Rod Keller once again finds Scientology trying to capitalize on the misfortune of others…
The moors around Manchester are on fire. These are peat fires, slow and smoky rather than the blazing inferno fires of the American west. Fire crews have battled to contain fires at Saddleworth Moor in Tameside, Winter Hill in Bolton and in Denshaw around the clock and supplies for the crews are running low so the call went out for donations from the public.
“We are in urgent need of the following at Stalybridge Community Fire Station, SK15 1RF: – Sun cream – Insect repellent – Baseball caps – Pairs of socks, thick and thin” reads a tweet from the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.
The response from the community has been tremendous, including one organization that collected donations from local businesses for transport to the fire stations – the Scientology org in Manchester.
To all in the Manchester area! You know we have some wildfires about us? Well, we are formulating a VM response. Please be ready to help. You will be contacted soon. The Org is the coordinating point. Andrea Hadjigeorgiou is the Org I/C for this, for today. Donations so vital supplies can be bought would help, and some of your time. These two things you can be sure of. This VM action is all part of going Ideal!
VMs, or Volunteer Ministers, are part of Div 6C under the Field Control Secretary. In many orgs that post is empty, and they report to the Public Executive Secretary who is in charge of all of Div 6, the Public Division that is usually the largest division in an org. In the UK they are best known as being called “vultures” for setting up a tent at the Grenfell Tower site in West London where 79 people died in a horrific apartment building fire in 2017.
At Grenfell Tower Scientology was accused by neighbors of inappropriate recruiting, but that’s not the VMs main concern. The VMs exist to implement L. Ron Hubbard’s policy called “safepointing.” Opinion leaders, such as fire station captains, are recruited as allies of Scientology rather than as members. Hubbard wrote that establishing allies was essential to establishing a Scientology org. Allies would help defend the org when the inevitable attacks come from Suppressive Persons and Psychologists. Manchester org is renovating a building to be its Ideal Org and Scientologists believe that safepointing is essential to that effort. As the call for donations says “This VM action is all part of going Ideal!”
Hi VMs we are gathering our resources and finding out what’s needed and wanted and delivering it to tackle the fires that are still burning away on Saddleworth moor and north of Bolton. At the moment it’s caps, socks, water and non perishable foods that’s required and Andrea and Jon have done a great job in getting some of this out to Bolton in particular! This message is a call to be on standby to help with further efforts of a VM kind that only we can deliver! Are you with us!!!??
The hubris that only Scientology VMs can help deliver socks and Indian takeaway food is typical of Scientology. Their literature is full of claims that only Narconon can treat drug addiction, only a Scientologist can help those injured in a car accident, only Scientology can prevent war, end crime and insanity. That attitude trickles down to the smallest VM action such as delivering donated pizza.
Today the fires appear to be contained due to hard work from firefighters and some heavy rain. Scientology may have some new allies in the fire stations, but the Ideal Org will open with or without safepointing. Hubbard’s theory that allies are needed to establish an org is absurd, and the strength of bonds formed with allies from donations such as these are casual at best. The fire stations put out a call for supplies and were happy to receive them. They will not protect Scientology from attacks, lawsuits, protests or investigations into the harm Scientology does.
— Rod Keller
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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 15, 2018 at 07:00
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