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Last Sunday

Dean Blair

Silver Meritorious Patron
I went to church Sunday as I usually do with my family. I was sitting there in my seat looking over the crowd of people most of whom I don't know. There was a wonderful Christmas display with lit up Christmas trees. There were lots of family's with kids. As I looked around I tried to estimate how many people were there and estimated that there were well over a thousand and we have three services every Sunday. I began to compare it to Scientology. There were no extras in the audience. No one had been called to church by the registrars or the call in unit. No...they just showed up like they do every week.

The pastor was talking about something called the "benevolent fund". That is a special fund where money is collected to help members of the church get by when they have experienced some hard ship such as losing a job or having a medical emergency that they were unable to fully pay for. In one week, the people in the congregation had donated $280,000 towards this fund without any hard sell or talk of eternal damnation. A video was shown of several recipients who had run into hard times and were helped. With the help the church gave, these people were saved from eviction and soon recovered to live happy normal lives again.

This is something I had never seen in Scientology in the 40 years I was a member. Scientology never helps people like this. Even if you don't believe in God or Jesus the unselfish actions of these people are to be commended. Attending this church has given me a whole new understanding of people and what a church should be like. As many people have stated here and in the press, Scientology is not a religion nor is it a church. It is a money making corporation that really benefits no one other than it's current leader David Miscavige and before him L Ron Hubbard.
 

dchoiceisalwaysrs

Gold Meritorious Patron
Yes, it is good. :thumbsup: Where as the scn cherch has this as one of its religious applied scriptures about charity.

Its wealth does not benefit its members or society (well except its head conman)


http://www.prem-rawat-talk.org/forum/uploads/CultCharacteristics.htm



I went to church Sunday as I usually do with my family. I was sitting there in my seat looking over the crowd of people most of whom I don't know. There was a wonderful Christmas display with lit up Christmas trees. There were lots of family's with kids. As I looked around I tried to estimate how many people were there and estimated that there were well over a thousand and we have three services every Sunday. I began to compare it to Scientology. There were no extras in the audience. No one had been called to church by the registrars or the call in unit. No...they just showed up like they do every week.

The pastor was talking about something called the "benevolent fund". That is a special fund where money is collected to help members of the church get by when they have experienced some hard ship such as losing a job or having a medical emergency that they were unable to fully pay for. In one week, the people in the congregation had donated $280,000 towards this fund without any hard sell or talk of eternal damnation. A video was shown of several recipients who had run into hard times and were helped. With the help the church gave, these people were saved from eviction and soon recovered to live happy normal lives again.

This is something I had never seen in Scientology in the 40 years I was a member. Scientology never helps people like this. Even if you don't believe in God or Jesus the unselfish actions of these people are to be commended. Attending this church has given me a whole new understanding of people and what a church should be like. As many people have stated here and in the press, Scientology is not a religion nor is it a church. It is a money making corporation that really benefits no one other than it's current leader David Miscavige and before him L Ron Hubbard.
 
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Knows

Gold Meritorious Patron
I went to church Sunday as I usually do with my family. I was sitting there in my seat looking over the crowd of people most of whom I don't know. There was a wonderful Christmas display with lit up Christmas trees. There were lots of family's with kids. As I looked around I tried to estimate how many people were there and estimated that there were well over a thousand and we have three services every Sunday. I began to compare it to Scientology. There were no extras in the audience. No one had been called to church by the registrars or the call in unit. No...they just showed up like they do every week.

The pastor was talking about something called the "benevolent fund". That is a special fund where money is collected to help members of the church get by when they have experienced some hard ship such as losing a job or having a medical emergency that they were unable to fully pay for. In one week, the people in the congregation had donated $280,000 towards this fund without any hard sell or talk of eternal damnation. A video was shown of several recipients who had run into hard times and were helped. With the help the church gave, these people were saved from eviction and soon recovered to live happy normal lives again.

