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[News Thetan]

Scientology in St Lucia? - The Star Online
19 March 2010, 12:25 pm

St Lucians beware! Scientology is coming!” That was the cry coming from a passerby near the Derek Walcott Square in the heart of Castries on Tuesday. It was the official launch of The Way To Happiness Program in St Lucia. Before the meat and potatoes of the program are delved into, organizers note that although the primary book is written by the founder of Scientology, L Ron Hubbard, the program is in no way linked to Scientology.

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science-fiction author L Ron Hubbard starting in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self help system, Dianetics. Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion in 1953, he incorporated the Church of Scientology in Camden, New Jersey.

Scientology teaches that people are immortal spiritual beings who have forgotten their true nature. Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling known as auditing, which stemmed from Dianetics, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects. A large number of organizations overseeing the application of Scientology have been established, the most notable of these being the Church of Scientology. Scientology sponsors a variety of social service programs. These include a set of moral guidelines expressed in a brochure called The Way to Happiness, the Narconon anti-drug program, the Criminon prison rehabilitation program, the Study Tech education methodology, a volunteer organization, and a business management method.

Paula James, coordinator of the National Youth Mentoring Program spoke to the STAR on Tuesday and told us she expects the controversy surrounding the book’s author, however, her main focus is on reaching out to St Lucians. She maintains this is not a religious based program. It’s common sense.

“We are continuing what we started last week on the Freewinds cruise ship, teaching the 21 precepts to happiness. These are simple precepts that all of us grew up with; be kind, don’t steal, don’t murder, brush your teeth, eat healthy, look after yourself and don’t treat others in any way you would not like them to treat you. Today we launched it and brought the general public so they can see and hear what is going on to try to get young persons and adults alike to receive that message without any barriers or any race, religion, colour. It’s just that something needs to be done. If we don’t do something at a youth mentoring level, we are doing nothing to try to help. This is especially geared to trying to help the crime situation facing the country. We are losing our young people every weekend.”

Singer Michele Hendricks entertains with some help from local students.

James has been working arduously to ensure that at least two lives are touched by the program and plans are already in the pipeline to extend the program. So far, James said she has the backing of RISE St Lucia, the Royal St Lucia Police Force, CAPS and the Boys Training Centre. “Apart from this launch, we need to sit down with the different religious denominations for us to talk, look at other ways how we can combine and how we can move forward, how we can work with our youths in St Lucia because I cannot do it alone. It has to be a nationwide thing and we all have to make an effort to change our lifestyle. If we don’t, we headed down the wrong road. We appear to be heading down the wrong road already. It will be a continuous program once we have everybody’s blessings and everybody is comfortable with what is happening.”

James has also received the support of the Wilton’s Yard Association and a member of the organization, Peter Reynolds, told the STAR how he was exposed to the program.

“I found out about the way to happiness through Ms Paula James and other individuals in the Ministry of Social Transformation, Youth and Sports. Last Tuesday, we attended an all day seminar aboard the ship and I was quite impressed with the entire program because it’s not based on any religion or any church per se and the principles that are found in the program are all principles that we know, they’re in every any scripture that we’ve read or come from good moral standards. We will be attending the seminar aboard the ship in the near future. Also, they’ve asked for a contingent of our young people, our kids, to come and take in a movie.”

Jazz superstar Michele Hendricks entertained the audience along with the Freewinds band. The crowd grooved to some of Hendricks hits but there was more emphasis on a Bob Marley based repertoire.

more swamp land for sale at http://stluciastar.com/content/archives/11903

[mefree]

Before the meat and potatoes of the program are delved into, organizers note that although the primary book is written by the founder of Scientology, L Ron Hubbard, the program is in no way linked to Scientology.

WUT

[Lorelei]

I'm with you, mefree. How could it possibly NOT be linked to Scientology with its primary book being a Hubbard book?!

Their attempts at denial get more and more ridiculous the worse their public image gets.

Apparently they are sneaking into underdeveloped countries, or those with a lot of turmoil, such as Pakistan. They already tried invading India via Vulture Ministers toting TWTH booklets after a natural disaster there. They are preying on Haitians.

It is almost as if they are so desperate for warm bodies (probably due to the hundreds of people wising up and fleeing recently, leaving many Orgs practically bare) that they aren't even bothering to target people who might have a little money. So what could these folks do for them? Why, they could serve as cheap labour, to be shuffled all over the globe as "ministers" to get around immigration and emigration laws.

