TAGS
SCIENTOLOGY
TOLERANCE
For the record, I’ve been a Scientologist for over thirty years, and so far no one in the church has ever inquired about my belief in aliens or insisted—or even recommended—that I “believe.”
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.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
Religion is like marriage: there’s so much to criticize about it, yet people still want to tie the knot. Marriage is designed to fulfill a need: the need for companionship, solace and pleasure in the pursuit of posterity. Clearly, we need it.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Cultures change slowly. I was born in 1945. When I was growing up in Washington, D.C., discrimination against African Americans, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Gays, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and Muslims was not the least bit unusual and was largely accepted. Southern politicians got elected based on who was the loudest and most viciously racist.
MEDIA & ETHICS
The data is fascinating and rather unnerving at the same time. In about an hour’s time, Mr. King created a fake news website, put together a fake news story by re-using a popular one he had seen, created a fake news page on Facebook, created a fake ad promoting the fake news from his fake page, targeted the ad to the groups most likely to salivate over it, specified his budget of about $50.00 and then clicked “place order.”
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
As a 7th grader, I visited the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. The quote in HUGE letters around the inner dome reads: “I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." When I read it, a chill ran down my spine.
TOLERANCE
As I continued on the last leg of my trip, I mulled over my encounters with these two men from very different demographics—two separate age groups, two different nationalities, two distinct social statuses.
MEDIA & ETHICS
Whether you are an amateur blogger, the curator of a Facebook page, or a content creator for a prestigious international news organization, if - by your writings or your multimedia content - you seek to inform people about the world, you’re a journalist (or want to be) .
TOLERANCE
I was 28 when I met Gunnar and Lois and their son Anders. When they asked me what I thought about Nixon and Watergate, I had to buy an English-language news magazine to find out what they were talking about.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
I’d like to share what it’s like to have a celebrity—someone you have admired and been a fan of your whole life—suddenly and very publicly turn against you for no other reason than your religion.
