This is the text of the full page USA Today ad that appeared last Thursday.
Back in the good old days, USA Today required DETAILED proof of the claims made in church ads.
Today, pretty much anything goes….
A global movement more than 200,000 strong.
Active in better than 120 nations.
Based on the rest of the scientology demographics, more than half of the total activities occur in the United States. So, ballparking it means there are more than 100,000 VMs in the US.
So, where were they when the massive tornadoes rolled through Oklahoma? They tried to round up people from all over the US and could muster a grand total of 20 people. Gold flew in a film crew. They handed out yellow T shirts. And yet there were a couple of stills of a few VM’s and that was it. The closest org — and an ideal one at that — was Dallas. They couldn’t muster up much of anything at all, though the pleading emails went out, including the call to arms that all scientologists are expected to respond to “a Gold Shoot crew will be there.”
Where were the VM’s when Sandy devastated the North Eastern US?
The mudslide in Washington?
I already commented on the lack of anyone appearing on the scene in the Philippines.
Why are the photos of VM’s STILL being used (even in USA Today) from Indonesia in 2004 (which seems to be the height of VM activity).
Every church of scientology in the US was forced to buy a yellow Ford Econoline “VM Van.” If you can spot one these days it is usually parked in the farthest corner of the parking lot with expired plates and flat ties.
The VM program is one of the few things that scientology does that could be classified as real humanitarian work — minus the proselytizing. People volunteer their time and don’t ask for money for their “assists.” Much of it is useless, often its a distraction to real relief efforts, but its given freely by well intentioned people. But, like all else in scientology, it’s value for PR is seen as far more important than its value in actually helping people. So, it is supported and pushed to the degree that it can be used to generate “goodwill” (like in the ad above), and otherwise, it is seen as a distraction and a drain of resources that could be invested in property purchases.
Try to find the much hyped boat on the Amazon, or the safari crossing Africa or the flying doctor VMs in Australia. They were video props once (or merely CGI images).
Now, for comparison, here is the latest Impact mag, a publication not known for its reserved claims or concern for the truth.
Check out the cover:
The Greatest Humanitarian Force on Earth. Why be shy?
But then here is the entirety of the chapter about the activities of Volunteer Ministers around the world. Note the lack of specifics — just broad, huge claims about “helping 6.1 million” at “228 disasters.” There is ONE specific (though unverifiable as you will note the pictures that show one or two VMs “in action”) — 80 VMs in Mexico. In Australia it is how many fires there were and how many acres of land they consumed and “VMs were there.”.
Here is the second page of the article:
Once again, recounting how many provinces the flooding hit in Thailand. And then another “specific” of “90 VMs” in the Philippines. But we know this is a lie, and they have never shown a photo of more than 5 VMs there, and you KNOW they were video’ing everything possible. But again, it’s the speed of the winds and how many people died and were left homeless. Come to think of it, with 200,000 VMs around the world and the IAS standing ready to pay for everything (“this is what your donations buy”), 80 was all they could come up with??
And here is the final page:
Having established their “factual basis” for the story, now they really go to town.
Those 80 VMs somehow sort of possibly gave assists to 500,000 people. They apparently don’t realize that this is more than 5,000 people each. Must have really strong fingers.
And then it spirals into “disaster stories” — how much rain fell, how many died etc. And then 120 VMs “poured forth” for a little known gas pipe explosion.
And that is the end of the report on the greatest humanitarian force on earth as embodied by the VM’s.
Should be lots of fun today. The world premiere is this afternoon….
The advertising is pure fraud. They are trying to give the impression that IAS donations are used to help many people all over the world so that the IAS donations and the constant “upping the status” will bring in the money that they will then use for the day-to-day running of the Church. These expensive adverts are purely there to con the whales out of money. And who can blame DM for doing it? It works!
I shouldn’t be amazed but was about how quickly the church came out with their black PR campaign on “Going Clear” band of eight.
The public is on to their tricks, however, and seepage will start to effect those still in no matter how hard the church uses its control-by-fear tactic.
Today I have hope again.
“Going Clear” received a standing ovation after it ended, which is not a common occurrence at Sundance.
Freedom magazine just opened a new Twitter account called FreedomMediaEthics.
I apologize for any ruined keyboards from beverages being spewed on them. 😉
Bro Lets go – stop hopnoping with media elite and give us the inside info …
Getting tired of changing screens between you and Tony.
We know about the movie, what i want to know about is OSA and SeaFungi head count and their campaign of handing out WTH.
“…helped more than 6.1 million people rebuild their lives.”
