For every hurricane, earthquake or flood, there is help: food, bottled water, crews of volunteers nailing shingles to brand new roofs.

What even grateful recipients of that aid might not realize, the Associated Press reports, is that much of it comes from an unlikely hodgepodge of religious groups who put aside their doctrinal differences and coordinate their efforts as soon as the wind starts blowing.

Southern Baptists cook meals from Texas to Massachusetts. Seventh-day Adventists dispense aid from makeshift warehouses that can be running within eight hours. Mennonites haul away debris, Buddhists provide financial aid and chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team counsel the traumatized and grieving.

This "juice and cookies fellowship," as one organizer calls it, is mostly invisible to the public, but it provides interfaith infrastructure for disaster response around the country that state and federal officials could scarcely live without.

"Think of us as the United Nations of disaster relief," said Diana Rothe-Smith, executive director of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, the main umbrella group for coordinating emergency response from private agencies.

Continue reading "The 'United Nations of disaster relief'" »

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A Nebraska man has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for his role in a cyber attack on the Church of Scientology's websites two years ago, the Associated Press reports.

Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, of Grand Island, Neb., was also ordered Monday to pay $20,000 in restitution and serve a year on supervised release after he gets out of prison.

The cyber attack was orchestrated by an underground group that calls itself "Anonymous" and protests the Church of Scientology, accusing it of Internet censorship.

Mettenbrink admitted being a member and pleaded guilty in February to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized access of a protected computer.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feess says the cyber attack had "a sense of hate crime."

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A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit brought against the Church of Scientology by a woman who alleged she worked 100-hour weeks for almost no pay for years while a member of Scientology's elite inner corps, the Associated Press reports.

U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer issued a written order late Friday that dismissed the wage claims portion of Claire Headley's lawsuit. The judge did not address two other causes of action: allegations that the church coerces members of the inner corps to get abortions and engages in forced labor.

The church denies all the allegations and has called the plaintiffs liars motivated by greed.

Headley sued the church in federal court in Los Angeles last year seeking restitution for nearly 14 years of work done while a member of Scientology's inner corps, called the Sea Organization. The church argued in court papers that as a Sea Organization member, Headley was exempt from wage requirements because she was part of a religious order.

So-called Sea Org members work long hours, live and eat communally and sign a pledge that symbolizes a 1 billion-year commitment to Scientology.

Fischer sided with Scientology in her five-page ruling, saying the evidence showed that Headley was chosen for her work based on religious criteria and performed religious duties.

The ruling "reaffirms the fact that we're a religion and the people who dedicate their lives to us are religious workers," said Tommy Davis, church spokesman. "It's an absolute win for the church."

Continue reading "Judge dismisses wage claim in Scientology suit" »

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The Church of Scientology, target of much negative publicity -- well, most of the time, but particularly in the last year -- is touting the launch Friday of its "Lifeboat to Haiti," a decommissioned Coast Guard icebreaker that its says will carry 175 tons of supplies to the earthquake-shattered nation.

From a release:

Two months after the earthquake in Haiti, with the U.N. and Haitian government predicting reconstruction will cost $11.5 billion and the rainy season fast approaching, hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless, living in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps with no protection from the elements. With an international team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers on the ground in and around Port-au-Prince helping the nation rebuild, the Church of Scientology is sponsoring a “Lifeboat to Haiti”—an 896-ton former U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker sailing from Miami for Port-au-Prince with more than 175 tons of supplies. Cargo includes wood burning stoves donated by the charity of Lola Poisson Joseph, wife of the Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. as well as an ambulance, school bus and more than 20,000 meals-ready-to-eat (MREs). Community leaders, clergy, politicians and representatives of the Miami Haitian community, including Myron Rosner, Mayor of North Miami Beach, Andre Pierre, Mayor of City of North Miami, Daphne D. Campbell, RN, business executive and Haitian community leader running for Florida State House of Representatives will give the ship a send-off on Friday. The event will take place at the Miami Shipping Terminal, 3201 NW South River Drive in Miami.
The Church of Scientology has transported more than 450 medical professionals and 300 Volunteer Ministers to Haiti to support the doctors, nurses and EMTs on the ground.

The church says the cargo will include four pallets of wood-burning stoves, 60 tons of wood pellets, more than 20,000 meals ready to eat, an ambulance, a school bus and a pickup truck, tents, medical supplies, clothing, bedding, crutches and other items.

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Days after flying a planeload of supplies and Scientologists to Haiti, John Travolta spoke about how faith in the controversial religion helped his family to deal with the death last year of his 16-year-old son, Jett.

