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Scientology Religion
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
I’ve been in Scientology since 1975. For 32 of those years I worked in a Church of Scientology as a staff member. For 19 of those 32 years, I was the Executive Director of the Church of Scientology in Denver. So, I pretty much have seen whatever there is to see in a Church of Scientology.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
Once I began to study Scientology, one of the things that kept me coming back was the people I’ve been privileged to associate with and befriend. After forty plus years, I’ve yet to meet any group of folks with such a combination of drive, intelligence, creativity, insight, wit, intense curiosity and outright quirky, irreverent humor. The bloggers of STAND are among the cream.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Some of my earliest memories are of my extended family gathering at my great-grandmother’s farmhouse in the country and eating an absolute feast.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
When asked, or if it just comes up, I tell all my co-workers and associates I am a Scientologist. The funny thing is, they don’t believe me! Every time I ask why, the answer is always the same: “But you’re just a regular guy.” I ask: “What do you think a Scientologist is?”
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
It was July 1977. Gold was selling for $161.10 per ounce, Dodgers players Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke had just invented the “high five.” “Star Wars: A New Hope” was released and most critics thought it would be a flop. The population of the world was slightly more than four billion. The top song of the year was “You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone. The Yankees won the World Series and the Raiders won the Super Bowl.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
In 1975, just as Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was filmed at Oregon State Hospital, I became a Scientologist in Portland. Kesey’s book and the film that followed it have perhaps done more than any other works of art to dramatize the brutality and horror of psychiatry and its tools.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
It became apparent she was fighting for life, not for herself, but so her family would not have to suffer her death. Realizing that, we told her not to worry about us, but to do what she must do to get well or—unsaid—that other thing, if her pain and suffering became too much.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
I honestly don’t know how she does it. It takes commitment to be on call the way she is. It takes commitment to travel away from the warmth and comfort of her own home to a place where hurricanes have uprooted families and lives.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
He was hoping for some weird, juicy secret stuff from an insider but I had to disappoint him. Nothing there to tell. After that night, the more I thought about it, I realized that’s really all I had been doing over my years as a practicing Scientologist. So now I’ll explain it to you.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
While that contribution ended up playing out in the media, the behind-the-scenes I saw was more personal. It was the way the Church opened its doors to help house upwards of 3,000 people and hundreds of pets during the storm.
