The Los Angeles Police Department and the Church of Scientology win the National Faith and Blue Weekend contest, illustrating how much can be accomplished when law enforcement and the community work together
Of course, curious about this award, I looked up the website of Faith and Blue and discover there is an earlier press release there put out by scientology that covered an event held in October last year.
If you zoom in on the photo, you will see there is NO MENTION of scientology anywhere, but the Way to Happiness logo is prominent at the top left, along with the Home Depot and CVS.
Absolutely NOTHING about scientology — yet the press release claims the entire event was “co-organized by the Church of Scientology.”
Of course, the Way to Happiness goes to enormous lengths to proclaim itself a secular organization that promotes a “non-religious” booklet. They don’t want to scare everyone else away by revealing the involvement of scientology. So they do it with the Way To Happiness (even though this organization is supposed to be about law enforcement and “faith organizations” working together). They are fortunate that these press releases never get picked up as I doubt the other organizations would appreciate knowing they participated in this event and they are now being promoted as “working with” scientology.
The Hollywood Division of the LAPD is known to be happy to take checks from scientology routinely and has a cozy relationship with them. So the brazen use of them by scientology is no surprise. The other organizations and businesses, I suspect not so much. I have bolded the name drops in their release.
Here is the text of the most recent release:
LOS ANGELES, Calif. May 6, 2023 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The LAPD and the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles have won the National Faith and Blue Weekend Photo Contest for the “confidence, purpose and togetherness of the volunteers” shown in the massive Faith and Blue Weekend cleanup. Faith and Blue is a grass-roots initiative that seeks to create “safer, stronger, more just and unified communities” through “partnerships among law enforcement professionals, residents, businesses and community groups through the connections of local faith-based organizations.”
Cosponsored by the Church of Scientology Los Angeles and the Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, Faith and Blue Weekend in Hollywood bought together 50 community partners to clean and beautify the neighborhood.
Under the banner “Unity in the Community,” more than 460 volunteers cleaned 170 city blocks, washed 200 storefronts and beautified some 1,300 square feet of spaces with a graffiti paint-out.
Among the 50 organizations that came together in support of this initiative were the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the Hollywood Partnership, the L.A. Office of Community Beautification, the L.A. Department of Sanitation, and numerous local businesses and faith-based organizations.
Restaurants including Shakey’s and Pink’s Hotdogs set up tables of snacks and drinks for the volunteers. Home Depot and GarboGrabber brought supplies. A mariachi band entertained the crowd gathered in the parking lot of Hollywood’s iconic Capitol Records Building. And the volunteers provided the muscle.
Delighted with the turnout, the LAPD Hollywood Captain thanked the Church of Scientology for its commitment to making Hollywood “a safer and cleaner place.”
Faith and Blue founder Rev. Markel Hutchins, who arrived in Los Angeles from Atlanta, Georgia, to launch the city’s Faith and Blue Weekend celebrations, was equally enthusiastic about the turnout, because when faiths, communities and law enforcement work together, they can bridge differences, increase collaboration and reduce bias and violence.
The Church of Scientology, LAPD and The Way to Happiness Foundation have partnered in monthly neighborhood cleanups since 2018, including a special annual scouring of Hollywood Boulevard on the eve of each year’s Hollywood Christmas Parade.
After each cleanup, volunteers hand out copies of The Way to Happiness, written by humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. The Way to Happiness is a common-sense nonreligious moral code with 21 precepts to guide people to make better choices in their lives. By sharing The Way to Happiness with local businesses, volunteers provide them with a tool to promote values and contribute to a cleaner and more ethical community.
To learn more about how Scientology Churches host members of the community for events of every size and description in cities all over the world, visit the interactive timeline created by Scientology Media Productions on the Scientology website. Or tune in to the Scientology Network, which began rolling out its new season of programming on April 10.
The Scientology Network debuted on March 12, 2018. Since launching, with a special featuring Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige, the Scientology Network takes viewers across six continents, spotlighting the everyday lives of Scientologists, showing the Church as a global organization, and presenting its social betterment programs that have touched the lives of millions worldwide. The network also showcases documentaries by independent filmmakers who represent a cross-section of cultures and faiths, but share a common purpose of uplifting communities.
Broadcast from Scientology Media Productions, the Church’s global media center in Los Angeles, the Scientology Network is available on DIRECTV Channel 320, DIRECTV STREAM, AT&T U-verse and can be streamed at Scientology.tv, on mobile apps and via the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms.
LEARN MORE:
https://www.scientology.org/our-help-is-yours/
NEWS SOURCE: Church of Scientology International
This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Church of Scientology International) who is solely responsible for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed.
Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by the Associated Press (AP).
The plugs for scientologyTV as you get through the information about the event are over-the-top shameless. They even shoehorn in a mention of Mr. David Miscavige! Of course.