"We work hard every day with our church on healing," Travolta told the Associated Press, though he did not mention Scientology by name. "And Kelly and I and Ella have all been working very hard and they've been helping us," he said, referring to himself, wife Kelly Preston and their daughter.

Asked by AP writer Rob Merrill what gave him the strength to return to his movie career, Travolta said, "Once you get yourself stable, then you're able to reach out again, you know, and I think this whole year every day we've been working on stabilizing ourselves and it's been successful so far."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

John Travolta has piloted a jetliner carrying relief supplies, doctors and ministers from the Church of Scientology into Port-au-Prince, the Associated Press reports.

"We have the ability to actually help make a difference in the situation in Haiti and I just can't see not using this plane to help," the 55-year-old actor said. He compared the mission to efforts following Hurricane Katrina: "We were there right away, with this airplane, because you know we have the ability and the means to do this so I think you have responsibility on some level to do that."

The flight Tuesday comes as aid groups have been desperate to fly their own planes into the over-stressed airport, the Associated Press reports. U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said Tuesday that at least 800 planes with relief items are on a waiting list for the airport, which can handle only about 130 flights a day due to a lack of space to park planes as they unload.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders has complained that the flight scheduling priorities of U.S. military controllers running the airport delayed the arrival of field hospitals, resulting in some deaths.

Travolta and Preston returned to Florida as soon as their supplies and passengers were unloaded.

Read the Associated Press story.

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More than 1,000 unreleased recordings of lectures by L. Ron Hubbard and reams of corresponding writings have been unveiled in the culmination of a 25-year project to locate, restore and transcribe lost pieces of the Scientology founder's work, the Associated Press reports.

Though sure to be derided by the church's many critics, AP writer Matt Sedensky writes, its followers say the materials amount to an opportunity to deepen understanding of the religion and to release the last known unpublished Hubbard works dealing with Scientology and Dianetics.

"It would be like discovering that Buddha, unbeknownst to anybody, had sat down and wrote down the entirety of his discoveries and it could be verified that he wrote it," Tommy Davis, the church's top spokesman, told Sedensky.

The new materials were announced in a New Year's celebration at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles that was broadcast to churches around the world last week and include 1,020 lectures and hundreds of corresponding booklets from courses and other sessions with Scientology ministers from 1953 to 1961. They include discussions of how Hubbard arrived at the principles of Dianetics and his research on everything from decision-making to personal responsibility.

They were recovered through a painstaking hunt that led members to find tapes and papers in a basement in Wichita, Kan., a storage trailer in Phoenix, and a garage in Oakland, Calif., among other places. Some of the materials were believed to have been lost.

"We've been able to restore lectures we literally never thought would be heard again," Davis said.

Continue reading "Church of Scientology releases LRH tapes, papers" »

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In the months since we started In Good Faith, we've attracted readers and commenters from all over the world. Ties to the Baltimore area will be helpful in spotting some familiar faces in the video above (the list appears at the end).

I wanted to take a moment to say a sincere thank you to all who have stopped by, and particularly to those who have joined in the spirited debate taking shape on these pages. During this holiday season, we wish the very best to everyone of every faith, and no faith at all.

I expect to be posting only lightly over the next few days as I take time off to spend with my family. As my father would say: Talk amongst yourselves.

Best,
Matt

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A devastating newspaper series based on the allegations of former high-ranking church officials. A fraud conviction and prison sentences in Europe. The resignation of perhaps the church’s most prestigious celebrity, who writes a letter confirming practices that the church has denied.

“The Church of Scientology,” Associated Press religion reporter Eric Gorski writes, “is going through a difficult season.”

Gorski has produced a useful summary of the events and developments that have rocked the embattled church founded by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

Church spokesman Tommy Davis tells Gorski that Scientology is flourishing, with assets and property holdings doubling over the past five years, membership growing in the United States and “absolutely in the millions” worldwide.

"From our perspective, things are going pretty great," Davis says. "In fact, that's downplaying it. Actually, what's happening with the church right now is frankly spectacular. To the degree there are these various things happening, it really is a lot of noise."

But Gorski finds a different picture in the American Religious Identification Survey, which showed that the estimated number of Americans identifying Scientologists rose from 45,000 in 1990 to 55,000 in 2001, then plummeted to 25,000 in 2008, according to the American Religion Identification Survey.

Perhaps the biggest problem facing the church is the allegations raised by four former high-ranking church officials, who told the St. Petersburg Times that they witnessed church leader David Miscavige beating church staff members.

Continue reading "Scientology's 'difficult season'" »

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A Paris court has convicted the Church of Scientology's French branch of fraud and fined it 400,000 Euros -- about $600,000 -- but stopped short of the ban on the group that prosecutors had sought, the Associated Press is reporting.

