The article regarding the renaming of Berendo Street to L. Ron Hubbard Way (Aug. 23) omits the reason that Hubbard should be honored and the reason the church initiated the petition over a year ago. The man is being honored for the work that he did as an educator, his breakthroughs in the field of drug rehabilitation and his other contributions to mankind. The Los Angeles Church of Scientology is making this request after celebrating our 40th anniversary and completing ...

Pressure from the Church of Scientology International was at least partly responsible for the recent shutdown of a well-known Internet messaging service based in Helsinki, according to the Finnish operator of the service. The service, known by its Internet address, anon.penet.fi, was used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to send and receive electronic messages without divulging their true identities. It was the best known of a small, global network of special computers known as remailers, whose legitimate users include ...

Lawmakers are looking at barring its members from teaching, police work, other government jobs. HAMBURG, Germany — As the politicians see it, Germany, is being threatened by an evil plot to infiltrate business and government. "A giant octopus . . . that will stop at nothing in its desire to spread its blind ideology" is how Labor Secretary Norbert Blum has described the plot against Germany. Claudia Nolte, another member of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Cabinet, warns, "They aim at world domination ...

A Finnish operation that allowed people to send anonymous email on the Internet was shut down after accusations it was used for child pornography. Johan Helsingius, who has operated the electronic message relay service since 1993, denied the pornography allegations but said he had received calls from people accusing him of pedophilia, according to the Associated Press. Helsingius called the end of his service "a blow for Internet users and computer privacy," and said the charges are "not even possible." About ...

What's in a name, anyway? To some neighbors, Berendo Street in Hollywood is about as good an address as any. But to leaders of the Church of Scientology that is located there, "L. Ron Hubbard Way" is much better. In honor of their charismatic founder–a man adherents call "one of the greatest visionaries of the 20th century" and critics call a fraud–the church has quietly sought a name change from the city of Los Angeles. Just this week the church won ...

The star of Phenomenon claims the movie is close to real life and says he can cure people with his bare hands — but is it just cult fiction? In John Travolta's latest movie, Phenomenon, the once disco-dancing star plays an ordinary man who is miraculously given supernatural abilities. It sounds like fantasy — but in real life John believes he, too, has weird powers. Behind that famous smile, the 42-year-old gentle family man is an obsessive cult follower who claims ...

THE Church of Scientology has attacked what it called "religious apartheid" in Germany after a Bavarian move to bar its members from public service and calls to boycott Tom Cruise's latest film because the star is a Scientologist. In a communique issued in Bonn, the church said "officially-sanctioned religious apartheid" was "the result of years of unsubstantiated emotional propaganda against the Church of Scientology and other religious minorities in Germany". It was "incredible" and "blatant hypocrisy" that the Christian Democratic Union, ...

(CNN) — Actor Tom Cruise may have a movie blockbuster in the United States, but in Germany, the star of "Mission: Impossible" faces a controversy that could hit where it hurts: the pocketbook. Germany's problem is not with the movie plot or dialogue. It's with the star and his religious beliefs. Cruise is a member of the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, a credo that critics say is steeped in science fiction more bizarre than any cinema plot. Opponents of Cruise's ...

[...] Mission: Stop Scientology: Germans youths picketed cinemas throughout their country on Thursday to protest Tom Cruise's movie "Mission: Impossible" because the American actor is a member of the Scientology religion. The protests–organized by the normally placid youth wing of Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union–are a token of the growing political pressure against Scientology in Germany, where recruiting has been active. The pickets came after Paul Stefan Mauz, a Christian Democrat member of parliament, claimed that Cruise was a "high-ranking" Scientologist ...

Courts: Online firm agrees to set up protocol for handling copyright disagreements. SAN JOSE — Netcom On-Line Communications Services Inc. has settled a copyright lawsuit by the Church of Scientology that threatened to set new boundaries for speech on the free-wheeling Internet. The Scientologists sued Netcom after the Internet access provider refused to remove church writings posted to its computer network by a former Scientologist minister. In a closely watched decision six months ago, a federal judge in California ruled that ...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Church of Scientology has settled a copyright dispute with an Internet provider that many in the computer industry worried would restrict freedom of expression in cyberspace. The church and Netcom On-Line Communication Services, one of the nation's largest Internet-access providers, agreed not to discuss details of the out-of-court settlement. They did say, however, that the online service has posted a warning to its subscribers telling them not to use Netcom to "unlawfully distribute the intellectual property ...

Many Internet legal analysts are disappointed by an out-of-court settlement between Netcom and the Church of Scientology because now they'll have to wait for another case to come to light before a court sets a firm precedent on Internet access providers' liability for online copyright infringement. Netcom and the church announced an out-of-court settlement Sunday in a copyright infringement dispute dating from December that many expected to set a precedent for Internet service providers' liability. The case involved church allegations that ...

As part of a settlement with Religious Technology Center, Netcom has posted a protocol in which the company states it will block access to material pending an investigation into claims of copyright infringement. Netcom's protocol states that upon receiving a complaint Netcom "will temporarily remove or deny access to the challenged material, to protect the rights of all involved." "If Netcom concludes that complainant has raised a legitimate claim, it will continue to deny access to the challenged material," the protocol ...