Here’s how that one works: VM gives a guy a touch assist for 10 minutes. Guy has a wife, 5 kids, and 2 grandparents living with him. That VM just helped 9 people “rebuild their lives”.
Thank you.
Can someone explain an ‘assist’ for us lay folks, please?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assist_%28Scientology%29
They poke people with their fingers and say “Feel my finger – thank you”. No, I am not joking. They actually send people out to disaster areas and this is the form of “help” that they give.
If you Google “Scientology Touch Assist” you will find more information about it.
I think that I can blame them for taking the ads. They are taking money to forward lies. They should require verification of claims as Mike inferred. Otherwise they become a party to the scam.
My opinion on the “Volunteer Minister” program is this: When one helps a fellow human being one should just do it and take joy in doing so. One should not brag about it or use the fact that one is helping someone for PR. That is off purpose and insincere. If one wishes to help someone, they should just do it, Anonymously, if possible. And just enjoy the quiet satisfaction of being a good person.
It sort breaks the brain when you read something like that, that is so absurd, inflated and not credible. One starts to have a little interior fight with oneself, NO!!! REALLY???? Do they really have the nerve and the amorality to bold faced lie, to make up a ridiculous story to make themselves look like some super good Samaritan group? It’s the same type of person who would extort more money than someone could afford or try to reg someone to divorce their spouse or desert their child. This is really low, pretending to help people in dire emergencies, to create a smoke screen for their illusion of a caring group. This sham produces absolutely no real product. Par for the course.
Halie Jane
Your comment exactly describes my state of mind when I read that stuff. I was lacking the words and somehow just was puzzled and wasn’t able to express myseld anymore. You found the words Thank You .. 🙂
“Eleventy billion people were helped by 7 gazillion volunteer ministers in all 500,000 countries in the last year alone.” This statement is as truthful as the ones in the ads and USA Today ran the ads so they must be true.
Report from the Sundance Premiere
I just watched Going Clear with one eyeball and watched Mike Rinder and Marc Headley watch it with the other eyeball. (I was the lady across the aisle — astonishingly good looking — no? nothing? what? Ok, just kidding — middle aged with a pointy nose? Yep, that was me.) Here are my notes:
HBO did not skimp. Lots of black SUV’s, extra security, armed police.
The show was sold out and people holding tickets couldn’t get a seat and had to leave. In all my Sundance years, I don’t remember that EVER happening before.
(This was not an easy ticket to get in the first place, but us middle-aged ladies can be wily and have our ways…)
The film is masterfully edited. Weaving between Jason Beghe, Paul Haggis (total doll face) Mike R, and Marty Rathbun, it efficiently exposed LRH as a fraud (Ok, so what’s up with the LRH teeth? Really disgusting.) Mike and Marc seemed to really appreciate this and nodded several times.
There was an efficient telling of the backstory of the Sea Org and the takeover by DM. Several cases of disconnection were very credibly presented and I teared up in one or two spots. Why do people have to mess with the kids? Seriously?
The irony of DM leading a “stand tall” music video was not lost on the audience. Lol.
Then is my favorite part — the takedown of Tom Cruise. He’s up there cackling like a loon on a screen the size of a gymnasium wall (black turtleneck interview) and they cut right to Rathbun saying, “That IS the end phenomena of Scientology.”
The film wonders why John Travolta stayed mum after the abuse of Spanky (I’m spacing her last name – Taylor?) and Miscavige came across almost a smarmy as LRH.
The score was top notch. Very subtle and emotional.
(Note to self, do not cross Lawrence Wright or Alex Gribney or HBO. Ever.)
The Q&A could have gone on another hour if the theater hadn’t booted us out. (Some nonsense about another screening? What?) The main gist of the questions were, “Why can’t something be done about it…?” Mike answered articulately, but I thought “that’s the name of his blog… aahhhh, I get it.”
The film was everything I hoped (and Mike and Marc agreed, judging by their expressions) and will do very well in commercial distribution. It was received with standing applause, Sundance love bombs and rainbows and people were still talking about it on the bus back to the resort. I think it’s a much bigger nightmare than Scientology imagines — it’s soooo watchable.
Ironically there’s a dinner tonight for the new film with Nicole Kidman, so she’s in town and being photographed everywhere. The night belongs to the Lunatic Fringe absolutely. I thought maybe Marty Rathbun would be there, but he wasn’t. I’m sure they sent him a screener. I hope so.
Margaret
From Park City
Oh and I forgot to say, Morgan Spurlock (“Supersize Me”) was sitting right behind Marc and Mike. Hi Morgan!
Hey, Margaret!
Thanks for the notes from Sundance! Sounds like you had a great time! Wish I could have been there.
Thanks so much Margaret, You should have said hi!