This is something I had never seen in Scientology in the 40 years I was a member. Scientology never helps people like this. Even if you don't believe in God or Jesus the unselfish actions of these people are to be commended. Attending this church has given me a whole new understanding of people and what a church should be like. As many people have stated here and in the press, Scientology is not a religion nor is it a church. It is a money making corporation that really benefits no one other than it's current leader David Miscavige and before him L Ron Hubbard.
So true! People want to help and Hubbard and his cult takes advantage of this and then uses "guilt trips" to fleece every dime they have and they never spend it on anything other than fake PR, John Lobb $5,000 shoes, Italian suits, luxury cars, jets, mansions and personal chefs and trainers for the dictator...don't forget the lawsuits and Private investigator's that sue and harass if anyone were to expose their crimes. My church has standing room only every service - it is HUGE! They have several services each Sat and Sun and classes (free) throughout the week...and the parking lot is packed with lots of people!! They have a normal nursery for baby and kids and THEY EXPOSE THEIR FINANCIALS EACH WEEK, EACH MONTH AND EACH YEAR TO EVERYONE!! My church brings in $7 million annually - they spend 65% of staff pay!! Yes - it is okay to pay people to work for a church - no slave labor and they have health insurance!!
 

Dean Blair

Silver Meritorious Patron
So true! People want to help and Hubbard and his cult takes advantage of this and then uses "guilt trips" to fleece every dime they have and they never spend it on anything other than fake PR, John Lobb $5,000 shoes, Italian suits, luxury cars, jets, mansions and personal chefs and trainers for the dictator...don't forget the lawsuits and Private investigator's that sue and harass if anyone were to expose their crimes. My church has standing room only every service - it is HUGE! They have several services each Sat and Sun and classes (free) throughout the week...and the parking lot is packed with lots of people!! They have a normal nursery for baby and kids and THEY EXPOSE THEIR FINANCIALS EACH WEEK, EACH MONTH AND EACH YEAR TO EVERYONE!! My church brings in $7 million annually - they spend 65% of staff pay!! Yes - it is okay to pay people to work for a church - no slave labor and they have health insurance!!

The church I go to also offers all kinds of free classes and when you finish one class the next class is free too. Also our church weekly displays their financials showing us how much they received for the week and for the year and yes they pay their staff a livable wage. If Scientology only followed some of the standard actions that most churches and benevolent groups follow they wouldn't be in the mess they are in now. Hiring private investigators, not paying the staff, forcing abortions, prohibiting vacation time, sleep deprivation, yelling, screaming, hitting, swearing, and all of the things Scientology does on a standard operating basis are completely and utterly bat shit crazy. I really don't understand how it is all being tolerated by the authorities in the United States of America.
 

Knows

Gold Meritorious Patron
Scientology's problems all started with the "little lie" told by Hubbard..embellishing his life accomplishments to then hiding crimes, secrets, mysteries until the whole thing is run by bat shit crazy culties that are trying to protect their $$$,$$$ income and perks!! Scientology is one big lie, it is not a church and it destroys in the name of help!! Just look at it...one hot mess after another. Nasty PR people saying the most ugliest things about former members...it really is on a swift decline - THANK YOU GOD!!
 

Danger Mouse

Patron with Honors
One Sunday at our church, the priest told us that we really needed to repave the parking lot. "Luckily, we have the money. It's in your pockets." And we did raise enough to do the job.

There was no money spent on teams of lawyers or for private detectives to spy on or harass former parishioners.

Confessions are not written down and are truly confidential.

An elected parish council assists with the management of the parish, and the books are open.

Compare and contrast:
 

Knows

Gold Meritorious Patron
One Sunday at our church, the priest told us that we really needed to repave the parking lot. "Luckily, we have the money. It's in your pockets." And we did raise enough to do the job.

There was no money spent on teams of lawyers or for private detectives to spy on or harass former parishioners.

Confessions are not written down and are truly confidential.

An elected parish council assists with the management of the parish, and the books are open.

Compare and contrast:

It is good to step out of the CULT and go into other Churches. Every one I have been to is packed. I never see any golden rods posted anywhere talking about CRIMES of a "bitter defrocked apostates" either. LOL - in fact, one can bad mouth the priest and leave the Church and it is totally okay - freedom!! When the catholic Church was getting hammered about the pervs molesting boys - no Catholic spokesperson went on the record stating - The Boy had been caught masturbating in the confessional - he was asking for it and is a bitter defrocked apostate etc...:omg: It just blows me away how the Cherch of Scientology's spokesperson pours fuel on their fire by stating some of the bat shit crazy things they say to take the focus off the criminal cult of scientology and it does not work. The public hate Scientology and are not going in!! Continue Scientology spokesperson...continue!!
 

Boojuum

Silver Meritorious Patron
I LOVE these posts!!!

I've been to other churches and experienced much of the same.

