Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 16, 2020
Who Loses When Scientology Wins?
Last week I had an unusual phone conversation with a client I’m doing some screenplay rewrite work for. He was somewhere...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 14, 2020
Are Christians Right to Protest Netflix’s “First Temptation of Christ”?
I made it 31 minutes in, to the scene that managed to insult Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Rastafarianism, and...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
December 30, 2019
Anti-Semitism and the Festival of Lights
When I was traveling through Arkansas with a business partner, our host pointed out a burned-out establishment and proclaimed...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
December 30, 2019
How Good People Can Become Bigots
If bigotry were simple, we would have already solved it. But it isn’t and we haven’t. So here’s a look at the roots...
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Religious Literacy
December 29, 2019
The Odyssey of the Soul, for When You Need Reassurance
There’s a Jewish legend about what happens to us before we are born. An Angel appears and introduces us to all the high...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
December 28, 2019
Is Intolerance on the Rise?
Then there have been a slew of high-profile tragedies including the New Zealand mosque attacks, the Easter Sunday bombing...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
December 27, 2019
A Tribute to Kayla Mueller
On August 3, 2013, Kayla Mueller was kidnapped by ISIS fighters outside of a hospital in Northern Syria. She had traveled...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
December 23, 2019
The Most Precious Thing
Nearly a thousand years ago a great army besieged a castle. Day after day, the army bombarded it with great boulders and flaming...
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Religious Literacy
December 20, 2019
100 Billion Reasons to Support Humanitarian Groups
Two things happened today that prompted this blog. 1. My Mormon neighbors invited me to a Christmas service. Of course I accepted...
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Scientology Religion
December 5, 2019
Why Does Scientology Keep Its Upper-Level Teachings “Secret”?
When I heard about the “OT levels” I was curious why much of it was kept confidential. Over time, I answered my own question....
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Religious Literacy
December 1, 2019
Another Way Religions Help
I’ll admit it, I’m kind of a sucker for those singing competition shows. Please understand, I’m not a singer, and I’ve...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
November 30, 2019
Theophobia, Part I: Why a Hatred of Religion?
Religion has been in an international statistical decline. The religiously unaffiliated, otherwise known as "nones," are growing...
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Religious Literacy
November 20, 2019
What’s Divine About You
My reaction was so physically apparent that my daughter took one look at me and asked: “Why’s your face all red?!” That...
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Scientology Religion
November 20, 2019
Why We Don’t “Believe” In Scientology
Recently, I've found myself fielding numerous questions about what Scientologists “believe,” so I'm going to address the...
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Religious Literacy
October 31, 2019
What’s the Deal With Ghosts?
When the first Ghostbusters movie came out in 1988, most of my friends were in love with it, myself included. But one friend...
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Scientology Religion
October 25, 2019
If You Find Yourself Stuck in a Motel in a Thunderstorm
My wife and I recently had a free weekend and decided to drive to the coast. But as we traveled west, dark clouds rolled in,...
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Religious Literacy
October 20, 2019
The Controversy at Maunakea—Why Science and Religion Need Each Other
According to the astronomers supporting the project, it “will allow us to see deeper into space and observe cosmic objects...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
October 10, 2019
Hope in the Face of Tragedy
We’re living in a time when it might be easy to lose faith in your fellow man. For centuries, the fearmongers have crowed...
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Scientology Religion
October 10, 2019
How Does It Feel to Be a Scientologist?
Since I have been a Scientologist for over 20 years, I feel I’m very qualified to answer this question. I’ll answer it...
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Scientology Religion
October 7, 2019
Inside Scientology: The Art of Critical Thinking
It takes a very humble person to admit that, compared to the truth, they don’t matter.
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Religious Freedom
September 3, 2019
Unanswered Questions About Jonestown—Part Four: The Buried Agenda of Leo Ryan
To this day, the assailants that closed in on Ryan’s fallen body and riddled it with rifle and shotgun blasts have not been...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
September 1, 2019
You Can Only Kick the Church Up—An Interview With LDS Member Steve Russell
There is nothing more personal—and, for many of us, there is nothing more precious—than the right to live as we believe...
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Media & Ethics
August 31, 2019
Are We Supporting Mass Shooters in the Name of Free Speech?
Before taking out his AK-47 and using it to murder 22 innocent people in El Paso, Texas, alleged shooter Patrick Crusius published...
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Religious Literacy
August 31, 2019
A Place for Women in Religion—Hint: It’s Not the Kitchen
Let me just start by saying I’m about as girlie of a girl as anyone I’ve ever known. A dress is my attire of choice, even...
