Posted at 22:50 on 02 October, 2007 UTC The chairman of the Council of Churches in Samoa, the Reverend Oka Fau’olo, has dismissed reports saying the Curch Concil is supporting a goodwill visit by Scientology representatives currently in the country. The chairman says there is no need for Scientology ministers to come through the council in order to provide disaster training and seminars for the public because there are other suitable organizations such as the local medical association. Reverend Fau’olo’s comments ...

Several volunteer ministers of the US-based Scientology religion are in Samoa to provide disaster response specialist courses for government representatives and local church councils. The Samoa government and the National Council of churches are the two major organisations supporting the training courses, scheduled to start next week. Numerous Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta are members of the religion. The followers of Scientology are fighting problems such as disaster management, manmade, natural or personal disasters, communication problems, violence, ...

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 ...

For the past week, they set up big yellow tents with three snow-cone points and little flags on top on the Common right behind City Hall. From a distance you'd have thought that the circus had come to town. It didn't. It was the Church of Scientology's International Volunteer Minister Pioneer Cavalcade, a kind of roving revival tent show to spread the word of church founder L. Ron Hubbard. Emblazed across the front of the tents were the words: "Do Something ...

Scientologists address man as a spiritual being and say they help people to improve their lives. BLACKSBURG – Brian Grogan, 26, was chomping on a hot dog before heading to work Wednesday when he noticed people in canary yellow T-shirts handing out religious pamphlets. A moment later, he realized they were Scientologists. "They're leeches," Grogan said. "They show up wherever something bad happens and use that to spread their propaganda." Scientologists say they're no different from the Southern Baptists, Catholics or ...

You've already heard about the invasion of Virginia Tech by a couple dozen "volunteer ministers" from the Church of Scientology. Now comes the mudslinging. Xenuphobes sick of seeing yellow-shirted Scientologists show up to disasters alongside cable news cameras have accused Virginia Tech of inviting L. Ron's minions. An alleged "ministers consultant" named Irmin wrote an all-points bulletin e-mail sent to Scientology volunteers last week stating: "Our [volunteer ministers are] ... working in the student trauma center at the request of the ...

As reported elsewhere earlier this week, Scientology's Volunteer Vultures have descended upon the grief-stricken Virginia Tech campus. VT senior Christie Weaver, a psychology major, confirmed their presence on Thursday, and was kind enough to send us some photographic evidence. "Yeah, those fuckers are here," she said, noting that she "has not seen anyone speak to them because they wear these bright yellow shirts that say 'Scientology Volunteer Minister.' They stick out like sore thumbs, especially given that they look very L.A.'d ...

The Church of Scientology has dispatched "ministers" to provide "grief counseling" for shell-shocked youth at Virginia Tech - but critics suspect the sect hopes to convert the vulnerable students. "It's shameless, how they milk human tragedy to promote their organization," charges Rick Ross, whose CultNews.net has long tracked the group, which counts Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley among its members. "These young people [at VT] are experiencing trauma. What they need are qualified mental health professionals." HollywoodInterrupted.com's Mark Ebner ...

The criminal cult literally has VT in their crosshairs. As quoted in today's Daily News Rush & Molloy column, Scientology's anti-psychiatry front group spokeswoman says, "We prohibit our people from proselytizing." Hollywood, Interrupted calls BULLSHIT, and can now release an internal Scientology memo proving that proselytizing at the shooting tragedy site is exactly what they are doing. As first posted on the excellent anti-Scientology clearing house site Xenu.net, here is an excerpt from the cult's current recruitment and publicity ...

In their extremely misguided, Nazi-like effort to rid the world of psychiatrists (and, in fact, all mental health practitioners), the Criminal Cult of Cruise is now using the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy as a platform for their latest, ill-advised recruitment drive. Scientology has not attempted so publicly, so grotesquely to capitalize on a national tragedy since they descended like vultures at Ground Zero post-9/11. While hindering legitimate, heroic rescue efforts with their spurious "therapies" at the site, Scientology claimed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September11,2001attackopportunists they ...

The Metropolitan Police have agreed to give the Church of Scientology privileged information on security, the Evening Standard can reveal. Under the agreement, the Met has placed the church on the database of groups provided with "current, fast-time”details about safety matters. [Picture / Caption: Devotee: Tom Cruise addresses a meeting of his church which the Police have agreed to give privileged information] The revelation will raise further questions about police links with the sect of which John Travolta and Tom Cruise ...

MEMBERS of the Church of Scientology have reportedly been removed from a Gippsland staging ground where Country Fire Authority firefighters and crews have been recovering. Members of the church were escorted by police from the Heyfield staging ground, locals said. But a church representative denied the report, saying church members had been helping out in the staging area for three days before leaving late last week at the request of the CFA. Police were unavailable to comment. Scientology groups, comprised largely ...