There was little to no pressure to donate.

There was tranparency in finance.

The church leaders were the ones who helped others the most.

The parishoners enjoyed attending and had lives that made sense.

Scientology is a greedy organization.

There is more viciousness and paranoia in Scientology than in any group I have ever been associated with.

It's a stark contrast.
 

Gib

Crusader
The church I go to also offers all kinds of free classes and when you finish one class the next class is free too. Also our church weekly displays their financials showing us how much they received for the week and for the year and yes they pay their staff a livable wage. If Scientology only followed some of the standard actions that most churches and benevolent groups follow they wouldn't be in the mess they are in now. Hiring private investigators, not paying the staff, forcing abortions, prohibiting vacation time, sleep deprivation, yelling, screaming, hitting, swearing, and all of the things Scientology does on a standard operating basis are completely and utterly bat shit crazy. I really don't understand how it is all being tolerated by the authorities in the United States of America.

Thanks Dean,

I was going to ask if you did a proper due diligence.
 

Gib

Crusader
This is something I had never seen in Scientology in the 40 years I was a member. Scientology never helps people like this. Even if you don't believe in God or Jesus the unselfish actions of these people are to be commended.
Attending this church has given me a whole new understanding of people and what a church should be like. As many people have stated here and in the press, Scientology is not a religion nor is it a church. It is a money making corporation that really benefits no one other than it's current leader David Miscavige and before him L Ron Hubbard.

It really can be a wonderful life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frXklECPkD0
 

yeah, yeah, yeah..,

capra (whose negroes were always politely silent as they went about their tasks)...


last week the park branch library had it's monthly movie in the basement and the librarian ponied up a tragically underappreciated xmas movie which should certainly more often be shown on the boobtube as counterpoint to the endless treacle (thank heaven for simpson, family guy, south park xmases) but "the man who came to dinner" starring montey wooley and bette davis is almost mencken in it's curmudgeonliness. delightfully directed and acted...
 

Knows

Gold Meritorious Patron
An example how Scientology treats their volunteers who join staff for virtually NO pay and to receive high pressured sales quotas each Thursday so that WED night becomes an engram for eternity....I saw a few people try to be on staff...they got NO HELP with housing or anything...they were on their own and suppose to figure it all out. One gal moved from out of state - she gave up job, home ...everything. I am sure the recruiter lied to her about what she would make to survive and after one month - she moved back home. I saw most of the staff roll this way. Scientology is the most selfish, self-centered, greedy, uncaring and nasty cult in the World!!
 

Gib

Crusader
yeah, yeah, yeah..,

capra (whose negroes were always politely silent as they went about their tasks)...


last week the park branch library had it's monthly movie in the basement and the librarian ponied up a tragically underappreciated xmas movie which should certainly more often be shown on the boobtube as counterpoint to the endless treacle (thank heaven for simpson, family guy, south park xmases) but "the man who came to dinner" starring montey wooley and bette davis is almost mencken in it's curmudgeonliness. delightfully directed and acted...

I don't understand what you wrote.
 
An example how Scientology treats their volunteers who join staff for virtually NO pay and to receive high pressured sales quotas each Thursday so that WED night becomes an engram for eternity....I saw a few people try to be on staff...they got NO HELP with housing or anything...they were on their own and suppose to figure it all out. One gal moved from out of state - she gave up job, home ...everything. I am sure the recruiter lied to her about what she would make to survive and after one month - she moved back home. I saw most of the staff roll this way. Scientology is the most selfish, self-centered, greedy, uncaring and nasty cult in the World!!

well...

i am a professing christian and should not be entirely unwelcome here with a... uhh...

different perspective...

she went home shaking the dust from her heels and that is how it is...

CoS was not intended to be about warm fuzzies; it's about extreme games...

yes...

so much is about green paper rectangles but there are those who just aren't going for lives of warm fuzzies but must pursue a more intense passage through this temporal plane. many go into winding up featured in the 10 minute attitude adjustment arnie currently posts and that is not to be dismissed as mere adrenaline addiction but might be thought as yoda says "a jedi craves not these things"

she was a washout and doubtless paid no heed to letters out to her address

as leonard cohen wrote in his scientology years "...some girls wander by mistake/ in to the mess that scalpels make..."
 