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Scientology Religion
August 30, 2019
How and Why I Became a Scientologist
Fellow says, ‘What is the reason for life?’ Oddly enough, the apparent answer to the thing... if he wants a very finite,...
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Media & Ethics
August 28, 2019
A&E: When You Pay for Hate Speech That’s Exactly What You Get
It’s obvious why journalists are wary of those who offer to trade information for profit— such people are all too likely...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
August 26, 2019
An Investor’s Open Letter to Amazon: Don’t Endanger Our Company by Sponsoring Hate
As a stakeholder, I’d like to know that Amazon’s Corporate Social Responsibility reaches far beyond just utilizing recycled...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
August 25, 2019
“Dear White People”: Practice What You Preach
What’s ironic is that a show that is so heavy-handed with its messaging about staying woke and ending discrimination against...
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Religious Freedom
August 23, 2019
UN Devotes New Day to Combatting Anti-Religious Violence
There’s a day that now comes right after the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. Because...
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Media & Ethics
August 17, 2019
Tony Ortega: A Nettle of Fiction and Failure
It may be hard to spot the common denominator of all of Ortega’s flops, but I’ll tell you what I see.
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Religious Freedom
August 15, 2019
Highlighting the Difference: A Study of Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies
Some smells made customers stay longer. Others had them fleeing the premises. The research also found odors needed to be appropriate—the...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
August 15, 2019
The KKK and the Power of Symbols
I wasn’t surprised to read that members got the idea from D. W. Griffith’s 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation. Fire...
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Religious Literacy
August 12, 2019
The Old Jew: A Story About Wisdom
I had not told the old man that I was expecting my first child, but somehow he knew. And I never forgot.
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
August 3, 2019
How Psychology Lost Its Soul
Psychology’s “soul” was a casualty in the war between the spiritually alive and the spiritually dead.
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Religious Freedom
August 3, 2019
Interfaith Courage Awarded at Second Ministerial for Religious Freedom
More than 30 years ago, Ivanir dos Santos began combating racial discrimination and promoting rights of members of minority...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
August 3, 2019
The Swastika in the Bathroom
You walk into the bathroom and a large, black graffitied swastika greets you. It’s big, it’s ugly and it exudes an almost...
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Religious Freedom
August 3, 2019
Supreme Court Allows Cross to Remain: Did It Establish Religion?
The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that a 40-foot-high cross honoring residents of the Maryland town of Bladensburg...
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Religious Literacy
August 1, 2019
Catholicism in the Age of Scandal
Damning headlines and unforgivable scandal have, in recent times, become synonymous in the media with the Catholic Church,...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
July 29, 2019
Is This Who We Really Are?
I, for one, don’t believe it. Don’t get me wrong. I believe the statistics, the surveys and the opinions. I believe the...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
July 29, 2019
What Happens When You Live?
The late astronomer and teacher, Carl Sagan, requested that the Voyager 1 spacecraft, in its journey through the cosmos, pause...
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Religious Literacy
July 24, 2019
Why Religion Is Healthy
Religious people live longer. There’s plenty of scientific evidence to support that statement, and if you click on the link...
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Religious Freedom
July 24, 2019
Second Ministerial for Religious Freedom Shines a Light on Intolerance and Genocide
It was a big event: on its final day, a participant reported, “Close to 900 members of civil society and religious groups...
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Religious Literacy
July 11, 2019
Three Religions and a Wedding
Guests of many religions were in attendance. We had Jewish relatives from my side, Catholics from my husband's side, Christians...
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Media & Ethics
July 9, 2019
Why I Trust L. Ron Hubbard
Occasionally in the course of a day, I hear disparaging things about people I know and love. I’m sure this has happened...
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Religious Literacy
July 8, 2019
What Happens When You Die?
And the more I studied religions, the more I saw the common thread. They all believed that you are more than your body and...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
July 4, 2019
The Aftermath of the “Aftermath”
Most people are decent: They are constructive, creative, welcoming and social…
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
July 1, 2019
Love In the Age of Granfalloons
My Facebook brothers and sisters have become tribes, or more precisely, granfalloons. A granfalloon, as defined by the coiner...
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Religious Literacy
July 1, 2019
The Fingerprint of the Spirit
The theory of evolution postulates that the many different forms of life all descended from a common ancestor, with the many...
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Religious Literacy
June 30, 2019
Aretha’s Soul
And at the end of the concert, she smiled. Women had shivered, men had wept. Reverend James Cleveland, who had brought her...
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Religious Literacy
June 26, 2019
Why are Physicists Convinced of the Human Soul?
