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STAND Hosts Year-In-Review Celebration
Last week, Scientologists Taking Action Against Discrimination (STAND) held its first annual year-end celebration at the Church of Scientology of the Valley in Los Angeles, honoring nine successful months of operation and setting high goals for the year ahead.
The celebration began with festivities and culminated in a presentation of 2017 achievements, covering the great strides made toward accomplishing STAND’s goal: to end forever the defamation and bigotry toward Scientologists and the Scientology religion, and to protect everyone’s basic inalienable right to practice their chosen faith.
At the presentation, Los Angeles STAND members were given the opportunity to share what makes them passionate about this purpose and each gave moving testimony about what it means, at long last, to have a forum through which they can shed light on Scientology and defend the right to belief for all faiths in an era of religious hostility, fake news and biased media.
“We are truly making an impact, defending and protecting the right of members of all religions to exercise their beliefs.”
Launched on February 25, 2017, STAND has since gained more than 200,000 social media followers, indicating its anti-discrimination, pro-freedom message resonates with those also working to create a more tolerant world.
“It is an honor to be a part of such a dynamic and important movement—whose members I so respect and admire—for a purpose that has everything to do with the principles on which this nation was founded and the most fundamental of freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said STAND’s National Director Bari Berger.
“We are enormously pleased with STAND’s progress since its launch and have great expectations for the coming year,” said STAND’s International Director Edward Parkin. “We are truly making an impact, defending and protecting the right of members of all religions to exercise their beliefs and look forward to doing so on an even wider scale in 2018.”
