Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive
From chriso@lutefisk.demon.co.uk Sun Jan 31 12:44:00 GMT 1999 THE SCOTSMAN, 18 September 1996 ------------ Scientology TV ads met with concern BY MICHAEL PATERSON Religious Affairs Correspondent ADVERTS from the controversial Church of Scientology could be shown on ITV and Channel 4 by Christmas. >From tonight they will be broadcast on satellite and cable television - with the message: "Force yourself to smile and you'll stop frowning. Force yourself to laugh and you'll find something to laugh at." But a Government minister, a disenchanted former member and anti-cult bodies yesterday warned that the group itself might be nothing to laugh about. After the Independent Television Commission lifted its advertising ban on the organisation in April, it chose Britain to launch what will become a Europe-wide campaign. The commercial will go out three to five times a day, seven days a week, for a month. The cost will be some 70,000. The 60-second advert is to be shown on UK Gold and UK Living. Viewers will be told: "On the day when we can fully trust each other there will be peace on earth." It features a contact number for the group's headquarters in East Grinstead, West Sussex. Some former members have claimed they have been brainwashed. The organisation's president, the Rev Heber Jentzsch said yesterday: "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 ... wash your brain." The organisation is not recognised as a religion under British charity laws, though courts in 65 countries have recognised it. US tax authorities have given it tax-exempt status as a bona fide religion. But Scientologists have been condemned for allegedly dividing families - allegations they strongly deny - and charging substantial fees for courses. An introductory course costs 25. The Saint Hill Special Briefing Course takes a year and costs more than 15,000. Worldwide, its income has been put at 200 million a year with another 270 million in assets. In April, the Independent Television Commission said the organisation had proved its meetings were open to the public and that there were no grounds to ban its adverts. However, an anonymous former member, who spent 5,000 on Scientology courses, said last night: "It makes me really sad to hear this organisation is now free to advertise and act as if it is respectable. "It is a very dangerous system. If you go in naively you are going to be in for a nasty shock, and so is your family." The former recruit, 45, said he joined eight years ago but left after he felt he was humiliated by being put on a manual labour programme by the group's rehabilitation project force, which was involved with the correction of members who had committed misdemeanours. Meanwhile, the Home Office minister Tom Sackville warned: "The majority of these organisations, while posing as religious movements, practise the most evil and cynical kind of fraud in order to get control over, and enrich themselves at the expense of, young people." The Rev David Randall, convenor of the Church of Scotland's apologetics committee -which defends the faith against others - said: "We would not want people to think this [Scientology] is actually a church or that it has anything to do with Christianity. We are worried about its effects on people." Celebrities who have been associated with Scientology include John Travolta, who said it changed his life, Tom Cruise, who says it helped him overcome dyslexia, Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone, Priscilla Presley, Demi Moore, Kirstie Alley and Emilio Estevez. One member of the House of Lords has been associated with it - Duncan McNair. The organisation was founded in 1954 by the American science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard. He died in 1986, but the organisation now has 100,000 UK members and claims seven million worldwide. Hubbard developed a set of beliefs about the workings of the human mind and spirit in Dianetics, published in 1950. He then developed Scientology. Everyone, he said, was a temporary vessel for immortal souls called Thetans, whose eternal enemies were Engrams. The first Church of Scientology was set up in Los Angeles in 1954. It arrived in Scotland in 1968, and its sole Scottish base is in Edinburgh Hubbard's elder son left the body in 1959, branding his father "insane" while his other son committed suicide in 1976.
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