The court on Tuesday convicted four of six leaders of the group of organized fraud for pressuring members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain, the AP reports. It handed them suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of 1,000 Euros and 2,000 Euros.

The court did not order the group to shut down, ruling that it would be likely to continue its activities anyway, "outside any legal framework," according to the AP. Prosecutors had requested that the group be dissolved in France and be fined 2 million Euros.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Plans by the Church of Scientology to build a new state headquarters in Georgia continue to brew controversy.

The city council of the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs delayed a vote this week on a rezoning request following what the Atlanta Journal Constitution describes as “a packed house of several dozen opponents wearing ‘STOP’ stickers on their lapels and several dozen supporters on hand with a court reporter, taking down all comments.”

Neighbors have insisted their opposition has nothing to do with the controversies that dog Scientology, but the impacts the development would have on the community. According to the Journal Constitution, the church has hinted that it will file a federal lawsuit against Sandy Springs if the rezoning request is denied.

“We are trying to do everything we can to address every issue raised by the community,” said W. Woodson Galloway, who is representing the church. “We feel we’ve addressed every legitimate issue. … No other church in Sandy Springs has made these kind of concessions, or been asked to.”

Galloway said the court reporter – typically an indicator that an attorney is preparing a court case – was his normal procedure for a final hearing in case the council did take a vote, according to the Journal Constitution.

Read the rest of the story at ajc.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The planning commission in the affluent Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs is opposing plans to turn a former office building into the Georgia headquarters of the Church of Scientology.

The commission doesn't have the authority to stop the project, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, but its 3-2 vote against it is to be taken into account when the city council votes next month.

This caught our eye because we reported a story a couple of weeks ago about the difficulty large churches, synagogues and mosques are having winning municipal approvals for major expansions or new building projects. One imagines Scientology, being enduringly controversial, facing additional hurdles.

Federal law makes it illegal to discriminate against building projects over religious affiliations. But church builders say complaints about traffic, aesthetics and other issues are often a cover for hostility toward the faith to be represented.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says 30 opponents attended the planning commission meeting last week. No one is quoted as having a problem with Scientology.

Read more at ajc.com.

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William Battle III, a spokesman for Christian Science in Maryland, dropped by the office this week to introduce himself, and to talk about a little-understood denomination that he says has 19 churches and about 1,000 members in the state.

He later sent us some information, including a list of frequently asked questions, which struck us as interesting enough to post here, after the jump.

Continue reading "'Christian Science is not Scientology'" »

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Categories: Christian Science, Scientology
        

The French branch of the Church of Scientology might not be fighting for survival, after all, Reuters is reporting.

French prosecutors had recommended the government dissolve the church, which has been charged with fraud after former members said they gave it huge sums for spiritual classes and “purification packs.” The church denies fraud.

From Reuters:

Whatever the ruling, under a legislative reform passed just before the start of the trial in May, it is no longer possible to punish a fraudulent organisation with dissolution.

The legal snag was discovered by the Inter-ministerial Unit to Monitor and Fight Cults. Georges Fenech, head of the unit, demanded on Monday that the legal power to dissolve an organisation be reinstated.

"Faced with organisations of a sectarian nature, which present a real danger to public order and public health, the law must always have such a measure at its disposal," he said in a statement.

Read the rest of the story at Yahoo! News UK & Ireland.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Scientology
        

Undaunted by the pummeling it is taking from former members, the Church of Scientology has been stepping up efforts to reach out to African-Americans.

Details appear in an interview with veteran rapper Doug E. Fresh at essence.com.

"Scientology is not a White religion. It is not just for White people," the artist, whose birth name is Douglas E. Davis, tells Terrance Dean. "Scientology is not written with disrespect toward God. It doesn't worship something that is evil. It is scientific, mathematical, and spiritual. The Black community has to check it out and see what's there. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but you have to take a look. You may be amazed at what you get."

The largely favorable piece, which mentions the erratic behavior or Tom Cruise but says nothing of the more troubling allegations against the church, lists several African-American entertainers it says have been associated with it: Chaka Khan, Al Jarreau, MC Lyte, Haywood Nelson (who played Dwayne "Hey HEY Hey" Nelson on the 1970s television show, "What 's Happening!") and Isaac Hayes.

(Which raises a question, at least in my mind: We know of entertainers who are Scientologists. Are there prominent politicians/public officials, academics/scientists/intellectuals, writers/artists or athletes who are Scientologists? That is, are the only well known people involved with Scientology actors or musicians?)