The average person with a little money in his or her wallet also has access to a TV and the Internet, and the vast majority of those people are inoculated against the cult and wouldn't have anything to do with it on a bet.

Their recent efforts to recruit and fleece seem to be focused on:

A. Preying on the desperate to recruit warm bodies as labour
B. Preying on the vulnerable, primarily through front groups who do their best to hide their connection to Scientology (up to the point where we get situations like the one discussed above, where it is obvious to anyone who isn't mentally deficient that "our primary book is by Hubbard" = Scientology).

[ethercat]

Scientology sponsors a variety of social service programs. These include a set of moral guidelines expressed in a brochure called The Way to Happiness, the Narconon anti-drug program, the Criminon prison rehabilitation program, the Study Tech education methodology, a volunteer organization, and a business management method.

These are in no way linked to scientology, either.  Just sponsored by it, that's all.  Talk about ridiculous denials! 

Paula James, coordinator of the National Youth Mentoring Program spoke to the STAR on Tuesday and told us she expects the controversy surrounding the book’s author, however, her main focus is on reaching out to St Lucians. She maintains this is not a religious based program. It’s common sense.

“We are continuing what we started last week on the Freewinds cruise ship, teaching the 21 precepts to happiness. These are simple precepts that all of us grew up with; be kind, don’t steal, don’t murder, brush your teeth, eat healthy, look after yourself and don’t treat others in any way you would not like them to treat you. Today we launched it and brought the general public so they can see and hear what is going on to try to get young persons and adults alike to receive that message without any barriers or any race, religion, colour. It’s just that something needs to be done. If we don’t do something at a youth mentoring level, we are doing nothing to try to help. This is especially geared to trying to help the crime situation facing the country. We are losing our young people every weekend.”

Don't laugh too hard, though.  This is one place our government Recovery Act money is going.   

http://www.recovery.gov/transparency/agency/reporting/agency_reporting5program.aspx?agency_code=75&progplanid=7611

James has been working arduously to ensure that at least two lives are touched by the program and plans are already in the pipeline to extend the program.

WTF? Two lives?  That's all you have to do to get Recovery Act money?  Touch 2 lives?

"... We will be attending the seminar aboard the ship in the near future. Also, they’ve asked for a contingent of our young people, our kids, to come and take in a movie.”

I wonder exactly how much money scientology is getting to hold those seminars on the Freewinds?

more swamp land for sale at http://stluciastar.com/content/archives/11903

   Boy, despite being a bot, that News Thetan really has a sense of humor, doesn't he?

[News Thetan]

Archbishop warns against Scientology Invasion! - The Star Online
6 April 2010, 12:21 pm

Websites about Scientology claim the grouping is meant to “restore the bonds that unite humankind.” Very recently, the Freewinds, a ship on which high level Scientology courses are delivered paid a visit to St Lucia. It would not be their first visit to the island and this time around, their presence had to do with the official launching of ‘The Way to Happiness’ Program in St Lucia.

The Church of Scientology is now being seen as the world’s fastest growing religion, and The Way to Happiness is a booklet released in 1980, written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard listing 21 moral precepts. In the Scientology religion “The truth” forms a vital part. Hubbard beginning in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self help system Dianetics created the beliefs under which the religion operates.

The Way to Happiness booklet is a “non-religious and unbiased moral code for the 21st century.” Within the booklet are the 21 moral precepts which include, respect the religious beliefs of others, try not to do things to others that you would not like them to do to you, flourish and prosper, take care of yourself, don’t be promiscuous, seek to live with the truth, do not murder, do not steal, set a good example and be worthy or trust, among others. The booklet contains detailed descriptions on each of the religions precepts, and why such behaviour could lead to greater happiness.

This week in time for the Easter weekend Catholic Archbishop of Castries, Robert Rivas, within his Easter Message entitled, “He is Risen,” said this Easter, many Catholics in St Lucia had found themselves looking “into the tomb” for answers to their faith in response to “the perceived invasion of Scientology on our fair and ordinarily peaceful isle.”

He went on to say that the “apparently harmless and surreptitious Freewinds, the flagship of Scientology, has revealed that it is not here merely on a goodwill mission.”