Are science and spirituality mutually exclusive? Alan Lightman, a physicist who has researched black holes, stellar dynamics...
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Scientology Religion
June 26, 2019
I Left Scientology as a Teen: Here’s Why I Came Back
In the end, I gave the “live life one day at a time and just do what makes you happy” thing a try. By the age of 23, I...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
June 25, 2019
Everyday Actions to Combat Bigotry
Help End Religious Intolerance Wherever You Are Some of the moms I know are total superheroes, and I recently felt compelled...
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Religious Freedom
June 25, 2019
Is Freedom of Religion Limitless?
In the weeks prior to the tragic raid, one such demagogue, the notorious convicted felon Rick Ross of the now defunct Cult...
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Religious Literacy
June 22, 2019
Here’s to the Artists
Artists bring their own special energy to that endeavor and deserve support and encouragement and validation. Here’s to...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
June 20, 2019
Terrorism: Let’s Change the Conversation
It is undeniably true that there are terrorists in the world and they are well named: they try to bring about terror, chaos,...
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Religious Literacy
June 13, 2019
Religion in the Workplace: How Diversity Creates Better Cultures
After I’d been working there for a few days, the CEO called me into his office and said “You know, I really admired the...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
June 12, 2019
Religion vs. Religious Freedom
Would you honor these unbelievers for being religious in an otherwise materialistic world and respect their sincerely held...
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Religious Literacy
May 30, 2019
Religion in Schools: Teaching Isn’t Preaching
Tolerance of one’s fellow man, including his race, his nationality and his creed, is an essential part of everyday life.
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Religious Freedom
May 29, 2019
Canadian Church Permits Atheist to Remain Minister
Religion is extremely valuable to society, but only when people are free to examine the subject for themselves and draw the...
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Religious Literacy
May 28, 2019
A Case for Faith
Faith is real. Faith is attainable. Faith can be learned and applied to create a richer life for one and all.
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
April 7, 2019
The Answer to Hate Is Love
“Love one another.” It’s an adage so common it can seem trite. So simple that it’s hard to believe it can matter....
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
April 2, 2019
Anti-Semitism 101, Part 2:
Modern Anti-Semitism
Old lies die hard. A recent survey by the Anti-Defamation League revealed that 13 percent believe that “Jews are more likely...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 14, 2019
Twenty Minutes From Hate
We don’t take these things lightly anymore. We can’t. Not in a parade, not in Mardi Gras, and certainly not 20 minutes...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 14, 2019
House Passes Anti-Bigotry Resolution
No matter what the politics were behind it, no matter what backroom deals and compromises spawned it, no matter what debates,...
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Scientology Religion
March 8, 2019
Why I Choose Scientology
Scientology does not discriminate in who it helps. It literally can help anyone: the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the...
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Media & Ethics
March 6, 2019
What We Can Learn From the Jussie Smollett Story
Objectivity in media is, based on my experience, a myth. Some groups and organizations are more altruistic and civic-minded...
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Media & Ethics
March 5, 2019
How Billionaires Are Helping Us Fight Defamation
Yes, something is changing: the rest of us, who have had to live with invasions of privacy and out-of-control attacks, are...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 1, 2019
One Method of Handling a Bigot
It’s OK to be honestly irked. It’s OK to have a zero-tolerance policy for bigots and bozos. And you don’t need eloquence...
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Religious Freedom
February 26, 2019
The Quran: Paving the Way in the Land of the Free
The origins of Islam in the U.S. today trace back to one simple concept, one word, three syllables: sla-ve-ry. When Ilhan...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
February 26, 2019
Et Tu, Disney?
What happened to Disney? And when I say Disney, I am not referring to the man, Mr. Walt Disney for whom I have the utmost...
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Religious Freedom
February 22, 2019
U.S. Supreme Court Ignores Religious Freedom in Death Penalty Case
The case seems simple at first. Dominique Hakim Marcelle Ray was convicted in 1995 of the rape and murder of a 15-year old...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
February 19, 2019
Islamophobia 101
Pope Urban II set the tone for a millennium-long identification of Muslims as direct enemies of Western values, culture and...
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Religious Literacy
February 15, 2019
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
While I certainly didn’t have anything against the Catholics, I really didn’t know much about the religion.
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Media & Ethics
February 15, 2019
Speaking Out Against “Mainstream” Bigotry
What if all people of goodwill, whether Muslim, Christian, Mormon, Scientologist or whatever, upon hearing any antifaith propaganda...
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If you have encountered hate speech and disinformation online, in the media, or in any public venue, take action by reporting it here.
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