Too exhausted to write anything, being doing media all day and into the night. There will be plenty of accounts, I am sure Tony has covered it already and I know there are stories about it flooding out.
I will say I thought it was a masterful piece of film making on many levels,
Great work Mike. Alex Gibney and Lawrence Wright are standing on the shoulders of giants.
Get some rest and relaxation and soak it all in. We do want a full report of your experience though!
Thanks for the update Margaret. I’m happy to hear the great reviews.
The public release date on HBO of March 16th should coincide well with the LRH birthday event planned by the cult. Perhaps a private viewing at the Shrine would be nice!
Yo Dave,
Howz the week startin out for ya good buddy? Better figure out a way to redefine DAMAGE CONTROL!
We apostates call it ……………. CARNAGE APPRECIATION WEEK. So how are you going to keep your blind from leading the other blind kool aide consumers away from all the good news? Think about it…..
Yo OSA,
This is the real life version of Titanic where the broken tail section is rising out of the water ………………
Oh Gawd Coop, great idea to have a public screening the same weekend as LRH birthday event!
Seems only natural!
I.A.S.A. = I AM A SCAMA
It is disgusting to see How they waste the potentialités of good people who would like to help. The only money they spend is getting a Gold crew and some staff to pose for a PR Op. Real help: water, food, rescue teams, blankets, tents… ? No Sir. None of it.
Today’s premier – TRUTH REVEALVED!!!
Not that Islam should be encouraged in its pre-Enlightenment ways, but the VMs might want to consider that there t-shirt color choice may not be well received in many parts of the world:
http://www.islamicboard.com/general/18524-yellow-clothing-haram.html
In a way this reminds me of the marketing failure of Chevy Nova in Mexico. Some sales genius had not taken time to consider that “no va” in Spanish means “it doesn’t go.”
Scientology of course has no concerns about such cultural or linguistic fine points: they are just wog considerations that merit no real respect.
Come on now. Don’t you know?
$cientology is saving the world one person at a time.
Scions are always working in food pantries.
Extra coats and shoes are driven to bins daily for the homeless.
$cions put together big delicious meals that they deliver to the elderly and sick.
Buildings stand ready with huge stores of needed materials for hurricane victims.
$cientology flies doctors all over the world to help with epidemics like Ebola.
There are medical centers that cure troubled teens of substance abuse.
And the leader of $cientology, the most holy man on the planet, is filled with warmth and love.
Isn’t Scientology wonderful?
Fraud, thy name is Scientology.
Scientology, where there are more people in the film crew than the rescue crew.
What a load of crap they’re trying to peddle!
I mean what??!! I cannot believe the claims of this church. The ONLY people that believe these claims are any remaining members of the church of miscavige not even all of them believe it. This church will continue to lose more than they gain.
Can’t wait to read your take on Sundance, Mike.
My bs detector finally started working when I was told by the west valley mission secretary that my ias dues would go directly to helping victims of the tsunami in Japan. This audacious, self-serving lie made me
appreciate the true heroes who stayed in the nuclear reactor that was “melting down”, exposing themselves
to deadly levels of radiation. Their lies serve to undermine the credibility of real relief efforts that are
being done by the Red Cross, the Peace Corps and the Salvation Army, to name a few. Its not a matter of
them saving the planet. Its a matter of the planet being saved from them.
Errol,
Careful re charities, the Red Cross is pulling similar ‘ photo stunts’ like the Co$ and was equally ineffective
in Hawaii and Sandy. It is quite a large trend to have PR as more important than the truth.
Google ‘Think before you donate’.
Greta
I can’t recall where I saw it, but it was a link showing the effectiveness of these various tax free organizations. The Red Cross was NOT high on the list. Interestingly, the most effective was the old standby, the Salvation Army. If my memory serves me correctly, over 90% of contributions go to actually helping others. The top guy gets $12,000/annually while the woman running the Red Cross got over $1M including rather outrageous perks.
here some stats about the Red Cross, Greta :
the redcross has about 13 Millions volunteers worldwide:
http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/volunteers/
and a postulated Budget of 1.68 Billion $ for 2015:
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-presents-record-budget-2015-meet-vastly-expanding-needs#.VLVP5Hkg-Uk
Also in Switzerland alone they have about 70 000 volunteers working and helping wherever they can:
https://www.redcross.ch/de/freiwillig-taetig-beim-srk-gemeinsam-engagiert
🙂 🙂
:
I can’t blame USA today for taking the money. If the Church is stupid enough to pay them so the Church can lie about the number of Volunteer Ministers they have and how many people they have helped, let them go ahead and be stupid. The Church lacks credibility anyway, so no way this ad helps them.