BERLIN — American musician Chick Corea was able to perform at the Burghausen Jazz Festival this spring only after a fight among Bavarian officials about whether the state should fund an event in which a Scientologist participated. In the past, Corea was kept out of German festivals because of such fund-withdrawal threats by government officials. This time the concert went on because Bavarian Culture Minister Hans Zehetmair made an argument rarely heard in Germany: "Chick Corea is appearing in Burghausen not ...

Ron Newman, a corporate Web page designer in Cambridge, Massachussetts, turns on his computer one day last month and signs on to the Net to check in on his favourite newsgroup, alt.religion.scientology, a.r.s. for short. But as his computer modem erupts into the now all-too-familiar squeal that marks the arrival online, Newman begins to sense that something's not quite right. Ordinarily, it takes only a few seconds to retrieve the day's new postings on this electronic bulletin board. Today there are ...

There's one thing worse than an over-hyped author, and that's a self-over-hyped author. The late L Ron Hubbard falls into the latter class, thanks to the efforts of the Scientology industry to promote his fiction alongside his non-fiction works. Hubbard (who once declared that the best way to get rich would be to start your own religion, and who later proceeded to do exactly that) continues to attract devotion and hatred in about equal measures. Nevertheless, his services to science fiction ...

As the mother of an ex-Scientologist, I believe if Henry Bartnik (S-H 19/5) researched official records he would find the autobiographical accounts of Scientology founder Ron Hubbard to be grossly inaccurate. The problem with Hubbard's achievements in education and science is his lack of scientific process. His work is not subject to ongoing public discourse, criticism and reproduction with controlled studies. His most damning legacy is a policy which effectively suppresses critical analyses internally, and attacks external critics with vengeance. Hubbard, ...

The good news for Sky Dayton, 24-year-old chairman of one of the fastest-growing companies in the world, is that the Internet is a place where a smart young man can become a tycoon overnight. The bad news for Sky Dayton is that the Internet is a place where anyone with a home computer, a modem, and some animus can make your life miserable, and perhaps do real damage to your business. The bad news for the rest of us is the ...

Lawsuits: Group with controversial ties to deprogrammers files for bankruptcy and may be forced to shut down in wake of $1-million judgment. Plagued by numerous lawsuits from religious groups and fighting a $1.1-million judgment against it, the Cult Awareness Network has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. "How we will operate or if we will continue to operate in the short term, I don't know," said Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the 12-year-old organization, known for ...

In response to the comments made about the George Street Volcano (Nightmare on George Street, S-H 26/5), I wish to make certain facts clear. My company, Woodbridge Associates Pty Ltd, owns the lease on the volcano. We are leasing some of the screen time to New Era Publications, not the Church of Scientology. New Era Publications is advertising the Dianetics book on the screen. They are the publishers of the works of L. Ron Hubbard. There have been no breaches of ...

Since its founding in 1954, the Church of Scientology has sparked some fear, mistrust and controversy. This doesn't surprise the Rev. Lee Holzinger, 38, minister of the Santa Barbara Church of Scientology. "We are different from other churches in many ways," he said. "How could anything come along that is so fundamentally important to life and society and not rouse controversy?" The church was involved in a 40-year battle with the Internal Revenue Service that ended Oct 1, 1993 when the ...

PARIS, June 19 — Gilbert Bourdin wears a winged crown, calls himself Lord Manarah the Cosmic Messiah, and lives with his followers in the Holy City of Mandar'om on a mountaintop in Provence in southern France. From time to time, loudspeakers blare "ommm" over the compound, a place studded with temples and colossal statues of Buddha, Jesus and Mr. Bourdin himself. The "ommm" may now stop. The sect leader, 73, has sent out faxes announcing that he plans to renounce his ...

I am a musician, mainly a bassist, in the local area. My lovely mug has graced the pages of your paper on occasion, featured, you may recall, with my band of a few years back called Brouhaha or, more recently, with Earthwurm. I am also an ordained priest of the Order of Vedantan Monists. If you consult rudimentary reference materials, you will find that Vedanta has been the voice of religious freedom for about the last seven to ten thousand years. ...

Free speech has come under renewed threat because of a little-noticed decision by the Australian Broadcasting Authority. In an ominous echo of moves to restrict free speech via racial hate laws, the ABA has ruled that radio station 3RRR breached acceptable standards on religious vilification. The unprecedented case centred on criticisms of the Church of Scientology by ex-Scientologist Cyril Vosper on 3RRR's The Liars' Club program last year. Among other criticisms, Vosper likened Scientology to an extremist political regime and ...

Earle Cooley, the chairman of Boston University's board of trustees, wants you to know that he believes in freedom of expression. Never mind that the gruff, avuncular 64-year-old, one of Boston's top trial attorneys, has played a leading role in the Church of Scientology's efforts to use copyright law to keep secret church documents off the Internet. Although the church has won some significant courtroom victories, critics, legal observers, and even judges criticize the zeal with which it has pursued its ...

Australia's most elaborate billboard, a giant three-dimensional volcano unveiled in Sydney's George Street theatre district, won't be selling soft drinks or hamburgers but the path to religion. The 330-square-metre billboard, including a five-metre-high television screen, will be used to promote L. Ron Hubbard's 1950 book Dianetics, the foundation stone of the Church of Scientology. Unveiled by Hollywood scientologist Nancy Cartwright — the voice of cartoon character Bart Simpson — the volcano has been positioned on the facade of the Metro Theatre ...