As you may have suspected, this is not about the families scientology has destroyed with its toxic disconnection policy. Parents and children forced to separate. Or children abandoned by their parents who are in the Sea Org.
No, this is another scientology effort to gain positive publicity for itself by sending out a paid press release in the hope that some news starved media outlet will pick it up, check no facts, and simply reproduce it.
World Orphans Day Celebrated at Scientology Volunteer Ministers’ Open House
ET | Source: Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization
Scientology Volunteer Ministers with Haitian children for 2010 earthquake relief
Of the 8 million orphans worldwide, 32,000 children are in 760 orphanages in Haiti. 80% of “orphans” have at least one parent, but the parent is too poor to adequately care for their child. Ms. Berthelot and her partner Rev. Marie Jessie Pierre started their orphanage in 2008.
Ms. Berthelot informed the guests about conditions in Haiti, a country of 10 million, of which 100,000 children under five suffer from acute malnutrition and one-third of the population is under 15 years old.
Ms. Berthelot said, “I couldn’t agree with the Scientology Volunteer Ministers’ motto more – ‘Something can be done about it’. Haitian Mission Par La Foi is doing something about the terrible conditions in my country. We have provided free education for 144 children and currently house 25 orphans.
Ms. Berthelot gave several examples of the children taken in by her orphanage. One child arrived at the orphanage when he was 9. He had not attended school up until then. Today he is 17 and preparing to take his baccalaureate in 2017. Ms. Berthelot proudly said, “I cannot say enough about him. He is worth saving.” She reached out to the audience to help in the upgrading of her mission.
For more information and a tour of the center, call 727-467-6965 or email clemencec@volunteerministers.org. The Center is located at 101 N. Fort Harrison Avenue, Clearwater, FL 35755.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers
The Scientology Volunteer Minister program was created in the mid-1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, who described the Volunteer Minister as “a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.”
The program is a broad initiative bringing effective physical and spiritual assistance to anyone, anywhere. Within this network are the Volunteer Minister Disaster Response Team who work with community leaders, government officials, relief organizations and other volunteer groups to provide physical support and meaningful spiritual aid through their organization, skill and experience. One such disaster response was for the Haitian earthquake in 2010.
For more information contact: Pat Harney 727-467-6860
There are a few remarkable things about this press release.
1. Though there was a major hurricane in Haiti just a few months ago, apparently the “largest private relief force on earth” did absolutely NOTHING because the ONLY photo they could dig up of any Volunteer Ministers in Haiti was from 2010. Oh, thought nobody would notice.
2. Apparently they did NOTHING for this orphanage other than invite someone to give a speech about it so they could promote their “good work” (?) with orphans for World Orphan Day. Meanwhile, Laurie Webster and Co were going full blast collecting money for the “L. Ron Hubbard Hall” – just imagine what the $50,000 these people forked over for Miscavige’s new “state-of-the-art” auditorium (which will not be opened until someone sues them based on the history with the SP Building) would do for those orphans.
Apparently there is no limit to the hypocrisy of this organization.
Nor to their willingness to churn out false PR to try and make themselves look good.
Using kids – orphans – for fake promotion of a group that is esentially doing nothing for them is sick and self-serving. But then again, the CoS demonstrates a lack of decent perspective of children in the first place, as evidenced by their recruitment, child labor and wrecking affinity within families. The executives at the CoS Religious Trust need to climb down from the high horses they are sitting on. A piece of paper is a piece of paper. Did they think their commendation was going to be framed and hung on the wall, and this is deserving of a press release? Perhaps they rationalize their trite effort of “helping” in the form of a commendation that someone will read about it and then donate money to the orphanage. Not that the CoS would. Ever.
Don’t cry ‘Lil Davey we still love you.
ML,
Nobody
Is he singing all of his nowhere songs to Nobody?
SCIENTOLOGY AND THE LITTLE ORPHANS. Oh where did I put my hanky? Such a touching story I may have to break down and cry or maybe not. I will at least need my hip boots.
Of course this isn’t for public consumption it’s just maintenance claptrap. A periodic bit to play up scientology’s non-existent social relevance, how it’s commingling with the warm-blooded populations, interacting with them as it were. Pretending to make contributions and acting as though it had some interest in the alien terrain outside its ideological Berlin Wall. This is Godzilla dressed up like Bo Peep for a photo op and it comes off looking like Godzilla dressed up like Bo Peep for a photo op.