Sassy

Patron Meritorious
I went to church Sunday as I usually do with my family. I was sitting there in my seat looking over the crowd of people most of whom I don't know. There was a wonderful Christmas display with lit up Christmas trees. There were lots of family's with kids. As I looked around I tried to estimate how many people were there and estimated that there were well over a thousand and we have three services every Sunday. I began to compare it to Scientology. There were no extras in the audience. No one had been called to church by the registrars or the call in unit. No...they just showed up like they do every week.

The pastor was talking about something called the "benevolent fund". That is a special fund where money is collected to help members of the church get by when they have experienced some hard ship such as losing a job or having a medical emergency that they were unable to fully pay for. In one week, the people in the congregation had donated $280,000 towards this fund without any hard sell or talk of eternal damnation. A video was shown of several recipients who had run into hard times and were helped. With the help the church gave, these people were saved from eviction and soon recovered to live happy normal lives again.

This is something I had never seen in Scientology in the 40 years I was a member. Scientology never helps people like this. Even if you don't believe in God or Jesus the unselfish actions of these people are to be commended. Attending this church has given me a whole new understanding of people and what a church should be like. As many people have stated here and in the press, Scientology is not a religion nor is it a church. It is a money making corporation that really benefits no one other than it's current leader David Miscavige and before him L Ron Hubbard.

WOW, not only is that a wonderful story, but that's a SHITLOAD of money! Good for your neighbors & friends. :happydance::) Very heartwarming story. And you're dead on about the cult being a money-grubbing corporation. They have no heart; your story confirms that most humans DO have heart. Thanks for sharing!
 
I don't understand what you wrote.

aw gibby...

it's not that hard

an allusion...

h.l. mencken, curmudgeonly journalist for the baltimore sun at the same time (end of the thirties) that the film was made...

a bemoaning of the unblemished treacly nature of old films on television at xmas...

a little snip at the racism and stereotyping of the day which is consistently prominent throughout capra's career...

if i'm ever drinking platonic absinthe in a wildfire mannequin of argentine cafes ranging the moccasin rose for seven jackknives to fiddlestick my golden owl out his rhetoric complex i certainly hope at least some esmbers might seat themselves at an adjoining table...
 

Gib

Crusader
aw gibby...

it's not that hard

an allusion...

h.l. mencken, curmudgeonly journalist for the baltimore sun at the same time (end of the thirties) that the film was made...

a bemoaning of the unblemished treacly nature of old films on television at xmas...

a little snip at the racism and stereotyping of the day which is consistently prominent throughout capra's career...

if i'm ever drinking platonic absinthe in a wildfire mannequin of argentine cafes ranging the moccasin rose for seven jackknives to fiddlestick my golden owl out his rhetoric complex i certainly hope at least some esmbers might seat themselves at an adjoining table...

I still don't get it.
 

Anonycat

Crusader
I went to church Sunday as I usually do with my family. I was sitting there in my seat looking over the crowd of people most of whom I don't know. There was a wonderful Christmas display with lit up Christmas trees. There were lots of family's with kids. As I looked around I tried to estimate how many people were there and estimated that there were well over a thousand and we have three services every Sunday. I began to compare it to Scientology. There were no extras in the audience. No one had been called to church by the registrars or the call in unit. No...they just showed up like they do every week.

The pastor was talking about something called the "benevolent fund". That is a special fund where money is collected to help members of the church get by when they have experienced some hard ship such as losing a job or having a medical emergency that they were unable to fully pay for. In one week, the people in the congregation had donated $280,000 towards this fund without any hard sell or talk of eternal damnation. A video was shown of several recipients who had run into hard times and were helped. With the help the church gave, these people were saved from eviction and soon recovered to live happy normal lives again.

This is something I had never seen in Scientology in the 40 years I was a member. Scientology never helps people like this. Even if you don't believe in God or Jesus the unselfish actions of these people are to be commended. Attending this church has given me a whole new understanding of people and what a church should be like. As many people have stated here and in the press, Scientology is not a religion nor is it a church. It is a money making corporation that really benefits no one other than it's current leader David Miscavige and before him L Ron Hubbard.

Yes, that is a Church! I was wondering what denomination you are.
 

Dean Blair

Silver Meritorious Patron
Yes, that is a Church! I was wondering what denomination you are.

I attend Hill Country Bible Church which is a non denominal Christian Church. When I lived in Los Angeles I attended Fellowship Monrovia which is also a non denominational Christian Church.
 
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