Church-run charities abound by the dozens in Roxbury, but they are not usually operated by the oft-controversial Church of Scientology, which last month kick-started classes at its Washington Street literacy center with a grand opening that offered free food and sidewalk chalk for children. The church members who staff the literacy center, in a storefront marked with bright-yellow "Boston Scientology Ministry" signs, say they wanted to do something about the increase in violence in Boston, which they attribute in part to ...

Reporter Elodie Harper goes undercover to reveal the tactics used by Scientology followers in the immediate aftermath of traumatic events.

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 ...

Ministers from the Church of Scientology set up a bright yellow tent in front of the SUB on Monday to give massages, administer stress tests and answer questions about their religion. Marcy Sergeant, one of the ministers, said Scientology is different from other religions because it gives practical ways to deal with life's problems. "It's not stress management. It's not a trick thing," she said. "It's all about understanding. If you understand something, you can control it, and then you're not ...

Outside the 2,000-bed temporary shelter in Baton Rouge’s River Center, a Church of Scientology band is performing a version of Bill Withers’s classic Use Me – a refreshingly honest choice. "If it feels this good getting used," the Scientology singer belts out, "just keep on using me until you use me up." Ten-year-old Nyler, lying face down on a massage table, has pretty much the same attitude. She’s not quite sure why the nice lady in the yellow Scientology Volunteer Minister ...

In response to the July 24 Post-Gazette news articles "Scientology Comes to Town": As a 60-year resident of Pittsburgh and a 20-year member of the Church of Scientology, I am compelled to set the record straight on your July 24 articles about Scientology. The article missed the help the church and its members are extending to millions around the world, including residents of Pennsylvania. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were a rude awakening for everyone. For many of ...

A walk through Codman Square past the shoulder-to-shoulder houses of worship can put you in a spiritual state of mind: Greater Life Baptist Church, The Temple of Restoration, Global Ministries Christian Church. But one storefront in particular, with its eight-pointed cross, has piqued local curiosity. ''Dorchester Scientology, Something Can Be Done About It," a poster on its window declares. Amid the 35 churches and temples in the Codman Square area, Dorchester Scientology opened a year ago as a satellite of the ...

Why was there a Scientology tent on the set of War of the Worlds? Boyd Farrow explains how this cult religion, whose followers believe that people are immortal spiritual beings, is gaining ground thanks to support from Hollywood's biggest stars The summer blockbuster season has been dominated by an evil galactic ruler who, 75 million years ago, blew up 178 billion abducted alien souls with hydrogen bombs planted in earth's volcanoes and bundled them into clusters that now cling to every ...

Undercover inside the disturbing world of Tom Cruise's church IT'S the belief system which actor Tom Cruise says has changed his life and made him a better man. But the controversial Church of Scientology was criticised last week after claims it was preying on people caught up in the London bombings. Packs of yellow-shirted believers arrived at the scenes of carnage, offering "spiritual healing" to distraught relatives - and £3 booklets titled How To Improve Conditions In Life. And yesterday 200 ...

Colombo, 10 June, (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lankans did not invite Scientologist to come to Sri Lanka and or sought their support and assistance. They came and saw the situation after tsunami favorable to them and in the pretext of helping the affected people; they started exploiting the human misery and began to proselytize Sri Lankans. Shame on them - said Venerable Medagama Dhammanda of the Asgiriya Chapter, Kandy. The Venerable Medagama Dhammanda of, has challenged Scientologists to refute allegations made against them ...

Actor Tom Cruise talks about his 20-year membership in the Church of Scientology as he and Director Steven Spielberg discuss the filming of the soon-to-be-released "War of the Worlds." The film, coming out June 29, plays off Americans' fears about terrorism. Spielberg says he has always wanted to direct a "really mean invasion from outer space." Cruise insists, "I just want to help people." SPIEGEL: Mr. Spielberg, no other film director has done more image-building for aliens than you: in your ...

While the religion of Tom Cruise and John Travolta has been getting some tough press in recent days, it’s also been lauded by President Bush’s brother. Florida Governor Jeb Bush raised eyebrows among the critics of the sometimes controversial religion recently when he honored Scientology volunteers who helped victims of hurricanes in his state. Members of the group — which was put in the spotlight this week by the New York Daily News for its alleged anti-homosexual philosophy — were given ...

Recruitment time in Aceh Not all who have responded to the pleas from the Acehnese of Indonesia for aid in the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami have put their self-interest aside, reported Vaudine England in the Hong Kong Weekly Standard (January 22/23). "Some groups are widely seen as cults, pushing a quasi-religious doctrine of healing and feeling. Other groups, particularly American evangelicals ... focus on a personal and direct relationship with a defined God through literal adherence to ancient texts. ...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — In a tent near the center of town, under a banner that reads ''trauma center," volunteer ministers from the Church of Scientology administer their brand of grief counseling to tsunami victims, which includes massages. In another tent, at a mosque several miles down a main road, members of a militant Islamic group known for attacking bars and nightclubs during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, prepare to give thousands of homeless people a heavy dose of religious counseling. ...