Dave and Company wholeheartedly embrace the sentiment in that classic Irving Berlin song ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business.’
There’s no business like no business like no business I know….
?
Nowhere could he get that happy feeling when Dave is stealing that extra bow
Very well said!
The leopard cannot change its spots, neither can Scientology change the truth, no matter how much they mislead and lie about what they do to their own members. What of the familial, financial and spiritual duress they liberally subject their own members to with disconnection enforcement, coercive monetary demands with no exchange and enforced abortions on their own clergy. Marriage with procreation is frowned upon within Scientology staff commitments and children born to the SO are more trouble than they are worth.
One point in the PR world of words and their effect made me cringe this am. It’s this – “I cannot say enough about him. He is worth saving.” (I wonder if that was scripted?)
What constitutes someone not worth saving? A slip of the tongue perhaps but it really smells and unfortunately aligns with the way Scientology views people at large – “you’re either with us or agin us and we’re got the money to crush you if you don’t do what you are told and believe what our scriptures or our management tells you to believe. And that’s final!”
The on going suffering of the people of Haiti is one of the worst disasters in the Western Hemisphere. Bill and Hillary Clinton collected large amounts for Haiti’s relief, but I have never searched for any real rebuilding that that their ‘charity’ did.
The clampire is not alone in playing donors for fools. Never have I heard about anything that the VMs have done to help with the Cholera outbreak or in any rebuilding.
$cientology is stuck with prweb and other paid for content distribution networks because everyone else laughs at then and calls names. Names like, ‘liar’, ‘lying liars who lie’, and perhaps the most popular, ‘who the hell are you and why are you lying to me’ are the reputation that $cientology and the VMs have. Nothing that $cientology does will ever change that.
Now, will the VMs respect the local traditions and teach their ‘orphans’ Santeria? If so, where is the pile of chicken used to curse bad people?
Eh.
Mother Theresa herself posed with and praised Haiti dictator Duvalier in exchange for a cash donation that was never used to help anyone in Haiti. Not much time later, the whole Duvalier family escaped an angry mob on a plane, carrying suitcases full of cash.
And that’s one of those who didn’t sexually abuse the orphans they were supposedly helping.
Zemoo: I have to take issue with the way you wrote
“… Bill and Hillary Clinton collected large amounts for Haiti’s relief, but I have never searched for any real rebuilding that that their ‘charity’ did.
The clampire is not alone in playing donors for fools…..”
This infers that the Clinton Foundation cheated donors who gave donations for Hawaii but yet you say you have not looked to see if it is true or not. It appears to be based on what the Trump campaign and Breitbart were spouting back in the summer. I would not consider this a credible source for discussion here. The Washington Post did a fact checking on this product of the Trump Truth Thinktank which was found to be unfounded. The Annenberg public policy center’s factcheck.org concluded that similar accusations from Mike Pence were unsupported.
kemist’s comment about M. Teresa may also be in this category, I don’t know, but there is hard evidence that this woman, no matter how controversial, did a lot of good in this world which is more than we can say about Scientology’s Volunteer Posers.
There are enough provable destructive practices in the COS to cover a journalist working for many lifetimes. So let’s stay away from what is now being called the false news business and the game of repeating it enough times that it becomes “true”.
Mother Theresa did praise the Duvalier family and their regime in exchange for cash. She also did the same for other dictators and at least one american scammer. This is amply documented.
Perhaps she was unaware of who these people were, but that is doubtful, as she did not give the money back when informed of who they were.
As for how much help she provided, I would suggest you talk a little bit with Bengalis, most especially residents of Kolkota. And please don’t listen to those white people who like to pretend Asians don’t need painkillers – the vast majority of my friends are south east Asians and I can assure you that, like most humans, they most definitely prefer not to have pain. The culture that drives the absence of pain relief over there has much more to do with Catholicism than with any of the many cultures which exist in India – and I say this as a lapsed (or bitter defrocked, lol) Catholic.
It’s easy for us in the west to disregard (and not ask questions about) what kind of “help” is truly given to those in need with our money. Those people do not have a voice, and when they complain, we are quick to call them ingrates – this is what, BTW, enables outfits like the VM to continue to get money doing essentially nothing.
On Faith and Aging: One $cientologist’s View on World Religion News. New paid promo by your cherch.
The hypocrisy burns….it burns!
Sort of aligns with, you have to have money to make money… or more properly intended by the Cof$, buy this and you’ll buy anything!
The disconnection policy of Scientology can be applied properly, if you are really ready to disconnect
and have reasons for this deceisive step. – I myself have experienced a long lasting situaition with my
first wife always trying to get via her in better contact with my two daughters. – But it did not work.
The E/O of the Frankfurt Org had advised me to not to disconnect, which was not solving anything.
After I took my own decision to break contact with her the situation to my children turned to the better.
Mike, I am enjoying your blog and intend to have mine in my publishing company SpS, Scriptum pur Solaris,
which I shall start the beginning of December within the website: verlag-sps.de. For the time being I present
myself as an architect, writer and inventor at: http://www.ulrichstark.de. – My concentration now is on writing and
getting my patents on the save side in Munich, where you gave your interview to the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
I am looking forward to hear from you. – By the way can you read German? – My Christmas letter is waiting for you, but it will take some time to put it intó the English language. – My last 6th book is already available
in English. The title is: Life before & afterwards and in between, where I write about my own experiences.
with kind regards to you and your blog
Ulrich Stark-Gariglio
Ulrich, the right of every adult individual to decide for themselves whether or not to remain connected to others is an unquestionable fundamental right that everyone should have. However, in cases where the Co$ makes that decision for you, and goes on to threaten you with the loss of your “Eternity” if you do not comply, then that is an entirely different situation.
No group should ever coerce or threaten its members in order to get them to disconnect from family and friends. That’s a decision that should be entirely the individual’s own to make and be made solely upon their own internal judgement concerning all of the many consequences that could result from that taking that actions.
I’d invite you to look more deeply into the matter in order to decide for yourself whether or not the Co$ uses their policy of enforced disconnection to harm and destroy families. To me, the evidence that they’ve done so on a consistent, widespread and systematic basis is overwhelming and I challenge anyone who’s sufficiently informed themselves concerning the cherch’s action in enforcing this policy to argue against it.
Perhaps your own local org, and the cherch’s overall behavior in Germany, is different than here in the states and in other countries, so I don’t mean to question your own personal account here at all. Indeed, if your experience has been with a kinder, gentler cherch, then you’re very fortunate indeed!
I myself have “disconnected” from people throughout my life for one reason or another but it was never in accordance with a POLICY or an order from an entity which deigned itself influential over my life. Instead it was simply a matter of what I considered good judgement. That form of ‘disconnection’ has been practiced by approximately everybody since time immemorial.
And that my friend is the governing factor of what is good or bad about Scientology or anything else for that matter – good judgement.
I too have parted ways with many people and they me over my lifetime. It’s a natural solution, some were good choices, some silly, and some just plain selfish and others mean-hearted (& regretted for the most part). I know I’m not perfect – there is no standard me to aspire to. Scientology got it wrong with many things but not all. The fact they believe they are incapable of mistakes makes them very wrong indeed.
Hi Ulrich,
It isvery unusual to hear from German ex-scientologists.This is a pity.Would be nice to hear from other Germans too.
Yes, sometimes you have no choice but to implement something like that. When you want to stop getting harmed by a narcissist is one example – that is called No Contact, and is probably the only thing that will allow you to have some semblance of peace in your life.
What is practiced by the CoS, however, should be called what it is : religious shunning. Religious shunning, IMHO, is a very cultish practice.
If your faith must be protected from mere criticism it’s either quite fragile or there are objectionable things in it. You should not have to stop communicating with your friends and family because of your religious beliefs, and you should be very weary of any religion (or person, for that matter) that seems intent on isolating you from your friends and family.
That isolation is rarely for your benefit.
I’d just love to see the actual amount of money that the cherch has donated to disaster relief efforts in Haiti and other parts of the world for the last few years. My bet is that it is close to zero. How many orphans and displaced families has the cherch adopted and sponsored? How many schools has it built? How many safe drinking water and sanitation projects is it funding? How many relief fund drives has it sponsored among its parishioners around the world? Again, I’d bet “close to none” is the correct answer to each of those questions.