Back to outreach to the African-American community: The Essence piece details Scientology operations in Inglewood, Calif., and Harlem in New York, where the church opened a center in 2001.

Continue reading "Scientology appealing to African-Americans" »

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We've written about the new Church of Scientology advertising campaign. And we've taken notice of reports in the St. Petersburg Times alleging abuses within the church hierarchy. Now comes word that the church has decided to advertise on the Times Web site.

From Times reporter Eric Deggans:

The advertisement is sleek and subtle, surfacing on the upper right side of the St. Petersburg Times' Web site, tampabay.com.

The text floats onto the screen: "Love" then "Hate" then "What is the answer?"

The final display comes in a flash of light: "Scientology.org."

It's a small spot, rotating among a lineup of online ads that includes commercials for Radio Shack and BlackBerry. But it has drawn some attention, partly because the newspaper has published several stories recently featuring serious allegations involving the Church of Scientology and its top leaders.

Why is the embattled church giving advertising dollars to a media organization publishing damning allegations against it? Deggans writes that Scientology officials did not return calls requesting comment.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (72)
Categories: Scientology
        

The St. Petersburg Times, which produced a remarkable series in June containing explosive allegations against Scientology leader David Miscavige by four former top-ranking church officials, has unearthed 11 more defectors, with new accounts of abuse. The story ran on Sunday:

Jackie Wolff wept as she recalled the chaotic night she was ordered to stand at a microphone in the mess hall and confess her "crimes" in front of 300 fellow workers, many jeering and heckling her.

Gary Morehead dredged up his recollection of Scientology leader David Miscavige punishing venerable church leaders by forcing them to live out of tents for days, wash with a garden hose and use an open latrine.

Steve Hall replayed his memory of a meeting when Miscavige grabbed the heads of two church executives and knocked them together. One came away with a bloody ear.

Mark Fisher remembered precisely what he told Miscavige after the punches stopped and Fisher touched his head, looked at his palm and saw blood.

A church spokesman called the new defectors' accounts of physical abuse "false and categorically denied." The church also rejected the claims of the first four defectors.

Continue reading "More allegations against Scientology leader" »

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Categories: Scientology
        

Add Seth Stevenson to the list of observers questioning whether the new advertising campaign run by the Church of Scientology will do much to burnish its increasingly negative public image.

Stevenson, who writes the Ad Report Card column in Slate, offers a nice historical overview of religious advertising during the television area, from the brief morality plays aired by the Mormons in the 1970s to the quirky spots marketing the Northern Virginia-based New Life Christian Church as “a place for random people,” before focusing on the Scientology campaign:

The three new spots from the Church of Scientology don't traffic in humor or upbeat mini-fables. Their mood is dark. Their tone is dramatic. Their scope is epic.

The Scientology ads employ a time-honored Madison Avenue tactic: Show the problem. In a classic show-the-problem ad, you might first zoom in on those grass stains that have been ground into little Billy's trousers. You'd then reveal, in a lingering product shot, the new and improved detergent that will save the day.

Here, the problem is slightly more abstract than ground-in grass stains. The problem is spiritual emptiness. "We're all looking for it," intones the announcer in one of the Scientology spots. "Some of us have been looking our whole lives. Some think they can buy it. … Some travel the world in search of it. Most don't even know what they're looking for. But we all feel it. That aching desire." The final reveal suggests that Scientology, much like a powerful laundry detergent, will provide a solution.

Stevenson asks whether the ads are effective.

Continue reading "Rating the Scientology advertising campaign" »

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (44)
Categories: Culture, Scientology
        

Between the criminal trial in France and the new cable and online advertising campaign in the United States, we had been planning to post something here about Scientology. Now comes a remarkable series in the St. Petersburg Times containing explosive allegations against church leader David Miscavige by four formerly top-ranking Scientology officials.

The defectors include former Miscavige lieutenant Marty Rathbun and former church spokesman Mike Rinder. Lawyers and current spokespersons for the church deny any wrongdoing and describe the whistle-blowers as disgruntled former employees who were demoted or removed from their jobs and now are attempting to stage a leadership coup from outside the church.

On Sunday, Times reporters Thomas C. Tobin and Joe Childs alleged a culture of violence promoted among the church leadership by Miscavige, who the defectors allege personally beat underlings who would not fight back. Monday’s installment detailed the last days of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died in 1995 after 17 days in the care of the church.

Tuesday, the reporters describe a bizarre game of musical chairs to determine who among the church leadership was the most committed to the tasks at hand. According to the defectors, Miscavige told the group that all but the winner would be reassigned to Scientology's far-flung outposts – a threat he did not ultimately carry out.

Read the series at the St. Petersburg Times.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
Categories: Scientology