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 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
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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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
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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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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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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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 22, 2019
An Open Farewell Letter to the Makers of Family Guy
Your recent mentions of Scientology make Comedy Central’s “Drunk History” look like the World Book Encyclopedia.
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 1, 2019
Hate, Inc.: The Marketing of Bigotry for Profit
Bricks through windows, swastikas scrawled on synagogues, charred African-American churches, knocked-over tombstones in Jewish...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
November 15, 2018
Big Bigotry Goes Mainstream: Remini & Disney Attack Jehovah’s Witnesses
How exactly do you ask, in politically correct terms: “What religious group can we profit from the most by misrepresenting...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
September 1, 2018
Disney: How Do I Explain Bigotry to My Granddaughter?
Perhaps I could tell her that the movie characters she admires—those who stand up for their beliefs, who overcome obstacles...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
August 21, 2018
What Is It That Bigots Hate? That You Communicate.
When you look at bigotry (or more succinctly “hate”) as one person’s desire to ensure the target of the bigotry stops...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
July 26, 2018
The Rabbi and the Bigot—A Story of Redemption
A few days later, the Rabbi found a package on his front walk containing anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi pamphlets and a card reading:...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
June 30, 2018
Interview with an Asterisk
Please, just call me “*”—that’s what my friends all call me.
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 1, 2018
Remini: Taking Bigotry on the Road
According to recent Hollywood reports, with her show’s viewership numbers doing a nose dive into a parity with “Joanie...
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Scientology Religion
December 29, 2017
What We Scientologists Wish You Knew About Us
I am a Scientologist of over 35 years, and my friends and I are here to tell you that we are no different from you.
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Media & Ethics
November 21, 2017
America’s Most Dangerous Cult
“Everybody knows” what a cult is. “Cult” is one of those words promoted by the media. Yet if you question anyone using...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
November 15, 2017
Scientology, “Critics” and Critical Mass
Just start pounding an idea enough times into enough people until, hypnotically, they begin to believe it. Critical mass is...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
November 13, 2017
No, Laura Loomer: Jews Aren’t Bigots
It seems like religion is always at the forefront of so many unnecessary upsets, especially on social media. Recently, New...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
October 31, 2017
When “the Victim” is the Bully
I’m “a big kid.” That is to say, I’m an adult. I’m well-educated, reasonably affluent, and able to hold my own in...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
October 8, 2017
Who You Callin’ a Spigot?
I propose a word that would serve to make a distinction between common, garden-variety bigots and those who are prejudiced...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
September 28, 2017
An Open Letter from a Scientologist & Black Man to Tampa Bay Times Bigots
You see, I understand I am just another “nigger,” and you know what is best for me. You deem yourself my Master. You are...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
September 13, 2017
Never Again—For Anyone
When I was a kid in the 70’s, I went to Sunday school at my synagogue. We did arts, crafts, sang songs and learned about...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
August 29, 2017
My Ph.D. in Hate: A Scientologist STANDs Against Bigotry
I know a lot about hate. Unfortunately, I’ve had way too much experience with intolerance and bigotry. I’m an expert in...
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Religious Freedom
August 23, 2017
STAND Member Reflects on Visit to Iconic Religious Freedom Site
Under cover of a January blizzard, Roger Williams left his wife and children, slipping away to avoid the men sent to arrest...
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Scientology Religion
August 10, 2017
Why Leah Remini is Only Worth Pitying
One of the first things one learns about when studying Scientology is the definition of an overt act. An overt act is an act...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
June 27, 2017
Et tu, Stacey Carosi?
In one of my favorite seasons of Saved by the Bell, Zack Morris developed a summer relationship with Stacey Carosi, a tough,...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
June 17, 2017
I Met a Scorpion Today
There are two versions of a well-known fable you might have heard. In the first one, a scorpion asks a frog to carry it across...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
June 10, 2017
In Spite of Everything
The defacing of a public monument is a despicable crime in and of itself. But when the target is a beloved figure like Anne...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
May 24, 2017
Raising Our Voices—What it Means to be a STAND Member
Scientologists are, almost without exception, really nice people. That’s something you could say of most people and groups...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
May 23, 2017
A Different Perspective on “Cults”
All new religions before being “established” are or were considered “cults” (definition 3). That would include Christianity...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
May 22, 2017
Where Do You Stand on Taking a Stand?
