP, a local education chief, has been jailed for embezzlement and abuse of authority — he made his subordinates study scientology and used budget money to pay for their studies. Boris Shalimov of the Skovorodinsk region in Russia's Far East has been sentenced to two years in prison for embezzlement and abuse of authority, the website of Russia's Prosecutor General's Office reports. In October 2002 Shalimov became a member of the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises. To get ...
Jun 1, 2006
Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America — Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Type: Research
Author(s):
Hugh B. Urban Source:
Journal of the American Academy of Religion Hugh B. Urban is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the Department of Comparative Studies, Ohio State University, 431 Hagerty Hall, Columbus, OH 43210. From Tom Cruise’s wedding to South Park’s scathing cartoon parody, the Church of Scientology has emerged as one of the wealthiest, most powerful but also most controversial new religious movements of the last fifty years. Remarkably, however, it has rarely been subjected to serious, critical study by historians of religions, in large part because of the ...
May 26, 2006
Scientologist speaks out — San Diego 6 (XETV-TV)
May 23, 2006
Experts challenge claims of Scientology's sweat-it-out treatment for addicts — Edmonton Journal
Type: Press
Author(s):
Charles Rusnell Source:
Edmonton Journal EDMONTON - A drug and alcohol treatment program backed by the controversial Church of Scientology is promising addicted Albertans an extraordinary 70-per-cent success rate.
The Narconon program is marketed as "100-per-cent natural," and prescribes intensive saunas, exercise and high doses of vitamins to cleanse the body of "radiation, drugs and toxins."
Advertisements for the Narconon program have appeared in recent months on Edmonton's CKUA radio and in weekly newspapers throughout the province.
Addiction experts and academics in Canada, the United States ...
May 19, 2006
Scientologists branching out — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)More: rickross.com
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Farley Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) The church is purchasing a building in St. Petersburg, where it plans to start a new recruiting effort. ST. PETERSBURG — After more than 30 years in Clearwater, the Church of Scientology is making its first significant step toward recruiting members in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg. The church has a contract to purchase a historic 7,000-square-foot building at 336 1st Ave. N, near Williams Park. The sale is not final, but church officials hope it will be by June. ...
May 14, 2006
Scientology missions spring up in hurricane-damaged areas — KATC
Type: Press
Source:
KATC Jackson, Miss. The Church of Scientology has opened its first mission on the Mississippi Gulf Coast amid the ruins of Hurricane Katrina. The Church of Scientology was created by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. In his 1950 book "Dianetics," Hubbard said the mind has a subconscious level that exerts a "hidden influence" to make a person behave a certain way. The book also says the soul suffers from negative "engrams" implanted in this life and previous lives. The religion has ...
May 11, 2006
Is he a slumlord or ethical specialist? — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Shadi Rahimi Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) ST. PETERSBURG — In the world of Scientology, Scott W. Snow is a winner. He has achieved the religion’s highest level of training, higher even than megastar Tom Cruise, a distinction that brings with it lofty ethical standards. But in St. Petersburg, city leaders call him slumlord. Snow, 51, is the owner of the Chinook Apartments in Midtown, which the city shut down May 2 after finding multiple fire code violations. Now two dozen Chinook tenants have hired a lawyer and ...
May 10, 2006
A new war over Ritalin — Macleans
Type: Press
Author(s):
Danylo Hawaleshka Source:
Macleans At first glance, it seemed like a classic David-and-Goliath punch-up: Danielle Lavigueur, a separated mother of two living in Longueuil, on Montreal's South Shore, claims the high school her 12-year-old son Gabriel attends is pressuring her to medicate him with Ritalin for hyperactivity. She refuses to yield to the alleged demand, and eventually someone calls in the Children's Aid Society. Feeling besieged, Lavigueur confides in a friend, who introduces her to Raphaël Huppé, head of research for the Montreal-based National Parents ...
