Labels: basics, church of scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, scientology

Labels: church of scientology, clearwater

Wade Henry—Juggler Extraordinaire Delights and Uplifts the Crowd

Wade Henry may look like an ordinary guy, but appearances can be deceiving. True, he’s up early for a quick bite to eat and off to work like the rest of us. But "work" is juggling chain saws or eating fire while riding a 12-foot unicycle.

In his "Meet a Scientologist" video at www.Scientology.org, Henry demonstrates some of the tools of his trade.

Fresh out of college with a business degree in 1995, Henry, now 38, decided to tour the world before settling down. He certainly toured, but chances are he’ll never settle down.

Halfway around the planet from his native Toronto when he ran out of money in Sydney, Australia, he created an act he could perform on the streets for tips. But natural entertainer that he is, he enjoyed the "work" so much, he has made it his lifelong career.

It was also in Sydney that Henry found Scientology, picking up and reading a copy of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

"I had questions about our spiritual nature," says Henry. "Reading books by L. Ron Hubbard, it was clear he not only had answers but also a practical technology that works."

Returning home to Toronto, Henry continued with his Scientology studies. At the Church of Scientology of Toronto, he met and married wife Helen, a single mother of five, and instantly became the patriarch of a large and happy family that has grown to include a son-in-law and two grandchildren.

Now living in Clearwater, Florida, the couple manage his business, The Wade Henry Show. They have used administrative technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard to evolve it from street entertainment to a thriving career with Henry performing nearly 600 shows a year, mostly at festivals and fairs with the occasional corporate event.

"As a performer, Scientology has helped me communicate and develop rapport with my audiences," Henry says.

It has also helped him concentrate.

"I cannot be juggling a chain saw in front of hundreds of people and have my mind wandering into problems that I have back at home or things that happened last week," he says. "I need to be in the here and now and Scientology has helped me do that."

Henry loves entertaining, and the best part of it is the people.

"What I like about being a performing artist is going into communities and uplifting people," Henry says. "I get them away from the television sets and extricated from the virtual world and I deliver shows that bring them up and make them feel more alive."

And being alive is what it’s all about.

"Being a Scientologist is an adventure," says Henry, "and I'm an adventurer. So I love being a Scientologist."

Watch the Wade Henry video on www.Scientology.org.

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The popular "Meet a Scientologist" profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.

Labels: church of scientology, meet a scientologist, Scientologist, Scientologists, scientology

Scientologist Chairs Fourth Annual Human Rights Walkathon to Raise Awareness of Abuse and Solutions

St. Petersburg, FL—More than 1,200 Tampa Bay residents of all ages walked quarter-mile laps around Straub Park in St. Petersburg Saturday, March 6, to raise human rights awareness. Ms. Linda Drazkowski, Founder and President of the Human Rights Group Inc., Scientologist, mother of two and Clearwater resident, created the Human Rights Walkathon four years ago, and has chaired it every year since. The fourth annual Human Rights Walkathon, produced by the Human Rights Group in partnership with Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope, featured performances by hip hop artist MC Lyte, recording artist David Pomeranz, and the Dundu Dole Urban Ballet. Speakers included Mrs. Anna Rodriguez, founder of the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking; Mr. James Evans, founder of the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope; Rev. Alfreddie Johnson, founder of the World Literacy Crusade; and Dustin McGahee, president of Youth for Human Rights Florida.

The day before the walkathon, an article in the Fort Meyers, Florida, News-Press pointed out the vital role education plays in protecting human rights. A 15-year-old Guatemalan girl living less than 150 miles south of St. Petersburg, in Immokalee, might still be enslaved and forced into sex, pornography and field labor today had it not been for the alertness of a Florida woman who suspected she was the victim of human trafficking and reported it to authorities.

Some 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. “People who know and understand human rights will not only stand up for their own rights but also for the rights of others,” said Drazkowski.

To raise awareness of this and other crucial human rights issues, the Human Rights Group uses educational booklets, DVDs and an educators’ guide created by Youth For Human Rights International in collaboration with the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International.

For more information on these programs and materials, visit United for Human Rights at www.humanrights.com.

Labels: church of scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientologists, scientology

Labels: church of scientology, clearwater, freedom magazine, st. petersburg times

A prominent component of the Nazis’ propaganda campaign was its sustained, relentless effort to isolate and ostracize Jewish art and Jewish artists.

Today, some German government officials have attempted to boycott, to blacklist and even to censor artists who are Scientologists and films and concerts which feature Scientologists solely because of their religion. Concerts have been disrupted and cancelled. Scientologists such as jazz great Chick Corea have been barred from performing. The folk group Golden Bough has been refused the right to perform concerts in Germany because they are Scientologists. Local newspapers have fanned the fires of intolerance by joining governmental and political party calls for boycotts and blackballing.

Some German politicians have tried to boycott the movie Mission: Impossible because the lead actor, Tom Cruise, is a Scientologist. Federal Member of Parliament Renate Rennebach tried to even block distribution of the movie Phenomenon because it stars John Travolta, also a Scientologist.