What is particularly amusing are the disclaimers at the end: they wrote this, not us, we believe it’s accurate but no guarantee. And this is NOT the AP.
What is not amusing is how scientology manipulates organizations and groups to try and lend themselves legitimacy.
“After each cleanup, volunteers hand out copies of The Way To Happiness…”
So let me get this straight. After cleaning and picking up trash and making sure everything is out of the streets and everything is looking good, they hand out thousands of paper pamphlets that are most likely going to litter the same streets they just cleaned. Hopefully most people will throw them in the trash can but I would hazard a guess that many just fall to the ground.
Second point…like some posters below I was trying to figure out what exactly was the “contest” that they “won”. It sounded like an organized community beautify and trash pickup event. Not a “contest” by any means.
Many are the awards that the “church” claims but they have at least two things in common: They remain entirely without corroboration from any sources whatsoever other than obscure bought-and-paid-for “church” press releases. And even then, they usually do not withstand debunking efforts as the “partners” claimed typically recoil in horror at the mention of the “church.”
Equally interesting is the claim of “sponsorship.” Even from the “church’s” own “press release” it becomes clear that some 50 organizations were involved in this cleanup. So how is it that the “church” stands out as a contributor to the point of meriting its own “press release?”
Even more revealing is the nature of the award: the National Faith and Blue Weekend PHOTO [emphasis mine] Contest. If the award is even real and if the name is any indication, an award was given NOT for the prodigious application of elbow grease nor for remarkable financial generosity but for snapping a photo. It’s well-known that typically the majority of any scientology “benevolence” effort consists of a photo and videography contingent. It’s equally well known that elron single-handedly (as usual) reinvented the art of photography. So could it be that their contribution was snapping a good photo while the other groups were tied up doing all the work?
Finally, the timing of the “news release” is telling, May 6, 2023. Right in time for the Masterson trial which has been bringing much attention to the “church” and its treatment of rape victims; even its categorical denial of the claim that there is such a thing as being “raped” by a scientologist in good standing and that the only one to blame is the “non-rape” victim who is required to resolve the situation by providing extensive fixed donations and washing the predator’s car. The trial also revealed that there positively must not be any “community partnership” whatsoever between police and the cult in resolving such criminal matters.
It’s puzzling why a multi-billion $$$ humanitarian organization with “millions” of members and a first-response force eight times the size of the Red Cross would have to reach back seven full months to scare up evidence of its benevolent (or at least photographic) efforts? In the city with the largest number of scientologists on the planet, no less! “Curious?”
I’m sorry…what the hell does ‘winning’ mean? Winning what? The “contest” for what? What are they talking about?
And of course the website has no mention of any such partners, even under the “faith” section. Does anyone at LAPD care about this bs?
I do find it reassuring that the Co$ is too terrified to use their own name in anything except their own paid press releases. It’s all bubble talk really.
The word ‘parasite’ does easily come to mind when they are observed with their use of symbolism.
Spot on analysis.
And as far as “bubble talk” goes, it gives them something to put in the “look what we did” annual pep talk.
Safepointing is one of their most effective strategies esp. when they throw money around.
“After each cleanup, volunteers hand out copies of The Way to Happiness, written by humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. ” Say what? He’s a humanitarian? What humanitarian breaks up families, practices child labor, human trafficking, tries to destroy his critics utterly, protects child molesters, and serial rapists in the name of saving mankind? Hubbard claims to want to lift mankind to higher moral standards, and can’t seem to do the same in his own sphere of influence, nor can his successor.
It would seem, Hubbard is ping ponging between conflicting goals, which he claims to have risen above. Perhaps his goal “to be a humanitarian” is unflat. Maybe we need to send an auditor to Target 2 and flatten it, before he “runs a cropper there” LOL Mimsey
Haha, nicely said! Hubbard along with his successor would never get through eligibility for auditing if policy was ever applied. I’d gladly write a tailor made sec check for them, but there’d be a long, long list of far more qualified people ahead of me for that task, if it ever came to it. He’s probably languishing in prison on Tgt 2 anyway or they sent him back here with an IQ of 40.
This also reminds me of how they exploit the aid efforts of major organizations, by weaseling their way into having a few people such as “volunteer ministers” show up to help with something like the loading of supplies for a couple of hours for a real relief operation, and sneaking some photographs. Then they take credit for entire efforts in press releases accompanied by pictures, such as they did recently for hundreds of tons of aid delivered to earthquake victims in Turkey, that they donated none of and didn’t do any of the really hard overseas distribution work for.
LRH was a criminal. DM is a criminal. CofS is a criminal organization founded by and now run by a criminal. LAPD should know better… but I understand they want what support they can get from anyone who wants to give it. I hope one day there is an internal investigation of the relationship that is made public. But no one is paying attention or cares in the general public right now.
I could say something about this, but I would be advocating Objectivism.