=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Outcast Aum aids landlord's plan

=== Falun Gong
2. China Sect Members Ask Singapore Aid
3. News Corp. Heir Woos China With Show of Support

=== Scientology
4. A church for celebrities, but what about me?
5. Police work for Scientology

=== Unification Church
6. Clergy split over controversial Moon's visit
7. Chief of Moonies stops in Jackson on U.S. tour
8. Reverend Moon goes mainstream in 50-state tour
9. Moon plans to speak at revival in W. Baltimore
10. Moon, in D.M., pushes marriage

=== Islam
11. Muslims demand halal foods be served in Dearborn schools

=== Militia Groups / Hate Groups
12. Texas farm standoff enters second year
13. 100 held as Met launches dawn raids on hate crime
14. Nobody enjoys an apologist

=== ISCKON / Hare Krishna
15. Living with Krishna
16. Spiritual school
17. Food of the gods
18. Chic Krishna

=== Hinduism
19. Boutique Deities Offend

=== House of Prayer (Atlanta)
20. Minister has prior conviction for beating
21. Abuse claims not new, files say
22. 19 children to remain in state custody
23. Pastor says he'll take chance with jury
24. 'Who's supposed to be the villain?'
25. Child Beatings: 'They'd beat them for every simple little thing they'd do'
26. Corporal punishment part of black American culture
27. Welfare officials acknowledge the value of spanking

=== False Memory Syndrome
28. Fairlie sues over daughter's 'false memory' claims

=== Other News
29. LA County Pays $85,000 Settlement
30. Muslims fear for their lives as cannibal cult leader escapes
31. Fortunetelling legal again in Coeur d'Alene
32. School rejected girl's religious cards, suit says
33. Woman Detained After Vampire Assaults

=== Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
34. Bush's initiative could help groups that promote faith healing

=== Death Penalty and other Human Rights Abuses
35. Texas fight takes on race and death penalty


=== Scientology

4. A church for celebrities, but what about me?
The Daily Telegraph (England), Mar. 23, 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/e
[Story no longer online? Read this]
It was a sad day for the Church of Scientology when Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced their separation last month. The Hollywood couple have been invaluable promotional agents, their success and white smiles doing more for the controversial movement than 100 television advertising campaigns could.
(...)

The British wing of the movement has reacted to the Cruise/Kidman setback with a vigorous publicity campaign. Its headquarters and training academy are in Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, a fantasy castle built in the Sixties. Scientology is struggling to be recognised as a mainstream church, having twice had applications for status as a religious charity turned down by the Charities Commission.

''Inevitably, we have suffered discrimination in the press,'' says Graeme Wilson, director of special affairs at Saint Hill. ''All great movements that sought to bring man wisdom and greater freedom have faced often vicious and virulent attacks. But if even a fraction of what has been said about Scientology were true, it would have ceased to exist.''
(...)

An invitation to a Sunday service at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Bayswater, west London, sounded promising.
(...)

Attending a service also seemed a good way to discover whether there was any religious content in Scientology.
(...)

The minister, Tom Harding, read from Hubbard's books and the congregation recited the ''creed''. This is mostly about man's ''inalienable rights'' to freedom, but it also declares that killing others is wrong and that man's spirit can be saved.

The rest of the service was a ''group auditing session'' and the press officer asked if I would like to leave. No chance. The session lasted 20 minutes, beginning with Mr Harding asking: ''Is there a floor there?'' Everyone said ''yes'' and so it went on, to the walls, ceiling, then feet, legs, hands, and the head. People were asked to ''experience'' their body parts and Mr Harding asked: ''Was that better than ever? Is it more real?''

I was certainly not brainwashed but nor did I feel enlightened in any way. The former Miss Holland, Hilda Vander Meulen, who became a Scientologist in 1994 when she signed up for a ''purification'' course in Los Angeles, told me that the movement had changed her life: ''I am calm, capable and I can deal with issues now.'' She has given up wine, tobacco and all drugs.

There are believed to be 100,000 Scientologists in Britain and eight million worldwide. All of these people became involved through a course that promised a happier and easier life - though some found otherwise. Unhappy ex-members tend to inhabit the internet, where there are sites such as ''Scientology Lies'', ''Scientology Kills'' and ''Eight Steps out of Scientology'', to help people leave Hubbard's movement. I just used the door.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

The news item is accompanied by links to official Scientology sites, as well as to critical information about the cult.

The claim that there are eight million Scientologists is a stale lie that the cult has been touting for years (all the while insisting that it is the fastest growing religion...)

» Millons of members?
» Fastest growing religion?
» How many Scientologists are there?

5. Police work for Scientology
St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 22, 2001 (Editorial)
http://www.sptimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thomas Penick, who has the unenviable task of refereeing sidewalk skirmishes between the Church of Scientology and anti-Scientology protesters in Clearwater, recently pointed to an arrangement that allows off-duty Clearwater cops to work for Scientology and noted, ''They are coming very dangerously close to becoming a private security force for the Church of Scientology.''

Penick was right to call attention to the uncomfortably cozy relationship developing between city police and the church, which has its spiritual headquarters in downtown Clearwater.
(...)

The situation seems bizarre to observers who know that since the church moved into Clearwater under a false identity in the 1970s, the relationship between Scientology and the Clearwater Police Department has been cool at best, outwardly hostile at worst. The police gathered intelligence on Scientology for years, amassing an enormous investigative file. The church struck back by writing attack pieces about the police, printing them in Scientology publications and throwing them on residents' lawns. The relationship worsened after the suspicious death of church member Lisa McPherson in a Scientology hotel and the arrival of the Lisa McPherson Trust, which is organized and operated out of downtown offices by Scientology critics.

The off-duty officers are hired by the church to make sure that no one -- particularly staff of the Lisa McPherson Trust -- messes with Scientologists coming and going from church facilities on Watterson Avenue, a downtown side street where many clashes between the two sides have occurred.
(...)

Klein felt that police were needed on Watterson and that putting off-duty officers there would free on-duty officers for other tasks. There was also a matter of fairness to consider. The Clearwater Police Department provides off-duty officers to more than 50 organizations, many of them churches. How could it say yes to a Catholic or Presbyterian church, but treat Scientology differently?

Here's how: Though Scientology has worked to improve its image and relationship with the city in recent years, the fact is that the church, by virtue of its controversial history in Clearwater and its altercations with the Lisa McPherson Trust, is not like most other Clearwater churches. Also, there is a big difference between providing an off-duty officer to a church to direct traffic after Sunday services and supplying off-duty officers to protect Scientology from its critics every day of the year.

Klein orders officers who work off-duty for Scientology not to take sides. It is naive for him to expect that every officer earning income from Scientology and interacting regularly with its members will always be capable of objectivity.

And it is unwise to place officers employed by the church in a position to be first-responders, report-writers and official witnesses when incidents occur between the church and protesters.
(...)

Recent coverage
Church pays those it reviled (March 11, 2001) [...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Given Scientology's growing record of hate and harassment (not to mention its history of criminal and anti-constitutional activities), it is unethical for law enforcement officers to work for the organization.

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