We have a potent set of videos for you today. First, we’re going to show you the very latest Scientology promotional message that’s been smuggled out to us. Then we’re going to go back in time thanks to filmmaker Mark Bunker.
To begin, wasn’t it just the other day that we remarked how Scientology seems to be focusing so much attention on its “Ideal Org” program in the western United States, and the eastern half of the country is almost an afterthought?
Renovation projects in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and Philadelphia are all either moribund, in trouble with city officials, or are just barely showing any progress at all.
Well, almost as if they heard us, the eastern US (which is considered a separate “continent” in the Scientology system) has suddenly put together its own rah-rah Ideal Org video in order to convince the few remaining church members that they need to attend events and continue to write big checks.
Get a load of which org in the east is being held up as the one making the most progress, and which particular couple (an Underground Bunker favorite) are the stars of the show…
Now, let’s go back more than a decade to remember what it was like when Scientology had more members and was making more overt attempts to win over some sectors of the press. Mark Bunker sent these videos over along with these descriptions…
This is stuff I used to have on the ‘net but had gone missing. It shows how easily Scientology is willing to lie to politicians and the media.
In the first item, I show some video of Scientology official Mary DeMoss telling the city council that she has formed a branch of the Foundation for Religious Tolerance, whose noble goal it was to unite all the churches of the city and hold lovely events with all the church choirs. FRT would benefit all of Clearwater and bring the people of the city together, she claimed. The trouble was that Mary then wrote a letter published in a Scientology magazine a few months later which said she explicitly started FRT to attack the SPs in the city and that the group consisted solely of her. Jeff Jacobsen read that letter to the city council. But before Mary let the cat out of the bag, she and German Scientologist Hans Bschorr contacted a local cable access host who invited them on to talk about the wonderful, noble organization that Mary created.
In the second video, Stacy Brooks had contacted the host of that cable access show and explained what was really going on. The host invited Stacy to appear as his guest to explain what FRT and Scientology were really about. He seemed quite annoyed that he had been played. Stacy brought along Greg Barnes, who had recently been declared a suppressive person (Scientology’s brand of excommunication) for questioning the policy of charging for mandatory biannual interrogations on the upper levels. He and his wife had found a policy from Hubbard that said this should never happen, and when they told others they got declared. In this show, Stacy and Greg directly respond to many of the lies Mary and Hans told in the first show.
The host of that access show also had a weekly public affairs show on the local PBS station and he invited Stacy and Greg on that show to do another half hour about Scientology for a wider audience.
Thanks so much for that history lesson, Mark. It’s great stuff.
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on August 6, 2014 at 07:00
E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
