Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive
Scientologists preach message on TV
Leader denies advertisements will 'brainwash' people into joining
The Daily Telegraph, September 18, 1996, Wednesday
SECTION: Pg. 04
LENGTH: 599 words
HEADLINE: Scientologists preach message on TV
Leader denies advertisements will 'brainwash' people into joining
BYLINE: By Victoria Combe, Churches Correspondent
BODY:
THE Church of Scientology is to run a series of television advertisements
promoting itself as a safe, mainstream religion. In a move further aimed at
eradicating past controversy the Church, which was started in 1954 by the
American science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, has also applied to the Charities
Commission to be classed as a tax-exempt religious charity. The Independent
Television Commission said yesterday that it decided to allow the advertisements
after the American-based organisation began legal proceedings suing the ITC
1996 The Daily Telegraph plc, September 18, 1996
for loss of revenue. The ITC said it had originally objected to the
advertisements on the grounds that the organisation's "collective worship" was
not open to the public. But it had since learned that the Scientologists'
lectures were open to all and there were no grounds for banning the
advertisements. The 60-second commercials, which show smiling people of
different nationalities saying "trust", will be broadcast from today for four
weeks on UK Gold and UK Living satellite channels. The group is hoping to
advertise on terrestrial British channels in three months. The advertisements
say: "On the day when we can fully trust each other there will be peace on
earth", and shows the contact number for the organisation's headquarters in East
Grinstead, West Sussex. The president of the Church of Scientology
International, the Rev Heber Jentzsch, yesterday denied claims that the adverts
would brainwash people into joining. " Scientology is not a dogma. People can
make up their own minds. This is a 60-second commercial - if you are brainwashed
in 60 seconds, then wash your brain," he said. "The message is that it is
possible to be happy in this world. And we hope to be successful in spreading
that." Mr Jentzsch said that Britain was a perfect place for his Church to
"blossom and grow". "Until the mid-Eighties we were seen as something cranky.
But I think we have come out of that and are now seen as more mainstream," he
said. He denied that members had been bankrupted because of the high cost of
courses. "Courses can be done very inexpensively. In America a college
education costs about $ 25,000. We will train a counsellor for much less than
that. Our members never complain about making contributions to the Church."
Yesterday a spokesman for the Cult Information Centre said the ITC had "made a
big mistake". "I hope common sense prevails and they change their rules so the
decision can be reversed. We have become very concerned," he said. The Church of
Scientology, which claims 100,000 members in Britain and eight million
worldwide, is a recognised religion for tax purposes in America and has
celebrity members including John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and
Priscilla Presley. Its members believe that only through understanding
themselves as spiritual beings can they come to understand the "supreme being".
Their observance is mainly in counselling sessions where they hold on to an
electrical machine while they talk. Movements of a dial, they claim, reveal if
they are suppressing emotions. In Britain, Scientologists were subject to a
government exclusion order in 1968 and regarded as "socially harmful". Foreign
members were forbidden from entering Britain until 1980. Tom Sackville, Home
Office minister, yesterday cautioned young people about advertising messages
from religious groups. "Many use a variety of techniques to recruit those who
may be depressed and lonely. All approaches from people claiming to represent
'new religious movements' should be treated with the utmost suspicion," he said.
Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive