Monday, September 12, 2005
Tampa Scientology Volunteer Ministers Help Their Neighbors on the Gulf Coast
The past two weeks has been a horrible ordeal for hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of residents of the deep South - Louisina and Mississippi in particular.
You see images on TV of people who have simply lost everything -- home, all posessions, pets, and some have even lost (literally) family members -- separated at different shelters with no clue where to find each other.
And this is something that just "couldn't happen here" (just like 9/11 could never happen on American soil).
But at the same time it has been a time of an incredible outpouring of what is best about America - the help and hospitality extended by the neighboring towns and states, and from people all over the country has been spectacular.
As a member of the Scientology religion I am so proud of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers. At an event a little over a year ago David Miscavige reminded us of how L. Ron Hubbard first described the volunteer minister:
"If one does not like the crime, cruelty, injustice and violence of this society, he can do something about it. He can become a VOLUNTEER MINISTER and help civilize it, bring it conscience and kindness and love and freedom from travail by instilling into it trust, decency, honesty and tolerance.
"Briefly, a Volunteer Minister fulfills the definition of religion in this increasingly cynical and hopeless world.
"Let’s look again at the definition of religion.
"In a few words, religion can be defined as belief in spiritual beings. More broadly, religion can be defined as a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people struggles with the ultimate problems of human life. The qua lity of being religious implies two things: first, a belief that evil, pain, bewilderment and injustice are fundamental facts of existence; second, a set of practices and related sanctified beliefs that express a conviction that man can ultimately be saved from those facts.
"Thus, a Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others."
Anyone can become a Volunteer Minister. One does not have to be a Scientologist.