While these politicians’ frenzied outbursts of censorship drew a backlash from the US and other countries, they also revealed the true depths of their prejudice, and how low certain German bureaucrats are willing to stoop to express their hate-tinged fanaticism.

Another misuse of art-as a weapon of propaganda-has also resurfaced in today’s Germany. The religious intolerance that fueled efforts to deprive Scientologists of their artistic freedom also creeps to the surface in depictions of Scientologists as insects, bats, octopuses and assorted vermin. Those images are disturbing beyond the disrespect that is so transparent in them. They are disturbing because they are nearly identical to those the Nazis used to degrade the Jewish people in the 1930s in the pages of Der Stuermer and other hate publications.

In the view of one eminent Holocaust scholar and professor of history in the United States, "many of the attacks and representations of Scientology bear more than a slight resemblance to the misuse of art during the Third Reich in the anti-Semitic campaigns against the Jews."

Since 1993, the United States State Department, the United Nations, the Helsinki Commission, U.S. Congressmen and Senators, religious scholars and historians have cited Germany for human rights abuses against Scientologists.

Why are German officials discriminating against Scientologists? There is no legitimate reason, just as there was none for the persecution of the Jewish people. And, let us not forget, Germany has no tradition of religious freedom as does the United States.

German officials have refused every request to engage in dialogue to resolve the discrimination occurring in their country.

"Never again" must not be an idle slogan. It must be a promise we keep. True, no one has been killed or hauled off to death camps. But history has taught us that we would be at fault if we stood by and did not point out the alarming similarities between the 1930s and today. German officials protesting these comparisons should stop recreating the past and they will remind no one of it.

Labels: church of scientology, germany, jew, jewish, Scientologists

The Bigotry Behind the St. Petersburg Times' Facade of Responsible Journalism

In recent years, the S.P. Times has worked hard to present a more honest and credible image to the public, attempting to shed its reputation for biased reporting. The newspaper’s recent “special” report exposed the facade: At its core, the S.P. Times has not changed. It is an organization that twists the news to incite hatred against Scientologists and stops at nothing to paint a false picture of the Scientology religion and the Church.

Recounting its long record of bigotry toward the Church of Scientology, its members, staff and leaders is unnecessary. That is something with which most Tampa Bay residents are all too familiar, including thousands of non-Scientologists appalled at the Times’ attempts to unfairly stigmatize Scientologists who are their friends.

But if the Times has not changed, the articles in this magazine detailing Scientology’s explosive expansion in both Clearwater and around the world show how Scientology has continued to grow. As the Church has gained greater local prominence, thousands of Scientologists have contributed to improving their community through charities and civic groups.

Scientologists work alongside friends and neighbors on civic and cultural boards, in sports and arts societies and in numerous social partnerships. The newly restored Fort Harrison regularly hosts functions for other charitable organizations; public are welcomed for tours and Church staff work hard to invite questions and provide an open response. Juxtaposed with the day-to-day reality of friends, neighbors and workmates who are Scientologists, the hysteria of the Times’ stereotypes has become self-evident.

A full and objective review of the recent allegations the Times presented to the Church from four ex-Scientologists evidences both the lack of credibility and sinister motives of these sources—people who will say anything to attack their former faith.

• The same false allegations have been posted on the “grassy knoll” of the Internet by avowed Scientologist-haters for years.
• Even though first-person accounts from dozens of eyewitnesses demolished the fabrications presented by the Times’ sources, reporters Joe Childs and Tom Tobin refused to hear from those eyewitnesses.
• The Church provided an unprecedented amount of documented evidence and detailed accounts proving the sources had lied.
• The Church also provided detailed evidence regarding the motives of these four apostates to lie about the religion and its leader: delusionary ideas of “taking over” the Church, resentment over their removal from posts and money.

In the most offensive gesture of all, the S.P. Times refused to accept an offer of an in-person interview with Mr. David Miscavige, the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion.

The interview would have been his first in 11 years and only the third in his 25-year career as the Church’s leader. Despite purporting to seek this interview, to which Mr. Miscavige had immediately agreed, the newspaper abandoned its facade of objectivity, cancelled the interview and rushed to print. The Times reporters and their bosses knew the scheduled interview with Mr. Miscavige was absolutely essential under fundamental journalistic standards and ethics. When they turned their backs on that interview, the reporters made a conscious decision to turn their backs on the truth. After all, they knew a response would further annihilate the credibility of their sources, rendering their false story fatal.

The Church offered the reporters full and unfettered access to the Church and all facilities. Tobin and Childs refused to accept the offer. The Times decided this information “wasn’t relevant” to their story, that somehow an interview with the Church’s ecclesiastical leader was unnecessary even for a three-part series on the man.

So, in response to the Times exhibition of unprovoked malice and shredding of the truth, Freedom presents the real story of both the Church … and the so-called journalism practiced by the S.P. Times.

More: http://www.freedommag.org

Labels: church of scientology, david miscavige, joe childs, scientology, st. petersburg times, tom tobin

Scientology News from Florida

Labels: church of scientology, david miscavige

Labels: church of scientology, david miscavige, freewinds, scientology