The Co$ is a CROINO (Charitable Religious Organization In Name Only) and deserves to be stripped of its federal tax-exempt status for many more reasons than just their failure to engage in any significant level of charitable giving relative to amount of money that it brings in each year.
Re: Remini story
I hope that A&E and Leah are in the editing room as we speak, editing and adding the latest insanity of the cherch (substitute midget). Looks like the midget is going to give them material right up to airing of the programs.
Haitian Mission Par La Foi
What language is this name supposed to be in ?
If it’s French, I have to congratulate them for mangling my mother tongue to a level worthy of Ikea furniture assembly instructions.
I can assure you no one with even passable french has checked that thing.
One small detail in the commendation certificate captured my attention. It says that “LRH Hall” is “this new creation for the Founder of our religion.” Note that they don’t acknowledge him as “Source” in this but merely as “Founder.” In other words, a guy who can be appreciated for starting something but who doesn’t have much influence on what’s going on today. That sounds like a demotion to me.
Lots of companies have a painting of the founder somewhere near the CEO’s office, but it basically gathers dust, especially if the company is 50 years old or more. Everyone knows that the founder did his thing but the real action is in what the current leaders are doing today.
So this is clearly another subtle revision to put Miscavige in a position superior to Hubbard. And that’s interesting, given how hard Hubbard worked to make himself the only “Source” for anything good to come out of Scientology, editing others like David Mayo or John McMaster out of the collective memory.
It’s not surprising that Miscavige would do that — it’s natural in all organizations, and Miscavige has now been leading Scientology for as long as Hubbard did, depending on exactly how you count the founding of Scientology versus the publication of Dianetics. But it is pretty gutsy given that most of the financial firepower for the organization comes from older donors who still think of Hubbard as “Source” and as the guru to be revered.
On the subject of “LRH Hall”. I received not too long ago promo in the mail that announced something to the effect that this was the final piece of the puzzle. This was going to pull it all together. My first thought was “How the fuck is an auditorium going to save mankind?”
Then I thought about it and realized that Dave must have found some long lost tech, “Auditorium Tech” if you will. I guess in about 25 or 30 years after 500 million dollars has been raised for the project we’ll all be forced to eat crow and the dream of a cleared planet will at last be realized. Auditorium tech….when you think about it all really does make sense, ya know?
Thanks COB.
In Shermanspeak: “The hall is the last piece, the veritable keystone and cornerstone combined and coordinated in an epic edifice, creating, if you will, a cornucopia of unbridled and massive expansion for our church thus realizing our most laudable and epic efforts in bringing planetary clearing to its inevitable conclusion. Moreover, your individual contributions will instill in you a whole track pride worthy of our most high-flung ideals and aspirations to make this and future generations secure for the next infinity and beyond. To LRH!!!!
Thanks Mephisto for your reply and digging up that quote, but I’m getting sleepy and kind of a squashed feeling is coming over me. I feel confused and blank at the same time. HELP!
Oh, I forgot…..can someone please let me know what “whole track pride” is?
Being a whale and a Sea Org member at the same time. Any more questions?
Where the hell did I put my keys?
Check the reg’s pockets.
Yo yo yo
You got whole track pride!
Say it here & say it loud
Let your pride rise!
You are the best
The king of the Wogs!
Just take them by hand,
And lead them through the fog…
Understood Harv – here’s a a quick remedy for lack of mass – do like Dave and take a swig of Macallan!
The Macallan Rundown (MR). Why didn’t I think of that?
Bottoms up mate! ?
Whisky… did someone refer to whisky?
No, sorry, Merlot.
Dinky Miscreant always wanted to be the one worshiped. Every so slowly, he has replaced Lron with his bad self. Note all the ‘success stories’ that have been published in the last 10-15 years. The ‘successful one’ has always started out thanking Lron and then DM for their ‘success’. While an Lron quote may accompany any ‘success story’, more and more only the Dwarfenführer is personally acknowledged.
DM is not the guru, he is the new god. All hail the new god! {small letter ‘god’ was a conscious choice}
John, the use of the word “Source” (with a capital “S”) is scientology jargon that folks outside the cult wouldn’t understand to mean what it’s meant to connote to $cilons (i.e., the infallible creator of the world’s most effective means of achieving spiritual freedom and the highest form of wisdom ever seen on the planet). So, for material that will be read by folks outside the bubble, referring to Elron merely as the religion’s “founder” is much easier for the wogs to understand.
