The comedian is a rare and powerful breed. He can point out what's wrong with the world through the use of humor and be poignant while doing it, more powerful than any blithering panel of pundits shouting canned criticisms.
Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Buddhist, Lama, Muslim, Baptist, Scientologist and on and on and on the list goes. I could fill two whole single-spaced pages with all the religions and belief systems of the world.
If I were the devil I would strike up the band and throw a party. I’d be scrubbing my hands in glee right now as I watched my plans coming to fruition. The papers are spreading hate, political parties are spreading hate, and the television spews it at an unprecedented rate. Hate sells.
Joe was a brilliant, hard-working man who, because he was Jewish, found himself a prisoner in a concentration camp in Poland from 1941 to 1945. It was after a Thanksgiving dinner when he and I were sitting alone on a living room couch fifty years later that he decided to tell me this remarkable story of survival that reflected who he really was.
I have been in Scientology since 1980. At the age of 24 my life had become consumed by alcohol and drug abuse. I was on the fast track to an early grave.
I was always looking for “my” religion. Since I was a little girl. My parents didn’t follow any one faith and allowed me to look for myself and I took full advantage of that. I studied different religions from Christianity to Buddhism .
When my husband and I eloped nearly 28 years ago, we had no idea what we were doing. But we were so distracted by the butterflies running amuck in our bellies that it didn’t even matter.
Ok, admittedly, that title is somewhat deceiving—I am a happily married heterosexual woman. But here’s the thing: the press has been smearing my religion with such abandon for so long now that, as a Scientologist, telling people about my religious “orientation” has felt at times, like coming out.
To me stupidity is not knowing about something, but then acting or speaking as if you do. Let’s say you start criticizing someone’s religion. What exactly are you criticizing? Is there some specific verse, writing, theory or philosophy you’re referring to? Or is it based on something you "heard" on the news or someone else’s ignorant opinion?
Is it too far-fetched to conceive that “football” could be a religion? Well, if you are ever in Knoxville during football season, you will inevitably observe that, for all intents and purposes, it is a religion. And the truly die-hard fans are virtual religious zealots.