I sent the following to Mr. Aalman at Gannet Publishing, the owners or USA Today:
“Dear Mr. Aalman:
On Thursday last, USA Today ran a full page scientology ad making some rather huge claims about their “volunteer ministers”. They were, in every instance, false. They have been making such unsupported and unscrupulous claims for years, always blowing numbers up beyond belief. They all wear yellow T-Shirts with the scientology logo on them and virtually always have a photo team which flies in with them to ensure PR. They are a fraud.
I suggest you read a Sunday post at https://www.mikerindersblog.org/volunteer-ministers-hype/. Mike is an extremely high exec of the “church” who left in 2009 and was vehemently attacked by the “church” which, among other things, forced his family to disconnect from him. Interestingly, on Sunday in Utah at the Sundance Film Festival, a very powerful film is debuting, Alex Gibney’s HBO film, “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” based on the book of the same name by award winning writer, Lawrence Wright.
Atlantic Monthly was truly publicly embarrassed a few years back by running an advertorial written and submitted by the “church” and they had failed to check out the claims before accepting the ad. I am surprised that USAT didn’t bother to do any checking, accepting the money and running the ad. Have things gotten *that* tough?
Best regards,
Peter Norton
Outstanding post, Peter! I hope you can get this message directly to them!
Dancing in the Sun,
it’s a great day for a roast….
Watching you with eyes wide open…
Tell us about the after-show party!
Enjoy your day thoroughly! Dying for the reports!
In Mexico they claim to have trained hundreds in “Scientology Handbook Technology.” That sounds like proselytizing.
I love how they save thousands by handing out supplies or by organizing them. Of course they don’t provide the supplies.
“The Way To Happiness will unite cultures. FACT.”
From the office of COB
“The Way To Happiness will unite cultures. FALSE.”
From the office of corn of the COB.
It’s a fact that’s false.
You see???? You see what I’m talking about Mr. Wordsmith!
Dave’s the shit. Is that why Cooper calls him daveshit?
We will take any information. We are dying out here in anticipation!
Off Topic: I went to see “Disconnection” at the Beverly Hills Playhouse last night. What an incredible production! It pulled no punches. The cast was simply amazing. I got to meet one of my favorite posters, Michael Mallen (40 years in, out for 1 year & a wealth of knowledge about the cult) as well as ‘Missionary Kid,’ Tory Christman & ‘cindy’ were in attendance as well. As was Skip Press.
As someone who was forced to disconnect from his mother while on staff in Hawai’i, it was especially poignant for me. Some of it was tough to watch as it really hit home. You could tell all of the ex cult members as we were all laughing at the same things!
Afterwards, there was a reception in their ‘reading room’ with wine, beer & munchies. Of course, Michael, ‘Missionary Kid’ and myself closed the place and finally left after midnight.
On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, this production easily hit 5. The theater is so intimate, you felt like you were almost on stage with the actors. All in all, a terrific evening.with a wonderful crowd. For those of you in southern California, I highly recommend you go see it. You’ll be glad you did.
Yes, indeed a wonderful production. I, Michael Mallen, under penalty of perjury, do hereby attest that the aforementioned Old Surfer Dude was there in the flesh.
Old Surfer Dude didn’t wear his flip flops and Hawaiian shirt, but he was nevertheless very well received as was MJ, Mike Mallen, Tory Christman, and many many other cool Indies and ex Scns. I can’t say enough good stuff about this play. Go see it!
Take Cindy’s word for it.
Sounds like a great time had by all. Did you get a chance to roll any trolls or had they scurried into their holes like the cockroaches they are?
They’re all in the hole.
Did we have fun or what, Michael!
Yes indeed OSD!
Hey Mike give me a yell Ricroyce@yahoo.com
Was a great play and great to meet you guys and hear your stories, may there be many more out and recovering very very soon!
WOW!
That good hey? Fantastic to hear that and it’s in the heart of $cn fantasy land too. Here’s hoping they can manage something on video for us out-of-towners.
Thanks for the heads up Dude.
Coop, I was looking for trolls, but, didn’t identify any. There were, however, tons of ex-scientologists at the show. Michael, ‘Missionary Kid,’ and myself had to leave the reception as it was closing up so we took our conversation out to the sidewalk for another 30 minutes or so. ‘Missionary Kid’ is a never in with tremendous knowledge of the cult.
Mathematics again… 1/2 million people for 80 volunteers. And, you know, the church spends more money flying a crew to film a few people instead of using those funds as donations to the Red Cross or other real, actual organizations the do DO something during times of relief. Get serious mister.