May 6, 2006
Scientology nearly ready to unveil Super Power — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Farley Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) In the works for decades, the closely guarded spiritual training program will be revealed in Clearwater. CLEARWATER - Matt Feshbach believes he has super powers. He senses danger faster than most people. He appreciates beauty more deeply than he used to. He says he outperforms his peers in the money management industry. He heightened his powers of perception in 1995 when he went to Los Angeles and became the first and so far only "public" Scientologist to take a highly classified ...
May 5, 2006
Alarm over drug treatment group — The Scotsman (UK)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Andrew Picken Source:
The Scotsman (UK) COUNSELLING experts have issued a warning about a drug and alcohol treatment group operating in the Capital, linked to the controversial Church of Scientology. The group, called Narconon Scotland, is targeting the city's drug and alcohol addicts to join its rehabilitation programme. Leaflets have been put through doors in Leith and Muirhouse urging addicts or their families to get in touch. The leaflets contain no references to the quasi-religious group despite using the principles of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard to ...
May 5, 2006
Drug treatment group warning — Edinburgh Evening News
Type: Press
Source:
Edinburgh Evening News COUNSELLING experts have warned about a drug and alcohol treatment group operating in the Capital, linked to the controversial Church of Scientology. Narconon Scotland has leafleted homes in the city, but the leaflets do not mention the quasi-religious group, despite using the principles of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard to treat addicts. Tom Wood, chairman of the Edinburgh Drug and Alcohol Action Team, said: "We know of this group, but we would only ever encourage people to attend credible counselling groups." ...
May 5, 2006
Scientology spreads out in push for D.C. members — Washington Business Journal
Type: Press
Author(s):
Erin Killian Source:
Washington Business Journal Jackson Wyan, a young Tom Cruise look-alike with short black hair and a black button-down shirt, greets people with laser-focused eye contact, a fixed smile and solid handshake at the Founding Church of Scientology of D.C. in Dupont Circle.
His mission not-so-impossible: Recruit more members.
Would-be Scientologists approach the landmark red building, also known as Fraser Mansion, at 20th and R streets NW, with regularity. Wyan, who's been with the D.C. church six years, gives tours that include a sweep through ...
May 4, 2006
Pain at the pump: The little green pill — WESH (Orlando, Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Michelle Meredith Source:
WESH (Orlando, Florida) ORLANDO, Fla. — With the price of gas going sky high, a new product has hit the market. It's called BioPerformance Fuel, but most people just called it "the little green pill." It claims to save you big bucks on gas. The gas pill almost seems to have a cult following, WESH 2 News reported. "Is this too good to be true? Are you running interference?" WESH 2 I-Team reporter Michelle Meredith asked the company's president, as he brushed by her. ...
May 2, 2006
Garofalo gushes over Scientology-linked project — MSNBC
Type: Press
Author(s):
Jeannette Walls Source:
MSNBC Why is Janeane Garofalo touting a Scientology-linked project? The actress and talk-show host has done two segments on her Air America radio show “Majority Report,” heaping praise on the controversial New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, a program based on the teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. On one show, her guests included Leah Remini, star of “King of Queens” and a devout Scientologist, who sang the praises of the detox project. Although the Detoxification Project has been heralded by ...
Apr 30, 2006
Tom Cruise's manic meltdown // If we didn't know better, we'd say it's time for Cruise to see a shrink — Canoe
Type: Press
Author(s):
Jim Slotek Source:
Canoe Are we ready to feel sorry for Tom Cruise yet? Perhaps the most maladroit celebrity since ... well, if not ever, then at least since Michael Jackson, Cruise seems incapable of doing or saying anything in front of cameras and tape-recorders that doesn't come off strange and/or weird. Take the blessed event of the birth of his daughter Suri by girlfriend Katie Holmes. Never mind the rumours about Scientology-dictated "silent birth." Here was the the birth of an innocent, and a ...