People are social creatures, and this is one of our greatest strengths and one of our greatest weaknesses, all at the same...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
May 21, 2017
The Accidental Bigot
A bigot’s a bad thing to be. But, theoretically, it could happen to any one of us. For many years (and in what feels like...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
May 14, 2017
How it Felt to Be Treated Like a Nazi
When I was in third grade, I had a teacher who despised me. It wasn't because of anything I'd done to her, and it wasn't that...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
May 12, 2017
Haters Gonna Hate
Overly tall, olive-skinned, with full lips and unmanageable curly hair I looked odd among both the children of German refugees...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
May 9, 2017
The “Cult” Label
I'm a Scientologist who has studied Scientology for years. Decades actually. I know a lot of other Scientologists and, while...
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Religious Freedom
April 27, 2017
Remembering the Holocaust, and a Remarkable Story of Survival
Joe was a brilliant, hard-working man who, because he was Jewish, found himself a prisoner in a concentration camp in Poland...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
April 23, 2017
Stale Bread: The Aftermath
I am not prone to drama. However, having lived in Los Angeles for 30 years, I am very familiar with it. I try to keep myself...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
April 19, 2017
You Should Know Better
There is a great injustice being perpetuated by social media. This injustice creates a “fertile” soil for unfair discrimination,...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
April 17, 2017
Where Religious Discrimination Never Happens
On the block where I grew up I played with kids whose parents were Holocaust survivors. What they endured was a terrible note...
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Religious Freedom
April 14, 2017
Freedom is Just Freedom
Historically, the human race has excelled in the fields of prejudice and discrimination. Historically, the human race has...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
April 14, 2017
I Will Not Tolerate Hatred
I have been a Scientologist for over fifteen years, and very publicly so. In working with my church and its members I am surrounded...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 21, 2017
Car Crashes and Nut Jobs
I have some non-Scientologist friends who will hit me up when some new “exposé” rehashes ancient disproven allegations...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 14, 2017
The Religion of Humanitarianism
“My religion is humanitarianism, which is the basis of every religion in the world,” said Abdul Sattar Edhi, the late...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 13, 2017
The Ignorance of Ignorance
“Not ignorance, but the ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge.” - Alfred North Whitehead My first year of teaching...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 13, 2017
Unfriended
I’ve been friends with this guy for more than ten years. We hit it off pretty immediately and have stayed in touch through...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 13, 2017
How to Triumph over Hate: Flourish and Prosper
You may have heard about the recent wave of hate crimes sweeping our nation. Crimes against Muslims in New York were up 50...
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Religious Freedom
March 12, 2017
Don’t Joke, Look!
By Evan Wecksell I live in Los Angeles, a city with the highest concentration of Scientologists in the world.
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Religious Freedom
March 12, 2017
Intolerance in Hollywood—A Word of Caution
Hollywood, my hometown, is all about tolerance… as long as it fits “their” agenda. Pro-choice, green initiatives, gay...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 9, 2017
Ex the Exes
Since when did we start listening to Exes? Are ex-wives, disgruntled employees, former bosses and once-great friends really...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
March 7, 2017
An Inside Look at Fighting Televised Bigotry
Craig Reisdorf was the victim of a cheap reality TV show made by A&E, Mike Rinder and Leah Remini. They questioned his right...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
February 5, 2017
When Media Crosses the Line and Feeds the Flames of Religious Bigotry
When major media becomes unfair, unjust and dishonest it threatens the bedrock of our society that depends on an honest evaluation...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 25, 2017
Aziz Ansari Hits the Mark in SNL Monologue
Aziz Ansari said something interesting on Saturday Night Live , and I laughed, because he’s freaking hilarious. And because,...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 23, 2017
Religious Group “Charged” with Offering Donuts at Meeting
American Humanist Association slights Muslims and Scientologists, likening them to The Satanic Temple and asking parents to...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 20, 2017
A Real Story A&E TV Doesn’t Want You to See
I run a website about Scientology and parenting. If you Google the terms “Scientology” and “parenting,” it’s the...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 16, 2017
Get An Honest Day Job, Leah Remini
A&E has stooped to a new low with their religion-bashing show with Leah Remini .
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 12, 2017
Anti-Religious Hate Crimes Should Be No Smirking Matter for A&E, Leah Remini and Mike Rinder
An A&E series produced by Slauson Productions allowing avowed anti-Scientologists Leah Remini and Mike Rinder to smirk and...
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Combating Bigotry & Hate
January 10, 2017
It’s a Wonderful Life
Every Christmas I watch It’s a Wonderful Life with my family. It’s become a holiday tradition. Ninety-four percent of...
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