Personally, I prefer “Xenu Freedom Hall” as a better title for their new auditorium as it goes to the heart of what Elron supposedly did for us all. Why the cherch continues to be so touchy about talking about Xenu, now that the secret’s long been revealed, is beyond me. If you can’t be loud and proud about your religion’s most fundamental tenets of belief, then you’re just not being straight with folks from the outset about what the cherch is all about. Sure, it’s a whacky and scientifically untenable belief, but so is virgin birth and resurrection, and you don’t see Christians being all secretive and in denial about that!
John P. – I had anticipated the changeover from Source to Founder a while back. It allows future churchies and splinter groups still loyal to LRH tech to be able to pass off the Wall of Fire and Body Thetans as “possibilities suggested by the Founder” rather than historical or factual reality.
Just a historical footnote. I joined the “Grand Exodus” in Los Angeles around 1983 when the monthly price increases started. I’d estimate at least a thousand scn-ists blew in a short period of time and many support groups sprung up. I joined one and there were about 15 of us and we investigated other philosophies and practices and listened to channeling tapes.
Another group, apparantly all OTees, enlisted a channeling entity and made a tape of the channelling session. With specifics edited out, they were grilling the entity on whether OT3 was real or not! He simply replied “That is one of several possibilities . . . ” and went on to expound about other wonderful possibilities for OT-ness. laughter
I had my fingers on the keyboard ready to comment on your blog when I saw the story on Religion News you’re writing about today. What else can you say but that there is a special place in hell for the midget.
I just had Beelzebub on the line, and apparently he doesn’t want him messing up his place.
Can’t blame the guy can you?
I meant I saw it when it came out either yesterday or today.
It’s a little known fact, but L. Ron Hubbard was the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ immortal classic, Oliver Twist, which addressed the issue of orphans, bringing public awareness to this most serious social ill. Though Mr. Hubbard lived in a different era, he was able to utilize his exceptional OT powers to jump the barriers of the MEST universe in what could be termed ‘fifth dimensional retrograde time management’. (see your registrar for details).
And the motto being? Got to pick a pocket or two… COB the new Artful Dodger but he has come up market these days and gets clearance from his lawyers first.
This is nothing new. This is the same playback used by the Russians and the Nazis to make their gulags and concentration camps seem like a public service that they are providing for homeless people. I was in New Orleans as a VM 2 days after Hurricane Katrina came through. The Church needs things like hurricanes and 9/11 in order to divert attention away from what they are really doing. If they did not have them already they would create them.
“Making orphans is senior to providing for them.”
Inspired by the works of L. Ron Hubbard
So F’ING disgusting!
I’m surprised they don’t have a secret backlot somewhere where they film themselves while playing VMs. No muss, no fuss & no flying to disasters…
Shhhh – don’t give it away!
They’ll still find a way to fuck it up…
(whispering) it’s all in the software, but Mephisto is right… Shhhh…
Scientology effectively creates orphans like our son through its disconnection policy.
In 2016 an organization that promotes disconnecton in families gets 12 episodes on A&E.
Fortunately the evil cherch is imploding sobadly that it will disconnect from itself.
Xenu’s Son – It hurts my heart that the COS has taken your child from you and all the other families that have suffered from the same abuse.
My hope is that one day very soon, they will all find their way home to the loving open arms of their families that were so brutually and callously ripped away from them.
Thanks Shelley.
I have a counting system in my head.
Hubbard called it a hidden standard.I have a pain in my toe.If my pain gets less,auditing works.
In my head and for sure in the head of many parents I see something and say this getting my child back earlier/later.
Some examples:
Going Clear will get other family reunited 1 month earlier than if it did not appear(a pure subjective guestimate)
Jack Reacher Never Look Back cost 3 days.
Regraded Being a least two weeks.(low circulation but high impacti inside the cherch.
Leah at least 2 months.
SNL video about 2 weeks.
LAX video nearly a million viewers maybe2 weeks
Tom Cruise meltdown from memory 7million viewers say a month.
Contributions of terra.2 weeks.(because it hits the cancer from a different angle)
Of course Mike and Tony coordinate a lot so I would say your chidcomes home 3 months earlier.
As someone on the forum said earlier.Scientology is the pinata of late night comedians.
An it is now seen as such a losing valence next to homelessness.