Off the topic – together with some friends we attended the opening of “Disconnection” at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Theatre was full, the play was very well presented with actual facts, it relayed the abuses at the top of the command channels, disconnection, and other topics. LA area people, you should go and see it, it is worth the time.
What the lady said.
I would add well written , an amazing account of so many aspects of the Church , the scary, the endearing, the abusing of body and soul, the elation of the true believer , the anguish of discovering the fraud , the complexity of the founder , all in 2 hours!…
Truly an amazing feat , with actors so true to their characters you would think they had lived it .
The central character , Mario Feninger , abandonned by his Church in the final hours of his life , but loyal to the founder in spite of all evidence of betrayal , the actor even walked like him.
So in the end , there was a lot of Love in this play.
Silvia, I wish we could have met! Were you at the reception too? And, yes, the portrayal of Mario Feninger was outstanding. The young actor who channeled the asthmatic dwarf nailed it! Next Up: Alex Gibney’s movie!
I wish We could have met you , OSD , it felt kind of awkward introducing ourselves to random people asking if they were Old surfer dude!
Marie, all you had to do is say: Is Old Surfer Dude in the house? I should have shown up in one of my 35 Hawaiian shirts! You would have spotted my immediately! But, there will be other times when we can meet…
Do the HBO party at your pad so we can meet our friends on this blog.
Good idea. Let’s start looking now for a house with a big screen TV and seating and we can meet there for the showing. Bring a dish for pot luck. Who has the house and big screen TV?
Scientology IS the science of illusions and delusions all hiding behind a Billion dollars and a Religious Cloak.
And THAT ^^^, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how Scientology Keeps Working.
You call that working?
I’m fairly sure that the kid on the right in the USA Today ad is Josh Hawkins, who cut his hand with a bloody knife while he was in Haiti as a VM and ended up on AIDS prevention medicine for six months. The Today show did a fluff piece on the VMs there.
“We help millions on planet earth on a daily basis. We are the fourth dynamic three feet behind society’s head. We sucker (sic) those who have been devastated by disaster. We pride ourselves as the only ones who can really help. We are mankind’s only hope. We make Gandhi look like an incompetent fool. We are the IAS!”
Dave,
How is your Sunday in Hemet? Watching the SAG Awards to keep your mind occupied? Just hangin’ with Tom?
“We sucker those who have been devastated by disaster” is just too awesome!
Couldn’t resist. 😉
Let us know how many celebrity Scientologists are there.
(Joke)
So far the only one I see listed as being there is Danny “DJ Mom Jeans” Masterson.
I hope you will write up your critique of the documentary.
You and Marc H looked good yesterday.
In regards to your comment Mike about the flying doctors in Australia with their yellow ”VM plane” that was heavily promoted in the late 2000’s at an IAS event and in their magazines, I have the inside scoop on that. The Sea Org member who got the yellow plane (Nigel Mannock of OSA ANZO) was ordered to find a yellow plane and he found one at Darwin airport and it so happened that is where the VM calvacade was, so he did not have to look too far.
I know this because he told me. Although I last stepped foot in an org in 2006, I was still doing TWTH programs until 2011 and Nigel also worked on them and I was in regular communication with him.
.
They hired it for a day or two in order to get some shots taken with it to make it look like they were flying all over Australia through remote areas, but it was all contrived and a fabrication (they may even have painted the VM logo on it from memory of what I saw in one of the Scn mags).
Even though he knew it was a lie and a con, he was only concerned and happy about the fact he carried out the order and found the plane and the shoot was a success as he thought it was ”the greatest good”that this con occurred No doubt a lot of Scientologists brought the lie and contributed more funds to the ”great work” they were doing up there (as a matter of a fact all the VM’s that were there were 3 or 4 not so bright expendable Sea Org guys), and in Australian law such a deception is a jailable crime called ”Conspiracy to defraud”. I might let Senator Nick Zenophon know about this VM con too as his office is nearby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgK5XqhRHRo
I also have a Facebook friend from the Philippines who worked as a VM with the 5 or so guys who came over from Australia and the U.S.when the massive typhoon killed 8,000 or so people there not too long ago. They even stayed at her house one night. So there was no 80 or 90 VM’s that went there as stated. I will see if I can get her to send you a write up on this and what really went down as she told me there was little work done and it was mainly a photo and video shoot..
Have fun today, Mike!
It would be so good if the church sent out all its mailings with commentary by you. Your sharp observations juxtapose and easily outweigh the bullshit. Really helps get your mind unbent 😀
We are the IAS!
We are the GREATEST SCAM ON EARTH!!
Looking forward to your take on today’s events. Thanks for all you do!