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Combating Bigotry & Hate
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
We as Scientologists have worked hard to demonstrate our values to the world. We help. We are first responders to world disasters. We are mothers and fathers, neighbors and tutors. Nice people, moral people. We have faces and names. We have rights. And one of them is the right to practice our religion.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Ortega was the chief editor of the Village Voice when it harbored Backpage.com, which, according to numerous media reports, was the nation’s leading facilitator for the sale of children for sex. Its three owners have been under U.S. Senate Subcommittee investigation.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
I know a lot about hate. Unfortunately, I’ve had way too much experience with intolerance and bigotry. I’m an expert in it. You’d think that perhaps I grew up in the Jim Crow South or some war-torn nation in the Middle East.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Using apostates to spread religious intolerance is not a new tactic, but in the age of the internet and life-as-entertainment, it’s taken on a new face. By definition, an apostate is not just a person who wanders away from a faith. It’s a bit more serious than that.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
My mission is very simple: I want to kill a culture. I have been thinking about this for a long time and I believe I now have the key. It has to do with reading. It has to do with literacy.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
As an Arab-American Scientologist, I’m familiar with bigotry. My family emigrated to the United States from Palestine when I was four years old and I was introduced to the wonders of bullying by the children of San Francisco’s Sunset District.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Labels can be great. You can look at can labels and find out whether what you’re getting ready to eat is good for you. You can read labels on machinery and learn that you should really think twice before sticking your hand in there. I am a big fan of those kinds of labels.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Walgreens is a sponsor of an A&E show featuring previously unemployed actress Leah Remini and other former members of the Church of Scientology that either left or were asked to leave the church. The show can’t really be called a documentary or piece of investigative journalism because it only shows one delusional side of the story from individuals that are being paid to smear the church.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
So there I was minding my own business, having a little fun scrolling through what passes for “the news” when I spy this headline: “ Atheist Stanford Professor Teaches Religion Is Mental Illness .” Well that was just too rich to pass up.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The other day, I read an online article that spoke of how an animation studio’s approach to storytelling was repurposed and being used to sell products, ideas, and even political candidates. It reminded me that we humans are not as logical in our decision-making process as we would like to believe.