“It has a plan,” he said. “This is evident from the propaganda presently circulating in our society in form of a booklet titled The Way to Happiness–A Common Sense Guide To Better Living. While it may or may not lack common sense, it certainly is not literature to be put in the hands of eight and ten year olds from our primary schools as happened after a Rally at the Derek Walcott Square on March 10, this year.”

At the March rally, Paula James; coordinator of the National Youth Mentoring Program, told the STAR that despite the fact that the book was written by the Scientology founder, the program was in no way linked to Scientology.

“It’s just that something needs to be done. If we don’t do something at a youth mentoring level, we are doing nothing to help. This is especially geared to trying to help the crime situation facing the country,” said James of the program. “We are losing our young people every weekend.”

The Archbishop noted there were over 140,000 copies of the booklet to be distributed in St Lucia and he posed the question: “If the objective of local collaborators in disseminating this literature was to teach virtue and stem crime in our nation, wouldn’t 140,000 Bibles with the teaching of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, the Ten Commandments and I Corinthians 13, Paul’s Charter of Love, just to mention some references in the rich heritage of our faith, have made more sense?”

There is no quick fix to repairing the moral decay in our society,” he said. “Collaboration and education in spiritual and moral values are needed at every level: The home, school, workplace, community and Church.”
If the way to happiness lay along the road to truth, Rivas said the concept of truth in the booklet “(‘what is true is what is true for you’ cf #7) is relativistic.”

Rivas said relativism was a subjective philosophy that does not accept objective truth.

“How does a Catholic Christian accept the teachings of Christ if he/she gives credibility to, without critiquing, the teachings of the Way to Happiness: ‘If it is not true for you, it isn’t true?’ This is the literature being put in the hands of the children of our nation to teach them virtue and morality. Instead it undermines the principles of authority, faith and truth itself. Faith and truth, for Scientologists, are personal beliefs. Believe what you want; Truth is whatever you deem to be true. This is contrary to Catholic teaching where faith and truth are absolute.”

The Archbishop said the matter called for serious review on the part of the Civil Leadership of the nation.

“Good, healthy, drug free living in a crime free society is what we all want but not at the price of compromising our faith and Christian values,” he put forward. “The fundamental teachings of Scientology are in conflict with the teachings of the Christian faith. As Catholic Christians if we are going to critique Scientology we need to have a good grasp of our own faith. This is a challenge to all Catholics to be better grounded and educated in their faith.”

Robert Rivas went on to say the Freewinds had already been banned from entry in St Vincent. He said now was the time, “to come out of our comfort zones, rise from our complacency and witness to our faith with greater conviction, deeper commitment and clearer identity.

[ethercat]

This week in time for the Easter weekend Catholic Archbishop of Castries, Robert Rivas, within his Easter Message entitled, “He is Risen,” said this Easter, many Catholics in St Lucia had found themselves looking “into the tomb” for answers to their faith in response to “the perceived invasion of Scientology on our fair and ordinarily peaceful isle.”

He went on to say that the “apparently harmless and surreptitious Freewinds, the flagship of Scientology, has revealed that it is not here merely on a goodwill mission.”

I'm glad to see Archbishop Rivas recognizes this.  Of course they're not there merely on a goodwill mission.  They are there to follow the tenets of their "religion" - KSW (keeping scientology working), to disseminate scientology, and to put ethics (scientology ethics, that is, defined differently from every dictionary definition of ethics, except for that in a scientology dictionary) in on the planet.  To try to have everyone on the planet follow scientology teachings, to try to bend the world's governments to their will, to tell everyone how to live their lives.  To control.  I find that distasteful.

If the way to happiness lay along the road to truth, Rivas said the concept of truth in the booklet “(‘what is true is what is true for you’ cf #7) is relativistic.”

Rivas said relativism was a subjective philosophy that does not accept objective truth.

“How does a Catholic Christian accept the teachings of Christ if he/she gives credibility to, without critiquing, the teachings of the Way to Happiness: ‘If it is not true for you, it isn’t true?’ This is the literature being put in the hands of the children of our nation to teach them virtue and morality. Instead it undermines the principles of authority, faith and truth itself. Faith and truth, for Scientologists, are personal beliefs. Believe what you want; Truth is whatever you deem to be true. This is contrary to Catholic teaching where faith and truth are absolute.”

I am glad this is getting some examination, too.  The truth is absolute, as the Archbishop says.  Whether seen in the perspective of religion or not, there is only one truth; it does not change according to whether one accepts it or not.