Apr 29, 2006
Riot-torn Paris suburbs 'targeted by sects' — The Guardian (UK)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Kim Willsher Source:
The Guardian (UK) Sect-like groups are profiting from the misery in riot-stricken French suburbs to attract new recruits under the guise of offering humanitarian aid, warns an official report. Organisations including the Church of Scientology, labelled a cult in France, are targeting vulnerable residents in the country's poor, high immigration suburbs, it claims. France's official sects watchdog, the Interministerial Mission in the Fight Against Cults (Miviludes), said the situation called for "extreme vigilance". It said the activities of sect-like groups had increased in three ...
Apr 25, 2006
Scientology expands at home — St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Robert Farley Source:
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) After a period of worldwide growth, the church is turning its attention back to expansion at its Clearwater headquarters. CLEARWATER - A global expansion by the Church of Scientology delayed construction of a flagship building in this city it considers its spiritual headquarters, church officials say. But after spending hundreds of millions of dollars from Madrid to Mountain View, Calif., the church is once again turning its attention to downtown Clearwater in a big way. The church plans to finish its ...
Apr 19, 2006
Mission Implausible ..or Tom Cruise and the riddle of the 'rigged' internet poll — Daily Mirror (UK)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Ryan Parry Source:
Daily Mirror (UK) TOM Cruise fans have been accused of rigging a poll to save the star from ridicule over his bizarre antics. Some 15,100 out of 18,000 votes in a magazine's internet survey - 84 per cent - blamed the media rather than the Mission: Impossible hero for his poor image. But suspicious bosses found 14,000 of the pro-Tom ballots came from just 10 computers. Alexis Collado, a spokesman for the magazine, Parade, said: "One computer was responsible for nearly 8,400 votes, all ...
Apr 18, 2006
Cruise says he was joking about eating placenta — KOAT Albuquerque
Type: TV
Source:
KOAT Albuquerque NEW YORK – For those of you who took Tom Cruise seriously when he said he was going to eat Katie Holmes' placenta, there's been a clarification.
He was joking.
Cruise told Diane Sawyer he was only kidding when he said in GQ magazine that he was going to eat the placenta and umbilical cord right after Holmes gave birth because they're "very nutritious."
But several days later, there are stories on the Internet taking him seriously.
Several reports about the ...
Apr 18, 2006
Did Tom Cruise's cronies skew a parade Mag poll in his favor? — Huffington Post
Type: Press
Source:
Huffington Post TOM Cruise's cronies seem to have put a lot of effort into skewing a Parade magazine poll in his favor. Parade.com recently asked online readers whether they thought Cruise was responsible for his disastrous public relations year or if it was the media's fault. A shocking 84 percent of respondents blamed the press. But Parade publicist Alexis Collado tells us: "We at Parade found this a little bit fishy, so we did some investigating. We found out more than 14,000 (of ...
Apr 18, 2006
The secrets of Scientology — The Independent (UK)
Type: Press
Author(s):
Sara Lawrence Source:
The Independent (UK) Tom Cruise says Katie Holmes is now a fully-fledged follower of L Ron Hubbard. So what is it about the sci-fi writer's 'religion' that exerts such a hold? Sara Lawrence goes undercover to find out Sitting on a red velvet chair in the middle of a majestic, oak-panelled hall in East Grinstead, I have rarely felt more fearful for my sanity. On the wall in front of me, a creepy, larger-than-life-sized portrait of an old man seems to be staring straight ...
Apr 13, 2006
Church of Scientology to buy Santa Ana landmark building — Orange County Register
Type: Press
Author(s):
Marlo Jo Fisher ,
Amy Taxin Source:
Orange County Register The Church of Scientology is buying Santa Ana's former Masonic Temple.
SANTA ANA - Developer Mike Harrah is selling Santa Ana's historic downtown Masonic Temple, which he spent millions restoring as a performing-arts center, to the Church of Scientology.
The sale has drawn the ire of some historic preservationists.
The building is one of four that Harrah said he's selling to raise money to build his high-rise tower downtown.
Church spokeswoman Marie Murillo said the building is being purchased for an ...
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